Lunch with a legend (Pedro Font)

My boss and I had the great pleasure of meeting and having lunch with Pedro Font, a true legend in  (multicultural) marketing and advertising yesterday.

For those of you who don’t know who he is, he’s the man who put the Fo into the FoVa that still appears on my paycheck. (17 years later, WING is technically a dba).

He founded the predecessor to Wing in 1979, 30 years ago this year. Say what you will, he was a major force in making the Hispanic market and multicultural marketing the multi-billion industry that it has become. If you want to read a decent overview of the agency back when Grey acquired it, check out this link.

He, for lack of another word, es un personaje. Since leaving the agency he has run a business responsible for selling Televisa’s content and other companies’ films distribution rights all over the world. In other words, Don Pedro is doing just fine, thanks. For all the stories I’ve heard through the years, and I'm sure the rest of you have too, I found him quite gracious, full of ideas and interested in what we’re up to at the agency.

Put a different way, Don Pedro is on our side.

As a true personaje, Don Pedro was not hesitant to regale us with stories and to give us advice. Some of it should be taken with a grain of salt, some of it is useful. All of it is worth reading.

I took notes, and figured I’d share what I gleaned to be Don Pedro’s rules of the road with you. Some of it he said, some of it was observed....

1. Keep it simple. Not everything needs to be a home run. Simple solutions can go a long way
2. Know your business, know your client and make choices focused on that conocimiento
3. ‘Hay que dar’: always have ideas and always share them. Be helpful. Some will stick. Don Pedro took the time to pitch us several potential business ideas. He certainly doesn’t have to, but he didn’t get where he is by ever stopping pitching. Having ideas and sharing them is a habit to be cultivated.
4. There’s an opportunity in the market for the perfect combination of media, creative and promotion. Why is it all separated? We should create whole experiences.
5. Pitch to the top. Font & Vaamonde was successful because Don Pedro pitched AG Lafley, John Pepper and the big dogs with ideas. When they didn’t listen, he literally banged his shoe on the table until they did. Banged. His. Shoe. On. The. Table.
6. ‘Hay que pensar como consumidores piensan. No, no. Hay que pensar como consumidores consumen!”
7. Don’t be afraid to teach people how to do something. 
   
8. “Hay que hacer algo diferente, no solo porque es diferente pero porque esta basado en tu conocimiento del consumidor”
9. Do your homework. Don Pedro had a little file on the us and the agency and where the Hispanic Market is today. Most people don't take the time to plan ahead.
   
10. Don’t be afraid of regionality or getting your hands dirty. FoVa was successful because they regionalized ads in local offices (TX different than CA different from NYC, etc) and did local local promotions to move product. I know in this day the tendency is to go national or network, but we can learn a lot by being on the street.
11. Get out of NY. Hispanic market or not, the consumers we talk to in our careers aren’t eating at La Esquina or BondST or even in Queens. Get out, drink some beers with real people, be in the real world.
12. “yo soy de la vieja escuela. Ustedes son de la nueva.” acknowledge differences between the new and old and learn from both.
13. There’s always money out there. If you have a good idea, just go and prove it once and then go try to get the money. Make results happen
14. You only need one client to say yes for a good idea to become a reality.

Oh, and if you can, get your own table at 21.