The Day of Reckoning is Coming for Hispanic Marketing

By Lee Vann – Captura Group

The Hispanic marketing industry must take action and capitalize on the spotlight that is currently shining on diversity, inclusion and multicultural marketing.

In my 20+ years working in the industry, I have never experienced the positive momentum propelling multicultural marketing today. The 2020 Census, Black Lives Matter and See Her have collided to create a perfect storm that has shifted the previously immovable spotlight of corporate America squarely on diversity, inclusion and multicultural marketing.  

For those of us who have tirelessly made the case for multicultural marketing, it is warming to have some light finally shine on our industry and the millions of diverse Americans for whom we evangelize every day.

This perfect storm has awoken corporate America to the fact that our country is diverse and developing diverse teams and marketing to diverse segments is the right thing to do.  The current situation gives rise to an unprecedented call to action for the Hispanic Marketing Industry: those who answer the call will demonstrate that investing in Hispanic talent and Hispanic marketing is not only the right thing to do, but also straight up good business.

While significant investments in diversity, inclusion and multicultural marketing are more than needed, they will also be scrutinized over time

As the shifts towards diversity become more palpable, the marketing industry and several large companies have stepped up and pledged billions of dollars to diversity, inclusion and multicultural marketing.

I commend the efforts of the Association of National Advertiser’s (ANA) Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing (AIMM) and their #SeeALL initiative, an “industry-wide movement to drive increased accurate representation of Multicultural and Inclusive segments in ads and programming by prioritizing the use of cultural insights in the content in order to connect with consumers at the heart, thus maximizing corporate growth.” In addition, the ANA has prioritized “using marketing to promote equality and inclusion to achieve a better world for humanity and more growth and value for business” as a critical component of their Global CMO Growth Council and is focused on four key pillars:

•     Achieve equal representation in the media and creative supply chain.
•     Eliminate systemic investment inequalities in the media and creative supply chain.
•     Eliminate bias and racism by accurately portraying all humanity in advertising, content and media.
•     Eliminate hateful and harmful content online. Help the marketing community drive growth through sustainable innovation.

Companies are also stepping up.  For example, JPMorgan Chase has committed $30 billion to advance racial equity. The financial institutions’ new public policy efforts will address key drivers of the racial wealth divide, reduce systemic racism against Black and Latinx people, and support their diverse employees.  

Target will spend more than $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025 and Apple has allocated $100 million towards a racial equity and justice initiative designed to help reduce barriers and opportunities for people of color across the country.

Join me in demonstrating that Hispanic marketing is good business

When we couple this positive momentum and the significant dollars flowing into the diversity space, with the chronic underinvestment in Hispanic marketing, it is easy to see why the Hispanic marketing industry needs to take action now.  We must step up and make the case for our fair share by demonstrating unequivocally that Hispanic marketing works.

If we don’t succeed, our day of reckoning will come.  At the end of the day, business is business and companies will look at the investments they are making and allocate future dollars to initiatives that generate the best return.