Advertising and fishing. Are they really that different?

By Alex Rodriguez, Junior Media Buyer

With the summer half way done one cannot argue that fishing season is still going strong.  Week in and week out the seas are filled with boats with their expensive rods and their high tech fish finders.  All in same pursuit of that trophy fish to mount on their walls.  This got me thinking on how this is so similar to what advertising is all about.  How each of the different brands are out there week in and week out with their high tech HD quality commercials or their “out of the box” ideas with that same hope of getting that winning prize. The only difference is that in this case the prize is the consumer.  However, the thing that gets me the most is that there really isn’t just one type of fishing.  For example, there is spear fishing, fresh water fishing, salt water fishing, etc.  And for each of these there are different tactics in going about getting that “prize fish.”  So why is that not the case with advertising?  What I mean by that is the following: Some clients have the tendency of having their Hispanic agency adopt what their General Market agency is doing.  I don’t believe this is always the right way to go about it.  I understand that staying within the same strategic direction is very important to maintain the integrity of the brand, but I still feel that we should be able to add our own flavor to it, and by flavor I don’t mean just changing the language to Spanish.  Put it this way; if you wanted to go salt water fishing in the morning and fresh water fishing in the afternoon you wouldn’t use the same bait, right? So why use the same General Market advertising campaigns for the Hispanic Market?  With more companies taking their Hispanic dollars away from Hispanic agencies and moving them to a General Market agency, I think it is crucial that we make a tougher case to companies that using the same bait may end up costing you a long day at sea.