Armando Christian Pérez, otherwise known as cross over recording superstar Pitbull recently participated in a live stream interview here in Terra’s Coral Gables studio with questions submitted by the online viewers. Highlights from the interview are available here as well as quoted below. As he moves freely from English to Spanish as do many Hispanics as well, translation to English is by Terra USA Research.

Pitbull, Mr. 305, is most notably known for being a cross over artist, being the first to sign both with Sony Latin (Spanish) and Sony US (English) which comes with its challenges.

Whatever he is doing is definitely working for him. He recently released Armando, a fully Spanish album battling on the English side too, giving further evidence of how Latinos are growing in this country.

Diversity – Who We Are Is Exactly What We Are

“Growing up being whether it is 1st generation, 2nd generation, 3rd generation Latin American I am a 1st generation Cuban American. I represent all Latinos. We grew up with hip hop, we grew up with freestyle, we grew up with meringue, bachata, salsa, reggaeton, you have mambo violento now and when you have all these movements you put them together. You really can't tell us what genre we listen to or who we are. Who we are is exactly what we are, meaning as Latin’s we come black, white, pink, purple, orange, all shapes and sizes. We are a very diverse culture.”

Differences do exist among high tech gadgetry ownership by generation, however. iPad/Tablet PC owners: 21.4% among 1 st generation Hispanics vs. 16.2% among greater than 1 st generation Hispanics. A more dramatic difference exists among 3DTV owners: 13.5% among 1 st generation Hispanics which is statistically higher vs. 5.5% among greater than 1 st generation Hispanics. 1

Change with Us or Watch the Change

“Regarding Latinos being elected to major offices for the first time: “What we are watching right now that is happening is history. As far as the numbers that we are growing in, and the things that we are doing not just on the entertainment side, but on the political side. On all fronts, in the United States of America, it goes to show you that everything is changing. The face of America is changing. And they are going to change with us or they are just going to have to watch the change.”

General market household names are not standing in the sidelines. Hardly a day goes by without a major announcement in the trades of unprecedented outreach towards the highly coveted Latino consumer.

Pitbull Offers Insights for Marketers

Below are highlights from Pitbull’s interview during AHAA’s Annual Conference, Natural Selection, here in Miami during October that resonated with me. Loyal Smart Marketer readers know that I have tried to depict these angles through audience analytics, metrics and studies while it is also refreshing to hear the same perspective elsewhere, and even expanded.

The full podcast interview is available here: Podcast #17. Here are brief excerpts that provide guidance to marketers asking us how best to reach the Latinos online. Highlights and translation from Terra USA Research.

Just my upbringing and Miami being such a special city the way I grew up really helped me out in order to be able to tap dance my way through different cultures.

It has definitely changed when I see across the board Ford Fiesta, M&M Dulce de Leche, Chic Quatro. What is happening here? What happened to Goya and Mistolin?

What I say from an American, from an Anglo perspective is that they make it like a fad (Reggaeton boom.) It is not a fad, it is not a trend. When you look at Latin’s and the way that I buy the same products that my grandmother bought, it is not a trend. It is a very loyal consumer. It is a very loyal base. ...I have been able to survive because I have a very loyal fan base. That said, I do not think that I am part of a Latin Boom. If anything, pretty soon it is going to be an American Boom, not an American Boom but the other side, reverse osmosis.

They don't have much but they make these big numbers. We have always done it. Hispanics are innovators. A pressed mind is a creative mind. We are always finding new ways. With that budget we do 3 times then what the guy who had 10 times the budget.

People are starting to see what how workers we are and that we are making a difference.

The music business fought technology, no disrespect . With the Internet you are either 5 years ahead or 5 years behind. There is no grey area.

Why the Spanish album now? The Spanish album is always something that I have wanted to do. Not only to the US but now it is a global market more than anything and to take it International.

You had the reggaeton boom and anything you come out with in Spanish they would call me reggaetonero. I told them I was not a reggaetonero but that I just do music that I am an artist and this is what I do.

What happened is like everything else, when we talk about marketing, they try to label it like the double cross over and threw it in the corner, reggaeton in Spanish. Now we are able to create our own wave and our own movement.

(RE: Kodak commercial) … with Rihanna & Beyonce, they gave them $6M. Well Pit if you slip in a couple Spanish word then we will make your campaign $12.5M. That just goes to show you what they are looking at right now and how powerful we are when we may not even know it.

When I did the Dr. Pepper campaign, Lopez Negrete fought for me and said you need this kid, he is going to explode on you and this campaign is tied to his Spanish Album.

Where I am going with this is basically I think they are starting to see our power that we've always known we've had and we've always fought for but maybe we don't know how to handle.

I'll tell you from a Pitbull perspective. Sometimes I am too Latin for hip hop and too hip hop for Latin. And that is what happens when we try to market to our culture. Whether they are 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th generation, they may speak Spanish or they don't but they still eat tacos, arroz con pollo. They still hear about Vicente Fernández or Celia Cruz. They are still deeply rooted in their culture.

If I just throw in one Spanish word (into a song) I am not only going to have rhythmic, so let's just break it down Miami (radio stations,) Power 96. If it gets really big I will wait for Urban later. I will get El Sol 95, 98.3, 94.9. Then if it gets Top 40 I will get Y100. So now I've got 5 stations on one record, and you are rapping and you've only got one station? No, I'm going to throw in a bunch of Spanish words in here. If you see, that is how big our market is.

My #1 market is in Los Angeles. The biggest markets in the US are flooded and embodied with Latin’s. My biggest markets are LA, NY, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, San Diego and it affects the rest of the country.

Be a Smart Marketer. Change with us – don’t just watch the change. Whether it is being the Olive Garden Sweepstakes winning their dream prize of attending their cooking school in Tuscany, or being a Pitbull fan who appreciates his unique understanding of Latinos, tap into this growing market here in the US.

Terra is proud to host such a talented artist and role model - Pitbull - and is delighted to see that thousands of his fans like this too!

Of course, we congratulate Pitbull and wish him success across all of his music and marketing goals. We hope he has energized Smart Marketer readers into the power and potential of the Hispanic market, in his own words. Terra will stay tuned for more. Dale!

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Sources:

1.) Terra Ad Value Study by comScore

2.) Produ. HispanicPublicidad@Produ.com. Nov. 12, 2010

By Natasha Funk

Published:  December 2010