Job Title
Executive Vice President and Insights & Strategy Lead
Full Name
Adriana Waterston
Company
Horowitz Research
Bio

Adriana Waterston is Executive Vice President of Insights and Strategy for Horowitz Research, which in 2023 became a division of M/A/R/C Research. For over two decades, Adriana has overseen Horowitz’s multicultural practice, providing research and insights to inform the development of their clients’ programming, distribution, marketing, advertising, branding, and positioning strategies to reach and resonate with America’s Hispanic/Latinx, Black, Asian, Gen Z, LGBTQIA+, and international audiences, among other diverse segments. Her work has spanned the U.S. as well as the Caribbean, LATAM, and Europe. She has served clients in the media and entertainment space, telecom and technology, travel and hospitality, beauty and personal care, CPG, retail, toys, education, not-for-profit, and more. 

Adriana is a pioneer in the multicultural space for the cable industry. Born in Puerto Rico of Cuban and Jewish parents and a graduate of Brandeis University with a degree in Cultural Studies, Adriana joined the industry in 2001 to find that, at the time, multicultural consumers were not at all prioritized. Instead, these audiences were often redlined and dramatically underserved. Mentored by Horowitz founders Howard Horowitz and Dr. Alisse Waterston (Adriana’s sister), Adriana became the face and voice for diverse audiences, using research to drive awareness and make the business case to Horowitz clients and the industry writ large for investments in resonant programming and marketing for what would soon become the “new general market”— America’s multicultural majority.

At heart, Adriana is a research junkie with a special passion for conducting qualitative research among consumers. She has a flair for finding the story behind the statistics, teasing meaning out of metrics, and revealing the faces behind the facts. She has managed countless multicultural research studies, moderated thousands of focus groups, visited hundreds of households as part of ethnographic research projects, and authored numerous research reports and white papers. She also co-authored a multicultural marketing book which won a Global Ebook Award in 2013 and is currently collaborating on another book project about how brands can resonating with today’s intersectional Latinx audiences.

Over the years, Adriana has spoken at countless conferences both within and outside of the cable industry including the Hispanic TV Conference, the NAMIC Conference, the Stream TV Show, the Media Insights and Engagement Conference, CTAM Think, ARF AudiencexScience, Quirk’s, the Corporate Researchers’ Conference, and more. For seventeen years, Adriana ran Horowitz’s Cultural Insights Forum, the first-ever cable industry event focused on research and strategy to reach diverse audiences. She is often quoted in the press including the New York Times, Forbes, The Washington Post, Seattle Times, Multichannel News, Broadcasting and Cable, Variety, NextTV, Business Insider, Radio and Television Business Report, The Customer, HispanicAd.com, and more. She has also been the recipient of many industry accolades: She was named one of the “Most Influential Minorities in Cable” by Cablefax Magazine, has won two CTAM TAMIs, received the Agency Executive Award for Research & Measurement for multicultural marketing, and in 2023, Horowitz was honored with the Rafael Eli Award for Corporate Pioneer in Hispanic TV at the Hispanic TV summit thanks to Adriana’s dedication to the industry.

Adriana is a single mother by choice of her daughter, Micaela Louise, who will be attending Tufts University in the Fall.

Adriana Waterston