Public-Private Partners convene at Cannes for launch of SDG Lounge at International Creative Festival hosted by SAWA, UNDP, PVBLIC and ESG News

Sergio Fernandez de Cordova and Claudia Romo Edelman

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS: 

Sergio Fernandez de Cordova and Claudia Romo Edelman

Sergio Fernandez De Cordova, Chairman, PVBLIC (00:00):

Hello and welcome to the SDG lounge. My name is Sergio Fernandez de Cordova, and I’m the Executive chairman of the PVBLIC foundation. And we have Claudia here.

Claudia Romo Edelman, Founder, Real Human (00:09):

Hi, how are you? I’m Claudia Romo Edelman. I’m the founder of the Real Human foundation.

Sergio Fernandez De Cordova, Chairman, PVBLIC (00:13):

So Claudia was great to see you today, um, here at Canne and wanted to kind of get into it a little bit with you and find out, you know, why, why are you here? Why are you here at Canne,

Claudia Romo Edelman, Founder, Real Human (00:24):

Uh, to bring the Hispanic voice, to bring the Hispanic agenda to marketers, to make sure that they understand they get the data so that we can educate their brands and their markets so that they can absolutely prioritize the Hispanic, uh, community as part of their business, uh, growth. And so we are here the first ever session in 69 years of the festival for Hispanics mm-hmm <affirmative>, which was fabulous to have a main stage, um, with Phillip , the first ever CEO of a holding company, talking about the market, making sure that companies understand that there’s no way that they can hire sell, or really have an engagement in with their growth, uh, growth communities in the future without the Latino community. So I’m here to represent 62 million people that really want to be seen, heard, and valued and want to be seen in behind the, behind the cameras in front of cameras, in a meaningful, respectful, and relevant way.

Sergio Fernandez De Cordova, Chairman, PVBLIC (01:19):

That’s amazing. And, and, uh, it was great to see a lot of the, uh, the, the events, the session that you had here at the main stage at the Bos theater. And, uh, just really obviously as a Latino and an American, um, an immigrant, um, it’s also something that I, I am obviously very passionate for and live for. Um, but can you kind of give us a little bit of background on, you know, how important is having the Latino voice represented in Canne right. Cause here’s all about the creatives. It’s about the media, it’s about the marketers. What, how important is it?

Claudia Romo Edelman, Founder, Real Human (01:54):

It’s massively important because when we’re invisible, we’re not seen, not heard, not valued. And when we are seen, we’re seen as someone, we are not. So we’re massively stereotype and biased and we’re portrayed as Latin lovers or sexy, or, you know, like Narcos, when we reality, we should be portrayed as what we are growth progress. We are the architects, we’re the creatives. We’re actually the community that per, per capita wins more awards in this, uh, in this festival than anyone else. We have to be portrayed as what we are. And it is massively important for companies that that’s why this makes this engagement on diversity and inclusion. And as a business imperative for marketers, a win, win, win a force for good is a force for growth because 20% of gens and millennials are Hispanics in America. And the younger you go, the more of us you will find because we’re the youngest of all the country. So it’s massively important that we are here, that we’re raising our voice, that we’re saying you really need to understand our community. You have to portray us in a different way, and you have to increase the seniority of the creative Latinos that you have so that we can actually portray us and engage in a more genuine way, which is exactly what people are looking for.

Sergio Fernandez De Cordova, Chairman, PVBLIC (03:09):

Well, thank you. And, and we, we talked about, you know, the activations that you’ve been doing throughout this week talked about the session that you held. Right. Um, and then, you know, also talked about the importance of representation in media, right. In the media. Right. But now when I saw you walking in and we walked in, you took a picture of someone, right. Because this person was being celebrated for who they are, right. As a Latino executive. Right. And you just said, and also I think that the representation of the Latino community, as you’ve been saying, isn’t just in the product, right. Is also with the creators. Right. And, and, and tell me a little bit about who you saw out there. Why were you so excited and what does that represent to the community?

Claudia Romo Edelman, Founder, Real Human (03:57):

Look, I mean like the reason why you and I are here is because this platform matters. And because when you bring something forward, that is exciting and actually makes change, simple. People can engage on it. We came with the sustainable development goals a couple of years ago in 2016, we brought the secretary general. We had common ground as a way to actually make sure that companies had a framework to engage with purpose and engage in impact that would make it easy for them, but also great for the planet. And we have seen a shift in consumer behavior. Massive. We have seen a shift in employees that are demanding, that companies are more sustainable, more port was driven. It’s exactly the way the same with diversity and inclusion. People are not gonna take it anymore to be working in places where they have to hide their Latina data, where they have to hide who they are.

Claudia Romo Edelman, Founder, Real Human (04:46):

And we in America, Hispanics where 100% Hispanics, but also 100% Americas making us at 200% of a person and companies have to start celebrating us and saying, and that’s why I think that the framework I brought forward, this kind was Hispanic star, very inspired on the sustainable development goals, very linked to the sustainable development goals saying you cannot advance the SDGs, the global goals without the majority, the minority majority is like Latinos mm-hmm <affirmative>, but we have to also take them on and take them forward. And companies have to have framework like the Hispanic start to show leg and say like, I’m a Hispanic star company celebrating stars like Sara Carberry from Google. And I have seen her, you know, like so massively in a poster

Sergio Fernandez De Cordova, Chairman, PVBLIC (05:31):

That huge seeing that the whole

Claudia Romo Edelman, Founder, Real Human (05:33):

From Google, seeing that on Tuesday only the main stage in Canne, 25% of all main speakers were Hispanics. And so it’s happening. We just have to be able to recognize them as Hispanics, as Hispanic stars. And what really is exciting is that it’s happening at the same time. More and more Hispanics are taking of their masks mm-hmm <affirmative> and accepting their Latina, that leading with their full sales saying like, yes, I’m Sara Carver, and I’m a Hispanic leader. Yes. I’m preacher. And I am the CMO of Proctor and gamble, and I’m a Hispanic star and more and more companies are gonna start paying attention to celebrators more and more Hispanic consumers are gonna be not only powerful and sophisticated, but making choices. So it’s absolutely an exciting moment to start seeing us and recognizing us and supporting us as Latinos and saying, I’m gonna take a photo of Sara Carberry, because I admire you. And America’s made of stars. Like Hispanics are one of them. So let’s make sure that we unify our forces and get everybody shining.

Sergio Fernandez De Cordova, Chairman, PVBLIC (06:33):

That’s amazing. I, and, and, um, I have another, another quick question for you that, you know, cuz you talk a lot and one of the things that I really love about the work that you do is you’re very data driven. Yep. Right? You are looking at the information, analyzing the information. You are also showcasing the information, the statistics. Can you kind of tell us a little bit about, you know, what is the GDP of the Latino American Latino? Because I think that one of the things that you said, uh, which is, I think is really important, I’m a big believer is, you know, you said, take the mask off a lot of, a lot of folks in the sort of American westernized culture, right? Latinos have been kind of, you assimilate you. We were chameleons. We we’re everywhere because we don’t carry. We, we are the culture, not, we’re not SEP segregated by our culture because we are in everything. Right. So like, but when you look at that, you cannot. Exactly.

Claudia Romo Edelman, Founder, Real Human (07:28):

And unless it’s obvious, like with me that you can’t miss it, uh, like the accent is so obvious, you wouldn’t recognize us because what is the Hispanic look?

Sergio Fernandez De Cordova, Chairman, PVBLIC (07:37):

So, but what is that buying power? Tell me, gimme into that GDP,

Claudia Romo Edelman, Founder, Real Human (07:40):

Like a 30 seconds of data where

Claudia Romo Edelman, Founder, Real Human (07:43):

We’re 62 million people, 19% of the population today, 30% of the population tomorrow. So by 2051 in every three, Americans will be Hispanics. Hello? Hello, Ola. Hello? Hello, Ola. Uh, we’re not only the many. We’re the yo the youth, the youngest as a fact, our average age, 28 years old Latinas, 26 years old, we look young because we’re young, but the mode, which is the most like the most common age is the most interesting data point. The most common age of 62 million people today of 62 million Latinos today is 11 years old. The most common age of non-Hispanics in America is 58. So that’s where you have four decades

Claudia Romo Edelman, Founder, Real Human (08:23):

Pure growth of pure consumers, of pure elevation. And that is not only the many, the youngest, but the most powerful economically. So the purchasing power of Latinos is almost $2 trillion, which is massive. And the GDP meaning the size of our economy is 12%. So we can go around the streets in America saying, you are welcome. No problem, 12% of your salary on us and you as well. No problem for everybody. But the point of why that matters for a, a festival like Canne is because that GDP of 12% today is growing 7% faster than China. Wow. So if you start looking at the world, you see, what are the fastest growing economies in the world? There’s China, there’s India, and then there’s Hispanics. Yeah. So we’re gonna overpass. And so past China, if we continue growing with our GDP trajectory and China continues actually going down. So if you’re a Turkish company, a Japanese company or any global company, it’s by far more important to understand Hispanics as a growth business partner.

Sergio Fernandez De Cordova, Chairman, PVBLIC (09:28):

Well, that’s amazing. Again, just, uh, it was great to, you know, run into you and see you and thank you for coming to the SDG lounge and, uh, just really excited to, to, to have you here with your passion, your purpose, and really shaking things up. Because you know, to me, I, I extremely passionate about the work that you do because of the fact that here, see, uh, here seeing and watching you kind of just shake it up. I think it’s important. And then the data is what everybody’s been talking about here. And it’s, it’s about the numbers, right? And it’s about everyone here is selling something well to your point 12%, Hey, you’re welcome. Right, right. Because we’re purchasing. And, and I think that that is, it, it it’s, that’s starts to change behavior

Claudia Romo Edelman, Founder, Real Human (10:12):

And I wanna command you. And I wanna thank you because you, uh, are one of the partners that are keeping the agenda of the global goals alive and bringing it everywhere. And it’s such a tedious effort to actually keep momentum so that we don’t lose traction. And I think that from the 17 SDGs, there are four that are very pertinent for the Hispanic community, which are better health, better education, better gender and better jobs. And I think that if we can pull that massive community towards the sustainable development goals, prioritize not only governmental efforts, but also companies and brands towards those goals, the efforts that you’re doing, which are fantastic. And the efforts that, you know, like our community needs and are doing are really gonna represent a better, you know, like better for the planet, but better for us and better for everyone.

Sergio Fernandez De Cordova, Chairman, PVBLIC (10:57):

Well, thank you so much, Claudia. Thank you for having us. <laugh> thank you, Evelyn.