Promoting Hype in Latin America: PROMAX.

As the Latin American TV market continues to expand and evolve into an important player on the international scene, this year's PROMAX & BDA Latin America 2000 conference takes on even greater regional significance as TV's creative professionals meet to discuss the unique challenges posed by the Latin American marketplace.

"PROMAX Latin America is like a lot of our other conferences," Glynn Brailsford, president and CEO of PROMAX & BDA, told Video Age. "It is providing a great educational source in the region. There's a great need for learning and sharing of techniques and new methods and it's a way of educating people about all the changes in the industry that are happening and helping them cope with that....It's also a way of people finding out what the other guy is up to, which is really important to all of them and it's great fun as well."

The conference, to be held November 13 and 14 at the Fontainableau Hilton Resort & Towers in Miami Beach, Florida, will be brimming with heavyweight Latin American entertainment companies such as Canal 13, Caracol, Cisneros Television Group, DirecTV/Galaxy Latin America, Globo TV Network, HBO Latin America, LAPTV, MTV Latin America, Sky Latin America, Telemundo Network and TV Azteca. In 1999, over 500 delegates from 12 Latin American countries, Spain and the U.S. attended the conference, with even more expected this year.

In addition to addressing issues such as legislation and regulations, PROMAX Latin America 2000 will offer visitor sessions focusing on three themes: Marketing, Internet & Convergence -- using cyberspace to promote a TV brand and taking a TV brand and breathing life into it online -- and Creativity, which will focus on tools necessary to write, design and create better work. Further, there will be panels showcasing Latin America's top-drawer creative talent and a session called "The Clash of the Titans," featuring creative teams competing to create compelling public-service campaigns, which are subsequently voted on by the audience during the actual session. There will also be panels of expert speakers who will present on-air, off-air and online examples of creative work designed to increase ratings and revenues. Rounding out the program are the PROMAX & BDA Awards, which honor this region's best marketing, on-air and online promotional creative teams of the past year.

The Latin American conference was established three years ago, Brailsford explained, "because that specific regional market is an incredibly vibrant market on its own. And as such, it was facing unprecedented challenges brought on by its growth. It's the same as anywhere else. Certain regions have their own common challenges and problems and it's a way for people to come together and address those issues that are pertinent to their regions. So on the one hand some might say, 'Well, those guys could go to the PROMAX global conference in the U.S. in June,' but that wouldn't address their real local needs and desires. And that's what all of our regional conferences do."

One example of a programming genre unique to Latin America is the telenovela, which embodies a strong fragrance of regional identity. Beyond the business of television, PROMAX Latin America 2000 will also celebrate the cultural framework in which programming and marketing ideas are created. "Everybody wants to reflect and reward his or her own work so a significant part of it is a feeling of commonality, belonging and celebration," Brailsford enunciated.

"The awards are very important to the whole thing, to say, 'This is great work!' That is common to all our conferences. It's sharing all of that knowledge and enthusiasm. It can be a lonely job being a promotional marketing guy. And suddenly you're with hundreds or thousands of like-minded individuals who are trying to come up with different creative solutions to the same problems around the world. I get to travel to all our conferences and I can see all the cultural differences, the similarities and fantastic work wherever I go around the world; really intriguing ideas," Brailsford observed.

In addition to PROMAX Latin America, the association hosts annual regional conferences in Australia, the U.K., Asia and Europe and the U.S. global show in June, all of which end up serving the same purpose. Brailsford pointed our that as branding gets more and more important, these conferences are where people of a like mind come together.