Mentor and Former Intern Reunite “to Fill Strategic Void” in Latino Marketing

FORT WORTH, TEX. (February 26, 2009) — Victor Ornelas, founder of Ornelas & Associates and a pioneer in Hispanic advertising, has joined forces with Matador Marketing Group, a Latino marketing and advertising firm located in Fort Worth, Texas, it was announced today by Luis Caballero, president of Matador.  The alliance reunites Ornelas and Caballero 18 years after Caballero launched his career as an intern at the renowned Dallas agency.

“We have recruited one of the industry’s champion matadors,” said Caballero. “Victor is a mentor, coach, sage and dynamo for our firm as we seek to engage national clients interested in tapping the fast-growing Latino marketplace in a more meaningful and profitable way.”

Ornelas – whose agency, Ornelas & Associates, was once called “one of the fastest-growing Hispanic advertising agencies in the country” by The New York Times – was honored by Hispanic Business magazine as National Entrepreneur of the Year in 1994. His experience includes Latino advertising campaigns for high-profile national accounts such as Anheuser-Busch Inc., Bank One Corporation, Borden, Southland Corporation/7-11 Stores, Wrangler Jeans, Pepsi, Nissan, Mobile and GTE/Verizon, among others. In 2005, Ornelas took a hiatus from the advertising industry, to build and manage a chain of five high-tech golf improvement centers in California.

Ornelas also has served as the secretary/treasurer on the national board of directors for the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the industry’s leading association, as well as the chairman of the AAAA’s North Texas-Oklahoma Council.

“Like my former agency, Matador is a maverick brand that is not shackled by the constraints of holding company ownership,” said Ornelas. “It’s a spirited, independent shop with the expertise, sound strategies and operating efficiencies to do what other Latino agencies can’t.”

Ornelas and Caballero bring to the table more than 50 years of marketing and advertising agency experience, as well as a unique marketing perspective derived from their combined work on both the client and agency side of the industry. Matador will leverage this experience to fill a perceived void in the marketplace and provide national clientele the added value of “Branding at the Point of Contact.”

According to Yankelovich and the U.S. Census Bureau, by 2010 nearly one person out of every six in the United States will be of Hispanic origin and Hispanic purchasing power is projected to reach $1.2 trillion or 9.2 percent of all U.S. buying power. Yet, as companies struggle to respond to the economic recession, some are cutting Latino marketing budgets, or not even funding them in the first place.”

“This is a critical strategic error,” Ornelas said. “We need to resurrect those Latino marketing budgets. We are in a position to provide extraordinary value to clients who are willing to invest those dollars into the growing Latino Market.”

“There is a gaping void in the strategies used to effectively engage Latino consumers,” said Caballero. “Typically, many brand marketers and their multicultural agencies mirror the traditional advertising campaigns and strategies. Matador employs a sharply focused philosophy that is media agnostic, culturally relevant and engaging in a personal way that a mass advertising approach, alone, cannot duplicate.”

The philosophy – branding at the point of contact – and Matador’s Brand Roots™ process offers clients a new, more efficient tool for gaining traction and fostering brand loyalty among U.S. Latinos. “A tree grows from the roots up, not from the branches down. Brand Roots engages on a social and culturally relevant level, the point of contact, to secure the brand-customer relationship,” said Caballero.

Caballero honed his insights devising and implementing multicultural and field marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies such as Yum! Brands, Subway, Church’s Chicken, Papa John’s Pizza and others, and directed Hispanic agencies such as Cartel Creativo and Dieste. He also worked on Hispanic accounts for Burger King and Coca-Cola while at Sosa & Associates (now Bromley Communications) in San Antonio.

“Field marketing has long been considered an ugly step sister to the more glamorous 30-second television spot or spread print ad,” said Caballero. “We believe that the marriage of field marketing-based strategies and keen cultural insights will yield better results for marketers. In my experience many initiatives that became national campaigns were created, tested and incubated in the field. By the time mass advertising was used to support the initiative we already had momentum and traction to ensure success.”

About Matador Marketing Group

Launched in October of 2008, Matador Marketing Group specializes in branding at the point of contact to the Hispanic community. The Fort Worth-based agency is owned and operated by Luis Caballero, a 20-year corporate-marketing and advertising-agency veteran. For more information about Matador Marketing Group visit www.thebullfight.com or call 817-546-8372.

Mentor and Former Intern Reunite “to Fill Strategic Void” in Latino Marketing

FORT WORTH, TEX. (February 26, 2009) — Victor Ornelas, founder of Ornelas & Associates and a pioneer in Hispanic advertising, has joined forces with Matador Marketing Group, a Latino marketing and advertising firm located in Fort Worth, Texas, it was announced today by Luis [...]

February 25, 2009

Via Marketwire

 The 46 million Hispanics living in the United States wield powerful influence on the American consumer economy, with buying power that totaled more than $980 billion in 2008, according to market research publisher Packaged Facts in the all-new report, “The Hispanic (Latino) Market in the U.S.: A Generational View, 7th Edition.”

Packaged Facts has been tracking the U.S. Hispanic market since 1996, and predicts that the buying power of Hispanics will continue to grow at a relatively rapid pace undeterred by the present dreary outlook for consumers as a whole. Ultimately, Latino buying power is projected to reach $1.3 billion in 2013, with a cumulative growth rate of 31%.

“Latinos will change the profile of American society over the next four decades. The Hispanic population will grow much quicker than other population segments, and Hispanic consumers will represent an increasing percentage of the American consumer base,” says Tatjana Meerman, publisher of Packaged Facts.

Gen-Y Latinos (ages 18-29) and Gen-X Latinos (ages 30-44) are particularly influential, because they control more than 60% of all Hispanic buying power. These young Hispanic adults generate significant consumer spending both for themselves and their families. Consequently, they have a disproportionate impact on a number of industries in the American economy, including entertainment, apparel, and children’s items.

“The Hispanic (Latino) Market in the U.S.: A Generational View, 7th Edition” highlights the attitudes and behavior of Hispanic adults ranging from Gen-Y and Gen-X Latinos through younger and older Boomers. Trends, opportunities shaping the Hispanic market, demographic characteristics of the Hispanic population, assessment of Hispanic consumers’ buying power, in-depth analysis of immigration and acculturation trends, and much more are examined in the report. Profiles of seven Hispanic national segments (Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Salvadorans, Dominicans, Guatemalans, and Colombians) are also provided. For further information visit: http://www.packagedfacts.com/Hispanics-1783079/.

Source: Ajax World Magazine

February 25, 2009
Via Marketwire
 The 46 million Hispanics living in the United States wield powerful influence on the American consumer economy, with buying power that totaled more than $980 billion in 2008, according to market research publisher Packaged Facts in the all-new report, “The Hispanic (Latino) Market in the U.S.: A Generational View, 7th Edition.”
Packaged [...]

February 24, 2008


by: Maria Lopez-Knowles

When Barack Obama took the oath of office last January, he redefined America – not just this country and its brand, but its constituency as well.  In many ways he is living proof of a phenomenon that demographer’s have been predicting for quite some time:  descendents of the early settlers will be a minority by 2050 (then, a correction last year – 2042), and traditional minorities, will be the majority.

What does that mean to marketers, to brands, to this country, to the long-held American ethos?

I believe that it means that maybe we should put technology aside for a moment, and focus on the American consumer for a bit. We should identify how he/she has changed over the last four decades (and will continue to change), what he/she looks like (not just demographically, but psychographically), how he/she behaves, and alas – how connected  he/she is to a network? Regarding the all important network, we should also identify the network’s composition, how he/she interacts with said network (off-line, on-line, linguistically, culturally), and how we marketers can connect with the network via the consumer.

Multicultural markets come in many shapes, hues, and sizes. The largest multicultural segment in the US is the Hispanic market – the largest minority in this country.  How does one market to this group in a way that resonates with the target?

Many marketers are well aware of the data surrounding Hispanics (particularly, US born Hispanics).  They are extremely connected. Not just with people, but with technology. They over-index on cell-phone usage, social networking, blogging, recommending products/services to family and friends; indeed, they are brand influencers.  Yet, few truly understand how to market to them effectively and affectively (reach AND touch).

Most advertisers bifurcate the Hispanic market by linguistics – if they are immigrants, we’ll market to them in Spanish, if they are US born, we’re reaching them with our current English-language general market campaigns, so we’re covered. That assumes reach alone is enough to make an emotional connection that will lead to brand awareness/consideration.  More importantly, it erroneously presumes that assimilation happens in two generations; the reality is the path to assimilation takes three generations.  So if you think you are reaching the second-generation in a way that resonates with them via English-language alone, you are mistaken.  This target lives in two worlds.  It’s not about either/or (Spanish/English), it’s about AND. We’re hybrids.

As our new president so eloquently stated in his speech regarding race last year, he couldn’t deny the black community or his white grandmother…because by doing so he would in essence deny himself (and this country).  Multicultural America doesn’t have to choose one or the other – it can/and does, live in more than one culture, language and world. Marketers need to deeply discern this multiculturalism, and market to this new reality if they are going to be successful in the next generation.

As Bruce Springsteen so aptly sang when he kicked off the We Are One concert in celebration of Obama’s inauguration: Come on up for the rising. Indeed, come join us America.

Source: IPG Emerging Media Lab

February 24, 2008

by: Maria Lopez-Knowles
When Barack Obama took the oath of office last January, he redefined America – not just this country and its brand, but its constituency as well.  In many ways he is living proof of a phenomenon that demographer’s have been predicting for quite some time:  descendents of the early settlers will [...]

Feb 23, 2009
By Todd Wasserman
Hispanic-themed advertising and marketing resonates best with “bicultural” Hispanics, according to recent research by a professor at Auburn University.
Veena Chattaraman, an assistant professor at the school’s department of consumer affairs, cited a recent study in which the school polled Hispanics in three groups—Hispanic-dominant, mainstream-dominant and bicultural. The latter group is considered [...]

February 22, 2009
By Sherri Dauskurdas
Just as newspapers and magazines across the Chicago market are slicing pages and cutting staff, one Chicago media company has launched Café, a Latino lifestyle magazine in English.

Inspired by the growing second and third generation Hispanic population in the United States, Café Media LLC, the parent company, hopes the magazine will [...]

By Sherri Dauskurdas
Associate Editor 
The Hispanic population is growing rapidly, and census figures estimate that by 2025, Hispanics in Illinois will make up nearly 17 percent of the state’s population, a surge of more than 1.2 million people since 1995.
With that growth comes a demand for Hispanic businesses, as second and third generation families choose products [...]

February 19, 2009
by Felipe Korzenny and Lee Vann  
Social media is now ubiquitous. Usage of blogs, social networks, and video sharing sites is increasing rapidly, and millions of people now look to social media sites as their primary source of news, opinion, and entertainment. As we witness this dramatic shift from traditional to social media, we [...]

More than one in ten (11%) online adults in the US say they have used Twitter – or a similar service – to share updates about themselves or view updates about others, and those who use Twitter have a greater affinity for mobile devices, according to new research from the Pew Internet & American Life [...]

February 15, 2009
BY FABIOLA SANTIAGO
The United States is the world’s second-largest Spanish-speaking country, surpassed in the number of Spanish speakers only by Mexico, and to measure the influence of Spanish in contemporary mainstream America one need only to channel-surf.

On public television, there’s Gwyneth Paltrow on a ride through the Catalonian countryside in a convertible, showing [...]