Viva America
May 16|2004

We had cocktails on the pool terrace overlooking the ocean, which was very nice. Shoomoze time.

There are a lot of Spanish speaking delegates at The Clios because of the location. Miami is the epicenter for alot of Latin American advertising and of course, the super fast growing market of Hispanic advertising in the US. I met with Favio Ucedo who’s the Creative Director at Grupo Gallegos, a big Hispanic advertising agency in Long Beach with clients that include FoxSports and Energizer and we found there are many similarities between Canada and this US market.

For one thing, they do a lot of pick-up work, (which is the case in Canada at some agencies) and when it it’s not pick-up, many corporate clients have their hands tied down by somebody in the US who might not always appreciate local creative tastes. To Favio, it’s always a struggle, but I think they are doing good, ‘cause he’s here to pick up a Clio.

Favio told me that it hasn’t been easy convincing clients that not every spot has to have the stupid dog, two kids, family having dinner formula evident the moment I turn on the TV here. (by the way, count your blessings if you didn’t know it, American TV ads are terrible terrible terrible.) Like he said, "We make thousands and thousands of ads. Eventually a funny award winning one will pop out."

Something tells me that with time, we'll begin to see some interesting work from this side of the industry.