New York -- The marketing specialists on the Advertising
Roundtable had some ideas about rebranding the very event they were speaking
at, as Victor Parada, vice president of ad sales at Discovery U.S. Hispanic,
suggested "Video" replace "TV" in the Hispanic TV title,
and "for Hispanics" slide in place of "Hispanic."
"Hispanic TV" may be trending toward archaic, the
panelists believed, as they repeatedly mentioned breaking down the silos that
separate Spanish-language audience from general market. "I am a
multicultural marketer," said Clint McClain, Wal-Mart senior director of
marketing communications platforms. "We made the decision that everyone is
a multicultural marketer, and we think that's the model to win."
The "Give it to Juan" approach of passing
Spanish-language business off to the lone multicultural marketing rep down the
hall doesn't fly anymore, noted Parada. Total market approach is the new
paradigm.
Steven Wolfe Pereira, executive VP, MediaVest, and managing
director, MV42, MediaVest Multicultural, moderated the salon. The marketers
spoke of the new challenges in reaching consumers on the go.
Peter Hopkins, Time Warner Cable's director, business
development, talked about "hyper-local targeting" through the cable
operator's hundreds of geographical zones. McClain spoke of turning locally
tailored commercials around inside of a week to keep Wal-Mart top of mind for
consumers. "That's probably the biggest initiative for us in the past six
months," he said. "We are seeing amazing results from it."
Having the tools to effectively measure engagement on these
various platforms, including mobile, is key, stressed Carol Hinnant, senior VP,
national television sales, Rentrak.
Paul Laureano, vice president, integrated sales and
marketing at Fox Hispanic Media, played up the Content is King idea; consumers
watch the best programming, he said, not necessarily the best Spanish-language
or general audience programming.
The panelists echoed their agreement. Parada spoke of
"great content that can transcend language," such as Discovery's own
Shark Week franchise. "It's content first and language second," he
said.
