CREATIVE WORK in the Hispanic advertising industry has undergone a tremendous evolution in all areas, but television has had a particularly remarkable explosion of witty and insightful spots. The editorial team at Marketing y Medios pored over the most creative and relevant television ads aimed at Latinos in 2004 and chose 30 Best Spots. The assignment was enjoyable and, yes, subjective. We received a total of 203 spots from 45 companies, mostly ad agencies, but also from production companies, television networks and movie studios from around the country.
Participants paid an entry fee per spot submitted; each was considered separately as a potential best spot. Pro-bono work was not eligible. Potential best spots must have aired in 2004, though they could have debuted earlier.
The sample of spots submitted made the selection an arduous task. Most spots speak to the insightful creative that agencies have nurtured in the past few years. A great majority of TV commercials went beyond translations and adaptations, which until recently were more typical.
Take the automotive sector. Most of the best spots in this category feature consumer interaction with their cars, a departure from general-market ads that tend to focus on cars' attributes and financing alternatives.
From the selection of sports spots, it is clear that Hispanic advertising is not solely about the use of Spanish. Several of the finalists do not even use spoken language, just cultural insights to tell a story. Some of these Hispanic best spots also aired on general-market television, namely "Tamal," from Dieste Harmel & Partners for Pepsi, and "Simon Says," from Zubi Advertising for Lincoln Navigator.
Successful spots show sketches from life that many Latinos have experienced and can easily relate to. While emotional appeal has a huge presence among the commercials selected as best spots, many were humorous, provoking out-loud laughter among the editorial staff during repeated screening sessions.
Paid Public Service Announcements (PSA) also had a bold representation among the pool of spots submitted, and five PSAs made it to the final list. In this category, creativity was superb, with significant emotional pull and clear passion for such causes as AIDS prevention, HIV testing and anti-smoking.
While Spanish-language television last year received a total of $3.5 billion in advertising dollars, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the investment in Spanish-language advertising is inconsistent with the size of the population when compared to the amount spent on TV advertising in the general market. As more dollars enter the market, a higher demand for quality, creativity and relevance among Spanish-language ads should follow. Better ads should yield better results which, in turn, would bring in more money to the industry.
The 30 television ads are listed on the following pages in alphabetical order, by brand.
Congratulations to the Best Hispanic Spots of 2004.
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