Amid a peer to peer networking environment in sunny Miami, we recently hosted our second annual “Leading the Change” forum for our multicultural client and agency partners. Our goals were to bring together Hispanic champions so that they could learn from each other, walk away with actionable insights and continue to push a Total Market Strategy shift within their organizations. Because, really, when we say “Leading the Change” we’re talking about our partners who evangelize, strategize and act with change and growth in mind within their companies every day.
Prior to the event, we encouraged attendees to fill out a Total Market Strategy scorecard, a self-evaluation tool for tracking their companies’ progress. Their commitment to Hispanic rang loud and clear.
Nearly 81 percent of attendees said they were personally committed to winning with Hispanics and over half of them (55%) said their senior management had declared Hispanic a business imperative. Most of our attendees also seemed to be putting this commitment to action. For example, over two-thirds (68%) strongly agreed or agreed that their company’s research includes a representative sample of Hispanics. And three-quarters said they have products and/or packaging that is relevant to Hispanics. Finally, 61% of attendees told us that they’re actively engaging their Hispanic consumer through culturally-relevant media and creative.
However, there seems to be some uncertainty about how to best support brands with the right talent and funding – only 10% of our attendees said their companies were getting this right.
To address these issues, we opened the Leading the Change forum with a case study approach – hearing from James Seidl, director of Innovation & Hispanic Marketing at McCormick & Co. and Christopher Kaplan, senior vice president & chief marketing officer at Boehringer Ingelheim, on their lessons learned as first-time Hispanic market entrants. From how they secured internal buy-ins to how they selected their agency, both James and Christopher shared their experiences and insights.
Alfredo Rodriguez, vice president of Marketing at DISH Network; Peter DeLuca, senior vice president of Brand & Advertising at T-Mobile USA; and David Cardona, director of Multicultural Development at The Clorox Company then discussed thoughts how to engage using a 360-approach – driving results through television, along with social, mobile and digital video.
We also offered guests an open forum to discuss three topics: Driving a Total Market led by Ida Chacon, vice president of Multicultural Client & Commercial Solutions at Latinum Network; Engaging Hispanic Millennials led by Chiqui Cartagena, vice president of Corporate Marketing at Univision; and Defining and Tracking ROI for Hispanic Initiatives, led by Andy Hasselwander, vice president of Products & Research also from Latinum Network.
On the second day of the forum, cultural anthropologist and author Grant McCracken offered a bird’s eye view at how understanding culture helps create “meaningful distinctions” for brands and can make us all better marketers. To that end, he gave us his tips on how to trend spot. Following, leading creative minds from Alma, Lapíz and Conill shared how they executed some of the most effective campaigns for Hispanics consumers.
My colleague Roberto Ruiz will share details of each of these sessions in the coming weeks. Continue to follow us here at Univision’s Insights blog and on Twitter at @Hispanic411 for more.
