Carlos Santiago, President of the Hispanic marketing consultancy firm Santiago Solutions Group, told attendees at the MLS partner summit yesterday that the league and its partners should immerse themselves in the local Hispanic communities in order to engage Spanish-speaking fans. “Take your brand directly to the community, do business with minority-owned firms and contractors,” Santiago said. “Hopefully we will also see an American Latino ownership group [in MLS] in the future.” Santiago spoke on the Multicultural Marketing panel alongside Univision Senior VP/Client Development Roberto Ruiz, PepsiCo Dir of Cultural Branding Javier Farfan and Bromley Communications Chair & CEO Earnest Bromley. The panel was part of MLS’ fourth annual partner summit, which was held at the HUB soccer expo in Manhattan. The event included five panels of guest speakers, and was an invite-only meeting for the league’s broadcast, digital, agency and corporate partners, as well as club and league execs. AEG President & CEO and Galaxy Owner Tim Leiweke headlined the day’s opening panel alongside Sporting KC Owner Robb Heineman, Real Salt Lake Owner Dave Checketts and Timbers Owner Merritt Paulson. The summit included a discussion on adidas’ soccer strategy with the company's Sports Licensed Division President David Baxter, a social media panel and discussion and a panel on player development. MLS previously held the summit in conjunction with the MLS Cup championships, but this year switched it to the All-Star weekend due to the volume of team and partner representatives coming to N.Y. “There’s a lot of shared information and best practices discussion at the summit,” said SUM VP/Global Sponsorship David Wright. “And you see a lot of B-to-B relationships come out of it too.”
