Sell, Sell, Sell

This past week our Industry enjoyed a new milestone.  The first Hispanic inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame,

A legend in our Industry, Eduardo Caballero.

It was good to see Daisy Exposito & Jorge Ulla, Hector & Norma Orci, Ester Novak, Alejandro Ruelas, Michelle & Joe Zubizarreta, Jo Muse, Byron Lewis, Manny Ballestero, Nathalie Judd, Luisa Fairborne, Barbara Lawrence, Arturo Villar, Peter Spenglar and the Caballero family.

Thanks to Univision Communications and Cesar Conde, and Mel Karmazin (that’s right, the CEO of Sirus & XM Radio) for stepping up with your acknowledgement of Eduardo’s contribution to our Industry by advertising in the event.

But, I would be remiss if I did not mention the many more ad agencies, executives and ‘The Organization’ that Eduardo Caballero helped through his career that were NOT present.

Unacceptable.

I digress.

Going back to Sell, Sell, Sell.

During the Hall of Fame presentation one of the presenters explained how Southwest Airlines, a company that was honored at the event prides itself of its employees and how they are trained to serve Consumers.

He brought forth one key element of their success, the training that every employee has, including mechanics, the people that clean, etc, etc.  All are trained to sell the features and benefits of the company and the history of the organization.  They live it.

A true value proposition.

Have you trained ALL of your employees to do this also for your company and the Industry?

Imagine if every employee in every agency, media company, and vendors that serves the US Hispanic Market advertising and media Industry was versed in the fine art and science of marketing to US Hispanic Consumers.

Which they are NOT.

That would be a 20,000 plus sales force and brand/industry ambassadors.  Not to mention a real training program that expands our talent’s skills-set.

Incredible sale coverage!

Remember, you can only sell what you can cover.  That is a fact.

One of these days we need to wake-up and smell the café or take our head out of you know where.

Maybe we can start with a little training and by recognizing our Industry’s History.

I want to suggest to the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) and its Board of Directors, that before you consider executives to honor at your next conference with the Eduardo Caballero Award  you should consider first honoring the executives in our Industry’s past that created this Industry you all enjoy today and have yet to acknowledge for their contributions.

At least do the research and find out who they are or call me, we have the answers or will get them for you.

Maybe due to the short tenure that many of our executives have today in certain key positions, could result in a ‘roaring silence’ when

1- our Industry and one of our pioneers is honored;

2- the US Census releases a 50.5 Million Hispanic population milestone last week;

3- the Federal Communications Commissions issues an advisory against any usage of non-minority dictates by advertisers two weeks ago;

4- one of our TV networks breaks audience barriers and beats mainstream TV networks in key demos and dayparts for the last year.

You might learn something and become a better executive by understanding our past as a gateway to our future.

Let’s once again find the common ground we all once enjoyed.

We need someone, something and organization to unify us all again.

It might mean we must start once again from scratch, but so be it.  Or team up with those that have a successful organizational architecture and access in place like the ANA, AAF or the AMA.

Its about  Sell, Sell, Sell.  If you believe your job is not Sales, you are in the wrong business.

Sometimes you need to take an unpopular position and stand in the wind.  I have.

Silence is not an option anymore.

Gracias America!

Gene Bryan
CEO
HispanicAd.com