Think Multicultural

As I’ve mentioned, I really enjoy the Batanga vs. Univision battle of the Hispanic online giants.

You could see the seeds of it back in February, but it is continuing and heating up, and is a lot of fun. The companies are going toe-to-toe, each trying to promote their site as the top website for the Hispanic online market.

A couple of weeks ago, the headline read that “Batanga, Inc. Reaches 10.8 Million Unique Visitors.” Then, a couple of weeks later, came a press release saying “Univision.com Named #1 Most-Visited Spanish-Language Website Among U.S. Hispanics for the 7th Year in a Row.”

Was the timing coincidental? Of course not. These two Hispanic media giants are engaged in a terrific battle for the hearts and wallets of Hispanic online media buyers. Batanga is aggressively chasing Hispanic online ad dollars – they started with advertising in the Hispanic advertising trades, and lately they’ve been doing things like flying media buyers to Austin and putting them up in nice hotels for SXSW, and did you see the gigantic Batanga ice bar at the Batanga party at the AHAA convention in San Antonio (not to mention all the free drinks)? In the other corner, Univision has clearly joined the PR battle, throws its own AHAA parties, and has even lowered itself to advertising in the trades as well. These guys are putting some real money into this thing and they aren’t messing around.

As online advertising continues to heat up and as Hispanics continue to go online, this is going to be an important space, and the biggest and the best will be able to charge the highest CPMs and sell the biggest sponsorships. These are smart business people engaged in a battle for a very big prize.

Additionally, there is a popular theory that as industries mature, particularly segments of the technology industry, they naturally tend toward duopoly. It would have to be assumed that if that happens in Hispanic online media, Univision will automatically be one half (and the bigger half) of that duopoly, and they intend to stay there. The other half is not a foregone conclusion, but Batanga is working very hard at establishing its credibility as that other half of the duopoly, and maybe they are already there.

[To be continued.]

Can someone explain to me why the Black Leadership Forum and the American Corn Growers’ Association (?!) are opposing a potential search deal between Google and Yahoo?

Anyone?

One afternoon last week I was sitting at my desk in the office, pissed off and stressed, trying to figure out how to un-fu@# something that somebody else had royally messed up. As I sat there stewing and fuming, I heard a voice come just outside my office next to the elevator.

“Man, I wish I had your job!”

I looked out the door and saw a regular looking guy standing there smiling at me. “You do?” I asked. I was about ready to give it to him.

“Yeah, man, it’s hot out there. I work on the roof. I’m fixing the roof.”

I realized that although I thought I was miserable and stressed and stewing, he saw me sitting in a comfortable chair with my feet up on the desk in an air conditioned office. Which was a pretty accurate description, it turns out.

Suddenly I wasn’t so miserable. Although the guy’s English wasn’t perfect, he was clearly a sharp guy and not so different from me, except that he was putting tar on the roof in hot, humid weather, and I was sitting in my comfy chair in my office.

Kind of made it hard to feel sorry for myself.

I work in advertising. Although the clients are occasionally annoying and there are some tight deadlines, it’s not life or death. It’s advertising.

It’s also not laying tar on the roof. Next time you’re having a bad day at work, remember the roof guy and smile a little.

Happy Memorial Day. Have a good weekend.