When an account review seems like a game of Three-Card Monte.

     Competing fair and square is the American way.  Right?

Now, anybody knows that in a game of Three-Card Monte your odds are not good at winning.  So, you avoid the game and the loss.

Let me set the board up for the card game.  Card One – the Client, Card Two – the US Hispanic Advertising agencies in the review and Card Three – A Mainstream Shop with mainstream ad responsibilities for the client, no bona fide or proven US Hispanic focused unit and a lust for the US Hispanic ad dollar responsibilities.

You would hope that in an account review process for any client that you have a fair shot at walking away with the account o defending the account and not being subject to a Three-Card Monte, especially when you have been invited to the review.

There are many political and social ramifications for a client when assigning a US Hispanic or Multicultural account, that can arise and bite the client on “El Culo”.

You believe that competing against US Hispanic focused and proven ad agencies and  your team does all the work and plays fair and hard.  Suddenly from nowhere you are taken out, blown-away, dismissed or worst told someone else got the account that was NOT playing in the same game you were invited to attend.

Imagine the marketing executives at the client working the account review process with a roster of agencies competing for the business (all well accredited and successful US Hispanic focused agencies invited to pitch and defend) and the top boss at the client calls the marketing executives and says “stop the review I want the account to go to so and so”.

The problem here is “so and so” is not considered a player in the game you were invited to play and some just changed the game.

Mainstream agencies know how big US Hispanic ad dollars are for their clients and they want them for themselves.  That’s a fact.  They will LOBBY & ENTICE who ever they have to at the client to get assigned the US Hispanic advertising and marketing responsibilities.  We have seen this many of times in the past.

In my 25 plus years in the US Hispanic advertising and media Industry these moves by clients do not produce the intended results for many reasons, since cost reduction strategies and lack of “El Insight de la Tribu” do not always translate into advertising that sells products or services.

Maybe I am making this up or maybe I am not.

Has this happened recently?

Any examples?

¡Nos estan dando palos y estamos al garete!

I have a couple of questions for all the players getting caught up in a game of Three-Card Monte::

1- Did the incumbent lose the account fair and square?

2- Did the shop getting the account have any legitimate and credible US Hispanic expertise?

3- Who are their veterans to show depth of leadership in the skill-set of targeting US Hispanics?

4- Where is the Agency Review Consultant on this and what impact does this have on their reputation with the agencies pitching the account?

5- Was the economies of scale afforded the client SO LOW that the US Hispanic responsibilities are basically  cost or fee free to the client?

6- Who owns and has “El Insight of La Tribu” that the client needs on the agency side?

7- Does the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies, The Association of National Advertisers, The Hispanic Association for Corporate Responsibility, The US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the National Council of La Raza become key players in fighting the game being played and the impact our our Hispanic community and Industry?

8-  Will the US Hispanic focused media stand up in solidarity with the US Hispanic Ad Industry as a whole and forcefully stand against this type of action by clients?

9- Are the News Division of the key Spanish-Language networks going to cover the potential loss of revenues and employment at a Hispanic owned and operated ad agencies due to this type of client decisions, like they would cover the impact of lost of revenues to companies on Wall Street and Main Street?

SUGGESTION: Key players in our Industry (agency and media alike) should all get on a plane and show up at the corporate headquarters of the client and demonstrate that this is unacceptable to US.

Sometimes you just have to do things because it is the right thing to do for our Industry, you could be next player in a Three-Card Monte game and probably the Loser.

What do you think?

Gene Bryan – CEO / HispanicAd.com