Madison Avenue's Big Latin Beat

By Scott Brown/Los Angeles

Spanish-speaking Americans, currently 18 million strong, have long been a largely overlooked mass of consumers. But as many Hispanics grow more affluent, they are inspiring a Latin beat on Madison Avenue and a surge in Spanish-language advertising. More and more U.S. corporations are spending big money to woo Spanish speakers in their native tongue on radio, television and in print. Traditional English-language advertising agencies and a flock of bright, lively Hispanic firms are rushing to grab a piece of the business. Says Andres Sullivan, creative director of Mendoza, Dillon y Asociados, an eight-year-old Hispanic ad agency based in Newport Beach, Calif.: "People are realizing there's a major business opportunity out there."

U.S. companies are expected to spend some $450 million on Spanish-language advertising in 1987 to reach Hispanic consumers, who have a purchasing power of about $120 billion. This year's Spanish-advertising outlays represent a 19% jump from 1986 and a threefold increase in the past five years. Among the prominent companies that have stepped up their Hispanic-advertising budgets are Procter & Gamble, Philip Morris, McDonald's and Kraft, which, for example, has launched a major Spanish-ad campaign to promote Breyers ice cream. Advertisers have myriad media outlets to choose from, including nearly 600 full-time Spanish-language television and radio stations, hundreds of Hispanic newspapers and countless billboards and bus posters in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods.

Spanish-language advertising has a new cachet on Madison Avenue. In recent years such prestigious firms as Young & Rubicam and JWT Group have added Hispanic divisions. And for the first time, TV and radio ads for the Hispanic market last month were given Clio awards, advertising's equivalent of the Oscars. One of this year's winners: a Pepsi spot produced by New York City- based Moir Productions that depicted a Hispanic boy, drumming on a Pepsi can, who eventually achieves his childhood dream of becoming a successful musician.

Much Hispanic advertising is created by Spanish-language specialty firms. Mendoza, Dillon, whose clients include Miller Brewing and Johnson & Johnson, last year had about $35 million in billings, nearly double its 1982 total. Manhattan's Conill Advertising, which creates Hispanic campaigns for McDonald's and Campbell's Soup, took in $26 million in 1986, up 18% from the previous year.

A typical Spanish-language television commercial now costs about $90,000 to make, ten times the price of a decade ago. In creativity and sleek production values, these ads are often comparable to their English-language counterparts. A Spanish ad for Miller Lite carried on the beer's celebrated Tastes Great- Less Filling theme. But added to the cast were a gaggle of Latin celebrities, including former Boxing Champion Alexis Arguello and retired Boston Red Sox Pitcher Luis Tiant. Miller apparently believes that, in the Hispanic community at least, Tiant's pitch for beer can be as effective as any fastball he threw in Fenway Park.