BUSINESS SECTION

HispanicAd.com

August 15, 2005

With more and more dollars being spent trying to reach Hispanic and multicultural consumers, there's a tug of war being waged between specialty ad agencies and general market agencies—for both talent and billings.

According to Raquel Sanabia, Multicultural Recruiter at Talent Zoo, the burden is now on the niche agencies to increase their pay scales to retain talent. "Some of the people I speak to, currently employed at Hispanic agencies, are almost embarrassed to tell me how much they earn because they know they're being underpaid," she said.

At the moment, Sanabia believes, agencies that understand the Hispanic market have the upper hand in terms of expertise: "When general market agencies learn that a client will siphon off a portion of next year's budget to a multicultural shop, they want to keep those dollars. But the general market agencies are often shooting in the dark when they form Hispanic or multicultural divisions. They don't understand the consumers as thoroughly."

If general market agencies continue to poach more talent, and pay significantly higher salaries, the knowledge gap will quickly close, leaving Hispanic agencies in a tough position to compete. With the Hispanic population destined to become America's majority population in the next few decades, general market agencies will definitely want to offer services to appeal to those consumers, and Sanabia believes there may not be any advantage for specialty agencies in the near future.

"I tell my Hispanic clients that it's a practically a matter of survival for them to stay competitive on salaries," she said. "All they have to offer clients is the expertise of their people. And the fact is, candidates are anxious to move into more general market agencies—they can do what they're currently doing and make significantly more money for it."

For more information at  http://www.talentzoo.com
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