Fiestas Patrias is a big darn deal!

If you represent a company that's looking to grow, and you haven't heard of Fiestas Patrias, then listen up!

Fiestas Patrias is, in a nutshell, U.S. Hispanics' way of celebrating independence of their homelands here in their new home. It's embraced by Latinos from all countries and has become something of a "low-hanging fruit" for marketers eager to earn their share of this market segment.

So why isn't your company involved? According to Bustos Media, the radio giant in town, Liberty Tax Service signed up 60 new students to attend its tax school at a previous Fiestas Patrias event down at Puyallup Fair. This year's event is Sunday, September 20, and true to its tradition they're bringing name bands that attract big crowds. That's why Comcast decided to invest in a major sponsorship!

This is the mother of them all: 40,000 Latinos at last year's event--all in one place, all day long. This is what you call target marketing.

The Seattle Center and its Festal organization are also hosting Fiestas Patrias events both Saturday and Sunday, September 19 and 20. Events all day long, including a first-ever boxing tournament brought to us by ESPN Deportes Seattle! This is a great opportunity to enjoy your favorite Latin American foods and entertainment. Community Health Plan of Washington is among the sponsors at the Seattle Center Fiestas Patrias celebration.

This is the last week to sign up and sponsor one of these traditional events - for as little as $500! Please let me know if you'd like more information. I've seen the energy at these events first-hand and can tell you that if you've got a great product to share, Fiestas Patrias may be the ideal place to share it!

Call me at 206-621-2185 if you'd like to discuss. In any case, plan to attend either event so that you'll know better than to miss another year.

Positive Buzz from Local Latinos

The Seattle Latino/a Networking Professionals, a group founded by Junior Torres, celebrated a meetup last night that was abuzz with positive stories and achievements:

• Violeta Alano and Teresa Jones from Univision local affiliate KUNS were there. Their team has put together an incredible Latino Business Awards program with American Family Insurance--stay tuned for more info on that.
• Oscar Flores talked to me about ESPN Deportes radio, and how the new-ish 24/7 sports en español will be moving to the FM dial this summer!
• I chatted with a guy named Roger who is originally from Mexico City and now lives here. In the last year he's been pretty busy building a business from scratch--a commercial cleaning business that is now across the country and employs 300 people! Kudos to Roger and his entrepreneurialism.
• Laura, a current student, talked with me about the National Society of Hispanic MBAs scholarship opportunities. (More on that later.)
• And many more professionals were there, meeting new people and sharing their stories.

The bar at the new Olive 8 Hotel hosted the event for this month's meetup, and concocted two special sangrias for the group which were fantastic. Unique for a hotel bar--unusually open and public-feeling, with lots of glass. Terrific-looking foods (which I passed on but others enjoyed).

RECENT LOCAL RESEARCH
The positive buzz echoed what we'd learned in an online survey of Latino professionals earlier this year, when participants were asked how they feel during the present economic crisis in relation to various aspects of their lives. As it turns out, shopping behaviors have taken a hit, but otherwise Hispanics are fairing well comparatively.

• In regards to work, 41% reported feeling better than average or great, 43% feel average, and 17% feel worse than average.
• In terms of their social life, 52% feel better than average or great, 40% reported feeling average, and only 8% feel worse than average.
• When it comes to shopping, responses showed that 22% of participants are feeling a positive effect, 37% are not feeling any change whatsoever, but the majority, 40%, are feeling negatively affected.
• When asked how the economic crisis is affecting their ability to send money home to their families, the majority (62%) have not felt a change, 11% feel better than average, and 27% are feeling negatively affected.