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Aug. 2020

By Pablo Carpintero

During this quarantine we’ve been naming new products, creating new campaigns, doing planning and/or resetting objectives for clients and business prospects because we’re certainly in uncharted territory. It’s like playing a game while the rules are changing (We play to set the new rules.) I’d like to share some thoughts that I’ve identified as a result of this process.

One important aspect is that language is not the most important element in communicating with Hispanic consumers. (That is like thinking that your kitchen faucet is a water factory.) While there still is a substantial Spanish-preferred population, taking culture into account and making it part of our communication tool kit is increasingly more important, and making good use of those insights is even more important. Language definitely serves a purpose when we wish to communicate with a certain segment of the population...

Nov. 2018

Roberto Goyeneche, a great tango singer from Argentina, used to tour around the globe all the time. Once, while in Japan a reporter asked him, "Maestro, don't you feel homesick for Argentina?" And Goyeneche's answer was a great piece of emotional intelligence: "Yes, but Argentina is a very nice country to feel homesick about."

That’s very important for the Hispanic market in the US. If you ask a Hispanic about their country of origin or their families’ countries. Everybody is going to start telling you the most wonderful stories you have ever heard, showing you images on their phones from places that are several dreams come true. But make no mistake. That doesn't mean they want to go back. It means they want to keep that dream alive, as if nostalgia could be a guilty pleasure, like daydreaming in reverse.

But besides the understandable nostalgia, do we have something to say as a group? Many advertisers in the Hispanic market insist on keeping to traditions. While some others are beginning to focus more on "authenticity" especially for the youngers demographics.

That's why some are losing them, and that's why Telemundo gained ground over Univision. By changing the "sequential" format of their soap operas to more modern "self-sustained" unitary episodes, they are losing the younger side of their target".

And all this cultural process in this political context. (Please, let me clarify that getting out of the Argentina to deals with NAZIS in the Argentina to deal with Nazis in the U.S. is like divorcing your wife to marry your mother-in-law.)

But jokes aside, we do speak Spanish because we have something to say and that US is like divorcing your wife to marry your mother in law.) something is not in our past but in our future, the same future we want to share with the brands that talk to us as if we have something to say.

Aug. 2013

The Hispanic market, what could be there for you and a few ideas on how to get it.

Do You Want Your Brand To Win The Next Reelection?- It's not news that Obama won because of Hispanic support in key states. Yes we can, yes we did and yes we will do it again!

The Latino segment of the population seems to say: if the famous and paranoid short story "Casa Tomada" had not been written by Julio Cortázar in Argentina in 1946, it could have easily been written last year in the U.S. by Noam Chomsky.

Where Are You In The Evolution Of The Hispanic Market?- The Hispanic market started with marketing-focused agencies that enjoyed their moment of relevance as far as the construction and justification of that market was concerned.

But now, to grow in the Latino market you may need to add a more creative, appealing layer.

Why? Because 16 percent of the U.S. population is Hispanic, but 16 percent of international award recipients sure aren't and certainly, 16 percent of U.S. advertising expenditures aren't Latino-focused.

To reach the next plateau, you need to capitalize on your brand in that gap. That's the business reason to embark on, or at least to try to embrace, creative advertising in the U.S. Hispanic market.

Apr. 2013

No, no and no. Stop. Niet. Nein. Stay away! Don't even think about it. Leave it to me! I do this for a living, seriously. It's how I pay for my frijoles! Yankee go home!

What do you mean you are already at home because this is your country?
And this is your account? And you are "the brand keeper?" Please don't go there. This is not the moment to choose between "Apocalyptic and integrated," * that's for intellectuals and you have a business to run. This could be the moment for your brand to get in good with almost 50 million Americans by telling them that you recognize and cherish their culture and heritage. And more importantly, their feelings and emotions about their mothers.

What do you need to know to advertise for Mother's Day in the Hispanic market?
OK, this is very important. Stop being lazy! We all know that the "abuelita" is the mother of all mothers but stop using her in every spot because she's also the mother of all Hispanic clichés. By now the Latino lobby in the U.S. Congress **is about to pass legislation against using the "abuelita" in advertising. Besides, if you don't communicate in a creative way and you keep repeating the same use of the same clichés, you're going to lose the young Hispanics and yes, they're the ones that got President Obama re-elected. And you want your brand to get re-elected don't you? Straight to the point, if you're paying for "creative hours" aren't you expecting creative communication?

Nov. 2012

How much an idea costs is different from how much value it has and how much profit it can generate. The truth is that no one can answer any of these three questions until after the idea is in motion. Well, maybe the person who first had the idea can say how much it cost them, but they're almost never in a position to assess its value because they are just the supply, not the demand.

When we're emerging from a recession is not the time to begin looking for an answer to these questions, it's the time to find the answer. And having to look for and do freelance work is the empirical path to that answer. It seems to be the ideal time. On the one hand, most of the agencies have kept the personnel that are strictly necessary to maintain operations, but not enough to see their accounts grow, and much less to do RFIs, RFPs, biddings and everything else that makes an agency grow and the entire sector along with it (in other words, to emerge from the recession). And on the other hand, personal communications media – Skype, email, ftp, and smartphones – make it easier to work with the ideal professional than simply with the one that is closest by.

Sep. 2012

How many years was America called "The New World"? Well maybe that was right right in more than one sense. Do you want to dream in colors? Welcome to the new America! Welcome to the new world! Do you want to speak several languages, understand different cultures? Welcome to the new America! Welcome to the new world! "Mi casa es su casa" like they say in the movies, and speaking of movies, do you remember almost 30 years ago in the movie Blade Runner that the L.A. police speak a "polilingua"? As the Harrison Ford character said while he was arrested by Edward James Olmos: "That gibberish he talk, was city speak, gutter talk. A mismatch of Japanese, Spanish, German, what have you. I didn’t need a translator, I know the lingo, every good cop did." Well, the future is here: Latinos, Africans, Arabs, Asians, Hindus, Pakistanis, Eastern Europeans... everybody has a cousin here. We are the new immigrants and we are building a new mainstream. (With our special thanks to the old inmigrants for building the old mainstream).