Stuart Elliot wrote about Premio Lo Nuestro this week, which is expected to have really high ratings and really big advertisers, in spite of the fact that no one outside of the Latino community knows what it is.
I'll be "live" (deferred, as I am on the West Coast) blogging Lo Nuestro tonight on VivirLatino, ads and all, starting at 8 pm PST. I just HAVE to see that Wendy's ad. Check it out.
A funny (or not so funny, depending on how you look at it) story in the NYT today about my hometown's new soccer team, its name and the harsh lesson in branding its organizers have had to stomach. At a time when cities are forming soccer leagues solely to satisfy a Latino market need, it's pretty amusing when the name of the team itself isolates -- even infuriates -- the very market it's meant to woo:
HOUSTON, Jan. 26 — What better way to honor the brash origins of this
city, the owners of Houston's new professional soccer franchise
reasoned, than to name their team "Houston 1836," a nod to the year
when two entrepreneurial brothers from New York arrived here to build a
city atop the swampy bayous of southeast Texas.
Many Latinos in Houston, though, greeted the unveiling of the team's
name this week with a shudder. Eighteen thirty-six also happens to be
the year that a group of English-speaking interlopers waged a war of
secession that resulted in Mexico's loss of Texas, ushering in more
than a century of violence and discrimination against Mexicans in the
state.
Read the whole NYT article here. Highly recommended.
Happy Friday!
Walking down 4th Street in San Francisco this week, I was struck by a type of campaign we aren't used to seeing. The image of Spanish artist Goya was staring back at me, with a message in Spanish:
No hay suficiente arte para nuestros niños
Con razón nuestros niños piensan que Goya es sólo una marca conocida de frijoles
(There isn't enough art for our children. No wonder our children think Goya is just a popular brand of beans)
Spanish language marketing in non-commercial sectors tends to be geared towards promoting social services, such as health care, disease prevention, etc. Seldom do you see culture-related messages targeting monolingual Spanish speakers.
Beyond this message of awareness, the ad boasts biographical information about Goya that one can read if he or she has the time. The call to action is: "Quiere más arte? Pida más!" ("Want more art? Ask for more!") and the minds behind this are those of the non-profit Americans for the Arts. The organization has also established a Spanish web site to promote the cause of arts and arts education among Latinos.
The New York Times had a very short but interesting piece on the bilingual Latino market, and how advertisers are out to target not only Spanish-speaking Latinos in campaigns, but the elusive "assimilated Hispanic":
Hispanic TV Without the Spanish
A SECOND front has broken out in the battle for Hispanic television viewers - and this time the programming is in English, Hispanic magazine reports.
There are now two cable networks - the independent SiTV and mun2, the 2001 spinoff of NBC's Telemundo - that are offering English-language programming aimed primarily at "the 18-to-34-year-old English-dominant Hispanic audience."
SiTV says it reaches 10.5 million Hispanic homes via cable, while mun2 says it has 10 million.
That the two networks have chosen to use English-language programming to try to reach this audience is easy to understand, writes Richard D. Hoffmann.
The majority of American Latinos are bilingual; they watch and listen to media in Spanish and English. Up to now, however, most of the efforts to reach this audience have been in Spanish, so there may be a niche in the market.
"Total Hispanic television ad expenditures, growing about 25 percent a year, are estimated this year to come in north of $3.5 billion," Mr. Hoffmann writes. "The lion's share, as usual, will go to Spanish-language TV." Ad spending aimed at the English-speaking Hispanic market could reach $500 million by 2010 - and possibly more, analysts say.
"When I look at the Hispanic part of our audience, 60 percent of them are English-speaking, U.S.-born," said Jeff Valdez, co-founder of SiTV. "That's 60 percent of maybe $800 billion of Hispanic spending power. That has never been validated by television." He estimates that advertisers currently spend only 3 percent of their budgets on programming aimed at that audience.
As a leader in destinations to Latin America, Continental Airlines has responded to the obvious need for a Spanish-language online reservations system:
Like Southwest, Continental Airlines has recently announced a partnership with Idiom Technologies -- a leading independent provider of scalable software solutions for accelerating and optimizing globalization initiatives -- to speed the launch of its Spanish language online reservations system.
According to Ken Penny, director of internet planning and general manager at continental.com, "Continental Airlines serves more destinations in Latin America than any other U.S. airline. Offering website services, like flight purchase and frequent flyer information, in Spanish facilitates the travel process for more of our customers in the United States and abroad. Recent surveys (such as the Roper Hispanic Cyberstudy released in early July 2005) indicate that U.S. Hispanics was the fastest growing online ethnic segment. Also, this ambition was consistent with Continental's Latinization program, now in its eighth year, which enhances customer service for Latin American and U.S. Spanish-speaking passengers not just through language but in respecting cultural differences.
With the internet helping to create a truly global market, more and more businesses are realizing they need software like WorldServer to tap into this market and to reach customers who want to access information and make purchases in their native languages.
Via iMedia Connection READ MORE
Start-up aims to boost availability of Latin music online
By Doreen Hemlock
Business Writer
Posted
November 22 2005
The marketing guru who
pioneered the Internet for Latin America on Monday launched a venture
to promote Latin music -- also online.
Fernando Espuelas announced the start-up of VOY Music,
www.voymusic.com, a Web platform where Latin artists can promote and
distribute their music and where consumers can tap into an Internet
radio network with 23 Latin music stations, buy Latin music online,
read news on Latin music, blog and access other features.
The venture is part of Espuelas' larger VOY LLC, a multimedia group
that also includes film, TV, radio, books and other units aimed largely
at U.S. Hispanics and in English.
VOY Music will be run from offices in Miami, New York, Los Angeles and
Buenos Aires, with satellite offices planned in Spain and in Latin
America next year, the company said in a statement Monday.
Leading the new venture is Alejandro Cosentino, a former marketing
executive for American Express in Latin America, as chief executive.
Former MTV Latino video-jockey Ruth Infarinato is content director,
Latin music industry veteran Rudy Vila vice president for business
development and Gabriel Paluch chief technology officer.
Sun Sentinel READ MORE
Fridays are fun, and sometimes it's fun to complain. I like to indulge myself in the occasional complaint about language and translation flubs, and often about lack of vision when it comes to using language in marketing campaigns.
So, today I got some good fodder when I read this post in the Corante.com Going Global blog. Corante's John Yunker points out that while he was excited to see an online ad campaign for the new Tim Burton film "The Corpse Bride" in Spanish, he was disappointed to find that when he clicked through to the web site, he is met with an English-only experience.
Yunker goes on to say:
This is not a huge surprise given the economics of Web localization. Creating a Spanish-language Web ad costs a few bucks; creating a Spanish-language Web site (particularly one in Flash) may cost upwards of $50,000.
Will Hollywood eventually launch full-scale Spanish-language Web sites for the US market as a matter of practice? Given that the US Hispanic online population is larger than the online populations of most Latin American countries, I think they will.
I think his estimate of cost is a bit steep, but the point he makes is one I bring up a lot. Businesses are willing to spend the bare minimum to say they are targeting the Latino market, and when their campaign isn't successful, they are quick to say "well, that didn't work." The fact is, to effectively reach a market that speaks Spanish as their primary (or only) language, you must go all the way. Yes, a large part of the US Latino market is bilingual, or even monolingual English speakers, but if you are interested in targeting the segment that uses Spanish as the language in which they live their lives, an ad in Spanish that dead-ends in an English web site is pretty much useless.
Another strong point brought up by Yunker is that the US Latino population rivals some Latin American markets in size, warranting a similar if not larger campaign than those that studios roll out for films when they reach international markets. This film will obviously be distributed later on in Mexico, Central America, and even Spain. Why not begin the Spanish-language marketing blitz with a website for US Latino market, and repurpose it later for international markets?
I've said it a million times: there is no way around it. If you wish to use Spanish for your Latino marketing campaign, you have to make sure your Spanish-speaking customers receive all the information that they need in their language without selling them short. A superficial rush job is not enough, and may quickly be dismissed. Earnest attempts to reach consumers in Spanish will be appreciated and rewarded.
I've read around five different articles today about a campaign (put in place by the Mexican government's PROFEPA and various non-profit groups) to stop men from consuming sea turtle eggs for aphrodisiacal purposes. I've laughed about it, I've thought about it, and everyone and their mother has already commented about it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can read articles and posts here.
This isn't a U.S. ad campaign, so it doesn't really fall into the realm of what I normally write about, but it is a campaign targeting a certain sector of a large Latino community in a certain region: males in Oaxaca and Guerrero, Mexico. And the reason I think it's important to talk about (and not just joke about, which I've done in other places) this campaign is because in addition to the snickers and the "what?"s going around out there, there is serious controversy, with one group calling the ad sexist and demeaning to women, and another saying calling it the best way to reach its intended target audience.
The facts are: traditional Latino society lauds virility and ridicules impotency, as do many societies, including our own. Macho men who can't afford "performance enhancing drugs" might be tempted to try a more affordable, more accessible sea turtle egg. These macho men probably like women, pretty women. So what was wrong with the ad featuring just that?
I think it's right on the money, and forgive me, I don't find it demeaning. It's tamer than an Victoria's Secret ad or FHM cover photo. I think it does a great job of targeting just who it looks to target. And to quote the NYT:
"Why can Pepsi-Cola use a woman in short shorts and a little top, sweating in the desert?" Ms. Crevoshay asked. "If I put a picture of a turtle up, who's going to look?"
Exactly, no one would look. And even if some did, most will pay much more attention to pretty girls than pretty turtles. It's effective marketing, like it or not.
From a press release found on PR Leap; if anyone's read it please leave your comments:
(PRLEAP.COM) Marketing priorities have shifted across America following
the U.S. 2000 Census. More than ever, marketing experts have become
aware that it is necessary to understand and take special steps to make
an impression on minorities and influence their behavior effectively.
This is especially true with Latino audiences, whose combined buying
power is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2008.
For years Hispanic marketers have relied on language proficiency to
determine their marketing strategies. English language materials are
often translated to Spanish as the sole means to reach the growing
Hispanic population in the U.S. Extensive research and years of
practical applications indicate reaching U.S. Latinos effectively
requires much more than translations.
Many experts agree that cultural understanding and market segmenting
are essential marketing tools. Hispanics are diverse and from many
backgrounds, races, countries of origin, political and religious
beliefs. Latino subgroups have spread across the nation and expanded
their spheres of influence in countless areas. Following are five steps
marketers, communicators, entrepreneurs, business owners and anyone
else wishing to tap into this increasingly profitable market can take
to improve the impact of their outreach campaign:
1. Acknowledge the diversity of the U.S. Latino markets
2. Identify which segment(s) of the market you wish to reach (for example, first, second, third generation)
3. Determine the characteristics of the targeted segment (such as age, area of residence, income level, language fluency)
4. Collaborate with market experts to identify specific strategies and tactics
5. Formulate in-language and in-culture marketing and communication strategies specific to the targeted segment
This information was drawn from Hispanic Marketing & Public
Relations Understanding and Targeting America’s Largest Minority
(Poyeen Publishing, $49.95). To learn more about reaching U.S. Latinos
effectively, visit www.hispanicmpr.com . For review copy requests, email publisher@poyeen.com
From The Washington Times, via today's Hispanic Business, a piece about the various efforts American banks are making to attract Latino customers. The most salient initiative here would have to be that of Wachovia Bank. They have created a way for Latino customers to send money back to their countries via an ATM machine using a card they call Wachovia Dinero Directo.
According to the article:
Customers can add value to the cards at automated teller machines, by telephone or at branch banks, and mail them to countries throughout Latin America, where they can be cashed at any ATM in the Visa/Plus network.
Very smart idea, though I believe that this would be a lot more effective if there were a way to skip the step of having to mail an actual card to the customer's home country, opening up a new risk for fraud. Why not just allow customers to wire money via the ATM machine? I also have a problem with the price for all of this:
The bank charges no fee to open an account for the Dinero Directo Card, but the cost is $10 each time a customer adds value to it.
This seems steep to me given the working-class market they are looking to target. I wonder if we'll start seeing more of these programs from larger banks sometime soon.
Banking Giant Woos Hispanics with ATM
Tom Ramstack
Wachovia Bank plans to roll out a new ATM card for its Hispanic customers in the Washington area next month to help them send money to friends and family in Latin America. Customers can add value to the cards at automated teller machines, by telephone or at branch banks, and mail them to countries throughout Latin America, where they can be cashed at any ATM in the Visa/Plus network.
The Wachovia Dinero Directo Card, or money direct card, is the latest entry in the bank competition to win customers in the Washington area's fastest-growing minority community.
The card follows the marketing theory that a customer for one banking service becomes a customer for other services, such as home or business loans.
Hispanics represent more than 13 percent of the U.S. population and are the nation's fastest-growing minority, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.
HispanicBusiness.com READ MORE
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