Last week I saw a very uncomfortable Vanessa Ruíz, a television news anchor from Phoenix, Arizona defend why she pronounces Spanish words correctly. She responded to the spiteful social media reaction during a broadcast.

At first I couldn’t understand why she was explaining herself. But as I continued to listen and learn more about the criticism surrounding her, it became apparent. This was yet another instance of fear of change resulting in shameful ignorance by people who love to say, “This is America, speak English”.

It reminded me of a certain Republican presidential hopeful who can’t stop tripping over himself or the woman at the fast food restaurant caught on tape a few weeks ago ridiculously comparing speaking Spanish in the U.S. to Nazism.

Absurd.

I’m sure many of you can relate to getting dirty looks from people, maybe in the workplace, for speaking Spanish. Why do they think we’re talking about them? I want to say to them, “Stop being paranoid, you’re not that interesting”.

Vanessa’s public address got me thinking about all of these related situations…rolling r’s, pronunciations and my name.

My parents named me Hugo after mi Papá. Here I am when I was called Huguito. I’m still, Huguito and always will be to my parents.

Soon after this picture was taken I started grade school where teachers pronounced my name HYOO-go.

Kids don’t often question authority figures like teachers, but this future journalist did and I corrected them. “My name isn’t HYOO-go”, I said. “It’s OO-go”. “No”, they said, “in English it’s HYOO-go”.

So, I conformed or as conservatives and the like often say - I assimilated.

My name was OO-go at home and HYOO-go as soon as I stepped outside.

That went on from grade school to high school to my university years and into adulthood. Latinos often pronounced my name correctly, everyone else butchered it.

I’ve been called Hugh, Hu, Huey and Yugo.

This is Yugo…

This is Hugo…

One big difference between us is you’ll get more miles from Hugo.

Throughout the years I’ve brushed off the mispronunciation of my name, joking that as long as my name was spelled correctly on my paycheck you could pronounce it any way you like.

Thinking of pronunciations reminded me of a friend I made in South Florida when I worked at NBC 6. Her name is Patricia (pronounced puh-TREE-see-ahh). The first time I met her I pronounced it puh-TRIH-shuh. She made sure I didn’t make that mistake again.

A few weeks ago I learned that my nephew Juan Andrés asked his parents to change his name to John Andrew. He was being bullied at school.

Our names matter. They assist in defining ourselves. Beginning with our parents and the tone they use when saying it - our name can be music to our ears or dread.

I wrote a blog: Welcome To The United States, Aquí Se Habla Español about the necessity to speak Spanish in this country based on study after study on the U.S. Hispanic population growth. I was attacked by some for actually stating the obvious - this country is bilingual.

Which brings us to the GOP front runner for the party’s presidential bid.

Donald Trump criticized fellow GOPer Jeb Bush for speaking Spanish recently, saying “when in the U.S. speak English”.

I’m not supporting Bush. He stepped on it with his anchor babies comment during a recent interview.

Generalizing Mexicans as criminals.

Dehumanizing a group of people as illegals.

How to pronounce words.

Enough.

This is all about control. Who gets a seat at the table of power. The decision makers asserting themselves.

“Assimilate”. “Assimilate like every immigrant community before yours”. Assimilate sounds a lot like the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

For you non geeks…The Borg are a cybernetic race of clones that use a process called “assimilation” to force other species into their collective.

Assimilate. The establishment wants us to conform. Look like them. Speak like them. Think like them.

Many company diversity and inclusion initiatives are nothing more than smoke and mirrors. They hire for a candidate’s diversity, but reward them for their conformity.

What’s the point of hiring someone for their diverse background and experience (and I’m not just talking about race) if once they get their foot in the door they are forced to follow the existing corporate culture… which is not reflective and inclusive of them.

An on-air journalist shared with me recently that during her annual review she was criticized for having a Spanish accent.

What?

First of all many people mistake a southwestern accent as a Spanish accent.

They should really get out more.

Second, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the U.S.

Chances are likely you’re going to come across a Spanish accent more frequently than say a British accent, but no one bats an eye when a person with a British accent presents the news.

Assimilate? Well we are not assimilating… we are acculturating. Latinos are adapting some traits from American culture and fusing their own creating something new.

That’s why a few years ago salsa replaced ketchup as the favorite condiment in the U.S.

That’s why this hot dog…

Now looks like this delicious monstrosity…

Acculturation in music, sports, business and politics.

There are more than 25 million U.S. Hispanic eligible voters, 11 percent of the voting population… many live in two battleground states: Nevada and Colorado. The best weapon we have against prejudice and hate is our vote.

Sometimes I feel like I’m in the Matrix (yes, continuing to reinforce my geekiness). We’ve been conditioned to accept things as they are, live in these little boxes.

“Don’t rock the boat”.

“Don’t make waves and you’ll do just fine”.

And then someone like Vanessa comes along and reminds us that it’s not just fine.

Our choice. The blue or red pill.

“You take the blue pill, the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

Plugged or unplugged? You have to decide.

Project Enye’s movement to get Twitter to allow the use of ñ on handles.

The National Hispanic Media Coalition, National Association of Hispanic Journalists and other organization’s plight to get all media to use undocumented instead of the defamatory term illegal in describing a group of people.

The demand for interpreters for Spanish speaking players in Major League Baseball.

It all matters.

And this of course applies to all communities. Be it ethnic, race, religious, sexual orientation and the like.

It’s not about politically correctness going amuck. It’s about being right or wrong. It’s about being fair and accurate.

It’s small. Perhaps for many people it will be insignificant. The faithful will cheer, the haters will roll their eyes… call me a pain in the ass.

You know the world could use a few more pains in the asses. In fact it is the American way right? If not for a few pains in the posterior about “no taxation without representation”, we would still be her Majesty’s colonies.

As a gesture of solidarity with Vanessa, borrowing a page from Prince who was formerly known as…

Allow me to reintroduce myself.

My name is Hugo pronounced OO-go.

I’m the person formerly known as HYOO-go, Hugh, Hu, Huey and once Yugo.

Thank you Vanessa Ruíz.

It can get lonely being the only one in the room. But that’s changing. Whether people like it or not you’re one of 54 million and growing.

Some have accents, some roll their r’s, some pronounce Spanish words as they were intended and all of us love salsa.

We’ve got the numbers and time is on our side.

Snapchat marketing can help you reach the Hispanic 13-25 year old market. Find out why and how to leverage Snapchat for business.

Did you know the Snapchat app has just been valued at almost 25 billion dollars? Most people think Snapchat is for teens and sexting, but smart brands are leveraging this smartphone app to reach a very coveted market segment: the youth segment. And guess who else is quite interested in Snapchat marketing? The political sector. With well over 100 million users, a vast majority residing in the United States and between the ages of 18 and 25, Snapchat has a significant potential to radically affect the next Presidential election.

What is Snapchat?

So, what exactly is Snapchat? It’s a smartphone app that allows its large base of users, mostly teens, to send photos or videos to friends – or total strangers – which displays on the receiver’s phone for up to 10 seconds. After the visual content has been viewed, it disappears from the receiver’s app, unless the recipient takes a screenshot of the photo and stores in on its mobile device. Snapchat also gives you the option of making the image more attractive and engaging with words, doodles, and drawings.

Snapchat entered the market on 2011, as a college project by the now-24 year old Evan Spiegel, at the same time than Pinterest but with very different purposes. While on Pinterest, you have the resilient power of the Pin, where you get exposure independently of when you uploaded the media, on Snapchat the content uploaded disappears almost instantly. While on Pinterest, you can feature your product and its uses and it’s a platform developed for social commerce, on Snapchat you capture the viewers’ attention 100 percent for the duration of the Snap.

Snapchat users cannot search for a Snap like on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. It’s now or never. And this is a great aspect of Snapchat for business that needs to be leveraged on Snapchat marketing campaigns.

“Social media companies tell us what to read based on what’s most recent or most popular. We see it differently. We count on editors and artists, not clicks and shares, to determine what’s important.” – Snapchat

Why Snapchat Marketing?

Ask yourself the following:

Is your target demographic is essentially 13-25 year olds?

Do you have the resources to generate a steady stream of posts, and be able to respond and interact?

Can you offer contests and giveaways and does your target audience respond highly to them?

Are you interested in generating awareness for your products or services?

If you answered yes to all of the above questions, you should be on Snapchat already!

Snapchat Demographics

There are approximately 26 million users in the U.S., and about 400 million snaps are sent out each day.

“According to GWI’s data, it’s the fastest growing social app out there. More than half of its users are aged 16-24. And among U.S. teens, it’s more popular than either Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. Overall, just 14 percent of teens are Snapchatting, putting it behind WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and even Skype.

That means it’s the reach of Snapchat in certain markets which matters; in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, the US and Canada, for example, more than 30 percent of this demographic are on Snapchat. These are the key markets to target.” – Globalwebindex

Snapchat’s worldwide statistics are impressive:

100 million monthly active users

70% of Snapchat users are women

71% of Snapchat users are under 25 years old

32% of U.S. teens (13-17) use Snapchat on a mobile device

58% of students would make a purchase from a brand that sent them a Snapchat coupon

33% of Millennials use Snapchat

4% of the global adult Internet population use Snapchat monthly.

30% of Snapchat users are in the U.S. and 6 percent in Brazil

Let’s take a look at Snapchat’s numbers in the United States:

60% of Americans 13-34 year olds use Snapchat

Half of Snapchat users in the U.S. are between 16-24 and are living with their parents

58% are male and 42% female

93% of Snapchat users have a Facebook account, about 80% have a G+ and Twitter account and 42% have a Pinterest account

Snapchat users are 10 times more likely to use Vine than any other user

Other apps they use: YouTube, Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, Tumblr, Flickr, and Viber

22% of Snapchat users (or 6.6 million) in the U.S. are Hispanics (extrapolated from Census demographics for this age segment and not taking into consideration that Hispanics are early adopters of technology and have a higher usage of social networks than their white non-Hispanic counterpart)

Evidently, an app with such a large user base – especially young users – are few and far between. Of course, if you are willing to target an audience younger than 13, and are COPPA compliant, you can go for SnapKidz, a lightweight version of the app designed for children.

Time is of the essence

Another reason for using Snapchat for business is the level of attention it demands from viewer that actually couples the level of attention of mobile and the fact that the visual content will disappear unless you capture it with a snapshot and share it. Besides, users need to interact with the app by pressing the photo in order to view it.

Many Snapchat marketing campaigns leverage this time constraint with appealing content such as contests, offers, teaser content, and discounts, with very strong calls to action.

Researchers have shown that socioeconomic disadvantages such as lower income, education levels, and healthcare access usually translate to shorter lifespans. Based on this research, U.S. Hispanics and blacks (who have greater disadvantages compared to non-Hispanic whites) should have the highest death rates. But surprisingly, Hispanics are the ones defying the odds and living the longest – by age 80, the Hispanic death rate is 23 percent lower compared to that of non-Hispanic whites.

Older Hispanics are less likely to get fatal chronic diseases such as cancer, chronic lung disease, heart disease and stroke. They also have higher survival rates for cancer and cardiovascular disease, even though they have a higher risk for Type 2 Diabetes, and are just as likely to be obese as non-Hispanic whites.

So why are Hispanics living longer when they “should” be at a disadvantage? While researchers don’t have a definitive answer, two factors seem to be key:

Cultural support: Hispanics who are sick or injured have a strong network of social support through their family and faith. This may provide for a faster recuperation and a better state of mind through their illness.

The foreign-born advantage: The Hispanic paradox mostly applies to foreign-born Hispanics. They tend to behave in healthier ways (smoking and drinking less, eating more fresh foods) than U.S.-born Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites.

These health benefits are also one of the reasons why almost a third of non-elderly Hispanics lacked health insurance in 2011. They often feel healthy enough to forgo insurance.

The bottom line is that other ethnicities as well as U.S.-born Hispanics can learn a lot from these healthy habits and lifestyles. Likewise, foreign-born Hispanics should not take these advantages for granted.

Studies show that second and third-generation Hispanics (U.S.-born children and grandchildren of foreign-born Hispanics) adopt certain unhealthy mainstream culture behaviors (such as smoking, fast food, etc.) at a similar rate as non-Hispanic whites and blacks. These habits can quickly erode some of the health benefits that their parents and grandparents enjoy.

Dear Allison and Ken and the rest of the cool folks of Ad Age,

I’ve been to over 10 conferences in the last 15 years. Your Small Business Conference was the best ever.

Why? Because it mattered most. In the past, I’ve attended conferences on a larger agency’s dime. If we’re all honest, as long as the host city provided cool opportunities to socialize, the content, structure and overall efficacy of the conference itself mattered a little less. If any of those past conferences happened to be well organized and well programmed, then that was a bonus. But this Small Agency Conference 2015 in Boston had to live up to higher standards, as the stakes for us at Stinghouse were much more intimate, more personal, more real to our actual bottom line.

Stinghouse is our beautiful little 30-month old baby agency. Yeah, Boston is cool and the weather rocked, but if we didn’t come back to Miami smarter advertisers, then this would’ve been a total fail. So with the pressure on, your conference delivered. Thanks.

Here’s our unsolicited top three reasons it rocked and two constructive, and hopefully well-received, areas-of-improvement:

The Conference Rocked Cuz:

1. Minute-to-Minute Value: In this well-organized conference, every aspect of the program yielded new information and/or networking opportunity. Too many conferences have a few duds in their programming. Those dud sessions really become informal bathroom breaks and e-mail check time. The Ad Age Small Agency Conference made us hold it in till the official bathroom break time because we didn’t want to miss a thing.
2. Strong Keynote: Linda Kaplan, despite running a ginormous advertising empire, felt like one of us “small-agency-and-proud” types. She was not just affable, knowledgeable and relatable; her Grit-to-Great message struck many of the chords we embrace at Stinghouse. As a champion of challenger brands, without grit, we would never be able to start our own agency, let alone help our clients challenge the champions of their respective categories. Bravo Linda!
3. Balance in Programming: Some of the stuff in the program were obvious points-of-interest for us: Anatomy of a Killer Campaign, Growth and Culture, and Tips for Winning Business Now come to mind. But the chats on mergers & acquisitions and the legal implications of social media were huge value-adds that provoked us to think even more holistically about running and growing Stinghouse.

Conference Areas-of-Improvement:

1. More Small-to-Large Brand Success Stories: Converse and Big Lots are big brands, cool brands, well-funded and recognized brands. The showcases of Converse and Big Lots were cool and valuable, but as a small agency, we are often working with small-to-mid tier brands. Showcasing examples of agencies and their clients going from nowhere-to-somewhere great, and from unknown-to-highly-recognized would be of major value to many small agencies. This is not an ask to replace the Converses and Big Lots of the world, just add some smaller brands doing killer work, after all, Small Agency Conference, right?
2. More Multicultural: So no, Stinghouse is not an outright multicultural ad shop, but Miami is a multicultural city and so is an ever-growing part of the United States. Having worked on Ford, Unilever, Chase, SC Johnson, American Airlines and others for nearly a decade prior to Stinghouse (related to multicultural marketing), I continue to monitor the trends and conversation surrounding the multicultural dynamic brands face in attempting to successfully connect with a diversifying customer base. Multicultural has become less and less the concern of specialty ad shops but rather a daily concern for all brands competing for customers today and forever more. There was an implicit sprinkling of multicultural chatter in the program but we think that a more explicit effort can yield even greater value for future attendees of this pretty awesome conference.

So there ya have it. We’re marketers, so sure we can write more for we always have more to say, or at least I do. But we’ll stop here. We hope you found some value, insight and/or a chuckle in reading this review of this pretty cool platform y’all created that allows us gritty little agencies to feel really huge.

Feel free to share this wide and deep, or as we say on social #stingdeep.