Think Multicultural

I just spoke at a very interesting conference in Chicago yesterday - the 5th Annual Multicultural Marketing for the Financial Services and Insurance Industries conference.

Although the conference was small in attendance (around 60 total attendees), most of the people there were heavy hitters from the largest financial services and healthcare companies in the U.S. In fact, I would estimate that 80% of the attendees were marketers from Fortune 1000 companies.

The conference had a very effective structure, with larger group-wide presentations on broader demographic trends affecting the financial services and insurance industries, followed by break-out roundtable discussions dealing with the Hispanic, African-American, and Asian markets individually. I moderated 3 very active and interesting roundtable discussions on the Hispanic Baby Boomer market.

One thing really stood out to me after Day 1 of the conference - Financial Services, and particularly Healthcare companies, are VERY interested in figuring out the multicultural markets.

I know that historically these industries have not invested heavily in reaching multicultural audiences. However, based on the attendance, questions, and general discussion at this unique conference, I would venture to say that this will be changing very rapidly.

I know this is late, but I wanted to provide some parting thoughts on the AHAA Semiannual Conference held in San Antonio 2 weeks ago. I’ve been attending all the AHAA conferences for the last 3 years and left with the following thoughts:

- The conference had very good attendance. However, an informal straw poll during one of the general sessions revealed that over 2/3 of the attendees were media folks (ad salespeople to be exact). Like any good party, you always want to make sure that you have a nice balance - and unfortunately AHAA was a bit of a stag party.

- There was little to no discussion of digital during any of the panel discussions. This was very disappointing, considering how much Hispanic digital is growing. I think it was indicative of Hispanic ad agencies general lack of digital adoption.

- There was a very interesting panel discussion the last day about the “One Stop Shop” model and whether it was a thing of the past. This panel got very heated - focusing on Alex Lopez Negrete’s big concern about the disintegration of Hispanic advertising as it relates to media planning and buying. I found it interesting to hear how worried he and other Hispanic ad agency principals were about losing the media business and how little they were concerned about losing the Hispanic digital business. I mention this because I am pretty sure most Hispanic ad agencies are unaware that General Market ad agencies are taking most of the Hispanic digital dollars out there. This is a disconcerting trend that will have huge ramifications for the future of Hispanic advertising - and most Hispanic agencies are unaware of this.

As part of the Air Force’s “Above All” campaign, there’s a commercial running a lot right now showing a satellite being blown to pieces in a loud, fiery explosion by a missile fired from Earth. It’s a dramatic 30 second spot, almost certainly designed to build upon the interest in space warfare generated by the US Navy’s recent shooting down of a malfunctioning military satellite.

It’s also dumb.

The Air Force generally tries to position itself as the branch of the military where the smartest and most educated recruits can go to learn about the newest technology. And then they show a commercial that’s more Star Wars than physics class.

Not to go all uber-nerd on you, but satellites don’t “go boom” in space. Fire requires three things: 1) fuel, 2) heat, 3) oxygen*. There’s no oxygen in space. It’s a vacuum. That’s one of the reasons astronauts wear space suits. The lack of air also means there’s no “boom” sound either. George Lucas made up exploding spaceships because something silently breaking into little pieces isn’t cool looking enough. When the Navy shot down that satellite recently, they didn’t sent up an explosive device, they basically sent up a large bullet that bashed the satellite to pieces by the force of the very-very-high-speed collision.

So what does this have to do with multicultural advertising?

When creating an ad, advertisers want to do a number of things – capture attention, educate the target audience, create some kind of intent, stir action. Nowhere in that list is “insult the audience.” A little creative license is fine, but when you’re selling technical skills and scientific education, pretend you have some.

The same goes with multicultural advertising. If you’re going to reach out to a multicultural audience, do it right. Don’t make multicultural ads by plugging your English copy into Babelfish. Don’t assume that you’re reaching the entire Hispanic market using a guy in a sombrero holding a piñata. You risk insulting your audience instead of reaching them.

In these days of consolidated buying by big general market media shops, this is where multicultural agencies and media companies can provide advertisers with real value. They understand the culture and language of multicultural audiences, because they are immersed in it all day. When reaching out to a multicultural audience, spending the extra time (and money) to find someone who understands the culture(s) that you’re reaching out to can pay big dividends on campaign results and in getting your message across.

Above all – be smart and relevant.

*Or some other volatile gas.