Reaching out to Latinos? Digital Video Paves your Way in

On January 27, Google announced its strategy to tap into the U.S. Hispanic market (as they call it). Since then, you can still feel the shockwaves of their efforts across the blogosphere. For more details, you can read ClickZ’s Giovanny Rodriguez recap or Chiqui Cartagena’s coverage of what when down in the event. I was also lucky to be among the attendees. However, of all the panelists, TV Azteca’s Director of Innovation Juan Manuel Rowland did the most striking presentation of the afternoon.

As Cartagena explains, “The TV Azteca presentation blew me away — although it mainly focused on what the company is doing in Mexico, I believe the next big thing in the Hispanic market is video online. And I don’t mean putting TV clips online; I mean creating original content for the online audience.” This is exactly the point that I want to highlight in this blog post.

TV Azteca’s project is called IrreverenTV. They basically identified the most talented YouTube video bloggers across Mexico, put them together under one roof and gave them all the resources to create quality content for YouTube. Do you think this idea could be a risky bet with no tangible results? Look for a chair before you keep reading, you’re going to need it.

First, TV Azteca made an alliance with Google, who owns YouTube. That was an excellent way to start. Since December 2006, according to their YouTube page profile, they have harnessed jaw-dropping results. Check them out:

TV Azteca on YouTube:

• They upload 70 percent of the content they produce daily.
• They have more than 30 active channels today.
• 650 million streams to date. (The presentation was done January 27, 2011)
• Over 2 million stream per date.
• From all their traffic, 15 percent belong to viewers in the United States.
• AzAmerica is the number one channel in Latin America by streams and revenue. Yes, I said revenue (although, we don’t know how much but they seemed pretty satisfied about it at the event).
• It is also the number one Spanish-language YouTube channel in the United States.

(Source: Google US Hispanic marketing Forum Event Sizzle Reel video)

But what does all this mean for the emerging video bloggers, small business owners and even big companies that have not cracked the code on how to connect with Latinos? For all of you, go rescue your digital camera from the bottom drawer and charge the batteries. Digital video will definitely help you break some old barriers you have with your audience and build new bridges. If you are not exited about the power of YouTube, check Mashable’s “10 YouTube facts that may surprise you.”

In my next blog post, I will discuss how companies must move away from the language paradigm when marketing to Latinos. It is all about the culture baby!

This article was originally published on Being Latino Online Magazine.

The Most Needed Job in America: Cultural Intelligence Officer

On October 28, I attended a conference focused on public relations and marketing called the PR+MKTG Camp, thanks to the folks of Latism. It was a bit odd for a journalist to discuss the best ways of engaging your audience with so many marketing specialists and public relations experts, but this is one of many new realities that writers have to deal with nowadays. I’ll discuss this disjunctive in detail on a future post. The reason of this post is to highlight the urging necessity of senior-level managers with a clear understanding of our multicultural society into corporations and government.

At the conference, panelists (mostly VPs and senior managers from American Express, Telemundo and advertising agencies) were discussing how to create a strategic plan to avoid inconsistent messaging and branding across social media platforms. I asked them how to convince a reluctant board of executives to fund initiatives on cultural intelligence. Their answers were vague and totally off topic. “You just show them what people are saying on Twitter about the company. That’s how you get the funding” one replied. I thought I did not make myself clear when I stated my question. But right after the session ended, I had lunch with a few public relation experts from the audience and the first topic they touched upon was the shocking evidence that the panelists had no clue of the meaning of “cultural intelligence.” Phew! I thought it was me that got lost in translation.

If you’re not too familiar with this concept, it is a simple one: If you own or manage any kind of business, your products and advertising campaigns should be fine tuned with the cultural background of your clients and potential audience. Sadly, many corporations in America display a gross lack of cultural intelligence. You may also include in this category many local, state and federal agencies that are completely out of alignment with America’s cultural landscape.

Despite the disconnection, the concept is slowly getting traction among managers and marketers. For example, cultural anthropologist Grant McCraken recently published his book Chief Cultural Officer: How to Create a Living, Breathing Corporation. In a recent interview with Entrepreneur.com, he trumpets the idea that buying is not only a “rational decision, a calculation of interest, a pursuit of benefit,” it is also affected by the meanings and rules we all carry as part of our cultural baggage. He also created a professional network and blogs frequently.

Among Latinos, we also have a professional whose mission is to increase our cultural awareness. Enter Liliana Gill-Valletta, managing partner and cultural intelligence officer at Acento Group, a member of the XL Alliance. She is a powerhouse in the marketing community and uses her experience empowering business to succeed in this multicultural society. She is also the host of the YouTube channel Moments to CultuRise, which was recently featured by the NY Daily News. Liliana is on a quest to “cultuRise and latinize” corporate America.

The original article was published on the Being Latino blog.

IV CSC Recap: 5 Years and still Growing Strong

By Carlos Macias

The IV Colombian Student Conference (CSC) started for many of us a few months before April of 2010. For The George Washington University (GWU) chapter meant countless hours of defining logistics, securing attendance of panelists, and attracting sponsors. For PorColombia’s (PC) national executive board, it represented many teleconferences, designing our first promotional brochure, and the excitement to finally experience the fourth installment of our annual signature event. For our members living in the north as far as Toronto or in the south reaching Florida, it was the anticipation to finally meet in person their fellow PorColombians (some for the first time) and get impregnated with the “from passion to action” bug.

The day before the event, we all started our journey to Washington D.C. Some of us rented “church” vans and traveled in caravan, others drove almost 10 hours non-stop from Canada, many decided to hop on the express bus service serving the I-95 corridor, and a handful just took a plane to the Ronald Reagan Airport. Several photo albums have been posted in Facebook as a testament of these unforgettable road trips. But the real fun was awaiting for all of us in D.C. In the meantime, the conference staff was fine-tuning many last minute details to make the event a total success. And you know what? In all fairness, it was.