WITH SAZóN - Ingrid Otero-Smart

You can’t talk about #CULTURA without #CREATIVITY, I mean… as a marketer, I’ve always known that if the messaging doesn’t touch, move, and inspire the audience, Houston we have a problem!

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As part of my journey and purpose in elevating our CULTURA and COMMUNITY, I reached out to the one and only, INGRID OTERO-SMART, a Boricua who left la Isla del Encanto for big dreams, has been blazing sazón from the West Coast, and making sure that our #culture is portrayed in the most respectful manner for decades.?

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She is the President and CEO, of Casanova//McCann (a fully integrated Multicultural Agency, based in LA) and someone that I truly admire.? Kicking-off with and in celebration of #HispanicHeritageMonth, I bring you WITH SAZóN, a series of interviews that celebrate and uplift Latino(a)s change-makers that help make up the fiber of our industry.

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Ingrid Otero-Smart, thank you for your kindness and support, you are my #1. ?

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INTERVIEW

?The topic is about creativity, and at Casanova // McCann hay sazón.? Please tell me how many LIONS (Cannes Awards) the agency has won since your arrival? ?

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(IO-S) – Lions, we have eight!?

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You guys have crafted the creative messaging for many brands, including global titans like Coca-Cola. What do you ask from your creative teams? ?

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(IO-S) – In no order necessary. I always ask my creative team to push the envelope, be on strategy, and portray our culture in a respectful manner. ??

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Unlike the Asian Community, who can use different languages to cater to their respective audiences. The USH community speaks one language comprised of 18 dialects with the OG language, el Castellano.? I remember in the 90’s most of the ads used Mexican dialect and it felt as if they were made in and only for Mexico. How do you find the right/perfect equilibrium in the communication messaging used so that everyone feels included?

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(IO-S) – Your experience was very similar to mine. The industry was so different and at that point, it was probably 80%-90% Mexican, but that changed, as agencies started to diversify their Hispanic talent. Just to give you an idea, our creative team is a little bit of everything. We have Mexican, Puerto Rican, Chilean, Spaniard, at least eight countries are represented in our group. But going back to your question – what we do is to focus on the similarities that we have as Latinos.

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To do a creative that is linguistically personalized for all the groups would be nearly impossible due to budgetary reasons; however, we’ve found ways to be inclusive, by casting diverse talent so a variety of dialects can be identified, and the audience will feel represented. You will hear a Cuban, Dominican, Peruvian, Argentinean, Mexican and Colombian accents.

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I must say that we avoid SLANG, that’s where you get in trouble, and no one understands each other. ??

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I think the General Market lacks awareness in understanding the sophistication needed to do culturally relevant advertising to Latinos. ?We are multicultural and more multiracial than ever. We are experts who speak English, understand at least eighteen dialects of Spanish, and Spanglish to make sure our messaging is relevant. General Market agencies don’t have this challenge, and yet some believe that they can do the job. Do they pose a challenge to agencies like Casanova // McCann?? What do you think about this?

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(IO-S) – General Markets agencies can’t do what we do. You and I have been in the market long enough to know that they will only eat your lunch if you let them. ?They don’t understand our culture; they will hire a Spanish speaking copywriter and think that they can create relevant content like they do in General Market. ?Our market requires way more than that…

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That leads, to my next question, so how do you identify that SAZóN CULTURAL at Casanova // McCann?

(IO-S) – We are the target, so we live it (cultura) and embrace it as much as we can! We embody our target, and we are proud of who we are. That’s the qualitative/intuitive portion, obviously in addition to this, we do lots of research.

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As experts, we know that Culture is always evolving, how do you keep up with it? ???

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(IO-S) We tackle it in many ways.?

·?????? From a qualitative perspective we have a social media team that focuses on understanding what is happening on the cultural front.

·?????? Parallel to this, on the quantitative front, we do our own research to further dig and understand the topics that matter to the community.

·?????? To give you an example not to long ago, we did a study called the Truth about LatinX, which was then followed by the Truth of the Modern Family, and the Truth about Bienestar, which we currently have in the market. ?Our goal is to provide our clients with cultural insight-driven solutions that help them understand the present needs of this audience, while delivering the expected commercial results.

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Bueno, bueno. Now we have a tough question. You’ve had plenty of successful campaigns (babies) throughout your career, can you share one or two that have a warm place in your heart?

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(IO-S) – Jajaja *laughing. Yes, this one is tough because I do have lots of babies! I have to say that all of them carry the same gene, which is to show our cultural pride. ?Let me give you three.

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·?????? Nescafe and Ricky Martin – This campaign was very special to me as it helped change the brand perception of Nescafe and it connected it back to the Latino consumer. We had a very brave Brand Director who believed in us and helped us get to the finish line.? The impact we saw was incredible, and the cultural strategy matched the reward; we doubled market share and Nescafe is #1 in the category. ??

·?????? Mucinex during COVID - We started working with them right before the pandemic hit, and we wanted the brand to be authentic with our audience, so we focused on a strategy that would earn them the right to speak to our consumers and tell them “We see you, we are here to celebrate you, and keep you healthy.” ?That said, our campaign acknowledged and uplifted Latino moral values (taking care or helping others) by celebrating three everyday community Latino heroes who have a major impact in their communities, and to continue doing their good deeds, they must stay healthy. ??The impact of this campaign was outstanding as it helped the brand earn the highest share increase in its segment! ???

·?????? The third is a documentary we did with McCann and US Bank, and it was called “Translators.”? The film was not only for Hispanics, but the topic was relevant to every immigrant segment.? I wanted to do something meaningful, so we did the pre-screening at Cal State University Fullerton, where most of the Latino students are U.S. Born.? Interesting enough, the Dean of College of Communications who is Asian saw the film and she saw herself there.? She said that she has been in this country for over 30 years, and she still translates for her parents. ??????

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For decades we have seen that culturally relevant ads work, yet the market doesn’t give us the recognition, and still positions us as testing ground. Which is why most consumers still see stereotypical ads. What would you recommend to a brand/company who wants to connect and win over Latino consumers?

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(IO-S) – Even though our industry was started by with Spanish Language advertising, the market has changed and those who are thriving in this market are those who recognized early on that growth of the segment is coming from U.S. born Latinos, that speak English mostly, but want to be recognized as Latinos, so they need to be spoken to with culturally relevant messaging. That’s something a General Market agency, cannot do.

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So, you need to take a culture first approach. Companies who want to win the U.S. Hispanic consumers, need to open their minds and work with an expert. They need to make a commitment to get to know the consumer, recognize that we are not a one-size fits all. They need to invest in learning about this consumer as much as they can before developing an ad. It may sound self-serving, but I’ve seen it repeatedly. The clients who take this audience seriously, have Hispanic agencies that helped them craft and lead the communication. In some cases, we are leading all communications because this is where the market is going.

100% of the growth of this country comes from the multicultural segment, so why are we still only getting less than 10% of the budgets? ??

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Casanova // McCann is a fully integrated agency, you do both media buying, strategy, and creative. So, let’s talk about MEDIA (THE WHERE) & CREATIVITY (THE WHY) – You can have the best media planning strategy in place, but if the creative is not relevant, you will not have the performance you seek. You also can have the most amazing creative, but if it’s not running in synergistic environments where the messaging can be relevant, you will also not achieve the performance you seek. How do you find a balance between “the where” and “the why” to achieve happiness for everyone?

(IOS) - To be honest, it has not been easy to find balance as many clients are going to the big GM agencies to get the most efficient buying rates, and in some cases, losing quality performance.? We can get into GRPs math and talk all day. Jajaja. We need to bring it back, because our expertise on the content has an impact on the performance of campaigns. They don’t have the resources or the know-how.

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I truly believe that contextual targeting technology is the bridge that creates synergies between creative and media planning, especially in the multicultural space.? I say this because if paired with a culture-first approach, this technology allows you to place your ad within culturally relevant content, creating the perfect environment to pitch your services/products. The technology focuses on the article (content) vs site, making the targeting more efficient and non-intrusive, since it is cookie-less. How do you think contextual targeting plays a role and/or can be an ally to creativity? ?

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(IO-S) – I agree with you, Luis. I think that theoretically this technology could be the bridge we’ve been missing. ?It will allow us to serve the message to the eyeballs looking for specific contents.

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What are the biggest challenges multicultural agencies face as we transition to this web3 era? What’s your advice to other multicultural agencies? What is the message to our industry?

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(IO-S)We need to continue focusing on culture first, and language second. We need to be more forceful in communicating the numbers and the impact our work has.? We need to be proud of it. We are here, we’ve been here for a long time, and we are here to stay. The General Market agencies cannot do what we do, we need to be sure and proud of that.

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As I said back in July, the second Latino explosion is here.? We’ve gone from English-only to TIME’s April cover in ESPA?OL featuring Bad Bunny, lots has changed. Are we on the second Latino explosion, what do you think?

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Ingrid Otero-Smart (IO-S) – Absolutely.

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Ingrid Otero-Smart , thank you for your kindness, honesty and for sharing your sazón with me.

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WITH SAZóN con Luis Solís. ?#WithSazon #MulticulturalAgencies #multiculturalmarketing #hispanicmarketing #contextualtargeting #Nescafe #Mucinex