Latino Engagement: It’s Not About Language…It’s About Cultural Relevance

It’s great that many of our favorite corporate brands (the smart ones, anyway) and more recently the Democratic and Republican parties are reaching out to the burgeoning Latino market. However, I’m here to remind the minds behind these initiatives that if your strategy consists of translating your fancy brochures or your shiny new websites into Spanish, and that includes dubbing of videos — congratulations! you now have a good chance at reaching my mom, my tia, and their “networks.”

Be warned, that approach neglects more than half of our community. You know, the one that went to school in this country and whose kids now attend those same schools – the bicultural Latino. Here’s the snapshot:

3 Wow Factors to Producing Kick-butt Events

From Avatar Star to Modern Family Mom to Superstar Director, they were in one place...

Last year alone, our company produced or co-produced more than 50 events, and over 250 since the business was founded just five years go. Before making the entrepreneurial jump, I had the daunting task and delight of producing events that included two U.S. Presidents (at separate times) and Fortune-100 CEOs as keynotes.
The point is, I’ve learned that no matter the type, the fundamentals of producing a kick-butt event that audiences are willing to travel and pay good money for are the same. I call these fundamentals the “wow factors.” Here they are in order of importance:

Latino Americans: Social Engagement

We gladly share with you a witty infographic highlighted at last Thursday’s KPCC One Nation event; “Real and Virtual Worlds: A Forum On Today’s Latino Americans,” and take this opportunity to thank Giovanni Rodriguez (@giorodriguez), Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, Deloitte Postdigital Enterprise; Fernando Guerra, Director, Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University; and our moderator and KPCC reporter, Adolfo Guzman-Lopez (@aguzmanlopez).

For a one minute video recap of the event, click here.
Stay tuned for upcoming events by following our calendar at CONEXION.

In Celebration of Our All-American Hispanic Heritage!

In areas like Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Chicago and many parts of Texas, it would be hard to miss how enriched our daily lives are with Hispanic influences. But even though those places are blessed with especially vibrant Latino communities, this phenomenon is not limited to large cities. Hispanics have been a force in this country from just about the beginning, and that force is flourishing.

Of course, part of that growth is purely a matter of numbers. The 2010 U.S. Census data showed that the Hispanic population increased by 15.2 million over the last decade to a total of 52 million. What’s more, Latino population growth is now driven more by births, not immigration – making many Latinos natural born Americans. This could explain why Dora The Explorer now outsells Barney and why piñatas are the country’s #2 party favor, behind balloons.