Jose Mollá of Miami’s La Comunidad, Favio Ucedo of Grupo Gallegos in Long Beach, Calif., and Aldo Quevedo of Dallas-based Dieste Harmel & Partners are three of the most important and talented creative directors in Hispanic advertising. SHOOT recently interviewed each of them. The following rundown contains some of their observations:
What, if anything, has to be distinctive about Hispanic creative?
Mollá: It is a mistake to limit yourself solely to cultural cues. There are cultural insights that work very well for Hispanics and there are human truths that also work very well with Hispanics simply because they are human beings.
Ucedo: That’s the million dollar question. For us, the most important thing is to have a great idea. A large percentage of our commercials have no Latino insight whatsoever. They are ideas that work in any part of the world.
Quevedo: The flavor and the insights are different but it is a two way street. Just last week we presented a client with a commercial that for us featured inoffensive and well-intentioned humor. The American client perceived it to be super-offensive and said we are not going to be able to air this commercial.
Much of your production is done in Argentina and Mexico. Why?
Mollá: If the filming is going well and the director is enthusiastic, you keep working and you don’t stop because seven hours have passed and you have to cut. There is more freedom.
Ucedo: First and foremost, because of the budgets we are assigned. For our Got Milk campaign we filmed three commercials, three big productions in Argentina. With that same budget we would have been able to film only one commercial in the US.
Quevedo: Obviously, you don’t come up with an idea for a commercial thinking you are going to film it in Argentina. The idea is to determine which director is best suited to the project.
Year in and year out it seems only the same five or six Hispanic agencies are winning awards. Why?
Mollá: It is odd. Long experience in the Hispanic market works against you. It is tough for those who have been working in Hispanic advertising for a long time to open themselves to new experiences and to experiment with new approaches.
Ucedo: Lamentably, it is always the same agencies. It is an agency decision. In general, the Hispanic consumer is underestimated and not treated with sufficient respect.
Quevedo: I think it is proportional. If you look at the general market, there really are only a handful of agencies doing work that is changing the industry. The Latino market is no exception. The Hispanic agencies that focus on creativity as a business tool are the ones that stand out and there are maybe five of us doing just that.
Why are Hispanic production budgets smaller than their general market counterparts?
Mollá: It is smaller because the Hispanic market is smaller but I see budgets improving.
Ucedo: Budgets are slowly increasing but we never have the same budget as the general market. I think in the general market you have a great idea that costs a million dollars, the client will give it to you. In the Hispanic market, if you have a great, million dollar idea, the client will tell you “come up with a cheaper idea, kiddo.”
Quevedo: The budget topic has several sides to it. Obviously, what the Latino market gets in terms of budgets is far less than the budgets in the American market. But this responds to the size of the media buy. On average we produce commercials that cost between $250,000 and $300,000. We have to be more creative in the Latino market and do more with less
