Every month Hispanic Market Weekly showcases 3 -5 “Hot Spots” as part of what they describe as the “premier showcase of Hispanic advertising agencies’ most creative and brilliant work.” About 3 weeks before announcing the selected “Hot Spots,” they send out an email blast to everyone in the Hispanic ad business calling for submissions in any of the following categories:
– Radio
– Television
– Print
– Interactive
– Out-of-home
– Direct Marketing
– Integrated / Multimedia

While the work they select is usually very good, I’m very disappointed to see that they almost always pick .30 or .60 second TV spots. In fact, over the last 7 months, they have showcased 24 different “spots” and only 1 has even had an online creative execution (albeit an extension to a TV spot). Ironically, that one online creative spot was presented as a PDF storyboard fl

at.

Why is this? Well, I have a few theories:
1. Very few Hispanic agencies produce online creative, therefore very few online spots are submitted
2. Of the few Hispanic agencies that do produce online creative, few if any have have seasoned online creatives with the experience and knowledge to push the envelope in terms of online creative
3. Online is still considered a “below the line” tactic and an extension to offline programs in the Hispanic market and not given the same creative weight as TV or radio spots
4. A lot of Hispanic advertising professionals still do not think a critical mass of Hispanics are online
5. Hispanic advertising still revolves around the .30 TV spot

In fact, I think all of the above are in play to some degree, which is an indication that Hispanic advertising is still very much behind the curve. Do you think any of the four scenarios above would apply to the general market advertising industry in 2008?

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