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The best Hispanic advertising this year
cleverly mined cultural insights into Latinos in the U.S. without resorting to
stereotypes.
In one of the judges' favourite campaigns entered in Advertising Age's Hispanic
Creative Advertising Awards, Comcast's CableLatino and Grupo Gallegos
entertainingly demonstrated that if you don't watch TV in your own language, you
lose too much of the story. To drive that point home, English-language
newscasts were devised with crucial information, like the photograph of an
escaped killer or product shots of poisoned food brands, hidden by subtitles.
"It's all about insights into the Spanish-speaking viewer," says Peter
Intermaggio, Comcast's senior VP-marketing communications, and one of the four
courageous clients who partner with their Hispanic shops on award-winning work (CableLatino
won two Golds and a Silver prize). "An essential truth of the Hispanic
market is that the viewing experience can be very frustrating, obscured by
language difficulties and poor translation. The creative captured that
experience."
Other insights were crafted into the two Best of Show winners. From
LatinWorks for Cine Las Americas: Latin American reality is so surreal, imagine
how good the movies must be. And from Lapiz for Procter & Gamble's
Pepto-Bismol: Don't let the food you love hurt you.
This year's winners understand the value of marketing to Hispanics, whether it's
the NFL working with Vidal Partnership to court 28 million Hispanic football
fans, or the California Milk Processor Board, a dairy supplier in a state where
"10 out of 10 new households created will be Hispanic," said John Gallegos,
principal at Grupo Gallegos. New advertisers are still entering the
market, including Starbucks, with its first Spanish-language print and radio ads
from Lopez Negrete Communications.
Hispanic agencies are also taking a leadership role in marketing to the
fast-growing bilingual and English-speaking Hispanic market, a desirable
demographic that general market agencies are eager to poach.
CreativeOnDemand, for instance, does English as well as Spanish-language
versions of its Volkswagen of America campaigns, and some of the work, such as
this year's Routan launch, a Silver and Bronze prize winner, enters the general
market rotation.
But the bicultural Hispanic isn't easy to reach.
"The consumer is living two lives," said Carlos Boughton, brand director of
Tecate Equity. "It's more like American culture viewed through Mexican
glasses."
With Tecate Light, a Gold and Silver winner, the Mexican beer is targeting
U.S.-born Mexican-Americans and immigrants.
But the U.S.-born Hispanic exists across a very broad spectrum, from someone who
speaks Spanish every day, spends time in Mexico and marries a Latina, to a guy
who didn't grow up exposed to Mexican culture at all, Mr. Boughton said.
Media targeted at bilingual and English-speaking Hispanics tries to bridge that
spectrum. MTV Networks' U.S. Hispanic channel MTV Tr3s, for instance, won
a Gold with a crash course on how to "Speak Tr3s."
Like agencies everywhere, Hispanic shops are doing more with less. One of
the best creative pairings in the Hispanic market, Toyota and Saatchi &
Saatchi's Latino shop Conill, came up with several low-budget but
attention-grabbing ideas, such as a first-ever Hispanic test for the Prius using
an online effort called the "Pixelometro" to measure fuel economy. And
radio campaign "Ruidos" ("Noises") featured traffic and news reports and music
interrupted by ominous grinding sounds and the message "If you thought that was
your car, you should buy a Toyota certified used vehicle."
One of this year's most innovative efforts was the way Conill linked T-Mobile
USA with soccer in "Dirige su Equipo" ("Direct Your Team"). The agency
started with the premise that soccer fans think they know best, and invited fans
to text advice to a player during a game. The message appears to the TV
viewer to be shouted at the player on the field in real time.
Hispanic agencies are moving into branded entertainment, a new category at this
year's awards. Both winners delve deeply into Mexican culture. Conill
produced a mini-documentary that aired on Discovery en Espa"ol about the
rodeo-like charro, where the standard equipment includes horses, cowboys and a
Toyota Tundra. And Alma DDB and Fire Advertainment created a State
Farm-backed band, Los Felinos, that has taken on new life in a reality show that
made its debut on Telemundo this month.
Ad Age conducted the 11th annual Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards in
partnership with the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies.
The Most-Awarded Shops
The two Best of Show winners, LatinWorks and Lapiz, were also the two
most-awarded agencies at Ad Age's Hispanic Creative Advertising Awards. Besides
the Best of Show trophies, LatinWorks picked up five Silver and two Bronze
prizes, and Lapiz won two Gold, two Silver and one Bronze prizes.
- LatinWorks (Omnicom Group)
- Lapiz (Publicis Groupe)
- Grupo Gallegos (independent)
- JWT San Juan (WPP)
- Conill (Publicis Groupe)
Based on Best of Show (10 points), Gold (7), Silver (5), Bronze (3)
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