Page 27 - HSMR2018

2018 Hispanic Social Marketing Report, presented by Being Latino
THE BALANCE BETWEEN ACCEPTING AND ANNOYING
Liz Castells President/CEO, AdCastells
It’s been a busy 12 months for Liz Castells.
She’s practically bicoastal, and that’s a good thing.
“I’m in New York every two to three weeks,” she says. That is thanks to her agency’s efforts with Charter Spectrum, one of the nation’s biggest multichannel video platform distribution (MVPD) brands.
With the Gotham office growing, Castells can’t seem to catch her breath.
“Things are good,” she says. “They are very busy. It would be good to slow down and take some time off but I cannot complain.”
That’s because Castells has a singular focus on one core objective: to drive client’s results and meet their goals.
With that, 2018 is starting off “very well” as AdCastells works with Toyota, McDonald’s and Farmer John.
Yes ... McDonald’s.
The Golden Arches have been a target of much ire from multicultural broadcast companies such as Urban One, the parent of the Radio One station group and the TV One cable channel. The first quarter of 2018 looks worse than it would normally be, according to the company’s leader Alfred Liggins III, chiefly because McDonald’s cut its ad spending following an agency shift in 2017.
Asked about McDonald’s, Castells says, “We had to reorganize the account. [Davis Elen Advertising partner and Group Managing Director] Malu Santamaria, the head of the McDonald’s account, is still working with 18 co-ops. Media buying did go away this year. We kept every other area that the co-ops serve. Ultimately, I think it will change back.”
Yet, she adds, “The strategy of buying is just different. It’s about complement — what did the general market deliver, and how do we complement it?”
As such, local activation, added value and certain types of strategically-aligned programs will have a significant impact on the business. “It’s just becoming more common,” she says.
In social media, what Castells’ team does is directly related to their campaign, and to whatever the agency is promoting for the client at that time
“If it is buy one, get one free McCafé, we do that,” she says. “It is rooted in whatever the social is. The creative is done, but in the case of McDonald’s it is completely tied to the promotional campaigns. It is part of a 360-degree program that we do with some other