Are US Hispanic Ad Agencies a dying breed?

By Gene Bryan – CEO / HispanicAd.com

Based on factual occurrences over the last couple of years, where mainstream agencies have earned the right to handle Hispanic responsibilities laced with the recent losses of key accounts like Home Depot, Publix Supermarkets and Burger King to mainstream agencies or hybrids with internal multicultural executives, we have been measured and we have fallen short.

Don’t kill the messenger, understand that we have a problem.

We definitively find the US Hispanic Agency at a crossroad.

A couple of question come to mind:

Is today’s Hispanic agency (multinational/independent) designed to meet the challenges of clients marketing to US Hispanic for the next decade?

Have the Hispanic focused agencies given away their craft and skill-set by oversimplifying the art & science of marketing to US Hispanics?

Have the media that targets US Hispanic pushed traditional Hispanic agencies into the current state they are in by oversimplifying the homogeniality and single messaging approach to reaching the US Hispanic Consumer?

Has the inability of Hispanic agencies to handle and manage the skill-set to target US Hispanic with messaging and media in English help accelerate the process?

Has the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies taken a leadership role in helping their members better understand the changing dynamics and opportunities for the next decade?

Have the agency heads been myopic and provincial in their agency business models and views on how to target US Hispanics?

Have the agencies milked the sacred cow of business and strategies of yesteryear in targeting US Hispanics to the extent that they are no longer an assets to clients and are unable to manage change and a new direction?

What is the most valuable commodity for a ad agency in targeting US Hispanics – creative, Insights or media planning & buying?

Do we understand that the mainstream agency’s media planning, buying and their computers are far more powerful than ours?

Do we understand that by continually using Latin American assets to produce our creative needs just showed clients and mainstream agencies that they can rely on their own assets in place in these countries at a discount?

Do we understand that our only true assest is our unique INSIGHT into the US Hispanic Consumer?

These and many more questions will define the next 12 months for the US Hispanic Advertising Industry.

It is do or die, since mainstream agencies and advertisers know the changing demographics of America and are in some cases better prepared than our Hispanic ad agencies to handle the demands.

What do you think?

Suerte!

Gene Bryan

CEO

HispanicAd.com