This will be the first of what I believe will be more than a few comments on the areas of media planning, media buying, media trends, kudos, goofs and idiocies as I see them and have seen them evolve over the years.  You will see notices of blogs, articles from trade publications, commentaries and lunacies worth passing on.  Plus there will probably be rants pro and con about our business in general.

Today I want to comment on an AAF Dallas, luncheon held this week on “Multicultural Media Matching:  Hispanics and new media”.   The structure of the presentation, the expertise of the panel members and information presented by the four hispanic media experts was impressive and very informative. They represented agencies, media, marketing and communications.

I was disappointed, however, when they did not, to my satisfaction, address the issue of the need to consider the diversity within  the “Hispanic” community itself, when it comes to national origin and place of residence within the U.S.

As any creative director and media planner or buyer who has had to address these cultural variations, the political differences and the diverse way these communities use media can tell you, there is a world of difference between the Mexican/Central American of the West & Southwest, the predominantly Puerto Rican consumer of New York and the Cubano of South Florida.  The language idiosyncracies alone pose problems for all aspects of effective communications with these individuals.

As a buyer/planner for two Anheuser-Busch products (Busch Bavarian Beer and Busch Gardens) and as media director at RadioShack for five years It became very clear that being aware of these – sometimes not so subtle differences – can insure that one communicates effectively across the spectrum of the Spanish (and Portuguese) speaking Hispanic/Latino community.  This is one of those “not so important” but critical elements one needs to factor into the effective advertising campaign for this group of consumers.