Strategic Thinking by a Latino Pioneer Ad Exec
Lionel Sosa created the first effective advertising to target a Hispanic-American audience.
Editor’s note: This piece is a Latin Biz Today reprise remembering an inspirational Latino and his impact on the advertising industry. The agency he founded closed in 2017. Lionel turn his talents to the arts and established Lionel Sosa Portraits. Lionel also shared his insights as a speaker.
In Lionel Sosa, ambitious entrepreneurs can find the ultimate lesson in the power of strategic thinking. Best known for his role in the development of Hispanic advertising in the United States, Sosa has excelled in many other fields, from politics and publishing to fine art and, most recently, television production. In almost every case, his triumphs can be traced to a keen understanding of prevailing market conditions, and an unerring feel for emerging trends. And while his personal philosophy with respect to achieving success may strike some as the stuff of self-help happy talk, there’s no arguing with what he’s achieved.
You must set bold goals and believe in yourself, he said. A theme of one his ventures, a multipart PBS series on the northward outflow of refugees from the Mexican Revolution titled The Children of the Revolucion. Expect good things to happen and good things will happen. Have a good attitude, work hard, recognize opportunity, and give it your all. Sosa paid his dues as a $1.10-an-hour sign painter before founding his own graphics art studio in his hometown of San Antonio. The year was 1966.
As the firm grew, his client roster came to be dominated by local ad agencies. Sosa realized there was more money to be made in advertising. He got together with Lupe Garcia, Beverly Coiner and Warren Stewart to found a general-market advertising agency, Ed Yardang. Coiner came up with the name, in honor of an imaginary childhood friend. It was kind of a fanciful name, but that way we didn’t have to worry about a title that included all four of our names, Sosa explained.
The firm grew steadily, and in 1978 Ed Yardang’s solid creative work caught the attention of an aide to then-U.S. Senator John Tower, who was gearing up for a tough re-election bid and wanted to improve his standing among Hispanic voters. In what would prove to be an important event for Sosa, and Hispanic advertising in the U.S., Towers campaign enlisted Ed Yardang for the campaign.
Looking back on it, it was pure luck that we got that call at all, Sosa now says. We had no political experience. To us, it was just another business opportunity. What we lacked in political savvy, though, we made up for with creativity and good hard work. Tower went on to win reelection with 37 percent of Texas Hispanic vote a full seven percentage points more than his campaign goal. No Texas Republican had ever gotten more than 8 percent. And Ed Yardang won a reputation as the go-to firm for reaching an under-served consumer group. Sosa had seen firsthand the vast potential in marketing to Hispanics. And, he had gained access to some rarified political circles in the bargain.
When his partners at Ed Yardang balked at remaking the firm as a Hispanic-focused agency, Sosa struck out on his own, initially setting up shop in the same building. His decision was based on an instinctive grasp of Hispanics growing clout as consumers and voters, and an acute analysis of his former firm’s growth aspects. At the time of his departure, Ed Yardang was servicing regional and local accounts worth some $50,000 to $100,000 each a model predicated on ever-greater volumes of new business to sustain growth and profitability.
Sosa & Associates managed to land several impressive accounts early on, including Westinghouse, Canadian Club and the Universal Pictures Hispanic-themed film Zoot Suit. But Sosa was determined to make inroads into the upper reaches of the Fortune 500, where the most lucrative accounts were to be found. The nascent Hispanic advertising industry at the time was dominated by a handful of large firms such as New York’s Cuban-owned Conill, which had created advertising for the likes of McDonalds for years.
Sosa had an unexpected ally in Senator Tower, who was grateful for the ad man’s contributions to his winning reelection campaign. He called and asked what he could do for me. At first, I declined his help, but ultimately, I admitted that I could use more business, recalled Sosa.
Tower persuaded a reporter he knew at The Wall Street Journal to write a feature on Sosa & Associates. The impact of that story was swift and far-reaching, with Sosa’s agency claiming three major new accounts: Coke, Coors and Bacardi. Our agency took off. Ernest Bromley and Al Aguilar became partners, and their names were added to the door. We went from $1.5 million in annual billings to $14 million in a matter of six months, he said. Winning a blue-chip clientele was only half the battle. Sosa would have to differentiate his firm from the better-established agencies that had dominated Hispanic advertising in the United States to that point. And this is where he would make a lasting mark.
Before Sosa, Bromley, Aguilar & Associates, ad campaigns geared toward U.S. Hispanics were short on branding substance and long on entertainment and Latin cultural kitsch like dancing girls. Sosa’s re-imagined the creative process. His approach included an unprecedented emphasis on market research, including the regular use of focus groups and an emphasis on creating an emotional bond between consumer and product. He also made a practice of shadow shooting. Sosa explains: We always shot commercials in Spanish and English, even if the spot was only going to be on [Spanish-language network> Univision. That way we’d have English-language spots on reels for showing to prospective clients.
You must remember that at this point, Hispanic advertising still meant Spanish-language advertising in the minds of U.S. corporate types, and Spanish-language advertising on television meant Univision. The general-market firms still had just about all the English-language business, including messaging intended for Hispanics. That began to change, as Sosa & Associates added accounts from Budweiser, Dominos and Burger King to the U.S. Army. Beverage and fast-food companies led the way in the market segment. The Coca-Cola account alone was worth $30 million; Budweiser was $20 million.
They were the accounts to have. [Rival firm> Castor had had them for years. We decided to go after them and were successful, Sosa says. By pitching their creative in both Spanish and English, his firm helped to change corporate perceptions about the Hispanic community in the U.S.
Sosa & Associates messaging was just different from past Hispanic ad campaigns. A spot for the U.S. Army featured a mother expressing pride in her son’s enlistment. Earlier commercials, particularly those aimed at Hispanics, had stressed military service as an adventure. We depicted Hispanics as Americans. That was the crucial difference, said Sosa, who sold his interest in Sosa & Associates in 1990. At its height, the agency was the largest Hispanic shop in the U.S., with annual billings of $130 million and a payroll of some 125 people. His former partners Bromley and Aguilar today front the heavyweight firms Bromley Communications and Creative Civilization, respectively.
We wanted to be the best and largest advertising agency in the country. But beyond that we wanted to create opportunity for Latino professionals in advertising. There really weren’t that many opportunities for talented Hispanics in the industry back then, says Sosa. By that time, Sosa had also made a name for himself as a political consultant as well. Beginning with Ronald Reagan, he would work on six presidential campaigns, using the insights he’d honed as an advertising executive.
In the early 1980s, and it’s unfortunately true to some extent even today, many corporate leaders and politicians assumed that anything having to do with Hispanics automatically meant Spanish-language messaging. It took some time to convince Republicans that the Latino voters they wanted to attract were generally acculturated and spoke English, said Sosa, himself a Republican since seeing a televised speech by Dwight Eisenhower at age 13. Through Sosa’s efforts, George W. Bush managed to net upwards of 40 percent of the U.S. Hispanic vote in 2004. Sosa is not currently involved in the 2012 presidential campaign season but says he might consider one more run.
He’s not wanting for diversions. His extensive brood includes eight children, 15 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren, most of them living nearby in the San Antonio area. Sosa also is a nationally recognized portrait artist and a busy public speaker who has lectured at Harvard, Yale and the University of Texas at Austin. He’s also a prolific author whose titles include the acclaimed Think & Grow Rich: A Latino Choice, a contemporary Latino take on Napoleon Hill’s classic motivational tome Think and Grow Rich.
Other projects have included serving as CEO of the social issues think tank Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together. And of course, he’s in demand as an independent marketing and media consultant. The Children of the Revolucion marks his foray into television production. A co-effort with wife Kathy, an accomplished artist and advertising professional in her own right, the 20-part series chronicle the largely untold story of how thousands of families fled upheaval in Mexico a century ago to begin the process of Latinizing the United States. It’s a historical chapter that holds special appeal for Sosa, himself the son of Mexican immigrants. Sosa is executive producer, director and host of The Children of the Revolucion, which has thus far run on San Antonio PBS station KLRN. Sosa hopes to get corporate sponsorships to broadcast the program on PBS stations nationwide.
As one might expect, he’s confident he’ll be able to secure the necessary backing. I consider myself first and foremost a strategic planner. In business as in politics, it’s all in the planning, Sosa says. Beyond that it’s simply a matter of convincing people that your product is the best. It’s the art of persuasion.
Plan And Grow Rich
What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Be passionate about what you want to do. Love the business you’re getting into, then set goals to accomplish. Know what you want to earn and exactly what value you will be delivering to your customers. Set dates for accomplishing your goals. Fuzzy goals produce fuzzy results.
Here’s an example of a fuzzy goal: I want to make a lot of money repairing appliances. Here’s an example of a specific goal: I will earn an income of $200,000 a year repairing an average of six appliances a day (or 120 appliances a month) over a 12-month period, delivering such good service that my clients will recommend me to friends, enabling me to grow my business, which will provide me with an income of $500,000 annually within five years.
Do you recommend that young professionals and entrepreneurs seek out mentors?
Yes. Seek only the advice of very successful experts in your field and people you highly respect. Then take their advice; don’t ignore it. Listen. Take notes. Don’t waste their time. Buy them lunch. Thank them. Keep in touch. Let them know how their advice helped you.
How does one best prepare for opportunities in the marketplace?
When you have a specific goal, opportunities will fall in your lap.
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