By Silvia Alvarez / Zubi Advertising
Disappointingly, I am dumbfounded, by the acceptance of mediocrity that exists (especially) in the Hispanic market; this mediocrity is accepted at the Agency, Client, and media vendor-level… is anyone else out there perturbed?!?!
What am I talking about? Here are two examples…
Acceptance of Mediocrity Regarding our Planning Tools (Research):
We STILL don’t have a standardized, industry-accepted Reach / Frequency tool for Spanish-Language (S-L) Television… hmmm? Is it because the S-L media networks of the world know that a TRUE R/F model (if ever released) would confirm that roughly 35 to 40% of the Hispanic audience is not reachable through S-L TV??? How many of you chose to watch what’s available on S-L TV, because it “speaks” to you?
The longer we plan without these tools, the longer Clients can accuse us of planning “in the dark”, without a yardstick, and use this as an excuse to dismiss the opportunity we represent. Undoubtedly, without the necessary (and fundamental) communication goals to guide our weight levels, we are perpetuating the notion that we are leap-years behind the General Market.
Something to think about, as Hispanic agencies are forced to go out on their own to create their own proprietary tools (a costly proposition), for lack of a standardized one…
Acceptance of Mediocrity Regarding our Media Vendors and Their Deliverables:
More often than not, it seems that we (and our Clients) are guinea pigs…major S-L broadcast and cable networks (and the list goes on…) continue to talk the talk, but they fall short in the execution…is it because we are truly pioneers and pushing them beyond their capabilities? (i.e. — we seek out “true” multiplatform campaigns, better digital performance metrics, etc.), or is it because our Hispanic vendors are well-equipped to take sales orders, but mindless, when it comes to the fundamental steps needed to deliver… I often wonder…
We coordinate, implement pre-pro’s, document deliverables, and set up templates for clearer communication of expectations, yet, when “D day” arrives, it’s like a scene out of Wannado City… at a pricey entrance fee… some recent “Wannado” images that come to mind: a “Competitive SUV” makes a slow and gracious entrance into a parking spot, in a novela where an agency/client has vehicle integration; at a shoot, there are no scripts, no ironed shirts for talent (long story), and no accountability; a sales manager admits they have brought Zubi “half-baked ideas” with no real ability to execute, a revelation they arrived at after numerous “spoiled” attempts with (again), Zubi as guinea pig?!… I think I’ll stop here…
Surely, my list does not stop here… but I’ll reserve more mediocrity gripes for my next blog…
Thoughts?
By Silvia Alvarez
Courtesy of Zubi Nation Blog
February 24th, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Hi, Silvia – unfortunately, we expect clients to seriously invest in the Hispanic market, when our own industry doesn’t approach it seriously. Often times Hispanic media professionals want to see things their way and do things their way, whether it makes sense or not, causing delays in everyone getting with the program. I want to applaud you/ZUBI for pointing out “that roughly 35 to 40% of the Hispanic audience is not reachable through S-L TV” (or S-L print and radio for that matter). I clearly recall about 6 years ago, when I met with a hearty group of planners/buyers at ZUBI representing the New York Post’s TEMPO to present new data supporting the reality that a good chunk of Hispanics cannot be reached via S-L media. ZUBI’s Research Director was invited to join us, which seemed more than apparent to me, as a means to diminish the importance of the information I was so proudly sharing. My pitch was not intended to use ZUBI as a guinea pig, but to accelerate the process of what took 2 years later (2006) to happen with AHAA’s Latino Identity Project: that our industry look at creating meaningful, culturally relevant campaigns that would resonate with English-dominant Hispanics. I was flatly told “no thanks, we only do Spanish media because most Hispanics speak Spanish” (when over one-third/almost half don’t). Since that ‘memorable’ day many things have happened. Hispanic agency’s changed their tune (including ZUBI! bendito sea Dios), General Market media has incorporated more Latinos into their programming (not enough, but visibly more), I landed some American Airlines and Lincoln-Mercury business in TEMPO after I went through the client (which we all know is 99% of the time the best way to get anywhere), TEMPO eventually collapsed (after my departure) for lack of support, I’ve seen more Latino-inspired ads running on E-L TV (which I enjoy), and I’ve moved on to managing my own business with solid first-hand experience on reaching ALL HISPANICS. I have to thank the only person that openly and aggressively supported me from the get-go back in my early in-English/in-Culture print sales days – Manny Gonzalez, who then worked for Johnnie Walker. Things got better eventually when McDonald’s, ABSOLUT VODKA, Delta Airlines, Bacardi, Infiniti, Skechers, etc., etc., etc. followed suit and gave the publication a shot. I’m pleased to see things have changed and that issues are being addressed boldly, passionately, accurately and hopefully not too late.
February 24th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Thanks for the honesty and the inspiration.
This makes us at Discovery en Español want it even more to strive for excellence and differentiate ourselves from the conventional Hispanic TV offerings!
Our high-quality badge at Discovery is there to fulfill highest expectations of true quality in everything we do for our clients: better programming, more creative ideas, flawless execution.
We want to raise the bar and set new standards in Hispanic Media.
February 24th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
it’s sad to say, but it’s all about Latin culture…..
I’ve been in Hispanic marketing for over 15 years, until I took a job in General market. I was astounded at the difference in professionalism!
it’s always existed in General market … but non-professionalism is always, and has been, in the Hispanic market.
I always wondered why this was so…. until I took a lengthy trip to Mexico (9 months) and saw the same non-professionalism in my native Latin country. I guess this is where it started?
February 24th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Nicely said, Silvia. Spanish language media has been walking a tight-rope for decades. I have always been struck by what Spanish language TV gets away with. I wondered how they could claim 90% reach when the ratings don’t support that.
But let’s face reality, the less Spanish media gives the less clients have to question. Right now they have a good thing going. With skewed research, poor measurement tools and reps with little creative or strategic training they are making billions! I recently spoke with 2 Spanish print media who have plans to move to digital platforms. But they can only think of revenue streams and don’t comprehend how their Hispanic digital users are very different from their Spanish newspaper users. And they don’t want to know, they just want to sell.
The other reality is what is there to do? If you want better performance you only need to withhold money. But then where do you put the money and do you risk losing it.
February 25th, 2010 at 5:41 am
Good start. Falls short.
1. We are, by now, beyond R/F models in the industry in general (and no reason why it would not apply to Hispanic Advertising). Traditional R/F models basically deal in television. We are already way into multi-media, way into the pulverization of audiences and way into multi-touchpoint planning. Where we are right now (and many of us have worked in this direction and have working models) is multi-media mixers (I designed FCB’s first one about 8 years ago), engagement planning (David Ernst, currently at Discovery in NY, designed FCB’s first one easily 10 years ago). By harking back to R/F models we would be taking a step backwards.
2. Why would a client, any client, invest in Hispanic advertising (in any language)? To me, it’s easy: ROI. Without Hispanic-oriented advertising, a huge chunk of the population will not be persuaded by a brand’s message. What has happened is that many Hispanic agencies have fallen short of proving this ROI.
At DMG we track just about everything we do. We have databases that go into the 800,000+ records that tell us which creative is working, which one is not; which media is working, which media is not… and much more. We have tracked –specifically for one of our clients– hundreds of millions of dollars that we’ve created in sales. Not millions. Hundreds of millions.
Can Zubi do the same? Unequivocally? Demonstrably?
As a tidbit, I can share this: Univision works. It really does. It pulls a huge amount of response.
3. Finally, addressing the issue of 30% to 40% of Hispanics not being reachable by SL TV. Of course. I’m one. Unless you advertise in the news, you are not going to reach me in SL TV. This is not a negative comment on TV. Actually, you probably won’t reach me on ABC, NBC or CBS either. It’s a problem. You’ll reach me in specific programs (normally prime time), or in some cable channels (e.g., Discover’s Myth Busters or F/X’s Nip/Tuck) or in really weird programming like the MECUM Car Auctions in Comcast HD Theater. On NPR. Reading Ad Age or, right her in Hispanic Ad.
Reaching the Hispanic market must not be a function of Hispanic media. It must be a function of culturally-relevant persuasive communications. To put it bluntly: if a spot persuades a guy from Kansas, it ain’t persuading me. Or a guy from NY. Or a guy from California.
Hispanic agencies need to band together, perhaps under AHAA, perhaps Gene will take up the challenge (?) and create a broad study that shows that Hispanics are culturally different. Even second and third generation ones. Then, we must prove to advertisers that we (as Hispanic agencies) understand them better and can achieve demonstrable results. Then we must achieve them.
Best regards. Tell Xavi he’s quite the challenge ahead of him!
February 25th, 2010 at 8:33 am
Wow, I can’t believe my eyes. How long have we known that 2/3 of the Hispanic population can be reached through some form of EL media. I believe we have had that data for over a decade. I remember going to a client back in the early 90s after analyzing “spillover” in their Tier 1 markets and lying. Why?, it went from 15% to 90% in one market; of course we said 30. I think for some reason 30% was the magic number in those days.
The problem has always been fear. Fear of budgets shifting to the general market agencies because is general market media. The result, the new media buying companies, managed by the general market agencies are taking over our multicultural accounts and we let them do it. Instead of positioning ourselves as the Hispanic market experts, we wen to the clients preaching a lie so we can keep that 3% share of marketing dollars. I agree with Marcelo, reaching the Hispanic market is not a function of Hispanic media, is a function of culturally relevant communication. We need to make a change, NOW, or we will loose our “habichuelas”.
February 25th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Silvia, thanks for your posting. I completely agree with you. I also work at an agency that generates media for Hispanics and I fight the industry’s mediocrity every day.
Starting at the executional level. Too often I get translations from other agencies that make absolutely no sense in Spanish. Why are there still so many people executing Hispanic communications without the required knowledge/experience in both the language and the market insights? The way I look at this: We are pioneers, indeed. This industry is still new, but the professionals involved in it should NOT accept the status quo. We should never hire unqualified people just because the job needs to be done and there seems to be nobody (or very few) out there capable of optimal execution.
At a planning and strategic level, Hispanic communications continue to mirror general market’s and lack the customization and uniqueness necessary to efficiently resonate with this market.
So much has been said identifying Hispanics as the target of all kinds of marketing campaigns, but the executions of those campaigns, for the most part, continues to embarrass me and many others and keeps missing great market opportunities.
Besides making sure to recruit real professionals for the job (and not just Spanish-speakers, as it’s often the case), what else can be done??
February 25th, 2010 at 9:41 am
How much longer? Well, probably until we run ourselves into the ground!
I totally agree with you on the SL r/f models and other tools. I think a big part of the problem is that SL media will only ever account for a small percentage of the total media billings in any medium, making it unattractive to many of the software makers & data takers to build the syndicated tools that we need. On one hand, I do applaud Arbitron for including respondent-level data processing into their software, allowing for Hispanic number-crunching where others don’t! On the other hand, I’ve always seen this as an opportunity — at my former agency I developed their proprietary SL TV reach curves, and that was a selling point to our clients as opposed to a detractor!
To echo a sentiment from one of the other comments, we definitely do need to be thinking in terms of culture, rather than language. We’ve all been preaching the same thing, but it’s hard to convince an Anglo client of the subtle cultural nuances that distinguish us, when it’s unfortunately easier to fall back on the obvious difference of language. Of course the other challenge that arises when we start selling cultural identity to clients is that we have to be open to buying English language media, and with rare exception that brings its own set of budgeting challenges — but that’s an entirely different discussion.
And yes, there’s often a lack of professionalism with our vendor partners, but I’ve seen similar issues with many of the “General Market” vendors that I deal with, too. While I think we can all trade stories of botched executions and unmet promises, let’s not forget the few reps out there that genuinely work hard, and bring good thinking to the table!
February 26th, 2010 at 6:57 am
I am a bit surprise to hear this.
Seriously.
I’ve spent a decade trying to convince marketers here in Canada to advertise in Spanish. They are resistant to get involved in the S-L market for the mediocrity in the media and so on…
My surprise is that I would’ve thought the US-Hispanic market would’ve solved these issues ages, ages ago.
For some funny reason I feel a bit better, and encouraged to keep pushing up here in Canada. Thank you for the insightful piece, Silvia.
March 4th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Reminds me of an old song by Aaron Neville…it is called “Tell it Like it Is”
Great article!! Kudos to you!!!
Damaso
March 29th, 2010 at 1:06 am
I would like to think that we (hispanics) are improving, it´s always best to take it possitively. However, I have to acccept that I recognize a difference between hispanics and their effort at work with the rest of the people in the general market.
I used to work with hispanic students and I noticed that everything was low paced. Ussually it took us longer than what we expected to finish some works, we were always tight, the ideas were more likely always the same and the motivation to work or to improve was little.
The difference in all these is that I would not call that mediocrity, I would say that it has more to do with how we are as people, our cultures and our dislike of stressfull situations. Ussually as hispanics, we tend to think possitively, we don´t like stress in our lives and we try not to take jobs as our only purpose in life. It is important, it is necessary, and work matters for us, but life is more than just work. That is why we incorporate work in our life, it becomes part of our life. However life includes so much more that when it comes to reality, hispanics make an effort, but its not the top of their effort. At the end we always know, that we could make things better, but of course we all have the rest of the list of things in our lifes that are demanding attention and time from us, so we do what we can.
Another point that I will like to bring out, is that the hispanic market very often send us (hispanics) campaigns, publicity or announcements in a very disturbing way. It´s true we like our spanich languange, and they are right, we feel identified with the spanish language media, but the MESSAGE, the IDEAS, please do better. It makes us feel upset and humiliate to know that some messages are making fun of the hispanic population, others are always trying to be humorous, when in reality they are not funny. It is important to understand hispanics, and the best way to do it is to really invest more time in the culture backgrounds, to study our likes or dislikes, and to understand our challenges and motivations in life. All these cannot be reach only by taking little questionaires out to the hispanic people. We are very busy, as I said earlier, and we have more things to do with our lifes, to fill a questionaire is just upseting us and taking time from us that we need to do better things. To reach us, become our friends, become part of the important things in our lifes, like our families. This part you need to do it on your own, cause I can´t tell you how, but I know to differentiate from somebody who cares for me and somebody who wants something out of me. The only way to do this is to really caring for who we are, there is no other way of doing it.
Hopefully this help a little to understand more who we are and what we expect as people, and ultimately one of the greatest markets to reach today.
Wishing you the best!! Great article….
Hispanics are a great market, inside the US and outside,