Last Thursday at Portada Los Angeles, select speakers got together to discuss how all marketing is now multicultural marketing. Panels included varied topics ranging from taxes to Hollywood, attendees got a glimpse of what's next for the Latino market.
Weeks after Portada Miami, top-notch speakers got together again at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel on May 10 to discuss key topics surrounding the Latino community in the U.S. After an introduction by the president of Portada Marcos Baer, Melissa Rodriguez, founder and CEO of Mel Rodriguez & Co, introduced Intuit's Senior Brand and Latino Marketing Manager John Sandoval, who provided the audience with interesting insights on marketing to Latinos when it comes to taxes. Benjamin Franklin said "Latinos are unfamiliar with the income-taxes category," said Sandoval. "Even if you speak English, this whole tax language is very challenging to understand." TurboTax found that in the Latino market the "Do it yourself" portion is very small, while non-Hispanics prefer the DIY approach. This means a gap and a business opportunity that TurboTax is tapping into by helping Latinos to do their taxes themselves.
At 10:30am, Nelson Peña, VP of Latcom U.S., took over the stage to present one of Latcom's most successful case studies. With thousands of out-of-home advertisements, Latcom's campaign designed for Fox Entertainment managed to create awareness of Fox's new OTT app, recently launched in Mexico. When asked about targetting U.S. Hispanics, Peña shared that even though the biggest opportunity for out-of-home is in the entertainment category, campaigns are tailored depending on brands and locations, such as the campaign Latcom did for Nestlé, in which the creatives were specifically designed to target Hispanics in southern Texas, Arizona, and California.
Unless you grow with multicultural audiences, you cannot grow.
A deep discussion about what it takes for brands to communicate with Latino audiences got everyone thinking about the future of multicultural marketing. Moderated by Zach Rosenberg, president of MBMG, the panel gathered decision makers like Mobvious' CEO Isabel Rafferty, Gallegos United's Strategic Planning Director Caterina Goncalves and Chief Strategy & Engagement Officer Andrew Delbridge, and Natalia Gutierrez, Category Sales Development Manager, Global Foods at Nestlé. With each panelist bringing their own experience with multicultural marketing over the years to the table, the conversation spurred engagement among the audience. A good example to understand cultural attunement according to Caterina Goncalves is what she called "the Despacito phenomenon", in which a non-Hispanic singer, Justin Bieber, appropriated the song and embraced the Spanish language. "Not enough brands are doing are doing enough to really be culturally attuned," commented Andrew Delbridge. "As someone who comes from the general market side, I've probably learned more in the last 6 years than I've learned in the previous 20 years of my career about what I didn't know about marketing to Hispanics, or to America, really; unless you grow with multicultural audiences, in most categories, you cannot grow."
There are more boys walking around in Messi or Ronaldo jerseys than in U.S. soccer jerseys.
At 11:45am, the stage received a selection of brilliant speakers with experience in the soccer business industry. Brendan Hannan, VP of marketing and communications for the LA Galaxy; Jason Howarth, VP of marketing at Panini America; and Steve Pastorino, VP of Corporate Partnership at Las Vegas Lights FC, answered questions posed by Joe Favorito, Portada's Head of Sports Content, about the great potential marketers can tap on now that Fifa's World Cup is almost here… and Team U.S.A. is not going. "For a country that is not participating in the World Cup, the U.S. market is fortunate of having a wide demographic of people supporting multiple countries," asserted Jason Howarth. "On the men's side there's always been this default of 'who else am I going to root for", there are many more boys walking around in Messi or Ronaldo jerseys than in U.S. soccer jerseys."
Finally, Portada LA got to a conclusion that was very ad hoc with the setting: in a panel titled Hollywood and Latin Audiences, Pongalo's CEO Rich Hull talked to Adriana Trautman, VP, Marketing Latin America at 20th Century Fox, about marketing entertainment to Latin Americans. When asked about how traditional brands are using content online, and what works in the entertainment industry, Trautman answered that "Consumer behavior is completely different online; from a Hollywood perspective is probably easier for us than for more traditional brands because people are looking for that content, but more and more it is about interaction, about creating a relationship with characters, actors, and with the talent behind it… It takes a lot of work, but once you do it, it keeps the conversation going."
As you can see, the room was packed. Where were you?
Janet Grynberg – Hot Topics, English or Spanish, Latin America, Major Hispanic Markets, Sports Marketing Tags: Adriana Trautman, Andrew Delbridge, brendan hannan, Caterina Goncalves, Isabel Rafferty, jason howarth, John Sandoval, Melissa Rodriguez, Natalia Gutierrez, Nelson Peña, PortadaLA, Rich Hull, Steve Pastorino, Zach Rosenberg 
Janet Grynberg
Janet has worked as a translator and editor for magazines and publishing houses including Expansion and Grupo Planeta since 2014. She is part of the Portada editorial team, and her main interests include literature, traveling, and exploring other cultures. Follow me on Twitter!
