Jorge Plasencia 1
Jorge A. Plasencia, president, and CEO of Republica Havas, wrote about the importance of the growing Hispanic-American demographic (18% of the US population) for the future of marketing.
“The moment to make this strategic shift in priorities is now” he said, and added that “it defies logic that only 6% of the total media spend in the country is aimed at the Hispanic market, but we are approaching 20% of the population” and this group´s purchase power is expected to increase from US$1.7 billion to US$2.3 billion in the next five years.
In an article published in the Advertising Week portal, as a preview to the event that is taking place this week, he explained that Hispanics share several basic characteristics, the most obvious of which is the Spanish language. However, Latinos maintain very rooted links with their countries of origin, which is essential to recognize in order to resonate among Latino consumers.
Quoting figures from the Pew Research Center, he said that around 38% of Latinos mainly use Spanish, 36% are bilingual and 25% mainly use English. And, according to Kanstar´s U.S. Monitor, 57% feel tat the Spanish language is much more important today than five years ago. This, without counting their progress in key areas such as education, house ownership, and the creation of wealth.
