Ralph Pardo of Omnicom Media Group at the HMC Summit: New media spaces create cultural connections that win multicultural audiences

For Ralph Pardo, CEO of the Omnicom Media Group, the latest trends like the metaverse and non-fungible tokens (NFT), plus the growing choice of platforms, means that traditional ways of connecting with people are changing. “What’s exciting is the opportunity for cultural connection. And that is something that has always meant a lot to Hispanics and multicultural audiences,” he said during the first annual meeting of the 2022 Hispanic Marketing Council Summit.Pardo took part in a virtual panel that discussed the best ways to attract the U.S. Hispanic audience, moderated by Donna Speciale, president of Advertising Sales and Marketing at TelevisaUnivision, and member of the board of directors of HMC, along with the CEOs of Group M, Kirk McDonald; of Publicis Media, Dave Penski; and of dentsu Media, Doug Rozen.The Omnicom CEO said they will see – as advertisers and agencies – a significant change toward a need to start programming platforms for audiences. “Which means creativity and media are coming closer,” he said “It’s a way of saying that I believe something like the metaverse fits in perfectly with all that but goes even further, of saying how the work is to be done and what will be the results.” Pardo added that the metaverse goes beyond a space, “it’s perhaps the most disruptive trend of the coming years.” McDonald agreed with Pardo that real cultural moments play an important role in the creation of outside influences. He noted that the challenge for increasing the participation of brands – in those spaces – is by showing they are really not intrusive and by doing it to scale. “That makes us more creative. And I believe it invites media teams and creative teams to work much closer together. The way that is shown in the surroundings of a secondary reality, such as a metaverse, will also play an essential part,” he said. “What strikes me is how all this is unified in the notion that it’s not just creativity, it’s not just media, it’s not just before being on a website or after being on a website, but rather the client’s total experience and how the client’s experience comes together in a unified trip,” Rozen said. He added that what we’re starting to see with these new spaces is that “to the extent we distance ourselves from ideas based on demonstrations for the audience, since that audience is now waiting for a trip, but a global experience that takes it to the right commercial result. Penski focused more on the subject of platforms, particularly in terms of inventory sources, and the fact is “that we are distancing ourselves more from SVOD and more toward the AVOD options that advertising allows.” For him, the current reduction of inventory is changing. “I believe we’ll be able to see a much wider fringe and that clients are more disposed to go that way. I believe that includes all things multicultural, allows for more players in the market, and that these specialize in a more connected television broadcasting based on results and attention-getting.” He added that “we are interchanging someone’s time in terms of winning his attention to see something, and then obtaining a part of the content. And I believe the good thing I’m seeing now is that there are more options for our advertisers to reach different consumers in different ways.”