Last week, I had a lunch with a media executive from a major media organization - a Havard MBA who truly gets the challenge facing media. That's what I wanted to talk to him about, the status of media in the digital age. But before the waiter could bring glasses of water to the table the topic turned to the "Hispanic" market.
I have to tell you I get annoyed that because my great, great grandparents lived in a part of Mexico now known as Texas that I have to represent "Latinos" in every thing I do. I am cien por ciento Latino, but come on; I can do more than be brown.
Anyway, I had to tell the executive the "Hispanic" market isn't some easy target. The first problem is the term "Hispanic" - the term was invented by the federal government to lump Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban-Americans and others into one general bucket. In most instances, "Hispanic" marketing does not cover everyone who falls under the term "Hispanic" - it covers only those who prefer or must consume media in Spanish.
The folks who prefer content in Spanish tend to watch television and they tend to watch Univision. Univision has made a mint repurposing content from Mexico's Televisa and Venezuela's Venevision for the US market, rebroadcasting shows that have been a proven success outside of the country. It's a simple model of success - low-cost proven content for people who prefer or must use content in Spanish.
As I always say, competing against Univision in Spanish is like competing against Microsoft in operating systems; it's just about impossible.
There's no way to fully exploit the macro changes in this country for Latinos without massive - and I mean massive - resources. There's lots of opportunity on the fringes, but you'll need to have enough of those fringes to create a sell-able product to advertisers.
Anyway, our conversation finally turned back to what I wanted to talk about.
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