The Hispanic Marketing Council called out chief marketing officers for inauthentic Latino marketing efforts and spending too little on the Hispanic market—and warned that doing so could put their careers in peril—as part of a new campaign unveiled at the council’s annual summit today.

The campaign focuses on the term “Latino Coating,” which the campaign defines as “a superficial marketing approach coating products, campaigns, media or entertainment with Latino elements for the appearance of diversity without genuine understanding or respect for Latino culture or communities.”

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Despite the Hispanic market making up nearly 20% of the U.S. population and representing $3.2 trillion in GDP, brands are investing less than 4% of their advertising budgets in Hispanic-targeted markets, the council said. 

“So many marketers are underspending, or doing a lot of things to take shortcuts,” said Isabella Sanchez, HMC’s Chair and the VP of Media Integration at Zubi. “There are many companies who will proudly say that they are capitalizing on the Hispanic market, but in reality, they’re just scratching the surface.”

The campaign launch includes social assets with the tagline #StopLatinoCoating and the message, “Don’t kiss your career goodbye.” The social images include different phrases such as “Invest in the $3.2 trillion Hispanic market or kiss the corner office goodbye” and “Authenticity is currency. Get it right or kiss your revenue goodbye.”

The campaign includes a tongue-in-cheek animated video titled “10 ways to successfully kiss your career goodbye.” The video lists examples, such as “creating an unforgettable scene at the office party” and hitting “Reply All” for an email that should have been private. The No. 1 way in the video is “Do Latino Coating instead of getting the Hispanic market right.”

The pro bono effort was led by Luis Miguel Messianu, founder, president and chief creative officer of Messianu Edelman Lerma, and Marco Vega, president and chief strategy officer of Creyentes and co-founder of We Believers. Creyentes Executive Creative Director Lucas Panizza and Casanova//McCann Chief Creative Officer Elias Weinstock Casanova//McCann also worked on the campaign.

Messianu called the campaign a “cautionary tale” for marketers to change their ways, especially as CMOs continue to face more pressure. Messianu believes that 90% of marketers aren’t reaching Hispanic audiences authentically or at all.

A website tied to the campaign lists examples of Latino Coating, a phrase that Messianu and Vega have used in the past and are looking to popularize. Some examples include only marketing to Latinos during Hispanic Heritage Month and translating or adapting campaigns not originally crafted for Latino audiences.

The campaign will be shared on HMC’s social platforms and members of the trade organization, which has been around since 1996, will also be asked to share the campaign. CMOs are also being encouraged to learn more by signing up on the campaign’s website or reaching out to HMC to find out ways they can do better.

“Latino Coating goes beyond just investment,” Vega said. “That is huge part of the problem. But once we solve that in parallel, we want to solve all the other structural parts, which is are you partnering with the right advisor to create this content and advice? Do you actually have the team in place to engage with the Latino consumer as you should? Are you really going with folks not only on the casting, but also on who is behind the camera to shoot the right stories in the right lens?”

Sanchez said he doesn’t believe marketers are engaging in “Latino Coating” intentionally.

“Lack of CMO initiative is not for lack of available information,” said Sanchez, noting that the council for years has provided research and guidance meant to help educate CMOs on the Hispanic market. “A lot of it is people don’t know what they don’t know. They may be getting misguided advice or biased advice from the general market side where the general market folks that they’re trusting are saying ‘You’re going to save money … You don’t need to do a separate commercial shoot, because if we just shoot on the same day, we'll redo the script, put some music over it, and throw in some stereotypes, that saves a lot of money.’”

Vega added that looking for efficiencies in that way can lead to a new “Total Market” movement, especially as the word “culture” becomes more prominent.

“People like to oversimplify the challenge and what it takes to solve a challenge. And it’s easy to put the solution into buckets. Total market was the biggest bucket ever and it didn't lead anyone to the right place. I'm afraid that the culture bucket is also as dangerous. And what we're trying to do here is say 'Before you go into another new bucket that’s just as big as the total market one, you should probably take a look at this pretty big bucket, that is $3.2 trillion in purchasing power and make sure that you're serving that bucket.'”

The campaign has two other phases planned, including an activation during the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The third phase is focused on the idea that the U.S. Hispanic market is the fifth-largest economy globally and promotes the market as a “new country” as part of a campaign.

Ultimately, success will be tracked by how many CMOs start to shift their ad dollars into the market and also hire agencies that are part of the HMC, Messianu said.