Purchasing power of Boomers takes the stage at AHAA Conference

I just attended a panel discussion between Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez, SVP of Multicultural Markets at AARP, and Nancy Tellet, SVP at Viacom, Scott Willoth —S VP Methods & Analytics, Scarborough Research and moderated by Leo Olper, who sits on the AHAA board member and is a partner at d exposito & Partners, LLC.  The panel discussed key findings of a study recently conducted by AHAA, which bucks much of the conventional wisdom that is commonplace in Hispanic marketing.  For that reason, I was compelled to cover key highlights in this post.  Here they go: 1.    Not only are Hispanic Boomers still an opportunity because of the growth rates in the 50 plus age segment, they are still considered the “lowest hanging fruit” in key categories, like realty, travel and financial services.  We as an industry have been pointing out the opportunity to the financial industry and strongly encouraging them to invest in the Hispanic market.   If this isn’t a wake-up call I don’t know what is! 2.    Another key take-away for me is that all generations, not just the youth, straddle both Latino and American culture.  And they do so at essentially the same level of propensity.  I have heard many marketers and agencies, particularly those that have not dedicated their careers to specializing in Hispanic, opine on how Hispanic Millennials are very similar to all other Millennials.  Many may believe that they can be reached through general market work, as long as the work integrates multicultural faces to reflect the Millennials’ diverse ethnic composition.  These research findings prove this opinion is not accurate, as all generations have a considerably high degree of Hispanic cultural orientation and need to be engaged in a way that reflects their life, with its mix of cultures and languages. 3.    Gen Xers have the highest degree of Hispanic cultural identity.  Most marketers may find this to be very surprising, thinking that the older, Boomer generation would have a stronger Hispanic cultural orientation.  Despite the temptation to focus on the generations that account for larger numbers – the Boomers and the Millennials – Gen Xers are, perhaps, key prospects for marketers looking to connect to Hispanics through in-language and in-culture communications. Many of us in the industry may have known some of these findings on a qualitative or perhaps intuitive level.   This research gives us quantitative validation of just how widespread the impact of Hispanic culture is across Hispanics of all generations. I congratulate AARP on having engaged AHAA to produce this study. A good move by Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez and her agency d expósito & Partners, LLC. Eugenio (Gene) Bryan CEO HispanicAD.com — serving the US Hispanic advertising, marketing & media professional HispanicCMO.com — Hispanic Chief Marketing Officers exchanging ideas HispanicPRpro.com — serving the Hispanic Public Relations professional HispanicAccountPlanner.com — insight for reaching Hispanics HispanicMediaSalesInc.com — Thought Leadership for the US Hispanic Ad, Marketing, Media and PR pros