AHAA’S ANNUAL CONFERENCE Recap

AHAA: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing wrapped up three days of creative insights, breaking research and compelling content with the highest caliber of speakers – Rupert Murdoch, Robert Rodriguez, Prince Royce – and an impressive roster of CMOs and top executives from blue-chip brands. It was the most engaged conference with #thinkahaa trending during Mr. Murdoch’s keynote and Prince Royce’s presentation, thanks to his loyal “Roycenaticas.” From attendees following conference activity on their app and interacting with the speakers via Twitter to the presence of the Twitter Mirror to capture attendee selfies, the conference was both informative and fun.

A Coming Out for Total Market Approach

In collaboration with the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and a broad coalition of brands and ethnic and general market agencies, AHAA unveiled an industry definition for Total Market:

“A marketing approach followed by corporations with their trusted internal and external partners which proactively integrates diverse segment considerations. This is done from inception through the entire strategic process and execution, with the goal of enhancing value and growth effectiveness. In marketing communications, this could lead to either one fully integrated cross-cultural approach, individual segment approaches, or both in many cases, but always aligned under one overarching strategy.”

Clients and agencies alike agreed that for a Total Market Approach to succeed, a bright client, collaboration, communication and chemistry between internal and external teams, and robust research are all critical. Total Market is not a short cut or a cost-cutting initiative, but a truly integrated process where effectiveness always trumps efficiency.

Wonderful examples of effective Total Market campaigns were showcased – Huggies, Kellogg’s, Pine-Sol and Wells-Fargo, where CMO Jamie Moldafsky showcased the company’s strategy is a mix of common core values with custom activations that satisfy cultural nuances and mindsets. For their efforts, Wells-Fargo was awarded the inaugural Chairman’s Award by AHAA Chair Aldo Quevedo, principal/creative director for Richards/Lerma for their visionary work and true Total Market approach. In addition, McDonald’s won the 2014 Marketer of the Year Award for its legacy of leading with ethnic insights and embracing a Total Market approach before the term was even coined.

Speaker Highlights

• Chairman of 21st Century Fox Rupert Murdoch stunned the crowd by voicing his support for immigration reform and no caps for H1 visas: ““Immigrants or their children have founded 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies,” he said. “Pfizer, Google, eBay were all started by immigrants… and we will not get out of this recession until we give people (like Hispanics) the freedom to start small businesses.”

• Fresh from winning four Billboard awards last week, Prince Royce has built more than 20 million Facebook fans by “keeping it authentic and talking to them in the language they speak to their friends.» He takes comments in social media to heart and uses them to constantly improve.

• Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez spoke of making films with people that looked like him and the family and friends he grew up with. In order to make movies with Salma Hayek or feature Danny Trejo as a protagonist, “I had to create a Latin star system to introduce Latino artists to the studios and prove they could act in English,” he said filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. He also cultivates “the diversity in front of and behind the camera,” he added, underscoring the heart of his new El Rey Network, where content is king. It is action-packed, gory, renegade, “badass” TV.

• Sol Trujillo, a global telecommunications, media, and cable industry executive, highlighted the great opportunity of the Hispanic market by saying, «When you think about Latinos, think: Growth, Entrepreneurial, and ROI.» He suggested to the audience that they read the latest report from the Partnership for the New American Economy, which revealed that Latinos are starting and growing businesses at four times the rate than any other group. His observations of the Hispanic market went beyond entrepreneurship, saying that the U.S. Hispanic growth rate beats that of the BRIC nations, and underscored the opportunities felt by everyone in the room.

• Bestselling author of Contagious Jonah Berger outlined the power of word of mouth marketing (WOM) saying the key to WOM, which is ten times more effective than advertising, starts from a strong story – not stats. “Stories are the currency of conversation,” says Berger. “They can also be a Trojan horse to tell about your brand and turn your audience into advocates.” He reinforced that viral communication is not luck-based but is a science.

• Head of Multicultural Marketing for Chrysler, Juan Torres said, ““We stopped doing commercials and started telling stories,” which became the lynchpin to Chrysler’s comeback with ensuring all their creative has an emotional connection – something that has resonated with the multicultural audience which represents a quarter of their sales and is fueling category growth in midsize and truck sales.

• AHAA and Nielsen revealed the results of the study Upscale Latino 2.0: A Renewed Outlook for High-End Marketers, where the nuances of purchase drivers were dissected and key categories identified in mid-high market department stores and prestige cosmetics.

• A social media panel from top executives from Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, and NBCUniversal/Telemundo reported that the U.S. Hispanic market is the most engaged audience of the world. The mobile phone is a major way to connect with 81% of the Hispanics using twitter and 89% of Hispanics accessing Facebook from mobile. Metrics are critical to the continued success of social TV and that authenticity is what drives numbers.

• A compelling study by Nickelodeon was presented by Andrea Strauss, VP of Brand and Consumer Insights, which revealed that non-white children will be the majority in 2019. Nine out of 10 kids of today trust their Moms more than the President of the United States; rock collections are #1 among boys and girls, and all children know that you have to get good grades in school to succeed, although Hispanic kids aspire to have jobs that help people vs. make more money compared to their non-Hispanic counterparts.

About AHAA:

Founded in 1996, AHAA: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing is the national trade organization of all marketing, communications and media firms with trusted Hispanic expertise.