Dear NGLC Subscribers:
In a recent friendly exchange between me and Gene Bryan of HispanicAd that ended up on his “El Blog,” we discussed the future of the U.S. Hispanic media, marketing and advertising industry. As a follow-up to to the original points I raised, I wanted to share some thoughts with those who have subscribed to the NGLC’s blog. It would be great to create a running dialogue on our site, so feel free to send in your comments after reading this…
- The U.S. Hispanic market has never represented more of an opportunity for media outlets, ad agencies or the advertisers than right now. The Spanish-language ad market is going to continue to grow. Punto. However, in order to capture the maximum growth potential and achieve our “fair share,” we need to look beyond the current market parameters that we ourselves have set. Quite successfully I might add.
- $6B spent on Hispanic advertising is a lot of money, but it only represents around 3% of total U.S. ad expenditures. The ONLY way we’ll get anywhere close to our fair share (ie. 15% and growing) is if we as an industry embrace the entire audience, not just a segment of it.
- The fastest growing and largest sector of the U.S. Hispanic pie consists of New Generation Latinos. Given the length of time Latinos have lived here in the U.S., this could now certainly also include acculturated foreign-borns. It’s a fact that is not going to reverse and its time we embrace it and move forward. Nothing left to debate here, although the NGL numbers will be staggering when the 2010 Census numbers are revealed to be sure.
- If we get budgets earmarked for targeting ALL Hispanics (not just those solely defined by language), the NGLC’s feeling is that the General Market dollars would quickly match or likely exceed the $6B being mostly spent on Spanish-dominants in short order. General market media by nature is more expensive and comprised of a disproportionate amount of ad dollars that are not properly allocated towards New Generation Latinos. We need to go get these dollars.
- In order to begin tapping into these NEW U.S. Hispanic dollars, we in our industry need to start pushing hard for the following:
a.) Better TV measurement tools, with a larger U.S. Hispanic sample that properly represents NGLs
b.) Media planning and buying based on cultural skews
c.) Inserting culturally-relevant ads into General Market media rotation
d.) Strategizing with clients about culturally relevant brand positioning and skews
e.) Visibility at all major general market events and within key organizations
f.) More digital dollars allocated towards the 25MM U.S. Hispanics online and growing
g.) More dollars allocated towards the variety of NGL media vehicles that exist today
h.) Internal seats at the table within Fortune 500′s as brand managers and higher up
Who better to create an agenda to get these things done than those who have worked so hard to build our industry into what it is today? If we don’t, our share of the proverbial “pie” will continue to be well below our percentage of the total U.S. population. There is no doubt or fear that Spanish language advertising will do anything but continue to grow. However, it’s the larger New Generation Latino majority that will get us into the double digit percentile if we fully embrace it.
Ponder this. What if rather than another Anglo family selling breakfast cereal, it was the Garcia family sitting at the table? The spot can run on General Market media in English and in Spanish on Spanish-language media. Think how efficient that would be and how LITTLE CLUTTER there is on General Market TV for a spot such as this. Imagine if you’re a Hispanic family who sees the spot on American Idol in English and then later during a novela episode in Spanish? All the NGLC is saying is that there’s room for a more diverse mix of creative, media and marketing tactics to reach U.S. Hispanics. I’ll leave you all with this thought. The ones advertisers should be worried about “alienating” on general market media are not the Anglos who have largely tuned out, but rather the Hispanics who consume a TON of it yet do not see themselves well represented time and time again.
The NGLC will continue to put forth this agenda, and reach out to those in our industry to join the discussion. Feel free to encourage others to visit http://www.NGLC.biz to see what we’ve been up to and receive updates about what’s coming next.
Saludos,
David A. Chitel
Founder & Chairman
New Generation Latino Consortium
