New Directions at the 16th Annual Hispanic Television Summit

An important noteamp160 Throughout the summit the term amp8220Latinxamp8221 was increasingly utilized as a genderneutral term for Latinos and Latinasamp160 That was fine but the terms amp8220Latinxamp8221 and amp8220Hispanicamp8221 were often interchangeably used as if they are the same thingamp160 They are not amp160amp8220Latinxamp8221 refers to those born or descended from Mexico Central Americaamp160South America and other LatinAmerican countriesamp160including Brazil amp160amp8220Hispanicamp8221 refers to those from Spanishspeaking countries including Spainamp160but excluding Brazil becauseamp160its main language is PortugueseOne of the presentations that stuck with me the most was the first keynote conversation titled New Directions in Brand Advertising Targeted to Hispanicsamp160 Sandra Alfaro Managing Director of Wing Grey NY gave an insightful presentation focusing on how to effectively reach Latinx through the power of culture amp160With the success of Disneyamp8217s Coco which was the first Disney film to center on a Hispanic character and solely focused on Mexican culture as well as other successes for the Latinx community like Netflixamp8217s reboot of the Norman Lear classic One Day at a Time and its original telenovela La Casa De Flores Alfaro assured that multicultural consumers are the drivers of mainstream amp160amp8220If youamp8217re not marketing to a diverse America today you arenamp8217t marketingamp8221 she said amp160amp8220This isnamp8217t something thatamp8217s coming soon amp160Itamp8217s already here amp160Itamp8217s now amp160Itamp8217s today amp160If youamp8217re not on board get on boardamp8221During a segment of her presentation titled Treat Your Target with the Depth and Respect They Deserve Alfaro presented a series of advertisements that not only featured Hispanics as the focus but showed how impactful authentic creativity and storytelling could affect an audience amp160The first starred LinManuel Miranda in an ad for American Express which first aired earlier this year during the US Open amp160The ad follows Miranda through a day in his life from his Brooklyn apartment to his favorite breakfast spot meeting with his In the Heights and Hamilton costar Christopher Jackson amp160The ad has resonated with so many people because of its authenticity realness and simplicity amp160It felt more like Broll for a minidocumentary rather than an advertisement and I mean that in the best way possibleAnother ad was one from McDonaldamp8217s which got plenty of laughs from the audience as it showed a young Latinx teen at his first day on the job at McDonalds working the drivethru window amp160His first customers are his parents gushing with pride as they take pictures and video of him in his uniform from their car amp160If thereamp8217s anything a Latinx can say that resonates throughout culture itamp8217s pride amp160It bursts forth when our favorite soccer team wins a match when a new film centers on our community or more simply when the first member of a Latinx family goes off to college amp160amp8220People say amp8216having the Latino audience is like icing on the cakeamp8217amp8221 Alfaro noted further explaining that major companies and ad agencies donamp8217t focus enough on the growing US Hispanic audience and often treat them like an afterthought amp160amp8220Thatamp8217s not trueamp8221 she assertedamp160 amp8220We arenamp8217t the icing amp160There is no cake without usamp8221In terms of targeting the young multicultural Millennial and GenZ audiences NBCUniversalamp8217s Telemundo and E collaborated to create Latinx Now a new digital series to bring the latest entertainment and pop culture news to bicultural audiences through news segments and celebrity interviews amp160Weekly episodes are available in Spanish on Telemundo Entretenimientoamp8217s YouTube channel as well as Universo Cableamp160 There is also an Englishlanguage version on E Newsamp8217 YouTube channelamp8220Itamp8217s 200 our audience Itamp8217s 100 American 100 Latinx and they come together and make up a very unique perspective where US pop culture is making an impactamp8221 said Laura Molen Executive Vice President Lifestyle and Hispanic Advertising Sales Group NBCUniversal amp160amp8220With the upcoming Latin American Music Awards so many of our talent whether itamp8217s Cardi B or Luis Fonsi are across both markets both mainstream and the Hispanic market amp160Itamp8217s a very exciting time to have all of that content to reach the US Hispanicamp8221Similarly Fuse is also creating content targeted specifically for young diverse audiences focused on authentic storytelling amp160Marc Robichaux of Broadcasting ampamp Cable and Multichannel News moderated the keynote conversation New Directions in TV and Video for Hispanics featuring Michael Schwimmer President and CEO of Fuse MediaAsked if the days of general entertainment programming are over and if a network can be amp8220one size fits allamp8221 in an era of ondemand IPdelivered streaming content Schwimmer replied amp8220What youamp8217re talking about when you say amp8216general entertainmentamp8217 is the big tent amp160Services like Netflix are a really big general entertainment network where you go and see all kinds of different experiences amp160But once you come down ten thousand feet you really need to stand for something specificamp8220I think itamp8217s very difficultamp8221 he continuedamp160 amp8220There are some large entertainment networks that I know are saying amp8216what do we meanamp8217 amp160When youamp8217re a general entertainment network itamp8217s hard to brand yourself and stand for something amp160You have to differentiate yourselfamp8221amp8220In our case itamp8217s very clearamp8221 Schwimmer addedamp160 amp8220Latino is multicultural itamp8217s young thereamp8217s a music filtered to it itamp8217s nonscripted amp160If youamp8217re looking for a great drama donamp8217t come to us thatamp8217s just not what we do amp160Weamp8217re very specific about what we offer and who we offer it to which means weamp8217re not going to appeal to everybody amp160Weamp8217ll appeal to some people and hopefully theyamp8217ll be passionate about what we doamp8221On the issue of whether the industry doing enough to support the Latino community Schwimmer said amp8220Itamp8217s not but it isnamp8217t nefarious amp160Itamp8217s the fact that when you look at the executive staff and look at the board rooms media companies you rarely find Hispanics amp160Before Fuse he was the CEO of Si TV the first Englishlanguage network for Latinos set on authentic and culturally relevant storytellingamp8220Folks donamp8217t know what they donamp8217t knowamp8221 he continuedamp160 amp8220If you live in California you think every Latino in America is of Mexican descent amp160If you in Miami you may think theyamp8217re all Cuban or Venezuelan amp160The fact of the matter is that there is a very low level of knowledge in general amp160Itamp8217s an issue of familiarity amp160You have to make a high degree of effort to bring in executives from the community to grow people from interns and coordinators to managers and vice presidents where they can influence decisionmaking amp160I truly donamp8217t think that anyone is saying amp8216We need to keep our network less Latinoamp8217 amp160Itamp8217s just a long process amp160It takes timeamp8221As one of the few Hispanic Millennials in attendance at the summit I made sure to ask about programming that was targeting Millennial and GenZ audiences during the New Directions for Delivering Content to Hispanics panel which featured executives from Castalia Communications Thema America and Univision Communications IncFriday Abernathy Senior Vice President Content Distribution UCI noted the upcoming new series LIKE amp160amp8220Itamp8217s solely geared toward the Millennial and it really touches on this issue of old traditions vs new traditions and how they coexist together amp160Thatamp8217s something that we as a network will be exploring a lot more seeing as there are so many second and thirdgeneration Hispanics in the country amp160Itamp8217s something that our audience deals with on a daily basisamp8221 amp160LIKE which stands for Life Institute of Knowledge and Evolution is a musicdriven high schoolset dramedy following a group of students that are determined to work together to break the norms brought on by adults at home and at school amp160The series is inspired by the telenovela sensation from the early 2000s Rebelde which launched the careers of Alfonso Herrera Foxamp8217 The Exorcist and Maite Perroni Papa a Toda Madre amp160LIKE is set to premiere Sunday October 14 on UnivisionThe top takeaways were the importance of authenticity to capture audiences to avoid amp8220general entertainmentamp8221 and serve a more specific purpose for specific audiences and to increase the diversity of networks and companies not just onscreen but on creative teams and on executive boards amp160One thing is certain as these insights are widely shared networks will continue to move forward in the right direction of authentic programmingClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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New Directions at the 16th Annual Hispanic Television Summit

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Juan Ayala

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New Directions at the 16th Annual Hispanic Television Summit

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