Pitbull to open Hispanic Advertising Industry Conference.

Singer, songwriter and host of his own Spanish-language program La Esquina on Mun2, Pitbull will share his experience and success story with advertising professionals at the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) Annual Conference. The hip-hop rapper will be joined by Ruben Leyva, president of Sony Music U.S. Latin, and together they will address the challenges, opportunities and compromises, both personally and professionally, involved with creating stellar performers in today’s changing entertainment marketplace.

“Music and entertainment are at the forefront of the Hispanization of America. Pitbull epitomizes the success Latino entertainers have had not only in the music industry but in the Hispanic consumer market as well,” says Gisela Girard, AHAA chair and president/COO of San-Antonio based Creative Civilization. “The stories of Pitbull and Leyva are similar to the challenges we overcome daily in our fight to establish Hispanic marketing within the advertising industry and within our client organizations. As entrepreneurs, we can learn a lot from the experiences, adversity and ultimate achievements of these entertainment icons. Like our advertising agencies, they are thinking critically about culture and the rapid transformation of our society, as well as the cultural breadth and diversity within the U.S. Hispanic population. It will be a dynamic opening to a high-energy AHAA Conference unlike anything you have experienced at other industry conferences.”

Leyva will share his struggles in carving out a Latin focus in the global entertainment conglomerate Sony and his personal challenges related to maintaining his Latino identity while building a business in a non-Hispanic corporate environment. He will share his perspective on the evolution occurring with the classification of artists, blending of musical genres, and the trend in reverse cross-over. Pitbull, who is of Cuban decent, launched his career in English and will add his view of Sony’s approach to Hispanic from an artists’ perspective. The duo will discuss Pitbull’s rapid rise to fame in the general market and the drivers behind his decision to launch an all Spanish album. He will shed light on the importance and appeal of cultural cues to a rapidly acculturating Hispanic audience and offer keen insight into the complexity of in-culture communication.

The session kicks off the AHAA Conference October 6-8 at the Hyatt Regency in Miami. The conference is designed to tackle tough issues facing Hispanic-specialized advertising agencies, and prepare advertisers and marketers for the next phase of growth and change in the industry. The theme of the conference, Natural Selection, is in essence what is happening in American culture and the advertising industry: Hispanic culture and traits are becoming more common over generations, and Hispanics are surviving and thriving with more influence than ever before.

One could easily say that Pitbull personifies the Hispanic-specialized advertising industry and U.S. Hispanics today. According to his bio, “Pitbull is the rare type who has the spirit of the underdog combined with a winning pedigree. He hasn’t just survived, he’s flourished.”

To find out more about Hispanic-specialized advertising and to register for the AHAA Conference, visit http://www.ahaa.org>