Agency

By Enrique Turegano / Al Punto I saw an ad on Univision for an SUV…nice ad. But the VO caught me off guard. It was the poem by Antonio Machado and famous song by Juan Manuel Serrat, “Caminante No Hay Camino”. Great song, great poem…but I wonder how much it connects with US Hispanics….mostly US Mexicans. Do they even know it? Is it important to them? Does it connect emotionally like it does for Spaniards and some South Americans? Probably NOT. Here’s my guess:

1) The creative in charge is from Spain.
2) The creative in charge is a JM Serrat fan.

Thoughts?

   Over the last couple of years, we have been critical of an industry event called AdColor that was once associated with the ANA Multicultural Conference.  Lately they have had the need to go solo on their event, since they seem to be more and more African American Ad Industry focused and definitively represent the lack of inclusion in the ad industry. ADColor has taken advantage of the Extreme Guilt that Madison Avenue and the US Mainstream Ad Industry have in not hiring more minorities to work in advertising.

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.

This past week, we spent considerable time at the Hispanicize event in Miami Beach. The Hispanicize team needs to be commended for their ability to bring together Hispanic female bloggers from their owned and operated blogger network Latina Mom Bloggers.  The ladies were flown in and put up for a couple of days in fabulous Miami Beach for an all expenses paid soiree to create and demonstrate critical mass to entice advertisers.

by Jose Villa / Sensis Whenever someone first gets involved in Hispanic marketing, they inevitably come across a series of universally accepted “truths” about Hispanic consumers and how to market to them. While some of these truths have faded as the market has evolved over the last 50 years, some continue unchallenged. But as anyone who is deeply involved in marketing to Hispanics today will tell you the market has evolved as quickly as it’s grown. Today’s modern Hispanic marketer understands everything we think we know about Hispanics has to be questioned

Sofia Vergara is probably the most recognizable Hispanic actress working in English-language television. She is one of the stars of “Modern Family,” among the highest-rated scripted shows on network television, and she has parlayed her celebrity into commercials for brands like Pepsi and Cover Girl.

The question is not whether Ethnic Consumers that are lumped for diversity purposes into the MULTICULTURAL BUCKET offer opportunities for marketers.  We all know the answer to that question. The question is whether there is a need or a purpose for having one agency that implements all aspects of a campaign that can then be called a MULTICULTURAL approach.

By Gonzalo López Martí / Atkins López Martí, LLC You started your own business. Welcome to the party. Face the music. And dance. You are on your own now. No more whining. No more excuses. No more finger pointing. You only have yourself to blame. Some assorted pieces of advice.

The AHAA Conference began this week in Miami and I assume you have heard that they have expanded their Board of Directors and added an Advisory Board that include clients, media and research executives, besides just ad agency executives.
They also do not want to call the organization the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies, they want to be called AHAA – The Voice of Hispanic Marketing. A new COMPASS! I have high HOPES. This new change will impact the scope and breath of AHAA as we lead into 2013.

In 1996, AHAA was founded to grow our marketplace and promote our member agencies. Today Hispanic marketing is more important, more challenging and more nuanced. Gene Bryan –

Several months ago in October of 2011 I wrote an op-ed piece titled “I have high hopes for the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies”.

It was necessary to write last year’s op-ed piece since I felt after working with AHAA for fifteen years, the momentum and directionality of our Industry’s trade-marketing association did not represent the needs or that it was not a compass for our Industry. 

Last month I attended one of the best parties in L.A.  No, I’m not talking about the Oscars.  I’m talking about the Brisk Bodega-Star Wars Cantina party, presented by Brisk Tea. Now ostensibly the party was intended to present and offer party-goers samples of Brisk Tea.  But by partnering up with LucasFilm, Brisk was able to offer another element of intrigue at its party: an exhibition of art conceived by emerging, young artists, and based on the iconic characters from the “Star Wars” film.
 

By Jose Villa / Sensis We hear the term “multicultural” a lot. Marketers, academics, and industry leaders love to talk about multicultural groups and the growth of America’s multicultural population — the various minority groups, including Hispanic, African-American, Asian, and “other” (Middle Eastern, European, South Asian, etc.) that are rapidly expanding in size and influence.

By Joe Castro – Zubi Advertising I never sleep better than during the holidays that now seem a faded distant memory. The new year has brought with it the reality of potentially great political change on the horizon, and with all the political rhetoric a reawakening to the disturbing truth of how Hispanics are viewed by many other Americans in this country.

As many of you have seen in the movie 2012 and have heard from scholars based on their interpretation of Mayan culture and the Mayan calendar, the world will end December 2012. Doomsday is upon us in 355 days on December 21, 2012.

It’s Ho! Ho! Ho! time, party time and looking to next year.  So with that said, here are my Top 10 pet peeves for 2012. 1- Professionals in our Industry need to understand the need to return calls and e-mails.  It is just proper business etiquette, even if there is not an opportunity to do business.  People need communication and have to deliver communication back to their people.  Two-way street.  Return your own calls, don’t have you assistant do it.  Nobody, and I mean nobody is that important or that busy.