In 2024, Walmart sought to further their “Makers of Más” cultural engagement strategy in the Hispanic market and create a deeper emotional connection with the Hispanic American audience.
The objective:
GET Hispanic Genzennials building the way forward for themselves and the Hispanic community
TO see Walmart as a brand that is invested in their progress
BY multiplying their collective momentum, one Hispanic at a time.
This was synergistic to NGLmitú’s ongoing mission of providing space for Latino storytellers in front of and behind the camera. As much progress has been made, there are still many barriers of entry for Latino creators in the media and entertainment world. The more opportunities for Latinos to tell their own stories, the more the media and entertainment world reflects the authentic diversity of Latino culture.
Together, Walmart and NGLmitú wanted to leverage our collective scale to disrupt inequities and amplify people, spaces, and places that push culture forward. To do so, we brought back our award-winning Filmmaker Mentorship Program for a second season, providing career-building opportunities for a new group of rising Latino filmmakers to advance their journeys as creators.
Following the successful first season of the mitú x Walmart Filmmaker Mentorship Program in 2023, we wanted to further Walmart’s Makers of Más mission by providing a new cohort of filmmakers with the opportunity to produce their own short film projects.
Season 2 of the program was launched in partnership with the Latino Film Institute (LFI), providing 4 rising filmmakers in Los Angeles the funding and resources to produce a short film project and premiere it at the prestigious Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF).
Over an accelerated 11-week timeline, the filmmakers were guided through the development, production, and editing of their shorts, receiving mentorship from guest mentors Justina Machado (Actor) and Oz Rodriguez (Director, Producer, Writer) who lent their on-camera and behind-the-camera expertise to their process. As the production company on the films, NGLmitú provided the filmmakers with resources, infrastructure, and support, including access to mitú Studios in LA and further mentorship from our creative and production teams.
The journey of our 4x Season 2 filmmakers was captured throughout the experience by NGLmitú and the filmmakers themselves, resulting in a dynamic mix of 40+ pieces of co-branded digital and social content distributed across multiple NGLmitú social platforms and a co-branded hub on our O&O site:
At their LALIFF premiere, the filmmakers were surprised with a visit from acclaimed showrunner Gloria Calderon Kellett and participated on a panel moderated by award-winning director and NGLmitú’s Chief Creative Officer Ben DeJesus.
In addition to the premiere, the program provided the filmmakers with many more benefits, including:
Despite a fast-tracked timeline, the filmmakers, their mentors, our team at NGLmitú, and our partners at PubW and Walmart came together to create an impactful campaign that resonated with our intended audience.
Season 2 of the mitú x Walmart Filmmaker Mentorship Program made a substantial impact on our intended audience, successfully positioning Walmart as a supporter of Latino creators. Our series of branded content pieces garnered 34M impressions, 69K engagements, and 7M views - audience sentiment was overwhelmingly positive across these engagements, with people extending their congratulations to the filmmakers and praising the initiative.
With the ample resources, benefits, and access provided by the program, NGLmitú and Walmart helped our Season 2 filmmakers complete their passion projects, facilitated a festival run for their films, and gave them tools to take into their next chapters as creators.
Perhaps what was most exciting was the overwhelming response we got from MORE rising filmmakers in our community who wanted information on how they could apply for the next season (1300% increase in interest from Season 1 to Season 2).
The results proved that there is a desire among the Latino community to see more Latino stories being told, and Walmart was effectively positioned as a brand who champions those stories.
