The Future of Advertising; A Chat.

Fernando Alvarez media career is a marriage of two leading media trends: multicultural and digital marketing. This combination is at the core of Vaquero Advertising, which Alvarez founded three years ago and directs as the Hispanic division of Dallas-based Agency Entourage.

ALVAREZ'S resumé is solidly grounded in both familiarity with Hispanics as a niche market and the use of digital platforms. A native of Mexico, Alvarez studied media in his homeland and in Spain before he started his own agency in San Luis Potosi in 2010. Seven years later Alvarez decided to learn more about digital marketing and moved to Dallas where he connected with Ben Randolph who had founded Agency Entourage, one of the first digital mar- keting agencies in north Texas. As director of advertising, Alvarez saw a clear opportunity to expand services for clients interested in the Hispanic market. He had talked with American entrepreneurs who were aware of the Hispanic community but did not know how to engage authentically with this population. "They didn't speak Spanish, but somehow they are interested in the Latino culture," he said. "That excited me a lot."

The introduction of a Hispanic division also resonated with Randolph, who liked Hispanic culture. The partners launched Vaquero Advertising in 2018. What makes marketing to Hispanics different, Alvarez said, is the focus on family. "We are very united and we celebrate so many traditions," he said. "because we love meeting with each other, creating this huge family and community, while being fully committed to our principals and traditions."

Another factor, Alvarez said, "We are local now, but we are immigrants. We still believe in achieving success in a good way and developing our communi- ties in a more secure way."

Many brands are now investing in campaigns that show that they care about their culture, beliefs, and traditions like quinceañera and Cinco De Mayo.

These efforts are complemented by digital marketing which Alvarez said provides data so advertisers can be more specific about the audience they aim to reach. "With social media, you can analyze pretty much everything and you can be very, very specific about the niche and the audience that you aim to target." For example, he said, "if you place a billboard on the most important avenue of your city you are targeting all the audiences, but if you invest ten thousand dollars on YouTube targeting several Zip Codes, women from certain age groups who speak Spanish fluently, you are hyper-targeting." What works best with digital marketing, Alvarez said "is what you can hire or buy with your smart phone."

There also is the growing impact of influencers who are the celebrity product endorsers of today. "Influencer marketing is one of the services we are known for in the agency market of north Texas, Alvarez said. "We have seen that is something good and very achievable when it comes to promoting a brand in a certain way and a certain niche."

He sees the role of influencers as very useful to advertisers. "To see how a person who works everyday using their smart phone, promoting cooking, recipes or just sharing golf tips or just sharing travel experiences with their audiences, he said, is "an opportunity to promote brands in a good way."

Meanwhile, the COVID pandemic, Alvarez said, has changed how to communicate with employees, employers and customers. This new environment, he said, "also offers a big opportunity to open our minds to see what else we can achieve together and how we can cooperate in ways that were not possible, but now are possible." Business leaders need to try new things, to take risks, to be creative and to play with their senses and to come up with new ideas, Alvarez said. "That is when the magic happens," he said. "Most importantly, see and analyze how Generation Z and the Millennials are making decisions when it comes to consumer habits and to social communications.

Thirty years ago, a son or a daughter would approach their parents in order to see how they would purchase a certain product or would do a certain thing, Alvarez said. "Now, the mom or the dad follow their kids to see how they purchase smart phones, how they do ecommerce, or how they interact with TikTok or their Instagram channel." ”