Every year between September 15 through October 15, we see an increased connection of cultural heartstrings to the Latino community.  And yes, this means our timelines and commercials are filled with the all too familiar images of mariachis, tacos, cafecitos, stories about your Abuelas, galas, award ceremonies, and musical alliterations. What many of us who have been working in Hispanic marketing for at least the last decade want to know is: when is our impact as a market going to move beyond HHM and into an on-going, always-on initiative across general audience marketing?

Do we see the needle REALLY moving on a variety of fronts from political positions to funding for new ventures?  After a week at the  first New York Latino Film Festival that returned to LIVE theater in the heart of NYC, followed by a stint at L’ATTITUDE 2022, my answer is ABSOLUTAMENTE, QUE SI! (big yes!)

This year’s festival featured more original documentaries, full length and short films produced by Latinos in front and behind the camera than ever since its launch in 2002. The panels that launched the event on September 12th as well as throughout the festival included data that illustrates trends are becoming realities. Nielsen unveiled highlights from its most recent Hispanic report, Latino-led content and viewers: The building blocks for streaming success, which illustrates how  Hispanics are not only significantly more avid streamers, we are influencing viewership of non-Latinos, too. The report presents findings that show Latino-produced content (that means a person of Hispanic origin was either the writer, producer, director or lead technician controlling some component of production) is not only attracting the highest numbers of subscribers for streaming services but also is attracting non-Latino consumers who are viewing that content. Additionally, of all the most bingeable streaming programs of 2021, 42% were influenced directly by Hispanic talent, and 58% of the new audiences attracted to Latino-inclusive casts and productions were not Hispanic. This is a major shift for the entertainment industry which hopefully leads to more Hispanic-centric stories being produced on an ongoing basis.

At L’ATTITUDE  2022 held in San Diego, Hispanic entrepreneurs, financial planners and corporate representatives packed not only the main stage presentations to hear from the CEOs of Target and Nike and Lin-Manuel Miranda himself, but more importantly it was standing room only at the building wealth and investment breakout panels. 

So what does this mean for marketers? The time really is now. As the Nielsen report indicates, “The undeniable impact of U.S. Hispanics is evident in the shifting flavor of American entertainment culture. The Hispanic community now represents 19% of the U.S. population, up 23% over the past decade, outpacing the nation’s overall population growth of 7%. With a buying power of $2.7 trillion, if U.S. Latinos were a standalone economy, they would be the seventh-largest GDP in the world—ahead of Italy, Brazil, and Canada.”

So those ‘micro influencers’ that may have been previously overlooked are driving authenticity and interest for mainstream brands. The latest NFL commercial is highlighting content creators like LA’s Jay Mendoza and beauty brand Clinique is sharing its latest product launch with Latinas via the content created by Spanish-language lifestyle creator Anabelle Blum. This summer we saw the Florida Department of Commerce feature national Univision morning show “Despierta America” contributor and Latina mom Astrid Rivera as the English-language voice and face of its “Summer Break Spot” which aimed to help reduce childhood hunger across the state during months with no school meals. 

With ad placement services being stronger than ever as far as pinpointing direct audience targets for brands, the combination of strong original content with accurate ad targeting will increase marketing share and drive sales moving forward. Almost every content program managed this year by our Talento Unlimited team has had a direct correlation with some sort of sales measure or goal. 

What I’m looking to see throughout 2022 fall/holiday marketing initiatives and 2023 content and marketing planning is more originality in taking the ‘micro’ to macro. Let’s be bold and actually do what we’ve always known, and what the data and trends are finally catching up to – Hispanic voices, creators, entertainers and activists are creating the content that not only they want to see, but that is consumed and enjoyed by the broader, more diverse general market than ever before. When you have a young Gen Z rapper from Puerto Rico break the all-time record for single-day streams for an artist in Spotify history, you know change is here. Benito Martínez Ocasio – aka Bad Bunny –  registered 183.2 million transmissions on May 6th- the record previously held by Drake with 176.8 million views/transmissions in one day. And he did this in Espaňol, without  an English “cross-over” hit or catering to an English speaking audience. His success is built on his insistence to be authentic as a Spanish-language artist- a lesson we can all take into considering how we approach campaigns and show up in the marketplace.

Hispanic Heritage Month is finally extending beyond its odd span of 30 days across two months to creating yearlong spending investments in the kind of content, creativity and direction that not only builds brand sales across cultural lines, but attracts and retains Latino consumers and talent across various industries. This is the kind of long term marketing investment in culture and community we’ve been waiting for. Dale, vamos pa’lante!