Adios 2010, Bienvenido 2011 By: Jose Cancela

    2010 was not a stellar year for the Hispanic Advertising or Media business, but for sure it was much better than 2009. Like every year though, some did better than others in 2010. Buying shops continued to pick up business at the expense of the full service Hispanic agencies and in some extreme cases, we saw clients shift Hispanic ad dollars to their General Market AOR.

Some would say that the Hispanic shops are under siege, perhaps. Except that when you dig a little deeper, you can clearly see that those Hispanic shops that have adjusted to the times continue to thrive, and new Hispanic shops keep sprouting up across the country.

One of them is sure to be the next hottest shop, producing cutting edge creative and out of the box media plans that will give them the much needed leverage that is needed to create a paradigm shift on the value that Hispanic shops bring to the table.

On the Spanish language media front, we had World Cup, Political ad dollars and a slew of specials on both Univision and Telemundo help out their revenue picture. We also saw that Emilio Azcarraga Jean is the true Power Ranger, having rescued Saban (for a heavily discounted piece of the action) by extending the PLA agreement.

Spot dollars in Spanish language radio continued very sparse most of 2010, but Local and Network ad dollars were on the rise, making up for some of the spot dollar deficiency.

Those publications still in circulation saw a second half of the year that in some cases made up for the very tough first half for the print category.

As I stated at the beginning, not a great year, but for sure a much better year than 2009.

So what will 2011 look like? I truly believe that the growth curve will continue upward during 2011 as it serves as a slingshot into a fantastic 2012 for the Hispanic Ad and Media business.

But what would a New Year’s piece be without predictions, not much, so here they are:

1. Univision will finally sell its AM stations and Prisa will have a true U.S. platform.

2. Comcast will quickly realize just how important the PLA that Univision has with Televisa and continue to support Browne with larger Telemundo Production center.

3. Cristina will cut deal with SBS/ Mega TV for a weekly television show.

4. Don Francisco will re-up with Univision. (this already happened, dam I am good)

5. Burger King will put out RFP for a Hispanic shop.

6. Coming off a great Census report, Hispanic Up-Fronts will break record dollar commitments

7. Liberman Television will …..

8. Sirius XM will put forth a credible Hispanic platform on radio that will emulate the success of DIRECTV Mas / Dish Latino.

9. Univision and Telemundo join forces to push for passage of the DREAM Act.

10. With the addition of Falco, Univision will put out org chart so we can all figure out who does what there.

By: Jose Cancela
jo**@hi*********.net

Jose Cancela is Principal of Hispanic USA Inc, a Hispanic Market Communications firm. He has also the author of „The Power of Business en Español, Seven Fundamental Keys to Unlocking the Potential of the Spanish Language Hispanic Market‰ Rayo / HarperCollins.