Think Multicultural

A lot has been made about the fact that the three remaining major political candidates have done very, very little website advertising. There’s a story in the advertising trades almost every week about how ad campaigns are still run by “traditional media people” who wouldn’t know interactive if it came up and bit them (which would be funny).

Just now I saw an ad for John McCain on the Asia Times website. It’s the first online ad I’ve seen for McCain and one of the few I’ve seen for any of the major candidates, other than the gigantic one that Obama placed on the Dallas Morning News site right before the Texas primary/caucus.

I find it really interesting that the first McCain ad I see is on the Asia Times. Is he specifically targeting the Asian market? Did he do some kind of ad network buy because he’s behind the Democrats in fund raising? I would be very interested to hear if anyone knows.

I recently read AdAge’s branded insert for AHAA (Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies) titled “Hispanic 2.0.”

WARNING: the digital viewer AdAge has setup for viewing this publication is horrible. Did someone at AdAge not hear about HTML or Web publishing standards? My goodness, their viewer is incredibly clunky and non-intuitive. But I digress…

Upon first glance, and with a title like “Hispanic 2.0″ you might be led to believe that this overview of best practices and trends in Hispanic advertising in 2008 might provide a deep look at digital Hispanic advertising. Unfortunately, Hispanic 2.0 only really touches the surface of digital advertising trends in the Hispanic market, and in many ways just perpetuates the empty lip service that most Hispanic agencies are giving to digital advertising.

The first piece, entitled “The Face of New General Market” provides a great start and introduces the concept that the Hispanic market is becoming a minority majority market in many parts of the U.S. The article is organized around 5 key developments in the Hispanic market as stated by Jackie Bird, president-CEO of Winglatino and chairwoman of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies:

1. The booming Hispanic youth population
2. Hispanic consumers’ embrace of new media
3. The growth of high net-worth Hispanics
4. The importance of Hispanic voters in the upcoming presidential election
5. The evolution of a new “general market”

The article effectively delves into 4 of the 5 aforementioned trends. However, the article fails to elaborate on the growing importance of new media in the Hispanic market. As opposed to discussing the topic of new media in greater detail, we are left with a vague quote about how online marketing will help brands capture Hispanics’ hearts?

Needless to say, I was disappointed that an important opportunity was missed to discuss the vibrant and evolving digital advertising space. Unfortunately, Hispanic digital advertising continues to be nothing more than a one-liner during a presentation or a bullet point on a PowerPoint for most Hispanic ad agencies.

Over at Big Tent there’s further evidence that if you’re going to wander into the US Hispanic market, you need to be sure you’ve done your homework first and have the right knowledge and advice.