Last year Nielsen–you know, the T.V ratings people?– announced that there is a Latina power shift happening. They say that, ” This rise of Latinas is driven both by strong demographics and a healthy inclination toward success in mainstream america.”

The Latino population is growing at a very fast rate and 86% of Latinas say that women are the ones with the purchasing power and so this makes Latinas an attractive target to advertisers. But what about this whole “success in mainstream america” thing? Are Latinas mainstream now?

It would seem so in the context of the new total market advertising approach. Before advertisers used to think there were two separate markets: the general market and the multicultural market. Now advertisers are seeing Latinos as one and the same–both mainstream and multicultural,

“When it comes to the U.S. today it’s really hard to say what is mainstream.” says Christian Filli, the Senior Vice President of strategic planning at Latinworks, an advertising agency out of Austin.

“The other conversation that drives me nuts is can you explain the difference between a multicultural millenial and a non-multicultural millenial? It’s a crazy conversation because if you continue to think there are white millenials, and black millenials, and brown millenials, you’re never really gonna evolve together with how the population is evolving.”

The total market approach is about inclusion.

“And we look at what we call a total market strategy which means active inclusion of multicultural consumers. we make sure that multicultural consumers are included throughout from the way we design research to how we’re casting our spots. And that really just becomes part of marketing in a multicultural world.” says Lizette Williams. she leads multicultural marketing strategy at Kimberly-Clark.

We take an in-depth look at this new model of marketing.

To learn more about the multicultural marketing check out Maria Hinojosa’s show on PBS: America by the Numbers.