Media Nerd is a native New Yorker and grew up among people of many different ethnicities. All the immigrant groups that contributed to the Boom generation had a very different experience from today’s Hispanic immigrant; to think that the Hispanic immigrant will behave the same way is to misjudge the current environment and mood. Becoming “American” doesn’t mean abandoning where you came from. The world has gotten smaller thanks to major improvements in communication and mass media technologies, so a large immigrant group will retain its native language. Hispanics are also rightfully proud of their heritage and this must be respected in your advertising efforts.
So Media Nerd invites you to have a margarita or a mojito while pondering the following:
- Hispanic media availability and use is very different from general market. Television is by far the primary reach medium, so you must do this one correctly. You can’t replace it with anything else.
- It’s not enough to translate your existing TV or radio spots into Spanish; they need to be culturally relevant. There are core values common to most Hispanic groups, but there are many vernacular nuances. You need a Hispanic ad agency with an ethnically diverse staff to provide their expertise in this area.
- Just as language and media choice will affect your effectiveness, so will timing. If you discover that your Hispanic sales peak differently from your general market sales, your agency should be flighting your media buys accordingly. Launching everything simultaneously will make no sense if Hispanics start and finish their Christmas shopping earlier.
- If you need to do local efforts, keep in mind that all markets are not created equal. Los Angeles and Chicago are primarily Mexican, New York and Miami are primarily Caribbean, Miami is more Spanish-dominant while New York is more bilingual; all of these factors affect the local media landscape and the users’ media habits.
- Spanish-language newspapers are not likely to have a lot of reader duplication, so if your agency recommends 5 of them in a mid-sized to large market, that’s because you will need all five to reach the market.
As they say in novelas, “No te preocupes.”* A good Hispanic agency will be your strongest ally and best friend in capturing the hearts and minds of this market.
*Don’t worry.