Inside The Milk Board’s Hispanic Campaign.

The California Milk Processor Board (CMPB) launched its first Hispanic advertising campaign almost 10 years ago. At the helm of the CMPB was Jeff Manning, executive director. He saw the potential of the Hispanic market long before the 2000 census “enlightened” corporate America. In 1994, Manning teamed up with Anita Santiago, creative director and president of Anita Santiago Advertising, to develop a culturally relevant campaign designed to increase milk consumption among Spanish-dominant Latinos. Over the past nine years they learned a lot, made some mistakes and broke ground for a host of marketers struggling to sell to the surging Hispanic market.

While ‘Got Milk?’ was an instant success with the general market, it could have led to embarrassment and chaos in the Hispanic arena. As Santiago pointed out to Manning during the initial stages of the Hispanic campaign, ‘Got Milk?’ can translate to ‘Are you lactating?’ in Spanish. As importantly, Hispanic women did not find running out of rice, beans or milk funny, thus negating the general market Milk Deprivation Strategy.

Instead, Manning and Santiago took a different, far more traditional approach. The Hispanic campaign was founded on a Milk Generations Strategy. The original campaign carried the tag line “Y Usted, ¿Les dio suficiente leche hoy?” (“And you, did you give them enough milk today?”) and was built around family recipes that used milk as the main ingredient. Flan, bread pudding, three-milk cake became the focus of both TV and outdoor ads. The strategy was later expanded to include out-of-the-glass drinking situations and the tag line changed to “Familia Amor y Leche” (“Family, Love and Milk.”) A pool of five documentary style spots, highlighting some major issues in the lives of California Latinos, was launched in early 2003. To date, all campaigns position milk as an essential part of the family and of the Hispanic culture.

Interestingly, Manning does not believe in quantitative copy testing for generic advertising. “We want powerful creative, not test scores,” says Manning. Not surprisingly, Santiago doesn’t argue.