Political Campaigns Spend More on Reaching Latinos.

WHILE English-language media slaver over all the ad money pouring in from dot-coms, one of the biggest growth areas for local Spanish-language media is an entirely different segment: politics.

After years under the immigrant-bashing Pete Wilson administration, and after watching California voters pass ballot initiatives aimed at taking away services and limiting bilingual education, Latino voters have mobilized as never before. Polls show that the Latino vote grew from 7 percent of the electorate in 1992 in California to 10 percent in 1996. Though more recent figures aren't available, few doubt that the percentage was considerably higher in the past few elections.

Candidates and organizers of ballot measures appear to have taken notice. The presidential candidates are spending record amounts on Spanish-language advertising, in addition to making appearances and giving interviews to Spanish media outlets that have been all but ignored in previous elections.

Century City-based Spanish-language network Univision Communications Inc. reportedly took in $8 million in political advertising in 1998, during a hotly contested gubematorial race. Until that year, it had never taken in more than $500,000 a year for political advertising.

The outcome of last week's New Hampshire primary promises to result in a major influx in spending on local Spanish TV stations, particularly by the George W. Bush campaign. His loss to contender John McCain means California is even more important - and the Latino vote is critical to winning in California.

"They were puffing a very close watch on New Hampshire to redefine what the (advertising) strategies were going to be," said Patricia Ramos, spokeswoman for Univision-owned KMEX-TV Channel 34 in Los Angeles.

During the gubernatorial race, KMEX and La Opinion sponsored a debate that marked the first time all the major candidates for California governor have appeared in a forum sponsored by Spanish-language media. The debate was conducted in English, but broadcast with simultaneous Spanish translations on all the Univision stations in the state.

At La Opinion, "political advertising is a huge opportunity for us this year," said Marketing Director Miguel Pereira.

Two weeks ago, the Spanish-language newspaper launched a new section called Cambio ("Change") focusing solely on politics.

"Readers had been telling us in focus groups about how increasingly interested they were in politics," Pereira said. "Second, (the section was launched) because of the huge advertising potential with the upcoming election."

The influx of spending isn't just good for Spanish-language media. Marketers focusing on Latinos are suddenly jumping onto the political bandwagon.

During the 1998 elections, downtown L.A. based Durazo Communications Inc. worked on its first political campaign by handling the Yes on Proposition 5 (tribal gambling) campaign. Now it's handling Latino outreach for the No. on Proposition 28 (repeal of cigarette tax) campaign, and agency executives are getting increasingly involved in forging ties to political organizations.

"I think Prop. 5 was just the beginning of what's going to be a growing political consultancy business for us," said agency Executive Vice President Dan Durazo.

Beldings En Espanol

If "Life Is Beautiful" could get nominated for Best Picture even though it was filmed in Italian, why can't Spanish-language ads compete with English-language ones in the local advertising industry's equivalent of the Oscars?

That's a question some board members at the Ad Club of Los Angeles have been asking themselves for the past year, and the answer they came to is, they can and should. The out come of their decision will add a distinct new flavor to this year's Belding Awards in April.

L.A. is home to about a dozen Spanish-language ad agencies, though you'd never know it by attending most Ad Club events, including the Beldings. The Latino-focused agencies tend to mix in their own circles and, when they enter awards competitions, they enter national contests pitting Spanish-language agencies from around the country against each other.

In previous years, there has been only one category at the Beldings in which Latino agencies could enter their work: best foreign-language spots. That meant automotive ads were competing against supermarket commercials, with none of the category distinctions that existed for English-language spots.

But few local Latino agencies wanted to compete under those terms, so they seldom bothered to submit work to the Beldings, according to Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, co-chair and president of Spanish-language agency Enlace Communications Inc. in West L.A. So Newman-Carrasco, a member of the Ad Club's board, got together with agency chiefs and creative heads at about eight Spanish-language firms to figure out a solution.

They decided to go head to head with English-language agencies by entering their work in all the same categories.

"It's our way of saying, we think our work is just as good as any other work out there," Newman-Carrasco said.

The switch does have its complications. The Belding Awards are traditionally judged by creative chiefs from agencies outside Southern California - nearly all of them mainstream (i.e., white). Humor doesn't translate well across languages, and there are cultural nuances in many Spanish-language ads that non-Latinos would be unlikely to understand.

To level the playing field, Eduardo Bottger, president of Santa Ana-based al Punto Advertising Inc., was placed on the committee that selects judges for the Belding Awards. He's charged with making sure there are Latino judges on the panel.

Assistant Managing Editor Dan Turner writes a weekly column on marketing for the Los Angeles Business Journal.