Ignore the Hispanic Consumer at Your Peril. An Interview with a4’s Glenda Villanueva-Marchetta

As datasets get more granular, advertisers are able to maximize their ability to hyper target a range of important consumer groups. One important consumer constituency, Hispanics, is poised to become a significant percentage of the U.S. population in the coming years. 

A company like a4, with its rich dataset that includes the highly diverse New York DMA, is a must-have for advertisers as Glenda Villanueva-Marchetta, a4’s Head of Multicultural , explains in this exclusive interview.

Altice and a4 Advertising

According to Villanueva-Marchetta, a4 is, “the national, audience driven multi-screen ad division for Altice USA.” Altice, as the parent company, “has a very strong presence in Europe and the Caribbean in the Dominican Republic and in 2016, 2017 purchased Suddenlink on the West coast and Cablevision on the East coast making us the fourth largest operation in the U.S. for video services and broadband with operations in over 20 states.”

Over the years, Altice purchased several data companies. That, in addition to the granular data provided by its footprint, enables a4 to offer advertisers hyper-targeting opportunities. “Our super power is our proprietary ISP authenticated IP targeting technology, which is unique to us,” she explained. This enables a4 to, “Marry our IP addressability with multicultural audiences,” she added. There is arguably no better dataset to reach a range of ethnicities as a4’s with the Cablevision footprint. “I didn’t realize that the most diverse area in the world was Queens,” she explained. 

Changes in the Media Marketplace

In assessing the state of the current marketplace, with all of these seismic society changes and challenges, Villanueva-Marchetta is introspective. “There have been so many changes. From a personal standpoint, working from home has changed everything with added screen time and,” she explained, “telling a Latino to social distance, it just goes against our social being. In terms of business, some of our clients have changed drastically from Covid to the social movement. So just when you thought you would get back to normal, there has been an impact to our customers’ needs. This has made us refocus. Connection to multicultural consumers is more important than ever and the social movement has given us a voice.”

This change is not only growing, it is forming new alliances. “Something that I find is exciting is that all of the different groups are actually aligning and allying with each other,” she stated. “Our customers, brands and ad agencies are looking to connect to multicultural consumers in an authentic way. I also think they are acknowledging that they need more flexibility than ever.”

Priorities for 2021

In looking ahead to next year, Villanueva-Marchetta  sees a new type of media marketplace. “Maybe upfront buys will change in the future,” she noted, “You have to be able to pivot. Pivoting without penalties is critical and pivoting your budgets and creative, we realize that we have to be more nimble than in the past.” The future also brings more of what we are seeing during the pandemic such as “device proliferation. We are watching more screens than ever, so we need a strategy that is all platforms. And there is greater competition for consumer attention and binge watching,” she explained and added that it was important to reach consumers in the language that they are speaking.

She continued that, “Industry regulations are changing. We have to refocus our third party cookie campaigns. That’s going to be a priority for 2021. Digital campaigns now need to place an emphasis on using first party data. There are a bunch of things coming together at once at the end of this year and moving forward into 2021.” For Villanueva-Marchetta , “Data driven advertising, because it is addressable, is efficient. So when you are looking to do more with less, this is the best way. It is an audience driven play. Addressability will definitely play a bigger role going forward.”

The Hispanic Market Explained

If there is one ethnic group that advertisers cannot afford to ignore, it is Hispanics. According to Villanueva-Marchetta, there are 28.8 million Hispanics in the U.S., which represent about 20% of the population. It is one of the fastest growing segments and represents $2trillion in buying power.  “To put it into context, the U.S. Hispanic population is larger than Canada. If it were a separate Latin American country, we would be the second largest and wealthiest in the world,” she noted. In the next five years, the non-Hispanic white population of the U.S. is set to decline while the Hispanic population is poised to grow. “Negative 1.3 million versus positive 6.6 million,” she added, “This growth isn’t stopping. The growth has and will come from birth rates, not from immigration. One in every three in the Alpha generation is Hispanic.”

Seventy percent of the Hispanic population is bi-lingual and even among the younger generations, the language is not lost. “There is a misconception that if you are born in this country that you are not using Spanish anymore. That’s not the case. We hold our culture very dear to us. Speaking Spanish at home, especially to your elders is a sign of respect,” she noted. “It’s easy to mingle when you are bi-lingual.”

Hispanics account for 63% of all U.S. home ownership, fueling purchasing behavior in all of the consumer product and services that go with that lifestyle. Further, “we represent 81% of the labor force growth,” she stated, as well as influencing the overall culture such as the SuperBowl in the large Hispanic market Miami that boasted three Latina performers.

Why Target Hispanic Consumer?

When I asked Villanueva-Marchetta this question, she explained, “As a brand, as an advertiser, it is crazy to continue to advertise to a segment of the population that is declining and not advertise to a segment of the population that is growing. We are not only growing in size, we are growing in wealth and in influence. Thirty-two million of us will be eligible to vote. Look at the numbers. Look at the buying power. Look at the money that is there. If you are a company looking at your five year plan, and you are not considering multicultural, how will you grow your business?” Then she paused and added, “I don’t see how.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

 

What is the Road to Success for Agencies? A Leadership Conversation with IPG’s Michael Roth

Let’s face it, the agency business was already under stress before the pandemic with consolidation and in-house marketing businesses creating a smaller, scrappily competitive ecosystem. 

Then came the pandemic and advertising budgets dried up as did consumer demand in certain sectors. The need for agencies to change and adapt increased exponentially. In all of this chaos, Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO of Interpublic, remained calm, assured that his company is well placed to not only maintain its industry dominance but also excel. 

Roth sat down with MediaVillage Founder, Jack Myers, and revealed how he is shepherding his company not only through the uncertain economics of the pandemic but also demonstrating his continuing commitment to diversity and inclusion within his company and throughout the industry.

IPG’s Philosophy

When it comes to the state of IPG within the media ecosystem, “I like to view ourselves as the best looking house in a bad neighborhood,” Roth deadpanned. “The bad neighborhood is the marketing and communications companies and we have outperformed our peer groups for the last five years… in terms of share performance and financial performance.” It’s clear to Roth that the industry, “has to change to be competitive with all of the new entrants into the marketing and communications side of the business.” Under his leadership, IPG began to address these challenges years ago. “That is one of the reasons we continue to out-perform,” he noted.

From when he first joined the IPG board, he saw some disturbing fissures in the agency model that didn’t make economic sense. “The holding company model was structured as a series of roll-ups… Because of conflicts, the holding companies went out and bought up more agencies because with more agencies you could have less conflicts (because) you use a separate shop,” he explained. But, “If I can field the best team in the business and put it up against my competitors why isn’t that a better proposition than having three agencies of our own competing with the others.”  This change in outlook led to an open architecture, putting in place an IPG team, “comprised of the best brands we have that can meet the needs of our clients irrespective of what brands they were,” he stated. The success in that philosophy is evident in the overall business success of the company including the share price.

The Importance of Synergies and Partnerships

The commitment to an agency model of open architecture has proven to be the competitive solution to attracting and retaining business. “What better relationship can you have with a client if the client knows that you are looking out for their interests not just yours,” he stated. If McCann World Group, for example, knows that sister agency FCB has a better offering that fits for the client, “how powerful it is to say, ‘let me call FCB into the picture and let them come in and provide their expertise to work with us.’ We are not giving up the relationship to solve your problem.” When Roth brought this idea of open architecture to the agency world, he met with some pushback. “But think about it,” he posted, “if we don’t have, which is unlikely given the size and depth of our company, a resource, then we would bring in an outside resource to help.” This demonstrates a real commitment to high quality agency service from the client perspective.

Data is Central to Success

Media has historically been a simple transaction type of business. But technological advancements and the proliferation of screens has made it more complicated and, in some cases challenging. According to Roth, for years, strategy discussions with the board included the need for data and analytics. “First party data management and data is critical to finding the right consumer where and how,” he explained.

“If you start with the premise that you are looking at the client first, we are in a marketing and communication business and we have all these other assets that we can bring to the table. We have PR, sports marketing, experiential, media, digital capability. The question is, how do you find the consumer that’s relevant to the client and how do you create a message that is relevant to the consumer that is trustworthy and relevant to what they are looking for?”  For Roth, his company has all of these resources, but, “the missing ingredient was the data and analytics part of it.” To solve for this, the company acquired Axiom. “When Axiom came on the market, I said to the board, we’re going to kick the tires. The more we looked, the more we realized that this is what we’ve been looking for,” he noted, “Two thirds of the Axiom business is first party data management so it wasn’t just info-based, the third party data that people use to locate consumers.”

Data Adds to the Creative Juices and Content

Data also informs the creative process at IPG. For Roth, just knowing where the consumer is doesn’t give the full picture. “You have to know what their likes and dislikes are, what their habits are and the data and analytics provides this insight into the consumer,” he stated. Instead of buying audiences, he added, “we are able to buy consumers, real people.” By adding motivational purchasing insights into the creative process, “it resonates and brings the messaging to life,” in the form of, “data driven marketing.”

Throughout the process, creative juice is vital. Priceless for Mastercard, for example, “is the billion dollar idea,” Roth noted. But, he added, “What do you do with that once you have it? You have to reach the consumer. You have to have a relationship with the consumer.” As the media landscape expands with a myriad of new ways to reach the consumer, it is the creative juice that demonstrates why that brand offers greater value and preference to offset price considerations. 

For Roth, it is vital to remain agnostic when it comes to media. His agency doesn’t own any media companies. “Some of our competitors take equity positions in media so they’re not agnostic,” especially when they advise clients to allocate dollars to a medium where they are using their own inventory. “The future of this business is value proposition,” he added. He warned that, “If you don’t have transparency, forget it… We are supposed to be agnostic. We are supposed to be an independent arbiter of where our clients should spend their money. And if we are not transparent then how can they rely on us that we are getting them the right answer.” He added that, for media choices, “Content is king. People are going to go where the content is.” He predicted that those media companies that offer, “the best content, best analytics, best pricing and transparency will prevail.”

The Focus on Diversity and Inclusion

Roth explained his long term commitment to inclusion and diversity to his childhood upbringing. Brooklyn born, he grew up in a diverse neighborhood. “It was part of the way I lived,” he explained, “It resonated with me in terms of how well it could work.” So the importance of bringing diversity and inclusion into the workplace figures prominently in his goals. Also, as the son of a working mother, there is the “desire to see women also advance in business.”  To that end, “the initial movement in IPG was the focus on women’s representation,” and currently 40% of IPG’s board is female.

In order to enforce the commitment to diversity, Roth hit upon an idea. “I knew that the only way I was going to get our organization to pay attention was to hold them financially accountable,” he remarked. “So starting in 2006 all of the CEOs of IPG had in their incentive targets diversity and inclusion goals. They weren’t quotas. They were goals.” Roth added that he thought his was the only company that held its agencies financially accountable for diversity. “But we have to go deeper,” he admitted. “This is critical to the future of our business and our society.” 

Agency hearts may be in the right place but there are obstacles to those who might otherwise enter a career in advertising. Entry level low compensation and the unclear path to upper management are two that, Roth agreed, need greater consideration. 

The Road Ahead

For Roth, the future of the business relies on open architecture. This works, “because we are working together to solve problems. We are not working to sell product,” he explained. “In the consulting part of the business we are developing business solutions. All of these come together to help our clients solve business problems, not just create an ad. It is that partnership, that relationship that will sustain our industry going forward. But you have to have the goods, the people who can do it, understand it and the compensation has to be appropriate,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Exploring Diversity in Audience Segmentation at the 2018 Multicultural TV Summit

In this day and age, it’s vital that the TV industry aim for inclusive representation in age, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation in media content and advertising in audience segmentation, as well as a more nuanced look at who we are in all our complexities.

This need for diversity was a main takeaway from the 2018 Multicultural TV Summit in New York, where panelists from the TV industry spoke about advancing multicultural content, viewpoints, and talent. Joiava Philpott, vice president of regulatory affairs at Cox Communications, noted that while progress has been made, more effort is needed to “achieve greater diversity on our screens.”

Going Beyond the Current Approach to Audience Segmentation
How does a network achieve greater multicultural representation when its audience segments may not be so diverse? Juan Williams, co-host of The Five on Fox News, said we’re in a “moment of tremendous demo[graphic] change in the U.S. and in our media.” With a primetime lineup that’s right of center, he asked, “How do you tell stories that penetrate all of the market segments?”

Read the full article on the Videa blog.

Advertising Week Launches With a Focus on Diversity and Inclusion

Advertising week is always a dizzying array of too many interesting panel choices. It is always difficult to choose - do I go to Data? Programmatic? Creative? Content? This year I began with the Talent and Empowering Women tracks that explored both the challenges and the personal triumphs that still need to be navigated through conscious and unconscious biases.

The Transgender Journey

Chris Edwards' emotionally fascinating talk, The Ultimate Rebrand: What We Can Learn From One’s Transgender Journey was of particular interest to me because my cousin is transitioning from male to female. Edwards’ relayed his personal story of navigating through gender identity at a time when it was not only unusual but also misunderstood and mislabeled. "Sexual orientation is who you go to bed with. Gender orientation is who you go to bed as," he explained. Born female, Edwards was able to use his skills as an advertising creative (EVP Group Creative Director at Arnold Worldwide) to "rebrand" himself and become the person he always felt he was.

Using his marketing experience, he decided first to evaluate the landscape. In 1995, the term transgender was not yet in use. The word was transexual which had very negative connotations. Edwards had to navigate through the terminology. The next step was to determine his brand message, which to Edwards was to be open and honest about the transition. Then he sought to develop a solid communication plan by engaging brand evangelists (close friends and business associates) and then, taking into account executional considerations, roll out his "re-branding". His advice was that "We need to acknowledge that we all have prejudices. The best way to help overcome prejudices is to tell your personal story rather than have edicts coming down from the organization. We need to feel empathy."

Diversity Recruitment and Retention

ESPN's panel on achieving diversity offered a good perspective on how to best achieve racial diversity in the corporation. And the issue is not just achieving diversity; It is also retention and inclusion in the workplace. As Marc Strechen, VP Multicultural Marketing at Diageo North America, explained, "We need to develop train and nurture talent. We believe in the freedom to succeed. People are held accountable at Diageo." Jack Myers, Media Ecologist, Chairman MyersBizNet, noted that although there are still big challenges in achieving diversity, there have been some recent inroads. "The recent General Mills announcement that requires all of their agencies' talent pools to reflect their consumers shows that clients can step up and be leaders." His work with the 1stFive.org summer intern event was held at Turner is year and included past interns to help create a sense of community. "Our efforts are focused on retention to keep them in the industry. We find mentors and encourage them to also be mentors to senior people in the industry."

But change cannot bubble up from the bottom. According to Molly West, VP Global Business Operations at ESPN, "If we want a cultural shift in a corporation, we have to do it from the top down." Myers agreed and said, "One of the biggest challenges is that we are talking to ourselves. We need to find ways to get changes at the senior management level. Men need to have zero tolerance for sexist, misogynistic and racist comments in any context, whether it's small private gatherings of men, or in their companies and advertising.”

Women's Empowerment

A subject close to my heart, the two panels I attended on women’s empowerment covered those who are trailblazers such as firefighter Regina Wilson who is the first female president of the Vulcan Society and those who have cracked the glass ceiling such as Geri Wang, President of ABC Sales. Both panels offered personal stories and perspectives on how success can be achieved and what challenges continue to vex.

Despite the advancements made by women in the workplace, we are still a long way from true equality. Women are still underrepresented in C-suite management and on corporate boards. There is still income disparity (Women earn only 79 cents to every dollar a man earns). Women communicate differently than men and this difference often prevents women from being fully included in discussions. Their ideas can be negated until “seconded by a man” as Nadini Ramani, Vice President at Twitter, explained. “Just being a woman changes everything,” she added.

Conclusion

I would like to think that as awareness of the importance of diversity increases in the workplace, we would enter a golden age of inclusion where anyone can go as far as their talents will take them. But I am still unconvinced that this will happen any time soon.

One of my previous employers had many women in leadership positions when I first joined the company but ten years later, a much smaller percentage of women occupy the upper echelons. Check any new start-up in the media field – from programmatic to data to technology - and chances are there will be no African Americans or women either in their C-Suite line positions or on their boards. If we are all truly committed to inclusion, let’s at least retain the diverse talent we have and create more representation on boards. 

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com