Ana Crandell, VP of Media Services at Lopez Negrete, has a wealth of experience planning and buying media. Her prior responsibilities include stints at OMD and Publicis Groupe’s Zenith. Crandell worked on several blue-chip clients, including AT&T, Pepsi, McDonald’s, State Farm, Cigna, Eli Lilly, JC Penney, Wells Fargo, TJX Companies, Bacardi, and TD Bank. Portada asked Crandell about the current state of media planning and buying, mainly when targeting diverse audiences.
Shift in Media Investment
Throughout her career, Crandell has witnessed a substantial change in the composition of the media mix. “The way the ad investment has shifted is very much in line with how consumers have shifted. There is so much supply from the social world to connect with multicultural audiences in the digital space. Hispanics are usually much more engaging with any digital offering. “Hispanics are inherently social. We can attribute the popularity of social media to Hispanics,” Crandell claims. “Most, if not all, media have a digital component,” says Crandell. ” “Even OOH, with the latest entrant being DOOH. Nowadays, you must have a digital outlook as a media strategist.”
Lopez Negrete Accounts
| Planning Only | Hyundai Tier 1 (brand, national). Buying done by Canvas. Total Wine & More (wine and spirits retailer in TX, FL, NC), buying done by Harmelin & Partners, McDonald’s Co-op (Albuquerque and El Paso), buying by Canvas/Navigation Blvd. |
| Planning and Buying | Local and regional clients include: Philips 66 (Motiva Gas Stations), Houston Endowment, Baylor College of Medicine, Alzheimer Foundation (pro bono with Ad Council). Note: Lopez Negrete handles H-E-B for creative. |
Ana Crandell: How Big Tech Works When Targeting Hispanic Audiences…
Google- including YouTube – Facebook, Meta -including IG- TikTok, and Amazon, amounts to approximately 75% of the overall U.S. advertising investment. Is Big Tech as dominant when it comes to reaching Hispanic audiences?
“Compared to a general market strategy, there is more opportunity for direct publisher incorporation into social and digital recommendations because of the importance of the environment and content. That gives them additional value that is not necessarily true for general market properties.” In this sense, Crandell notes that she has had to engage with Hispanic consumers way beyond third-party cookies for a long time. (Similarly, Publicis’ Stephen Paez told Portada: “In the multicultural world, we were doing contextual advertising before it became a thing.”)
According to Crandell, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and others provide a different level of granularity, depending on the platform, in reaching Hispanics: “It is much more difficult to hone in on Hispanics through Meta due to privacy legislations.” ” It is important to be on those platforms and also very important to align with Hispanics through contextual,” she maintains.
Ana Crandell: Lack of Good English Adaptations
Crandell is disappointed about the lack of adaptations of English-language advertising on Univision and other broadcasters. For example, she cites recent Copa America soccer championship activations, except for some of the Messi spots. “There are many Spanish-language commercials with straight translations of general market executions. Consumers do notice. We are going backward. “English-language executions are fine as long as they are contextually relevant and the storyline is being developed with a bilingual Hispanic in mind,” she adds.
“There are too many Spanish-language commercials with straight translations of general market executions. Consumers do notice. We are going backward.”
Kudos for Amazon
Crandell praises Amazon for “embracing Spanish-language e-commerce from the get-go. They continue to hold a firm hold of that particular audience by ensuring that the omnichannel shopping experience is seamless relative to language. Crandell’s team uses Amazon Advertising, including Prime Video and the Amazon DSP, for full-funnel advertising. Historically, consumers gathered information in Spanish but ultimately did the transaction in English. That has shifted as there was a lot of foundational work taking into account that Hispanics have an inherent need for control. Brands need to give that control to consumers by providing a choice of doing the transaction in Spanish or English. This way, the consumer knows that the brand knows her, even though they may end up doing transactions in English. Amazon is reaping the fruits of an early effort.”
“Historically, consumers gathered information in Spanish but ultimately did the transaction in English. That has shifted as there was a lot of foundational work that takes into account that Hispanics have an inherent need for control.”
