Hispanic Advertising- What Works & Why - Levi Shapiro

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Cover image for  article: Hispanic Advertising- What Works & Why - Levi Shapiro

After a record TV upfront of $18.5 billion, and robust Q2 earnings from the TV holding companies, no one is talking about the "death of television" anymore. Seemingly impervious to Wall Street crashes and London riots, networks saw double digit growth in cable and digital ad sales. However, it may be worthwhile to step back from the current euphoria and understand what types of TV ads are working, and why. A good place to start is the Hispanic audience, the fastest growing population segment in the US.

According to Nielsen, the top Spanish language advertisers in the first half of the year were Procter & Gamble, AT&T, DIRECTV, McDonaldsand Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile). The leading Hispanic advertising categories were Automotive,Quick Service Restaurants, Pharmaceuticals, Wireless Telephone Services and Motion Pictures.

The winning ad, in terms of recall among Hispanics, was the Yoplait"Save Lids to Save Lives" campaign, with a Recall Index of 250. That means the campaign is 2.5x more memorable to Hispanicsthan the average campaign. The message blends altruism (donating 10 cents for every pink lid), continuity (13th year), and familiarity (the spokesperson is popular Puerto Rican actress Adamari Lopez, herself a breast cancer survivor:

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Snickersran the campaign with the second highest recall, "Peanut Butter Squared", in which sharks decide which human tasted better. Facing stubbornly high unemployment (11.3% vs. 8% for whites) and foreclosure rates, Hispanic audiences would prefer to laugh.

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The success of humor and emotional elements corresponds to the findings for advertising effectiveness by research company Millward Brown:

Humor is also important in the Nationwide Insurance campaign "Vanishing Deductible", which scored 3rd highest for recall among Hispanics:

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The top advertiser in Hispanic-targeted media is Procter & Gamble, which spent $197.7 million last year to reach Spanish-speaking Americans, an impressive figure but still only 4 percent of its total media budget ($4.61 billion). This year, P&G launched Gain, its first dish-washing soap brand in nearly 40 years. More importantly, for the first time ever, P&G's principal target for a national product launch was Latinas, who identified "fresh scent" as the most important buying trigger. As a result, marketing materials emphasized the different scents- Original, Lavender, Citrus Splash and Apple Mango Tango.

AT&T, the #2 wireless carrier with 27% market share (comScore) maintained its relationship with young Hispanic consumers through its spokesperson, Spanish singer Natalia Jimenez:

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DirecTV, the satellite broadcaster based in Los Angeles, used humor in its "Opulence, I has it" campaign:

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McDonalds emphasized value and family with its "Love the Most" campaign:

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T-Mobile focuses on value and performance, with their youthful spokesperson, Carly Foulkes:

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Finally, although the campaign is from T-Mobile UK, take a look at the most memorable ad in the first half of 2011, "T-Mobile Royal Wedding", viewed nearly 25 million times online:

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This year, Spanish-language broadcasters Univisionand Telemundoraked in a record $2.15 billion at the upfronts, a 9% increase. Research firm Kantar Media forecasts a double digit increase in the $4.83 billion devoted to Spanish-language TV. Even that may be inadequate. Considering the US Hispanic population grew by 43% over the last 10 years to 50.5 million and 15% of the total US population, brands like P&G, AT&T, DIRECTV, McDonalds and T-Mobile will begin pressuring agencies to allocate more than the current 4% of total TV spend for Spanish-language TV. An important first step is to understand the creative that resonates most with this audience.

Levi Shapiro is a Partner at TMT Strategic Advisors, a research and strategy firm focusing on the technology, media and telecom sectors. He can be reached at levi@tmtstrat.com or via twitter: @levshapiro

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