Why the Former President of Nickelodeon Joined mitú as CEO. (Hint: 60 million US Latinos driving US growth engine)
I am beyond excited to announce the Herb Scannell has agreed to move from NYC to Los Angeles to take on the role of CEO at mitú, the fast growing Latino digital media company, serving more than 100 million monthly unique viewers.
Herb is a Puerto-Rican American media executive who was previously the President of Nickelodeon. He oversaw the launch of iconic properties including Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob & Rugrats — all multi-billion-dollar global powerhouses. Nickelodeon under Herb was the top-rated network in cable for 10 straight years. He was also Vice Chairman of MTV Networks and oversaw adult brands Spike and TV Land.
He left traditional media at the top of his game to be the founding CEO of Next New Networks, one of the first digital video startups, backed by Spark Capital and bought by YouTube in 2011. After a stint as the President of North America at BBC Worldwide, Herb is returning to his roots in both digital and Latino.
But why?
Latino is the Next Big Break Out
At this year’s recent Emmy awards Stephen Colbert rightly pointed out that there had been a marked increase in the number of successes by creators with diverse backgrounds and then proceeded to name several prominent African-American actors, directors and writers that were present.
The obvious slight he made that went largely unnoticed was the lack of Latino representation and it’s a big freaking market gap that is set to explode. We believe that mitú is positioned at the forefront of this because we represent the next generation of Latinos who are young, digital, largely American born and predominantly speak English (94%).
Large groups that are cut out of traditional representation are precisely the groups that achieve breakout successes by getting around the system and giving the market what they want directly. So while not one single Latino actor, director, writer or producer was nominated for the major awards in 2017 and the last major acting Latina win was 10 years ago and acting Latino win was 27 years ago — audiences are craving content that resonates with their experiences.
What Hollywood hasn’t been able to deliver in film or television has seen generational break-out successes like Lin Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” or the astounding success of Despacito, now the all-time most viewed video on YouTube approaching 4 billion views. Yes, with a “B.” I’m not sure what it takes to get through to people who green light traditional media. There is no more Latino-only market. This isn’t your grandmother’s Univision or telenovelas. We* are now the mainstream market and we’re bringing more to your mobile phones and living rooms. (We = my father is from Colombia, South America, immigrated to the U.S. legally for medical school, served in the Air Force and then was a productive, tax-paying contributor for nearly 40 years. His son then went on to raise more than $1.1 billion to finance US startups.)
mitú has been able to amass more than $40 million from Universal/Comcast, WPP, The Chernin Group, Advanceit Capital and of course Upfront Ventures to take on this opportunity we see in front of us.
Shit’s About to Get Real
Herb Scannell is teaming up with mitú’s founder & president Beatriz Acevedo who oversees content production, talent development and social impact.
Beatriz has been a tireless public advocate of the role of Latinx leaders in startups, technology y media. Of course Beatriz is the female in the picture above and if you want a taste of the impact she makes watch her own the 800-person audience despite being on stage with Magic Johnson, Troy Carter and Tristan Walker in this epic video dispelling myths about businesses targeting diverse customer bases.
In the startup industry long criticized for its under-representation of groups from ethnic minorities and women, I can proudly tell you that mitú actually over-indexes on non-whites and strong female leadership within the company - the team is 90% Latinx and has a roughly 50/50 split of men and women.
Latinos are now 60 million strong in the US and around 450 million globally (more than English speaking people at 335 million). The population is now approaching 20% of the US population, 40% of California, 40% of Texas, 25% of Florida, 20% of New York … this is a multi-cultural country already whether Trump’s base likes it or not.
In fact, for every retired person in the United States, they are supported by 2.9 workers who are paying taxes into economy that fund their retirement plans. If you removed Latinos that would leave just 2.1 people supporting retirees (US Census via LDC analysis). So before those pinche cabrones try to deport 800,000 productive Dreamers in our country they should think about who will make up the tax bases to help their parents retire.
It’s important to know that Latinos are now an economic powerhouse and if you want your company to grow you need to reach this audience. There are some powerful stats by the Latino Donor Collaborative that show just how powerful Latinos have become in economic development.
- Latino purchasing power will reach $1.7 trillion in 2020 (U.S. Census), surpassing total expenditure of even the much sought after Millennial population. Advertisers, wake the fuck up.
- 30% of all real income growth in 2005–2015 was from Latinos (U.S. Census) who will represent 40% of the entire US workforce in just 5 years (Pew Research).
- Latinos also watch 16% more online video than the national average (PwC), 10% more stream videos on their mobile devices (PwC)and they share content 26% more than non-Latinos (Univision).
If you’re trying to reach the fastest growing, most dynamic, economically improving population in the United States you need to reach them on their terms, with their content and delivered authentically in their voice. The rewards if you get it right? How about your largest increases in car sales?
Or how about your biggest gains in beauty products?
Or what about the largest driver of economic growth the country — housing? U.S. Latinos drove 69% of total net increasing in U.S. home ownership in 2015 (NAHREP).
So is Herb a Genius?
Well. On the one hand his referencing included some huge names in entertainment calling him “one of the strongest leaders in helping young talent deliver new, iconic media franchises,” so I’d have to give him his dues as a creative and media leadership genius.
On the other hand, I’d have to say that you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see that mitú is sitting on the precipice of the biggest economic trend in the most powerful country on the planet.
Latinos will not be stopped.
Please take just 90 seconds to try a small flavor for yourself of la vida mitú.
