The Horchata Effect

The problem with General Market Agencies trying to develop a Hispanic practice or a department, is not in the general market people that they hire to support the Hispanic “dude” (or dudette) who will be the face and share insights, the problem they face is when they encounter the Horchata Effect at the moment of brainstorming.

It happened to me. This is how it goes:

“Hey Hispanic professional, who knows a lot about Hispanic Marketing, we have a client who wants to do Hispanic marketing and since our revenues are shrinking and our people are not reflecting the multicultural landscape that we live on, we would like you to join our team to “lead” our Hispanic Group”….

This is when the first moment of truth, should scare you to take the job…

“by the way you will be reporting to the white dude (dudette), who Habla Espanol… (kind of akward laugh inserted here), she went to school in Barcelona for a semester in Highschool and is dating one of the VP’s a Univision (of course we all know all the VP’s at Univision are anglos, but at least it gives our fictional leader at the GM agency street cred)”

So, at this point you finally think you’ll make change and unleash all your great culturally-attuned-not-based-on-stereotypes-awesome ideas… and boom!

Here is your team:

Planner, Creative & Account Persons, all gringitos (cool looking, but still not connected what-so-ever to the culture).

Your first brainstorm goes like this: (of course, assuming you all did the research and found a great insight to develop ideas)

“what about if we start with Agua de Horchata”….

“What is Jooorchada”?

After an hour and a half of explaining that you need to put rice in water, to then cinnamon, etc… and the entire process and history of the Horchata… you come to the conclusion that of course you need creatives that get the culture, that you need a planner that will not look into stereotypes, that the account person will actually let you have direct contact with the client and that you will not be able to do good work until you join a truly Hispanic Agency…

And that my friends… is the Horchata Effect….

Hoy como Mexico... celebro mi INDEPENDENCIA!

El nuevo twitter del alcalde Bloomberg desde el punto latino... :o) el bloombito https://twitter.com/#!/elbloombito

Que dia... y todavia no termina!

Plaza Coca-Cola 125 Segundos - 125 Aniversario Coca-Cola

Here is a little video showing the hard work of my co-workers to make Plaza Coca-Cola happen: http://youtu.be/A_E09G7YbXE

Let's google+! Here are some invites: Join! :o) creo que si le va a poner en la maiz a feis. https://plus.google.com/_/notifications/ngemlink?path=%2F%3Fgpinv%3D2LtXl0hyUoA%3AIYOUnkBqOkI

Cada 30 segundos un Latino en EU cumple 18 años. How to latinize linkedin Latism http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2098429/linked-latinos

Entrevista del chicharito en fifa.com http://es.fifa.com/worldfootball/news/newsid=1478911.html?cid=newsletter_es_20110728_interview

Interesting Article... I think there are some good soundbites (winks) to discuss..#Latism http://adage.com/article/the-big-tent/hispanic-marketers-put-language-war/228800/

Hasta los gringitos estan locos por el Chicharito! http://www.youtube.com/user/plazacocacola#p/c/E6D3395EBAFB1B94/2/7o8Ph_-Rb34

Today is 4th of July! To celebrate: Mexico vs Chile en univision

I guess experientialmarketing delivers... just got the ROI on a program we did: $35MM in sales as a result! :o) When there is Chemistry there is Chemeistry!

Hmmmm... I'm I at the Greyhound... oh no! I am at the Cincinnati Airport, now delayed 3 hours!

I find the hands of ceelo @thevoice freakishly small

A setback for the MNT (mexican national team) http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nota/_/id/1313058/separados-los-cinco-jugadores?campaign=rss&source=ESPNdeportesPortada

Para empezar copaoro con musica: golfonia http://futbol.univision.com/copa-oro/sonidos-de-la-copa

My yahoo and comcast emails got hacked. Sorry for the spam!

The new american REALITY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQnhuj11zgI&feature=player_embedded

Wow! Telemundo President to retire:
http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/telemundo-president-don-browne-retire-26367

A quick guide on how to manage your company's facebook page http://www.mslgroup.com/downloads/2011/03/facebookupdates/

Telenovela La Reina Del Sur breaking barriers! newlatino
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/42086786

The first solar energy project by a great friend of mine solartoday http://www.solartoday-digital.org/solartoday/201103/m3/Page.action?lm=1299030195000&pg=1

Es por esto que cualquier marca que se adjunte al chicharito será recompensada con buen PR http://wap.mediotiempo.com/futbol/mexico/noticias/2011/03/03/destacan-amabilidad-del-chicharito-en-inglaterra

A great article on the best artist-singer of Latin-America cerati
http://joseurriola.blogspot.com/2010/05/gustavo-y-los-nuestros.html

It’s Time to Play ‘Sheen, Beck, or Qaddafi?’
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/03/its_time_to_play_sheen_beck_or.html

Here is the link for the Hero program:
http://bit.ly/gqa2hd

Amigos de Chicago:
Here is the nomination form. Send a photo of the hero you’re nominating and PAW! you get a chance to drive a new car for a week! http://drivingthemidwest.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Nomination-form.doc

la identidad de @mayoremanuel se revela
http://sinker.tumblr.com/post/3567211805/its-true-i-was-mayoremanuel

Chicago friends! Nominate a local hero to receive a Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac vehicle loan! http://bit.ly/gqa2hd

Otro muy buen concierto ayer. Esta vez: Julieta Venegas. Jack Daniels sponsored. Good vibe
http://www.vivelohoy.com/entretenimiento/7983131/julieta-venegas-es-%e2%80%98otra-cosa%e2%80%99

Work in collaboration with SCPF MasCommunications y por supesto the dream team of Ivan Lopez, viviana rincon y el senor Moya:
http://www.youtube.com/plazacocacola

Finally! Aqui va lo que paso en plazacocacola en atlanta durnate el partido de laseleccion
http://www.mycokerewards.com/showLBE.do?type=pillar&id=MNT&size=3

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Check out the Hispanic Team from Relay (PBJS) in action as we prepared for the game in Atlanta... stuck in STL for 4 days!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZxxibQ-MSs

Bosniano en el partido de Mexico en ATL resulto ser de Chicago!
http://www.webdelfutbol.com/video-hincha-bosnia-mexico-desnudo.html

A little about the program we just launched: Plaza Coca-Cola:
http://futbol.univision.com/seleccion-nacional/article/2011-02-12/mexico-y-la-seleccion-nacionalel

Pew Hispanic reports statistical Portraits of the Hispanic and Foreign-Born Populations in the U.S
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=137

Bueno, ya una cosa menos en la lista... faltan como 29... pero ahi vamos