This year's Super Bowl ads brought to light the role advertising plays in our cultural discourse. As I discussed in a recent NPR interview on the controversy over Super Bowl ads from Budweiser and 84 Lumber, advertising is both a reflection of our culture and an influencer on the culture.

With 59 million Hispanic consumers in the U.S. possessing purchasing power of $1.5 trillion annually, winning over this valuable segment is integral to the success of many consumer brands. Yet time and again, advertisers make the same glaring errors in their attempts to understand advertising performance among Hispanic consumers.

Only six weeks in, 2017 is already showing signs of being a big year for multicultural marketing. Corporations are doubling down on diversity initiatives. Strategic purchases and mergers have occurred and projected multicultural spend is trending upward for the year.

A recent report from Packaged Facts, Hispanic Pet Owners in the U.S.: 20 Million and Growing, really caught my attention since there are 20 million Hispanic pet owners in the U.S.

The lines between market research and marketing data are blurring. This really comes as no surprise, however. The convergence of these two disciplines was bound to happen at some point. While both industries are grappling with the implications of what this phenomenon means for the way they conduct research, startups shops are seizing the opportunity.