After hearing from those who have successfully started marketing to Hispanic consumers at our 2013 Leading the Change forum, we were privileged to have three vets from three vanguard companies on hand to share examples of multiplatform success amongst Hispanic consumers. One common theme from these three marketers: no matter how broad or targeted the campaign, whether it uses two media platforms or 20, cultural relevance is the key to success.
In this panel at the Leading the Change forum, Alfredo Rodriguez, vice president of Marketing for Dish Latino, gave us a deep dive into his direct response business, sharing the importance of smart media mix modeling. Rodriguez shared that due to the direct response nature of Dish’s business, their first priority is to offer a relevant product that consumers need. Dish Latino is a highly culturally relevant service to the Hispanic community that plays to Hispanics’ passion points of entertainment, sports and news on their home countries. Beyond that cultural and language relevance, Dish Latino’s media mix is incredibly important to the viability of its business – the company has to be that much more strategic about placing media and executing creative that will resonate. In fact, “media partners are increasingly important to a brand like Dish,” Rodriguez said, because of their ability to optimize in real time based on real data. And without shelf space from which to market the product, Dish Latino relies heavily on multiplatform media partners to drive visibility and ROI. So, Dish leverages sponsorships and media plans that drive awareness of the product offering, like in-novela integrations, magazine buys, and sports sponsorships, with a defined goal to hit the consumer with messaging from all angles, and ultimately drive conversion.
Next, Peter DeLuca, senior vice president of Brand and Advertising for T-Mobile USA, Inc., gave us a peek under the proverbial tent to understand how one of the nation’s biggest mobility advertisers approaches multiplatform marketing to Hispanics. Armed with what it calls a “challenger strategy”, T-Mobile touts the importance of cultural passion points and relevancy. At the core of this strategy, DeLuca said, is maintaining an impactful presence in lots of different spaces; to be wherever the consumers are. And while its spots carry tremendous weight, DeLuca said, T-Mobile always strives for media innovation to deliver results.
With that innovation in mind, T-Mobile has activated an integrated media strategy that lasts several years surrounding Univision’s “Premio Lo Nuestro,” an award show franchise dedicated to one of Hispanic’s key passion points: music. From on-air celebrity-driven product placements, to in-store pop-up concerts and everything in between, DeLuca detailed the tremendous scale of this partnership and the key success metrics: increases in store traffic, hundreds of millions of media impressions, and an increased consumer affinity with the brand.
Lastly, David Cardona, the director of Multicultural Marketing for Clorox, leveraged key insight that Hispanic moms are much more likely than non-Hispanic moms to think cleaning helps them prevent sickness in their homes. Clorox utilized a multiplatform media and social activation to position Clorox as a partner in promoting good health during cold and flu season. The “Hogar + Sanito” (Healthier Home) program communicated how to protect your home and family from the flu in just three easy steps: washing hands, getting vaccinated and disinfecting surfaces.
Drilling deeper, Clorox understood that Hispanic moms often use rhymes to help their kids learn. With that in mind, they built a kid-targeted, viral music video with an existing cartoon series (Las Tres Mellizas Bebés) to promote the “three little steps” to fight flu this season. This subtle, but powerful, brand message (and a very catchy tune) delivered a successful marketing program across broadcast, print, social media, and blogs, and ultimately drove incremental earned media awareness amongst their target consumers. And the success of this program certainly proved one thing to Cardona and Clorox: “Media and social media in-language is important [for Hispanics], but we need cultural fluency more than anything else,” he said.
No one agrees with that more than I do. What do you think? We’d love to hear your reactions on these campaigns, or any other multiplatform Hispanic marketing campaigns that have struck a chord with you and your business. Talk with us: @Hispanic 411 on Twitter.
