Hispanic Television Commercial Production in the USA – Say “Hola” to Globalization

In recent years, Hispanic advertising has been one of the fastest growing industries in the country. This meant also the growth of advertising production services, including production companies responsible to hire casting directors, who those calls on talent agencies for casting audition. However, you may ask yourself the following question: If the Hispanic Market is booming, where are the jobs? The answer is simple… say “hola” to globalization.

In order to understand this situation, you need to see the big picture and how the process works. The reality is that most of the national Hispanic advertising agencies often need to work harder than general market agencies in order to acquire new clients and to approve new creative campaigns. Since budgets are still considerably lower than general market campaigns, the Hispanic advertising agencies needs to get really creative with their work, and with their production budgets in order to stretch every single dollar as much as possible so they can deliver a national-level campaign that sells and delivers results to their clients.

With that in mind, major Hispanic advertising agencies are always looking for world-class directors/production companies to deliver similar or even higher standards than a general market TV-spot. Clearly the objective is to get the best director/production company that can produce the best television commercial on time and on budget. To achieve that objective, Hispanic advertising agencies look both locally or nationally, and internationally. That’s why very common most of the Hispanic television shoots are produced in Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica and Brazil. Why? Because the main benefits of shooting in Latin America are common knowledge in the Advertising industry:

• Higher cost-efficiency

• Easy to elevate production value due to a less-regulated industry

• Large variety of exotic/uncommon locations at close proximity

• Experienced and friendly crews eager to go the extra mile

• Longer shoot days with significantly less overtime charges

• Large pool of multi-ethnic talent

• Non-Union Talent buyouts at very low rates

• Extremely low cost but very high end post-production and special effects

• Convenient travel with hundreds of direct flights to Latin America.

In 2006, the number of American spots shooting in Latin America ballooned to 26% of all non-US shoots.

Even though many TV commercials are produced overseas, there are still several Hispanic television commercials produced in the USA due to client/advertiser’s decision, location and union talent requirements. However, if the client does not want to leave the country and requires the same high-standards provided internationally, no problem. Production companies can save them money right here in Texas by choosing a variety of non-descript urban locations, beaches, industrial settings, suburbia, countryside, and many more. Clients are still impressed with how easy it is to spend more time shooting and less time dealing with unions or even close major downtown areas compare to New York, Los Angeles or Miami. Not to mention that production in Texas got sweeter thanks to the new production incentives from The Texas Film Commission to production companies, resulting in more aggressive marketing plans for production companies to shoot big budget commercials in Texas.

But the fact of the matter is that competition has become tougher raising the bar for higher standards because we are not competing locally, we are now competing globally. Therefore, if you want to stay in the Hispanic advertising game, production companies must continue to provide new alternatives of top-notch directors, casting directors and talent agencies with a large pool of multi-ethnic talent, with a fresh look, fully trained and highly professional actors. Not only you need to speak the language fluently, you also need to be talented. The reality is that producers and agency creative directors are willing to spend travel expenses to fly better talent alternatives from Los Angeles or Miami. Remember; if it’s on budget consider it a done deal.

Many people blame Hispanic advertising agencies of not bringing TV shoots to their local cities because of the lack of their creativity in their projects. However, it is important to mention that it is not the advertising agency or the production company that selects the final director/production company for the TV shoot; it is the client/advertiser who makes the final decision based on numerous considerations that will satisfy their interest. Competition has been consistently raising the bar for everyone. If you don’t raise yours and adapt to the new market dynamics, you will get behind. So, do you say hola, or adios?