2012 AHAA ANNUAL CONFERENCE RECAP 

More than 400 agency principals, media buyers and planners, account managers and planners, researchers and brand managers gathered at AHAA's Annual Conference at the beginning of May to listen to clients and experts about their insights into the U.S. Hispanic market. There were some great ajá moments too.

The conference kicked off with an invigorating presentation from John Winsor, CEO of Victors & Spoils. The audience learned how to harness the power of crowdsourcing to generate creative solutions for their agency clients. The session was sponsored by impreMedia.

He was followed by the duo of David Cardona and Lupe De Los Santos from The Clorox Company revealing their 10 Truths in the general session sponsored by Google. They listed wanting more examples other than Coca-Cola for what works in the Hispanic space. Project quality that results in sales is more important than quantity and winning awards they feel. 

An exciting addition to this year's conference was the Public Relations panel done in partnership with the Hispanic Public Relations Association. Board member Esther Novak, CEO of Vanguard Communications led the panelists through a series of questions on how to engage and build trust. Solomon Romano from Delta Dental provided the client perspective and how they built trust with press, bloggers, institutions and complementary companies to strengthen their marketing efforts.

After lunch, attendees got a sneak preview of the U.S.H. Idea Awards before the adnetik sponsored CMO Chat with Mark Lopez, Google and Julio Vega, Anderson Merchandisers, a Wal-Mart partner. They went through the success of the Acceso program, a unique performance partnership between label, artist and retail. The case study showed the increase in sales as a result of the integration of online, social media, in-store displays and live events.

To end the first day was data dive into hispanic online media metrics with Jonathan Carson, CEO of Digital, for Nielsen. The session was sponsored by TransPerfect. One tweet made mention of how much is spent on groceries: "According to Nielsen Latinos spend $51 per grocery trip. I gotta talk to my wife about this one." The conclusions were similar to AHAA's CPG Allocation study presented in March.

•Leverage a mix of media and technology options to engage Latinos’ lifestyle, culture and language preferences.

•Make Hispanic brand growth a measured priority

•Capitalize on new technologies to reach the young and growing Latino market.

Friday morning was jump started by Marc Strachan from Diageo. His lively videos woke everyone up! He spoke about what color multicultural marketing was all about: GREEN. With top managment support, sales and marketing were able to try different ways to reposition the historic brands for the current market. Marc cited the Ciroc Vodka transition from the "old school" smoking jacket crowd to new Rat Pack with Sean "Diddy" Combs. For Diageo, multicultural consumers will be driving the majority of projected growth. The session was sponsored by Arbitron.

People en Espanol's Monique Manso, in a session sponsored by the MiTu Network, provided us an exclusive look at the 2012 preliminary HOT Study results as well as their new HEAT Index. She mentioned that cultural orientation is fluid, based on the situation, regardless of the acculturation level. For example, even if the Latina woman buys Lysol cleaner, she will still have a bottle of Fabuloso stashed somewhere. This is a result of Hispanic women in the U.S. having two identitites to their personalities: their Latina-self and their Anglo-self.

The HEAT Index, or Hispanic Ethnicity Attachment Tracker, is a new tool that measures the extent to which a brand helps consumers attach to their Hispanic cultural identity relative to its competition. For the general study, Monique presented the results of 42 brands in categories such as hair care, cosmetics and technology. The study can be customized for individual brands.

It was time for Juventud + Migracion + Adaptaction = Music, Language and Mucho Love music panel. Mayne Nevarez, CEO of Nevarez Communications led the panelists through a discussion of how the multicultural market has impacted their brand and how they adapted. A fun surprise was a brief acoustic session by Grammy winner recording artist Sie7e.

The session garnered comments such as:

• "Javier Romero was engaging, refreshing and artist performance was a nice touch."
• "Loved this workshop. The presence of Sie7e playing acoustically was a wonderful touch that livened things up."

 After lunch, in the CMO Chat sponsored by SoiTV, Steven Rommeney from Eli Lilly presented the company's approach to the U.S. Hispanic market before sitting down with Alain Groenendaal for some questions. Steven explained that even though Eli Lilly is creating programs to reach out to Hispanics, it also needs to be a community effort with the doctors, nurses and pharmacists. They are trying to produce culturally relevant materials, such as Healthy Comida Latina and bilingual forms.

Following the general sessions on Friday, there were two hours of hands-on workshops. For the digital realm, Batanga sponsored the IAB sessions on mobile and networks. There were also experiences for account and media planners looking at marketing mixes and data analytics as well as listening to the HAPE winners plans.

Attendees also benefited from the opportunity to network with clients and colleagues during breaks and social events. The opening reception sponsored by Diageo provided a sunset view and relaxed atmosphere for making new friends.

Presentations of the 2012 Conference can be found on the AHAA website. Conference photos are available on the AHAA Facebook page.

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AHAA wants to thank its generous conference sponsors!

The Eduardo Caballero Lifetime Achievement Award

The Eduardo Caballero Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals whose vision and legacy help shape the U.S. Hispanic market.

Luis Albertini posthumously received the 2012 award at a special ceremony during the AHAA conference where he was recognized as a true pioneer often called the "David Ogilvy" of Hispanic advertising and marketing.  The founder of Spanish Advertising and Marketing Services (SAMS) was honored for his role in the birth of Spanish-language advertising. After arriving from Cuba, Luis turned his Spanish-language into his greatest asset -- launching Spanish advertising with the creation of SAMS in 1962, launching an industry and impacting millions. For the first time, full-color commercials aired in Spanish featuring products and services that transformed the lives of many, helping to fuel the Hispanic advertising industry and starting the Spanish language revolution.

A hard worker and driven leader, Luis was known for his creativity in the board room, often creating slogans and tag lines on the spot. In addition to his reputation as a business maven and true collaborator, he also was known for his generosity, his conviction and his passion about his work, his kids and his life.