Ad Panel: ‘Total Market’ a Hard-to-Define Term #HispanicTV

With the continued melding of the Hispanic population with the U.S. culture at large, its led to a new buzzword for marketers to use when implementing their advertising strategies: ‘Total Market Approach.’

The problem however, is that term can be defined in a variety of ways.

“I think its one of those things like the Loch Ness monster,” said Steve Mandala, executive VP of advertising sales, Univision. “People talk about it but no one has ever seen it.”

Mandala was speaking during the advertising roundtable Thursday at B&C/Multichannel News’ 12th annual Hispanic TV Summit, which was moderated by Multichannel News’ programming editor Tom Umstead.

Mandala and another one of the panelists, Cesar Sroka, group account director, OMD Multicultural, both agreed that any Total Market approach has to start at the head of the table, so to speak.

“The best place to apply total market thinking is at the CEO level,” said Mandala.

“It’s a great concept to start, to make sure you’re reaching across all of the segments,” said Sroka. “It’s not side by side but one holistic operational plan.”

Gloria Constanza, partner, chief contact strategist, d expósito & Partners LLC, added that “as an industry we need to debunk the misuse of it,” arguing that the definition of Total Market can vary depending who you are talking to. “We are living in a pan-cultural society.”

Another popular topic that came up during the panel was the use of big data in marketing campaigns.

Gonzalo del Fa, president, GroupM Multicultural, said that most of his clients’ buying models are packed with assumptions rather than raw data. “Clients know exactly how much they sell, but they have no idea who is buying it.”

Eric Mathewson, founder & CEO, WideOrbit also added that the sell side still has a ways to go as well. “In general, the sell side is very under-invested in data.”

Carol Hinnant, senior VP, national television sales, Rentrak, said her company has been working with marketers to educate them on the benefits of big data. “Its very difficult to have that work through the ecosystem of the buying and selling industry,” she said. “It is the future, I think everyone understands that.”

Mandala argued however, that since the use of data is still very much in its infancy in terms of how to implement that into marketing decisions, the process needs to be simplified.

“Ultimately it will lead us to make better decisions,” he said. “In the short term, it feels like more of a complication than anything else.”