February 07, 2005
SRI Conference – Miami
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If ever there was a time when it felt like the Hispanic marketing and media industry was on the brink of major change, it is now! Many of the industry experts that presented at the 11th SRI Hispanic Marketing Conference in Miami, January 24-27, confirmed that a shifting of strategies will take hold of the industry over the course of the next 5 years. The big confession from many on the media and Hispanic ad agency side is that the second generation, bilingual segment is a force they’re going to have to reckon with in order to stay relevant --and in business -- for their clients.
That’s quite an acknowledgment given the reluctance over the past years to veer outside of the immigrant-focused marketing model, which made sense given the growth and sheer numbers of first generation Latinos throughout the last 3 decades. But with nearly 70% of Latinos in the U.S. under the age of 35 and 65% of them U.S. born with $300+ billion purchasing power, it doesn’t make business sense to focus on a Spanish only strategy.
The trend is to integrate Hispanic into mass campaigns. As many recognized, the ethnic population is the new emerging general market. The non-Hispanic youth segment will continue to shrink while the Hispanic youth boom will further expand. The growth of in-culture English-language options, such as the new English-language cable networks SíTV & Voy will continue to appear, as will the Latinization of the mainstream networks.
Not everyone is embracing this new model. Many are quick to admit that it’s still un-chartered territory and there is lots of vested interest. However, there is definitely a paradigm shift among the agencies, focusing more on culture and less on language.
Are Hispanic advertising agencies (and their clients) capable of realizing that a targeted approach to Hispanic consumers does not necessarily mean in Spanish?