While I appreciate his spirited disagreement and do not disagree or dispute any of the data points he has shared in his article, they fail to make a compelling argument that because Hispanics continue to speak Spanish that they prefer to conduct their digital lives in Spanish, or consume digital content in Spanish.

Vann’s argument is not a new one. In fact it’s an argument that traditional Hispanic agencies have been making for decades: namely that because Hispanics speak Spanish at home and watch [some] Spanish TV, that we need to focus our efforts to reach them in Spanish. They fail to focus on how much of time Hispanics spend speaking, reading and writing in Spanish, online and offline. The point of my article, based on the research we have conducted, is that most of their time spent online is in front of English interfaces and consuming English content.

I’m not arguing that they don’t consume some Spanish content online. Just that it’s only a small portion of their time spent online and usually around culturally-specific passion-points, like sports (futbol) and music (listening to Spanish music).

I also stand by my recommendation that Spanish language websites can be counter-productive. It’s not a profitable position for someone in the business of building websites, particularly Hispanic ones, to make. However, it’s what the data overwhelmingly tells us.

Not to mention the rules… Times New Roman, 12pt font, 1 inch margins, 20 page limit, fonts in table cannot be smaller than 10pt font, one original and nine copies, with two redacted copies, technical and business proposals must be mailed separately, person
writing proposal must have orange hair… ok, not the last one but still, the rules are no joke!

Thinking about not following one of the rules? Think again! Your proposal will be thrown out without even being read for its actual content.

I think this polar bear feels my pain…  http://thisadvertisinglife.tumblr.com/post/34176621788/starting-on-a-project-that-gets-canceled-later-the-same

However, don’t start seeing dollar signs just yet. Don’t expect us to spend like our parents spend. Millennials can appreciate thrift. We are not ashamed to shop that bargain bin. We may have grown up with wealth, or the illusion of wealth, but many of us saw the wealth of our parents disappear in our teens and twenties with the recession. Many millennials will echo the sentiments of their grandparents, who experienced the great depression, when it comes to spending and saving. Millennials own fewer houses, cars, and are in less debt than people of the same age in 2001. Many are also cautious when it comes to credit cards and the damage they can cause. We aren’t afraid to save money by cooking from scratch. We may even use the leftovers to make a low cost beauty mask. We’re the ones holding up the line to pull up our coupons – on our smart phones, of course. Coupons in the newspapers are so Gen X.

Now, before you lose all hope for capitalizing on millennial purchasing power. Take heart.  Millennials are waiting for advertisers to engage us. We will spend money, once you’ve proven you’re worth it. Here’s where that ugly little quip “Generation Entitlement” comes to play. We want to be entertained with advertising. We know our money is just as green as our parents and we expect marketers to recognize. By the way, don’t even try to tell us what we want or what we should want. We know what we want and we are waiting for you to give it to us. We want to have a say in the products we use. We want you to know what flavors we like, what apps we use, and how we want to watch TV. We want to control how we view ads and we want a truly customized experience.

High maintenance? Yes. High reward? Oh, yes.

It’s also important to understand that not all millennials are created equal. Some of us are moms in the suburbs. Some of us are single in the city. Some are still living with our parents (no shame in that game considering the enormous student loans we have). We want to be acknowledged for our uniqueness and want to have a personal and customized experience with our advertising. Don’t just show me an ad. Let me connect with you. Let me understand that you get me.

If you can get a millennial to feel connected to your brand, he or she will be your biggest fan. Millennials feel that it is our responsibility to share our feelings about brands and products with our friends. Social media and our hyper connectivity to those in our social circles make our opinions highly visible. We live in a world where one consumer tweet quickly turns into millions of retweets and all of a sudden that one individualized experience becomes common knowledge.

So don’t be intimidated or disheartened by thriftiness of millennials. It might take a unique strategy and a little effort, but we are waiting to reward your efforts with our dollars. And, we’ll even post a pic on Instagram to share our excitement. #millennialsrule

• Hispanicize 2013
• AHAA 2013 (Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies)
• Digital Hollywood Hispanic Media Summit

Attending three different conferences, all on the U.S. Hispanic market, but each with its unique perspective, has revealed some trends I’m seeing in the always fluid Hispanic market. Here’s a breakdown of what I noticed.

First there was Hispanicize 2013 in Miami. This event bills itself as the Hispanic version of SXSW. It is an annual showcase of Latino trendsetters across social media, journalism, marketing, film, music and digital media. With its roots in the Hispanic PR world and its growing contingent of Latino bloggers, Hispanicize had a couple of key takeaways for me:

• I was impressed with the size of the event (more than 1,000 attendees) and sheer number of Hispanic bloggers and new media startups. What was a novelty a few years ago is turning into a real industry, and big brands are heavily investing.
• More Latinos are taking it upon themselves to change Hispanic media by becoming content producers – whether they are filmmakers, bloggers, YouTube publishers, or musicians.
• The lines separating Hispanic PR firms, ad agencies and publishers / media companies are blurring – everybody is working in social media and content creation is becoming a core requirement of any marketing program

Then there was the AHAA 2013 “Thinking Under the Influence” annual conference in Miami. Bringing a decidedly ad agency perspective, AHAA is the granddaddy of Hispanic marketing conferences, and brought together 400+ Hispanic agency, brand, and Hispanic media professionals. AHAA always provides a great pulse on the growing Hispanic advertising business. A couple of themes stood out for me:

• There was much talk about the “mainstreaming” of the Hispanic market. It was no longer a niche or specialty market, but now the “new mainstream”
• The Hispanic ad industry has fully embraced the bicultural, bilingual and even English-speaking Latino as their new core audience.
• There is plenty of confusion and concern about the concept of the “Total Market Approach”

To round out my tour of Hispanic marketing conferences, I attended and spoke at the inaugural Digital Hollywood Hispanic Media Summit in Los Angeles. Digital Hollywood Hispanic – added as a track within a well-established entertainment industry conference – brought together professionals from the entertainment, advertising, tech, communications, and market research worlds. Similar themes emerged at Digital Hollywood:

• There has definitely been a “shift in the conversation” about the Hispanic market.
• Hollywood has historically profited greatly from the Hispanic market without paying too much attention to it. Attendance levels at the conference showed the industry is now definitely engaged.

Putting all three conferences together, I ended up with three big takeaways

• There is a myriad of innovation taking place in Hispanic marketing – whether it’s hundreds of new bloggers, new big media platforms, or “general market” organizations reorganizing in some way to better serve the Hispanic market.
• Everyone is focused on the “crossover” potential and opportunities inherent in the Hispanic market. This market is influencing the general market as much as it is acculturating into it.
• Hispanic marketing is clearly an industry undergoing a seismic shift. The jury is still out on how things are going to end up and even the so called experts (including myself) admit that they don’t know what the market will look like in a few years.

An edited version of this article ran on MediaPost Engage:Hispanic on May 2, 2013

The event was well attended by both Sensis and the DC advertising community. Some of the big winners included campaigns from Design Army, The General Design Company, RP3, LM&O, GMMB and MBD Communications. Although Sensis participated only as observers and minglers this year, we were happy to support and celebrate those who took home awards.

As I watched this award ceremony, I couldn’t help but notice a distinct feeling well up inside. This feeling was the overwhelming urge to compete. Competition is everywhere around us. We see it especially between our clients and their competitors and between agencies for campaigns. We can’t escape competition in the world today. It surrounds us and pushes us to improve and achieve. I wanted every award presented to be a Sensis awards for the betterment of both our clients and our agency.

It’s not to say that winning awards makes you a better advertising agency. It’s simply that the recognition of excellence gives an increased sense of accomplishment. Just like great advertising, competition typically evokes a very strong emotion in people. It makes us laugh, it makes us cry. Some cave under the pressure of competition and others flourish in it. As an advertising professional, watching these awards got me fired up to provide exceptional work for our clients.

All said and done, it was a beautiful night filled with fancy finger foods, great conversations with friends (new and old) and some really inspiring advertising campaigns. Sensis strongly competes in an arena filled with creative advertising agencies, both small and large with very talented people and we are honored to be here!

“Never forget – you’re not the market”

The market he was referring to is the Hispanic consumer market in the U.S. He was reminding my colleague (who was a U.S. born, 2nd generation Hispanic, for whom Spanish was a second language) to never make the mistake of thinking that the “Hispanic market” that so many large corporations were beginning to pay attention to was anything like him. Even though he was Hispanic, he was not like the market he was selling. He went on to remind him to make sure he watched Spanish TV on a regular basis, so as to never lose sight of the “real” Hispanic consumer.

That simple advice, shared 30+ years ago, really got me thinking about today’s Hispanic market. Is that advice still valid today? How has the Hispanic market changed since then? How has it stayed the same? It was a simple statement that cut to an existential question about Hispanic marketing – how relevant is it today, and how “different” are Hispanics from everyone else in the so called “general market.”

How it’s still true
That advice rekindled a constant struggle I face in running an ad agency that develops Hispanic advertising: the fact that many on my team live very different lives from a large swath of the Hispanic consumers we target. I worry that my most on my team are disconnected, working in fancy offices in downtown Los Angeles and Washington, DC, and living in gentrified upper-middle-class urban and suburban neighborhoods. None of my staff lives in Huntington Park or Columbia Heights. Our focus on digital Hispanic marketing often brings us face to face with this reality, where we see very different digital access and behavior than that of our own as savvy digital marketers.

Furthermore, as Hispanic marketing has grown as an industry, with more money and wealth being generated by increasingly larger Spanish media, Hispanic advertising and research companies, there is arguably a bigger chasm between the practitioners and audience for Hispanic marketing than ever before.

I know for my part, I spend a lot of time making sure our team immerses themselves in the Hispanic market, albeit artificially, via immersions, field research and spending time consuming Hispanic media.

How it’s not true anymore
As the Hispanic market in the U.S. has grown, it has radically changed. Since the 1980s, the Hispanic population has gone from a primarily foreign-born, middle-to-lower income immigrant population into an acculturated, higher socio-economic ethnic group that is 60%+ native born. Today large percentages, and arguably a majority of U.S. Hispanics, are in fact more like those of us who are professional Hispanic marketers. Many more are bilingual or English-dominant, highly educated, and working in white collar professional environments. The data on Hispanic digital penetration, mobile and social media over-indexing, and device early adoption only reinforces this.

In many ways, today’s Hispanic marketer could more credibly say that they are in fact a good representative of a large segment of the market they are helping brands reach.

Are we more like the Hispanic market or not?
So which is it? I am not one to straddle the fence when it comes to difficult questions, but I feel as if it’s a bit of both. I would argue that this advice is more relevant in 2013 than it was in the 1980’s because it is a poignant reminder of how complicated and nuanced the Hispanic market has become.

Some segments of the Hispanic market are less like us than they were 30 years ago. However a growing group of Hispanic consumers is looking more like us Hispanic professionals than ever before. It’s almost as if there are two Hispanic markets and the need for two different types of agencies to help organizations reach them.

An edited version of this post was published on MediaPost Engage:Hispanic on April 4, 2013

Popular shows like Modern Family, The New Normal, Glee and others are championing this shift in perceptions.  In the case of Modern Family, one of the main couples on the show happens to be a same sex couple. And a recent Pew Survey reported that 58% of people surveyed accept homosexuality today.

It seems that slowly the stigmas and negative stereotypes are going way. Even some youth who oppose gay marriage are shifting their perceptions and see shows like Modern Family as a perfect example of good family values with one little twist.

This is also apparent from all the support the gay marriage movement is getting on social media sites like Facebook with the current campaign to ‘turn Facebook red’ that supports marriage equality

Even Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite commercial is setting precedents in the world of network TV advertising. Amazon clearly understands the shift in family structures and has demonstrated this by creating a commercial that features a gay man striking up a conversation about the product features with an attractive woman on the beach.  The spot is subtle yet the twist at the end does evoke a reaction. I believe Amazon has embraced the idea that the market is ever-changing and so are consumers and their habits.

What we once considered to be a traditional family has shifted dramatically the past few years.  The fact that large brands are including these themes in their advertising is a prime example of that shift.

Let’s start with the ways in which the government can purchase your services. They include:

Micro-Purchases
Simplified Acquisitions
Sole Source Awards
Sealed Bidding
Negotiated Procurement
IDIQ Contracts
GWAC/MAC Contract Vehicles
GSA MAS

Have no idea what any of that means? Let me break it down for you…

Micro-Purchases
Micro Purchases (MP) are only for purchases under $2,500. MPs were developed to reduce administrative costs, streamline payment procedures in the area of small purchases and to improve opportunities for small and small disadvantaged business concerns to do business with government.

Simplified Acquisitions
Simplified Acquisitions can be done for purchases under $100,000. Unlike MPs, these much be competed amongst at least three other companies.

Sole Source Awards
Sole Sources are allowed to be awarded when there is only one company that can provide the contractual services needed, so any attempt to obtain bids would only result in that person or company bidding on it. (See FAR Subpart 6.3)

Sealed Bidding
Sealed Bidding is formal advertising, which involves the issuance of an Invitation for Bid (IFB) by a procuring agency. The IFB usually include a copy of the specifications, instructions for preparation of bids, and the conditions of purchase, delivery, and payment schedule. The IFB also designates the date and time of bid opening. At bid opening, lowest price wins.

Negotiated Procurement
Negotiation Procurement is a more flexible procedure that includes the receipt of proposals from offerors, permits negotiation, and affords offerors an opportunity to revise their offers before award of a contract. Negotiated Procurement allows for discussion, persuasion, and alteration of initial assumptions and positions.

IDIQ Contracts
Indefinite delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts provide for an indefinite quantity of services for a fixed time. IDIQs are used when government agencies cannot predetermine the precise quantities of services that they will require during the contract period. IDIQs can be single or multiple award, and prequalify companies for a specific SOW. The government then may places task orders against a basic contract for individual requirements.

GWAC
Government Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC) is a multiple award IDIQ contract that is established by one agency for government wide use.

GSA MAS Contracts
General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contracts are IDIQ contracts that are available for use by federal agencies worldwide, which are awarded and administered by GSA. Under the MAS Program, GSA enters into government wide contracts with commercial firms to provide over 11 million commercial supplies and services. Agencies place orders directly with MAS contractors.

Now that you know the different ways in which the government can purchase your services, stay tuned to find out what the different agencies are buying.

Questions? Just ask. Government Contracting Guru at your service!