Are US Hispanic Ad Agencies ready for another beating in 2014?

Just read the article by Pepper MIller – President of ther Hunter-Miller Group titled “Total Market’ Gets Lots of Buzz, but Multicultural Agencies Will Suffer Badly” regarding her warning of the demise of Ethnic agencies and the lack of ROI for our Industry.

We at HispanicAd.com encourage the many points of view regarding Total Market, Hispanic ONLY and Multicultural approaches to reaching consumers to appear on our publication for our readers to be exposed to all trends, regardless of our opinions on the subject.

Pero …………..

We at HispanicAd.com have condemn the use of the word Multicultural or Multiculturalism as a ploy by mainstream advertisers and the “PC Police” to put all ethnicities and lifestyle consumers groups into one category without much of a relationship between these ethnicities and lifestyles except for the fictitious “Bucket” they place us in.  There are more difference  than what unites the African American, Asian, Hispanics and LGBT beyond the fictitious “Bucket.”

Some US Hispanic Ad executives accepted the use of the term at their own expense and peril, even though Hispanic efforts represented 80% of the dollars in the ‘Bucket’.

Culture.  Language. Country of Origin. Lifestyles. Age. ETC.  I am not a racist, just stating a matter of fact. 

The more we try to homogenize our US Hispanic consumer’s behavior as non-ethnic mainstream we a diluting our unique selling proposition of culture, language and the way WE look at the world.  Remember, when it is complicated they need experts to solve the task at hand … reaching all US Hispanic Consumers.

The trends florish in our Industry  to maintain  jobs, accounts and/or the possibility to grow their ad agencies.  Many accept premise of Multicultural efforts at the expense of creating effective and efficient advertising efforts for our interested consumers, along with basically thwarting opportunity for future US Hispanic advertising, marketing, media professionals.  NOT all trends have a positive outcome.

Is the client always right?

Marketers and their general market agencies took and continue to take advantage of this premise to reduce the dependence of ethnic agencies as sole providers of what we call ‘Insight de la Tribu’ (Tribal Insights) and have pecked away at our budgets and responsibilities very effectively.

1. We lost media planning and placement (this was easy since we all agreed that Nielsen is correct on how they measure Hispanic TV Audiences and the mainstream ad agencies computers computers are always bigger and can crunch numbers better than ours)

2. We are loosing creative responsibilities (Hispanic agencies began using creative and production elements in other countries to increase their monetary gains and clients just found out and did the same)

3.  We continue to lose account/marketing responsibilities (We lost our senses and began giving away our only true value for FREE to others and turned it into a commodity – – – Insights)

These losses came to our Industry, since we did not change with the times.  We did not recognize the importance and/or took steps to create offerings to reach Bilingual and English dominant Hispanics in a timely fashion, where our mainstream counterparts jump on the band wagon faster and with more conviction that we did.  Our industry has not lead in the US Hispanic focused Digital Renaissance.  Our industry decide that being quite and getting a piece was better than our un-fair share and our credibility and future.

The Coup d’état is now to bring forth a new element, charade or categorization that will continue to erode the little influence, responsibilities and future of our Industry with the Total Market approach.

So now, we are all ONE Market or ONE Love?  Bullshit.

Client and mainstream agency fears of loosing control to a group of Asian, African American and Hispanic advertising professionals is death to their model and economics of the future.  This is another ploy to bait and switch you and everyone to the ‘New America’ and New Riches if you conform.

How did the last premise of the Multicultural Bucket do for you?

A person I respect for many years once said to me that “ I would rather get an account because I am the best to market that account, rather than because I have a Hispanic expertise.”

I could not agree less, since our expertise is US Hispanic and NOT multicultural, mainstream or total market.  We should lead with what we understand, can project and create results ….. “Insight de la Tribu”

Let me break this down, you can be ….

• A US Hispanic industry professional that works for an agency that is told what to interpret or do
• A US Hispanic industry professional that does not want to rock the boat, is happy and feels lucky enough to have a job in advertising and that’s enough
• A US Hispanic advertising professional works to create great advertising that impacts our consumers and leads the way

I would rather not be told what to do, rock the boat and lead the way.  You can also make a living not conforming to rules that you do not agree with.  This is America.

Sharpen your tools and defenses, the new Total Market Tsunami is here and many of our own professional in the Industry are embracing the wave.

Mis 2s chavitos ……….

Gene Bryan
CEO
HispanicAd.com