L.A. Trade Show Aims to Educate Agencies on Reaching Latino Market
L.A. Gear executives know that their zippy ads have played a big part in making the company one of the hottest brands on the jogging paths. But at the same time, they say they are baffled over how to advertise to some of their most important customers: Latinos.
“No one on the planet knows when or where is the best place to run a Spanish-language ad,” said Sandy Saemann, executive vice president at L.A. Gear. After all, he said, some Latinos prefer to see commercials in English--while others are more comfortable with Spanish.
For several years, L.A. Gear has simply dubbed its commercials for Spanish-language TV, but that hasn’t been very effective. So, now L.A. Gear wants to air original ads in Spanish. To help it understand the Latino market, the company--which creates its own ads--next week plans to hire a Los Angeles firm that specializes in making Latino ads.
Many companies share L.A. Gear’s desire to reach Latinos--and confusion over how to do it. But help may be on the way. Beginning today, the first West Coast National Hispanic Market Trade Show is to take place in Los Angeles, the nation’s biggest Latino market.
The trade show, called Se Habla Espanol, is sponsored by the Santa Barbara-based trade magazine Hispanic Business. The purpose of this unusual Latino market trade show, which continues through Thursday at the Century Plaza Hotel, is to bring together clients seeking to reach Latino customers and ad agencies or researchers who think they can help.
“The data that drives this market is overwhelming,” said Jesus Chavarria, editor and publisher of Hispanic Business. “And it won’t go away.”
Nationally, the purchasing power of Latinos exceeds $141 billion annually, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census. That is nearly three times the $52.9 billion that Latinos spent in 1980. What’s more, one in five Latino households in Los Angeles County reports an annual income of more than $35,000, according to NSI Research Group, a Playa del Rey research firm that specializes in the Latino market.
During the past year, NSI Research has gotten far more difficult questions from its clients, said Carlos H. Arce, founder and president of the company. “Most people have accepted the fact that the Hispanic market is growing,” he said. “But now they are asking much tougher questions. They recognize the fact that this market is not so homogeneous. It is a market with currents that are going in many directions.”
Organizers of the conference say it will not only deal with these more complex issues but also be a starting point for those companies that are just beginning to consider marketing their products or services to Latinos.
“Our job is to educate people about the Hispanic market,” said Gloria Peyrat, manager of special events at Hispanic Business. To do that, organizers have scheduled 66 different seminars on the Latino market. They will also stage a concurrent Latino exposition with more than 50 exhibitors, including Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Co. and AT&T.; Awards will be presented to those judged to have created the best Spanish-language ads during the past year. Although there is no admission charge for the exposition, seminars cost $85 each.
When the show premiered in New York last year, it attracted fewer than 1,000 visitors. But with the expo in Los Angeles this year, Chavarria said he expects nearly twice as many people. “Los Angeles is the No. 1 market in terms of the economic clout of Hispanics,” Chavarria explained.
One of the largest exhibitors, Ford, says it isn’t just going along for the ride. “We’re in the business of selling cars and trucks,” said Jim McCraw, manager of special markets public affairs at Ford. “And we want to make certain that the advertising messages for our vehicles get to all of the people.”
Latinos spent more than $5 billion last year buying new vehicles in the United States, McCraw said. Of that, he said, they spent more than $1 billion on Fords.
But besides just talking about Latino advertising at the trade show, Ford executives will also try to speak with individual Latinos about becoming Ford dealers and with Latino business leaders about considering Fords for their car fleets. “Like anyone else, we want Hispanics to be driving our cars and trucks--not the other guys’.”
Seminar topics will vary from how to best reach Latinos who prefer to speak English to a special session on public relations for the Latino market.
A more pointed session will take a closer look at some of the real reasons that many large companies still ignore the Latino market. “The Dynamics of Hispanic Agency Budgets” will be moderated by John Power, a group vice president at one of the nation’s largest independent media buying companies, Vitt Media International.
“When the question of Hispanic marketing comes up at most Fortune 500 companies, the response is all too predictable,” Power said. “The top management, which almost always happens to be Anglo, is not familiar with the market.” What’s more, Power said, most corporate brand managers are also unfamiliar with the market.
“Most companies aren’t marketing to Hispanics for one basic reason,” said Power: “They aren’t comfortable with it.”
Michael Jackson Pact Called ‘History Making’
Michael Jackson is about to start singing for a new corporate sponsor.
On Wednesday, Jackson is scheduled to appear at a press conference at the Hollywood Palladium to announce what his publicists call “a history-making corporate association.” Jackson’s estimated $10-million, three-year contract with Pepsi--which expires this year--was one of the most lucrative in the entertainment industry.
Executives refuse to say what company the new contract is with. But they did say that Jackson has not signed on with Coke.
Public Storage Signs Up With New Agency
Public Storage has stored its estimated $10-million advertising business with the Los Angeles agency Admarketing.
“We expect our advertising budget to increase substantially,” said Marvin Lotz, president of the Pasadena chain. When Public Storage’s former agency, Abert, Newhoff and Burr, resigned the business this summer, executives at the ad firm complained that the storage chain had dropped its ad spending to about $2 million annually.
“Contrary to what you may have heard, Public Storage is not afraid to spend money on advertising,” said Jack Roth, president of Admarketing. “But they expect it to work.”
L.A. Hyatt Ads to Use Icon From Car Culture
When companies want the California image in their ads, they often turn to the obvious: beaches, palm trees and sporty convertibles.
Now there’s a new ad image that seems to be catching on: vanity license plates.
Beginning in magazines this week, the Hyatt Regency Los Angeles will boast about its just-completed $30-million renovation in ads with drawings of California vanity license plates. The plates, created by the Los Angeles firm Ramey Ruud & Partners, will say “OPEN 4 BIZ,” “RNOV8D” and “GR8 RATES.”
Hyatt is not the first to produce license plate-like ads--Ford tried a similar campaign last year in Southern California. The current effort with auto tags is designed to draw attention to the hotel that has been closed for renovation for more than four months.
“We wanted the campaign specifically designed to the California life style,” said Dick Ruud, president of Ramey Ruud. “What better way than with vanity plates?”
Of course, there have been a few glitches. A print ad scheduled to run in several bridal publications features a license plate with “I DO, I DO.” But when the agency checked with the Department of Motor Vehicles, it discovered that the same vanity tag was already used by a lawyer in Riverside. So the agency had to call him and get permission to use it.
“He told us that his license plate has nothing to do with weddings. He just wanted a license plate that shows he is a positive person,” Ruud said. “Then he told us about his wife’s license plate--’I DO, TOO.’ ”
U.S. Volleyball Assn. Wants This Ad Spiked
How can a maker of athletic apparel get attention--fast?
By running a provocative ad, of course.
Champion USA, a Rochester, N.Y.-based division of Sara Lee Corp., has recently begun to run a print ad in magazines, including Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone, that seems to tell young readers that it’s cool to be selfish. And it uses some young, barefoot, beach volleyball players to get that message across.
The ad, created by the Rochester agency Rumrill-Hoyt, is set in the sand--with blue ocean and blue sky in the background. One muscular volleyball player is about to spike the ball over the net, seemingly into the face of a distraught-looking woman who is decked out in a UCLA sweat shirt.
The copy above the picture simply says: “They say you can serve the ball or your fellow man? I say, here it comes, man.”
An executive at Champion says the ad was not meant to be offensive. “It may not be the ideal person depicted in the ad,” said Cliff Bull, vice president of advertising at Champion. “But what’s wrong with being on the beach and being that way?”
But the United States Volleyball Assn. says this is not a correct depiction of the life styles of its members. “Volleyball players are just as productive as the rest of society,” said Cliff McPeak, the group’s executive director. “It sounds to me like some ad agency tried to be cute and it backfired.”
Pitches on Recycling Generate Lots of Paper
There’s no telling how people will respond to an ad campaign. Especially when the topic is solid waste.
Indeed, there were plenty of unexpected responses to a series of print ads on the solid waste crisis in Los Angeles. The $400,000 campaign, created by Los Angeles-based Delphi Associates, stresses the benefits of recycling. It is for client Browning-Ferris Industries--one of the nation’s largest solid waste-handling companies.
The ads, which showed illustrations of such things as City Hall and the Los Angeles Coliseum buried in solid waste, resulted in dozens of letters. Requests for reprints of the ads came from all over, including one from the French consulate in Los Angeles and even one from a stockbroker who wanted to persuade some clients to purchase more shares in Browning-Ferris.
But perhaps the strangest response of all came from a woman who lives in Saugus. Her husband had recently passed away, and she was concerned about throwing out his golf and bowling trophies. “She felt bad about them being used as landfill,” said Mark Ryavec, president of Delphi. So she asked the company where she could recycle them. The company said it is still trying to find out.
