With the Hispanic voter block now 16 million strong—and on track to double to nearly 40 million within the next 16 years—Univision Communications is well positioned to be an indispensable partner for political campaigns.
Its 2016 election sales effort got underway last summer when, under newly named president of political & advocacy sales, Jose Valle, the Hispanic media giant began meeting with campaigns to discuss how it could help them better understand Hispanic communities. A deep dive was the next step. Commissioning political researchers David Binder and Moore Information, Univision was able to show candidates that Hispanic voters are persuadable—55% “could go either way, depending on what the candidate or issue is,” Valle says. And many are first-time voters, creating a ripe opportunity for campaigns to establish a political brand with them. What’s more, advertising research has shown Hispanics have better recall and pay more attention to ads in Spanish.
“Our listeners and viewers tell us that when they see candidates speak to them in Spanish, it’s sort of a sign that [candidates] are taking their campaign seriously with the community, that they are taking the extra step to connect with them,” Valle says.
Since that initial outreach, Univision’s political specialists have focused their message to elected officials and those running for office on the importance of being “engaged and aware of what’s going on in your community,” Valle says, helping educate them about the issues that are important to Hispanics.
Since the campaign has moved into primary season, the company has been regularly going back to candidates, their agencies and PACs with new data, including candidate tracker studies that show how Hispanics are reacting every two weeks to different campaign messaging and candidate debates. “We connected earlier so conversations have been easier and better as we’ve moved into each market,” Valle says.
Univision is optimistic that the combination of population growth trends, solid research and the size of its cross-platform footprint will lead to meaningful growth in political dollars. “We think that as the size of our voting block continues to grow and as the importance of those votes continues to matter…we are seeing the awakening of the political operatives to our marketplace [for] that market-share growth that they need to win,” Valle says.
Source: Inside Radio
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