Overview:  HispanicBusiness magazine interviews Hollywood Branded CEO Stacy Jones on best practices for marketing to Hispanic consumers through entertainment using product placement and strategic partnerships.

Los Angeles-based agency Hollywood Branded Inc. this week announced the launch of its Hispanic Consumer Marketing Division servicing the entertainment, corporate and consumer lifestyle sectors.

HispanicBusiness caught up with Hollywood Branded
founder and CEO Stacy Jones to pick her brain as to why this move was so critical for her company.

With the Hispanic market’s growing buying power, it would seem that most agencies are creating these types of subdivisions within their companies to cater to the diverse community, but Jones has a different perspective.

“The short and quick answer to that question is no, we have not seen any other true Hispanic specialties or strong build-out of any Spanish-language strategies amongst the agencies in our industry,” she told HispanicBusiness.

“I’ve stumbled upon newer agencies on the Web that have affiliate agencies in other countries, including Latin America, that state they offer product placement or celebrity endorsements, amongst a handful of other services,” she said.

She added that she isn’t aware of any major successes among them, and said most of them “seem more to be an offshoot of another agency or single mom/pop style.”

Hollywood Branded’s clients include Showtime, TNT, Fox, Syfy, Hornitos, Jim Beam, Effen Vodka and BlackBerry.

The entertainment marketing agency is composed of industry-leading strategists whose mission is to ensure their clientele are at the forefront of celebrity-driven trends, and collectively deliver expertise across relevant music, digital, television, feature film properties and strategic brand partnerships.

Jones and her team have already constructed plans to go forward with phase one of this new endeavor. She said round one of the execution is twofold, and very celebrity driven. Here is how Jones breaks it down:

• “We match the opportunity to the brand by taking into consideration desired demographic reach, market timing requirements and the overall results and takeaways the brand is seeking … Leveraging the overall execution through cross promotion, retail components, media support and social media.”

• “At our core we live and breathe entertainment marketing around the clock. Our expertise is a tool that media, PR and creative agencies can take advantage of to leverage and extend their own planned advertising and marketing initiatives.”

• “Product placement and brand integration, and in fact the entire celebrity-driven world, is a very niche specialty. It is not a field that one can casually step in and out of. Our team is literally on the set of productions, delivering product and sampling to key decision makers.”

• “Without truly being in the heart of Hollywood and formally engaged daily in the world of entertainment, it is an impossibility to offer the same level of services or expertise we offer.”

• “We provide agencies a seamless ability to up the ante of their playing field, bringing their brand clients to the game in the most educated way possible, while also providing extensive ROI metric results for every campaign.”

• “There is a strong benefit to working directly with the brand’s agency, as not only does the agency often control the funds needed to create campaigns, but has also developed the core marketing plan that is intrinsic to the overall planning and execution.”

Popular Hispanic celebrities that Hollywood Branded is targeting for endorsements include William Levy, Eugenio Derbez, Javier Bardem, Demian Bichir, Eva Longoria, Mario Lopez, Wilmer Valderrama, Jennifer Esposito, Sofia Vergara, Naya Rivera, Cameron Díaz, Jaime Camil and Thalia.

“Spanish-language as well as English-language properties with Latino celebrities cast in key roles resonate and connect with the Hispanic consumer, offering an enormous playing field to generate brand exposure,” Jones told HispanicBusiness.

“It is well acknowledged that traditional advertising is struggling, and partnering with and integrating within entertainment provides the brand uncompromised engagement,” she continued. “Star power provides an innovative platform to increase brand awareness and exposure while influencing the Hispanic consumer’s purchasing decisions–and increasing sales.”

Social media savvy

As the power of social media increases, it’s critical for enterprises in all industries to hone in on their own strategies, and Jones agrees.

“Social media plays the role of everything in our agency,” she said. “Everyone on our team is committed (and tasked!) daily to ensure we have fun and relevant chatter for our clients and agency.”

For Hollywood Branded’s planned ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition season premiere party, the company had event sponsors set up at social media stations for celebrity and trendsetter attendees to “formally engage with the brand with feedback–leveraged with the opportunity to win a trip to Aruba.”

Another example of using social media to drive product endorsement is using NFL athletes’ popularity and creating social media-based brand giveaways to their followers.

“We post pictures of celebrities with their favorite brands (ours, of course!) and seed those images into the brand’s chatter,” Jones said. “Our team shares experiences based on our brand clients on the sets of the hottest TV shows and feature films, creating chatter that is fun and engaging, which leads to more followers.”

For more information about Hollywood Branded, visit its website at www.HollywoodBranded.com.

Source: HispanicBusiness.com (c) 2012. All rights reserved.