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

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.

As the 4th event in the Hispanicize series, the event organizers have demonstrated that they can improve it from year to year, but need to stick to their core audience.

The +350 mixture of attendees was about 85% bloggers and 15% marketing and media executives.

This was not a full fledged advertising, marketing and public relations event most executives are accustomed to when attending high caliber B-to-B events or the “Largest Marketing Industry Agenda Ever Assembled of Hispanic Brands and Agencies” sales pitch made by the event organizers.

There are other high caliber events in our advertising, marketing and public relations Industry for this purpose and the organizers need to better organize their messaging in the future.

Hispanicize is an ‘EXPO’ for clients to sell individual bloggers their message and get them to blog about their companies / products / services to their followers and dazzle them with goodies and after parties.   ¡PUNTO!

Regardless, this was a good event and deserves consideration for an advertiser’s merchandising & promotional team that engage bloggers/consumers as they do at county fairs, convention expos and other community events with key phrases of authenticity and transparency.

• The ROI for this event, will be different for each advertiser depending on their expectations based on the event organizer’s selling pitch.

If you are a Hispanic blogger, this event was very entertaining, full of goodies and camaraderie.  It felt like the Calle Ocho Carnival, Fiesta Broadway, Fiesta Atlanta and my local home show at the Miami Beach Convention Center combined, but in a hotel with power outlets for your devices without the loud music, street smells, the heat.

The majority of the panels were lightly attended, but there were only a handful that were at full capacity.

Key panels that would engage marketing and media executives to better understand Hispanic Social media and increase their understand of the US Hispanic Market or advertising as a whole were either cancelled and/or not prepared beyond the 100 level.  This was not the environment for it and should not have been the scope of the event organizers based on their core audience of BLOGGERS.

• Many marketing and media panelist were disappointed at the attendance of their panels, but that’s on them them for not understanding the true scope of the event.  Live and learn.

This was a BLOGGER EXPO, a place to woo attendees with a gift bag or some goodies, not marketing and advertising strategies.  The five day event was a bit much, since it seemed they were working very hard at filling the week with any and/or too much content or sales pitches.

Was Hispanicize the Latino SXSW as promoted by the organizers?

We would have to say that it might seem like a start, but they must organize the event better with less of an ‘EXPO’ feel.  But to be fair, at least the event organizers are trying to create an event and that is a good start.

We are looking forward to see how they improve the event next year.  Maybe they should start by calling the event what it is, a BLOGGER EXPO and not an advertising, marketing, public relations event or even a music and film extravaganza.

Tone down the sales pitch of trying to be “all to all” and dedicate yourself to the core of your event, BLOGGER EXPO.  The better you get a delivering your core will increase your revenues and help you manage your costs.

Hopefully after this post, the event organizers will continue invite us to attend next year and accept the constructive criticism we offer.

In full disclosure, we were not paid to attend and/or given hotel nights or airfare to attend as other US Hispanic trade marketing journalist enjoyed and potentially influenced their coverage of the event, just a complimentary pass to the event.  

We attend all major US Hispanic focused advertising, marketing, media and public relations conferences in the industry and the above observations are based on our first hand knowledge of the event  and expertise in the Industry.

Suerte.

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