Authenticity and “Territorial Anchors” Are Keys to Success for Content for U.S. Hispanics, Execs Say
Stories for the U.S. Hispanic market were the topic of debate at Iberseries & Platino Industria in Madrid, Spain on Thursday afternoon.
The fourth edition of the event focused on Portuguese- and Spanish-language content presented a panel featuring Carlos Quintanilla (Control Z, Working Girl), vp, original content at Sony Pictures Television, Christian Gabela, senior vp, head and executive producer for Latam & U.S. Hispanic at Gaumont, Leonardo Zimbrón (Acapulco, Club of Crows), senior vp, film & international coproduction at 3Pas Studios in Mexico, and Sergio Pizzolante (Zorro, Nicky Jam: The Winner), president, Secuoya Studios commercial & international distribution. The session was moderated by Fidela Navarro, CEO of Dopamine in Mexico.
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“U.S. Hispanic audiences represent a huge market,” a panel description had said. “Executives reflect on how they approach the creation of films and series for them.”
Early on in the debate, it was all about the continued growth and upside. “It’s a market that is unstoppably growing,” Zimbrón said, pointing out that the best-selling grocery item in the U.S. used to be bread but that has been replaced by tortilla. He also highlighted that in terms of purchasing power in the U.S., Hispanics rank “number 2 behind the American Americans, so to speak.”
Gabela added that Hispanics are young compared to the rest of the U.S. and are very diversity given backgrounds in many different Latin American countries.
“At Secuoya, we have a great success story with Zorro,” Pizzolante said. “It’s a show that could organically live in Spain or Latin America. [The protagonist] is Spanish, and the story happens in California. It either works very strongly for America, maybe with a European wink, or for Europe with an American wink.” His conclusion: “Content needs a territorial anchor, either in Latin America or in Spain.” He underlined the need for such clarity with a comparison: “People like either cold or hot tea. Nobody
likes cool tea.”
Zimbrón said another recipe of success is to always keep the target audience in clear focus. “We are always thinking of U.S. Hispanics,” pointing to Apple TV+ hit comedy series Acapulco as an example.
Meanwhile, Sony wants to keep things real and not force things that make no sense. ‘We are looking for authenticity,” said Quintanilla. “If you have Colombian content and we try to include a Spanish cousin, that’s very difficult for the audience. As soon as they detect that it’s not authentic, they leave you.”
Zimbrón echoed that, saying developing content for U.S. Hispanics is “a matter of authenticity.” Helping with that is the reliance on Hispanic writers, directors, and other creatives. “We need to respect using Hispanic creativity,” he said. “We need to include them.” His company also wants to tell LGBTQ+ stories and wants to bring in the appropriate creative voices for that.
In some cases, he said his company’s work could also include talent from Spain, Zimbrón said, lauding Spanish writers and other creatives and describing them as “a luxury item.”
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