Companies not "fishing where the fish are"

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) released its "Right Spend 2008" study, which highlighted the major issue in the advertising industry, companies not allocating the appropriate amount of their advertising to the Hispanic market.

Among the industries AHAA Chairman José Lopez-Varela says are not "fishing where the fish are" include toys and electronics.

-- Toy manufacturers are allocating on average just 1.1 percent of their total advertising budgets to target Latinos yet, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 25 percent of the country’s children under age 5 years are Hispanic. In California, more than half of all babies born today are Latino.

-- Hispanics are engaging with new media and new devices more rapidly and more frequently than their non-Hispanic counterparts, and spend more time and money on the Web for things like travel, pet supplies, automotive parts, baby supplies, and consumer electronics than non-Hispanics, yet manufacturers in this category such as Microsoft Corp., Dell, Inc., and Bose Corp., allocated just over $32 million of their $2.7 billion total advertising budgets to Spanish-language advertising: in some cases less than one-tenth of a percent.

For the report, AHAA worked in cooperation with the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) to analyze spending of the top advertisers using data supplied by the Nielsen Company

"Holiday" Political Correctness Hasn't Run Amuck in Hispanic Market

There is no good direct translation for "Happy Holidays" in Spanish without uttering the "C" word that paralyzes so many this time of year. We don't want to offend anyone, so we don't acknowledge anyone, right? For the Hispanic market, that's wrong. The Christmas season, which for many of us runs to 3 Kings Day, is a perfect time to build affinity and loyalty with Hispanic consumers.

As a result, we've advised our clients to run some "Holiday Season" greetings for the Hispanic market. Many are doing so. Others were interested but just flat out of budget and a few went the PC route.

While we can't measure short-term ROI for Hispanic market Christmas greetings, it is part of a good long-term strategy. As we know from the Latino Identity Project, our collectivism, familismo and celebration of tradition, are universal for Hispanics, and should be elements included in marketing approaches. Here's an article on how some retailers are marketing to Hispanics during the Christmas season.

Telemundo allowing Sprint subcribers to help determine ending of popular soap

The headline is a takeoff of the popular soap on Telemundo "Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso" ("Without Breasts There Is No Paradise"). Telemundo is adding a twist to the original version from Colombia by creating videos representing three different paths for the protagonist and letting Sprint cellphone subscribers decide which to take.

Telemundo did something similar last year with "Victoria" by letting fans vote on three web-only alternative final episodes of "Victoria."

Don't fret if you don't have Sprint. They will get 4-days to view the videos on their phones, then they will be posted on telemundo.com for others to vote. Voting will then close in mid-December, and Telemundo will then shoot the TV episodes that follow the path selected by viewers.