PR’s Top Pros Talk: Natalie Boden

Natalie Boden, Founder and CEO of BODEN Agency, shares her insights on how brands can engage with the Hispanic cohort authentically during Hispanic Heritage Month (and beyond) and why understanding local and cultural nuances matter when reaching this fast growing community. She also discusses her new children’s book, “Sasha’s Big Question,” which she wrote in response to the question “Mom, why do you work?” which many moms (more than dads) are faced with during their motherhood and career journeys. To purchase the book visit: https://store.bookbaby.com/book/sashas-big-question

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TRANSCRIPT:

DOUG: Natalie, I’d like to start by congratulating you on your new book called “Sasha’s Big Question.” Can you share a little bit about what it’s about?

NATALIE: Thank you very much for having me. First and foremost, very excited to be here. Sasha’s big question. So, I’ll tell you a little story first. So, when Seb and Sasha, both my children were growing up, at one point in time, they asked me, Mom, why do you work? And I thought to myself, how is it that I get asked that question and women in general get asked that question, Mom, why do you work? But dads don’t get asked that question. It’s that they’re already there, those gender rules are already in play when they’re really young. And there’s a lot of guilt that moms feel, too, because they go out to work that dads don’t. So, I thought, you know what? I’m going to develop a book, a story that moms can read to their children that answer the question, why do you work, mom? So, the story, Sasha asking that question and the mom takes Sasha through this beautiful journey as to why she works in an illustrated form, in a fun and engaging form that you can read at bedtime to your children.

DOUG: You also use the hashtag Step Up for moms.

NATALIE: All the money that we’re going to make and all the fees that everyone is paying to buy the book is going to go to an organization called Step Up and Step Up is an organization whose mission is to help young girls define what their vision of success is. And many times, women and girls think that success is defined by A, B, or C. We get to define our own success. And with the book, it’s showing young girls, hey, you can work and you can be a mom, you can do both and you can do both beautifully. So, we’re very grateful to step up for that partnership. And hopefully if this is something that resonates with you or anyone who is listening, you’ll go and buy the book and know that it’ll benefit, Step Up and all the young girls across the country.

DOUG: Yeah, that’s really wonderful. And it’s also a good segue to, say, brands stepping up with the approach of National Hispanic Heritage Month.

NATALIE: First and foremost, everything that is that is Hispanic, and the Hispanic market is something that I’ve always been very passionate about. I was born and raised in Honduras. I’m an immigrant to the US. I’ve been here now, say, 20 plus years, so don’t have to continue saying exactly how many years. But I’m an immigrant and a proud immigrant to the US and the Hispanic population here in the US is just, it’s as diverse as any other population. It’s a beautiful, diverse population. So when we talk about Hispanics in the US, 60 million of us, 1.9 trillion purchasing power, you’re talking about a segment that is so important to society, so important to the economy and so important to business, that when people ask me, so what should we do for Hispanic Heritage Month, I think you should be asking, what should you do for Hispanics? And period because it’s such an enormous market. But if you do do something for Hispanic Heritage Month and it’s a moment that you want to celebrate and want to have a big, you know, campaign and rally around it, you have to look for that really compelling and beautiful insight. It can’t be superficial storytelling, that’s been done, it’s overplayed. You can’t Google your way to the insight of who Hispanics are in the US. You have to really look at your brand and think, what is compelling about my brand and how does it tie to the Hispanic community? And through that, build that insight and through that build a campaign that really resonates, right? And don’t say, how am I going to reach Hispanics? It’s true. It’s Hispanic Heritage Month. Think about how am I going to reach a Latina mom, if you’re a brand that targets moms or how do I reach Gen Z youth? If you’re a youth brand, that’s the way you should be thinking for Hispanic Heritage Month. And definitely if you’re leaving it to the last minute, it’s better not to do anything and to think about it very carefully and do something very thoughtful for next year.

DOUG: Yeah. I was going to say, Natalie, one of the things we’ll see in our business is frequently there’ll be an English language campaign and the client will then say, oh, let’s add a Spanish language campaign. Almost like from my days in college working at McDonald’s, asking someone if they wanted French fries with their Big Mac or a hamburger, is it important that it be seen as one campaign given the diversity within the Hispanic market, or does it make sense to do similar kinds of things as you would do for other markets? How do you navigate that?

NATALIE: It’s not about language. It’s about culture. Okay. You have many Hispanics, my children included, right? That will speak more English than Spanish. So, you have to look at it from that lens. You there’s the lens of the traditions, whether it’s music, whether it’s food, whether it’s sports. It’s so incredibly diverse. You cited McDonald’s. McDonald’s is a perfect example. McDonald’s has been invested in this market for over 30 years. Before it was cool, before diversity and inclusion was something that all brands were looking to do, McDonald’s is invested in this market, one of the many campaigns because when we talk about the Hispanic market for McDonald’s, it’s not about one campaign, it’s never about translating a quote on quote, general market campaign. For McDonald’s, it’s about being embedded in the culture and understanding the challenges that this segment faces and solving those challenges. I’ll give you an example. Their campaign Spotlight Dorado, which is a campaign developed by several agencies, including ourselves, a Hispanic integrated agency team. So it’s not only us, but also other agencies, is an entire campaign that helps support Latinos in Hollywood. Okay. There are so many Latinos in this country, and only 2% are represented in Hollywood. So, the entire campaign helps Latinos make it to Hollywood. It’s an investment in Latinos. And we launched at South by Southwest, not at a Hispanic festival or a very hyper local, it was at a big conference because Hispanic culture is mainstream culture. So, it’s absolutely not about translating anything or not even trans creating work. It’s about really doing something that’s very specific to the segment.

DOUG: That’s really smart as an approach. You know, one of the things that brands struggle with is if their campaign is authentic, what’s some advice and how to make sure your campaign is authentic. I think you touched on it with that example of how it’s got to be meaningful to the community as one important piece. Is that it? Are there other things with that?

NATALIE: Authenticity can have so many different layers to it. When I think authenticity, I think of making the right amount of investment in time and in funds. As I said, what is that insight taking the time? How does it connect to our brand and how do we execute in a way that is not only one month? Right? How do we support year in, month and month out, year and year out? So, the example I’m going to give you is PepsiCo’s Juntas Crecemos campaign, an entire initiative where they’ve invested $50 million in Hispanic small business owners. They didn’t say, let’s go reach Hispanics. They said, how can we support Hispanic small business owners? And within that niche, there’s an even smaller niche, the Hispanic bodegas, which are small supermarket format stores, Hispanic restaurants, Hispanic carnicería, butcher stores. And so, they said, we’re going to make an investment in Hispanic small businesses because they have very specific challenges. The campaign that we develop for them is called Together We Grow, Juntas Crecemos, and that entire campaign runs month and month out, year and year out to support Hispanic small business owners. And in that we also support Latina small business owners. So, as you can see, that is an authentic look. When you think about authenticity, it’s an authentic look creatively, but it’s also an authentic look at what the brand can do as an FNB brand. They will support FNB restaurants, they support that segment. So that’s what authenticity means, but it also means you’re there for them every day of the year.

DOUG: You also look at diversity and inclusion on a granular level. Any advice or brands, companies, organizations, PR firms who are looking to be more inclusive?

NATALIE: In terms of inclusivity? It’s not a creative initiative. It is a business imperative. You have to look at all your different segments. You have to invest in them. It’s not checking the box. It’s looking at it both internally and externally. How do you support, let’s take the Latino segment for as an example, since we’re talking about it, how do you support your Hispanic employees within your system? And then externally, how do you support the Hispanic community that is the communities that you operate in? So, when you look at diversity and inclusion, that’s what it looks like. And how can I be of support? Same thing. As I said before, month in, month out, year in, year out.

DOUG: That makes a lot of sense and that usually gets the people at the top thinking of its importance when it’s viewed that way. You also focus on nuances between different markets, just as you say, this massive diversity within the Hispanic community. You know, a market like Miami versus Los Angeles as one example, how do you adjust when there is such diversity?

NATALIE: In Pilsen and Chicago, which enormous Mexican American community and enormous Puerto Rican community as well? And you walk around Pilsen, and you feel the Mexican heritage, you don’t feel the Hispanic heritage, you feel the Mexican heritage, very, very specific. You walk around Miami, you feel a very large Cuban American heritage. Where I live in Miami and Doral, also known as Doral Sula, because most of Venezuelans, we’re now called Doral Sula. It’s incredible what we learned, and I’ve learned being from Honduras, how to eat a tequeño, how to have a cocada, like even foods and music that I didn’t even know about. You have to adjust for the different nuances in each market and make sure that you’re speaking the right language and you’re speaking and culture to that market. One of my biggest pieces of advice as a brand marketer, as a communicator, to understand our market, just go visit the market. You could be in Chicago, you can be in downtown Chicago, you’re five minutes away from experiencing a Mexican culture as if you were in Mexico City. So, if you’re in Miami, you’re always surrounded by that culture. You’re in LA, even North Carolina, Seattle, if you live in New York, in New York City, and you haven’t been to Washington Heights, it’s right next to you to go have a, you know, something to eat at one of the Dominican restaurants. I was there a couple of months ago at a high school with Lin-Manuel Miranda, who was doing something for the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation, which is our client and he was in one of the schools talking to them, inspiring them, telling them, hey, my inspiration today, he said, for all the beautiful work that he does is writing on the subway in New York and seeing what, you know, the multiple cultures that exist. So that’s my biggest piece of advice. If you really want to understand our market and I have it right next to me, I have a couple of reports sitting right next to me here. Don’t read the reports, Go out into the community.

DOUG: One of the things you’re making me hungry, so we’ll probably have to wrap this up pretty soon, suggesting the restaurants. I do want to get to one area because I know there’s a lot of Hispanics who are primarily English speakers. So, if you’re doing programs that you want to reach that audience, is that a different type of program than if you’re trying to reach Spanish speaking Latinos?

NATALIE: Look, I’ll give you an example. It’s like asking the question, those that live in England and those that live in the US both speak English. Should we be looking at marketing them to them differently? Absolutely, right? So, when we take a look at English language versus Spanish language, yes, we have to take a look at marketing them differently, but there’s a lot more depth to it. So, look at those very precise nuances beyond language. That is a tactic. We will decide to use English or Spanish, Spanglish or now they even said there’s a study that went out last week. I loved it. Said that Miami Dade, specifically Miami Dade. So not South Florida. Miami Dade has a third language. It’s not Spanish. It’s not English. It’s not Spanglish. Sorry. It’s a fourth one that’s very specific to Miami. So, look at that as a tactic at the end of the day. But first, who is your audience and what really drives them and inspires them? When you take a look at Gen Z, for example, and you look at Latino music and you see that someone like Bad Bunny is a global sensation, you’re looking at developing a campaign for Gen Z and let’s say you’re working with Bad Bunny, it’s not only going to target Latino youth, it can target many other segments. So, it’s one of the most exciting things today that if you are building a campaign to reach Hispanic audiences, you can reach much more than a Hispanic audience.

DOUG: And love that concept of Hispanic audience first, when people in PR have been taught to think the other way for so often because you can really expand on it. Thanks so much for sharing your ideas and wisdom. Congratulations on your book and your continued success.

NATALIE: Thank you very much for having me.