Think Multicultural

Today we have a special guest blogger, Diane Salcido from Admixture:

I was having breakfast in a Cuban restaurant on Calle Ocho and overheard a conversation involving three people, all Hispanic, in the booth next to mine.

There was an older gentleman – gray hair, wire frame glasses, bow tie, probably seventy-something – and a woman maybe in her 40’s facing me. It sounded as if they were trying to recruit a younger man (his back was to me) for a mid or upper level job.

The young recruit seemed to have some reservations regarding a man already with the organization.

The older gentleman responded in Spanish, “No, no, you will not have to worry about him. He will be gone soon. He does not want to move forward or go with new ideas.” “For instance, let me read you this email he sent me this morning”, said the older gentleman as he pulled out his blackberry…

I sure wished I would have had a camera at that moment! I spend a lot of time convincing people that Hispanics are online. This abuelito with his white hair and bow-tie is definitely proof that Hispanics, of every age, are online.

Diane Salcido is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Admixture. She can be reached at diane [at] admixturenetwork [dot] com

For those of you in the L.A. area, I highly recommend you stop by the Multicultural Media Expo taking place at the LA Convention Center 3/11 - 3/12.

In addition to an exhibit floor with lots of multicultural media and advertising companies, there will be 13 different panels discussions that should be very interesting. You will also be able to hear Danny Allen from Admixture and myself rant in person about various multicultural media and marketing issues. Stop by and say hello if you can.

For those of you who can’t make it, we’ll be sure to provide you with coverage of the event on ThinkMulticultural.com

MarketingyMedios ran an article this week on how a recent research report shows mobile phone ads are on the rise, with recall of mobile ads highest among African-American and Hispanic audiences.

This report is one in a line of many data points that indicate that mobile is a not only a viable marketing medium now - but that it holds the potential to be a game changer in multicultural marketing.

The big question is what platform and format will provide marketers with the right solution to jump in. I know that all of our clients are very serious about running multicultural mobile marketing pilot initiatives. SMS is a safe way to test the waters with little or no risk. However, the real opportunity lies beyond SMS - and it is still unclear what platforms will emerge to get beyond simple inbound/outbound text programs.

One thing is for sure, keep an eye on mobile in our market.