Fifty percent of client-side marketers work in organizations where there is no specialized effort to conduct multicultural marketing, according to a poll of ANA Masters of Marketing attendees (see related story in this edition).

That's good news for José Cancela, the veteran Hispanic media executive who now assists companies in how to understand and market to Latinos as the head of Hispanic USA Inc.

"I started in this business in 1979, and to see companies that are still hesitant with their Hispanic marketing is no surprise," Cancela says, saying that they've been hesitant over his entire 30-year career.

In fact, Cancela believes the fact that nearly half of CMOs and brand managers work in environments where multicultural marketing receives special treatment is an improvement from years past, when perhaps 20 percent could attest to doing so.

"This bodes well, and shows the amount of upside still left in this marketplace," says Cancela. "For those who make it out of the financial times we are having, they will reap the benefits of this market."

With increased talk of how to target Hispanics, and debates over the use of English or Spanish to reach the desired consumer target, Cancela points to last week's Nielsen ratings for the 10th annual Latin Grammy Awards telecast as proof that opportunity continues to knock for advertisers.

According to Nielsen, the Latin Grammys attracted 5.82 million total Hispanic viewers over its entire November 5 broadcast on Univision, earning the network a mighty 25.4 share of Hispanic homes. By comparison, the most popular telenovela on Spanish-language television - Univision's 9PM offering, "Sortilegio" - attracted 4.38 million Latinos and earned a 19.9 share of households on average during its four nights on the air that week.

While Cancela notes that Spanish-language media is here to stay, he believes advertisers are still in need of a Hispanic market sherpa to best guide them.

"There's still a lot of work to be done on behalf of the Spanish-language advertising community," Cancela says. "Unfortunately, the Hispanic advertising community for the most part is devoid of the rainmakers that created and first brought those dollars to the table."

Who then are the Hispanic market's best educators? Cancela says it's the media that's leading the fight for increased advertising dollars.

"For a long time you had a lot of help from the agency side of the business," he says. "But with agency consolidation, those numbers have dwindled."

Cancela points to Univision as one of the Hispanic marketing arena's biggest leaders, specifically to the early 2009 hiring of Graciela Eleta as senior vice president of brand solutions. Eleta was previously vice president of multicultural development for Procter & Gamble.

"She was brought into Univision to literally hold the hands of the packaged goods community and show them the 'paint by numbers' approach to reaching the Hispanic market," Cancela says.

While the "rock throwers" who complain about the continued struggle to obtain dollars won't be leaving the Hispanic market landscape anytime soon, Cancela is upbeat about what he's already seeing for 2010.

"Everyone is seeing a light at the end of the tunnel," he notes. "The fourth quarter is up for radio, television and print, but there's a lot of 'sandbagging' going on. Advertisers are being careful, but are also optimistic. Psychologically, the worst is behind us."

But Cancela warns that wariness will temper the pent-up demand for reaching Hispanic consumers by advertisers.