Hispanicize 2012 kicked off their annual Latino trends event today in Miami.
Now in its third year, Hispanicize is designed to bring together brands, media, marketers, celebrities, filmmakers, innovators and bloggers in a unique, creative environment to network, share ideas and gain best practices to engage with their Latino audiences. The conference is also a launch pad for creative endeavors, new products, technologies, marketing campaigns and more.
Inspired by SXSW, this year's event will continue with its focus on Public Relations, Advertising, Social Media and Bloggers, but has also grown to include a Latino Film Showcase as well as Latinovator Awards which recognize Latino celebrities and business professionals who have become crossover successes or whose stories are remarkable or inspirational.
This year's event was buzzing with excitement on Day 1. You could feel the energy in the crowds of Latinos arriving from all parts of the country - bloggers, Hispanic marketers, corporate diversity executives, brand marketers and more. This growing event is truly indicative of the ever-increasing presence of Hispanics in all areas of business and entertainment, and it is inspiring to be at a venue that embraces the power and influence of Latinos.
Today’s sessions which I attended were focused on social media, brands building their online presence, and engaging Latinos online. Recurring themes were the importance of social media in reaching this audience, the extent to which Latinos are online, and the importance of understanding and connecting to the audience you are speaking to.
As one of the title sponsors, Disney shared their online strategies in engaging their audiences successfully - Laura Spencer, Manager of Social Media for Disney Destinations ( @lauraspencerone) recommended that we never fall in love with any social media platform, because they are always working in beta, and the next big thing is right around the corner. She advised that once you jump into engaging your audiences online, you have to be prepared to hear the good, the bad and the ugly because in social media, your audience talks back. Corporations must be ready to launch into full-fledged social media campaigns with dedicated response teams who will "fearlessly engage" with their audiences. Disney is such a beautiful brand to hear talking about social media as not only do they do things right, but their brand is possibly one of the most powerful out there, and the emotional connections people feel to it are like few others out there. Their embrace of the Latino market is clear and inspiring to other brands, marketers and consumers.
Manny Santos of MultiVu Latino advised marketers to include multimedia content such as photos and videos with all of their messaging including press releases in order to increase the changes of editorial media coverage. He presented several case studies of successful campaigns that have used Multimedia News Releases to deliver their message to media and engage their consumers online including this recent worldwide announcement of Bacardi's 150th Anniversary.
There are 3 more days jam packed with speakers, awards, networking, special events and parties ahead of us at Hispanicize. As official wire partner of the Hispanicize 2012 event, PR Newswire is excited to be present and engaged! Stay tuned for more updates from the conference, and follow us for live tweets @PRNHispanic !
Margarita Hernandez is a bicultural & bilingual media and communications professional with more than 12 years of experience in working with corporate clients in helping strategize their Multicultural Marketing and Public Relations campaigns. She is currently a Senior Account Manager for PR Newswire’s Multicultural Division. Connect with her on Twitter, LinkedIn or via E-Mail
