Page 57 - 2019 Hispanic Market Thought Leaders

2019 HISPANIC THOUGHT LEADERS Presented by HispanicAd.com
Rafael Rivero ● VP of Marketing, Verizon
Rafael Rivero is responsible “for maximizing the full marketing investment through advanced analytics, marketing mix models, advertising measurements, process improvements, and agency talent management” at Verizon. He was previously based in Sao Paulo, where he served as Managing Director leading all sales and operations for Verizon in Latin America.
Rivero is originally from Venezuela, where he began his career working for an engineering corporation deploying electrical grids and managing major construction projects.
What are some of the ways you and your team embed Multicultural/Hispanic efforts into the fabric of your organization, in order to ensure that the segment is prioritized accordingly?
Verizon prioritizes the Hispanic segment as part of our consumer growth strategy. Verizon understands that it needs to continue to be relevant to this community in order to succeed.
In 2018, Verizon launched a Hispanic Governance Council to help us identify gaps in both the employee and customer experience. The objective is to bring real, local and culturally relevant insights into important decision-making processes across all of our products, services and brand experiences. For example, the counsel has worked to ensure that the My Verizon App is available in both English and Spanish and also to improve social media and online experiences with original Spanish content. The council has been influential in developing a plan specifically for the Hispanic market, which is a truly customer-centric strategy and considers all aspects of the Hispanic customer journey.
How important is the Hispanic market for your industry and for your company?
People of diverse backgrounds are extremely important to the way Verizon approaches the market and also to how we approach bringing talent into the advertising and marketing industry. It is critical to have diversity inside our organization and inclusion for different perspectives so we can drive innovation for the communities in which we serve. Verizon sees it as our responsibility to lead the conversation on diversity and inclusion and take action to promote broader industry change. To do this, among various initiatives, we launched a fellowship program in 2017 to tackle the diversity challenge through an eight month-long program that enables people from diverse backgrounds to gain valuable experience across various functions ranging from creative to public relations. The program, called AdFellows, has now expanded and welcomed Walmart, Anheuser-Busch and American Express to join us in placing value and great importance to building a diverse and inclusive future.
Are there any particular marketing trends you envision in the next three to five years as it relates to connecting and engaging Hispanic consumers?