On April 3rd I had the opportunity to moderate a panel during Variety’s Massive Advertising Summit: “Hispanic Marketing – How to Succeed with this Transformative Audience Demographic.” The panelists included Warner Bros.’ Senior Vice President of Targeted Marketing Rick Ramirez, Starcom MediaVest Group’s Head of SMG Americas Experience Strategy Esther Franklin, Universal Pictures’ Vice President of Multicultural Marketing Fabian Castro, MiTu Network’s Founder and President Beatriz Acevedo and Google’s U.S. Hispanic Industry Manager Manny Miravete.
The conversation focused primarily on three cornerstones of Hispanic marketing:
The In-Culture Connection. Franklin said Hispanics are “culturally dexterous” and strategies must reflect how they weave in and out of those cultural spheres to fully connect. The panel agreed that marketers must also tap into Hispanic passion points to make a real impact. How are film marketers doing that? Castro and his Universal Studios team used a Pitbull song for the Despicable Me 2 campaign. Ramirez spoke about his need to respect each movie’s individual brand. So, for example, he can position the right film as “the family movie” and really speak to moms with emotional cues.
Listen and Engage on Social. Acevedo put it perfectly: “Hispanics live and breathe social media.” And Miravete highlighted that point by discussing the higher share rates and engagement among Hispanics. Brands should take advantage of moments when that engagement is through the roof, like Raul Jimenez’s bicycle kick at the last minute in the Mexican World Cup qualifier. Film studios are monitoring what hits home for Hispanics on social in marketing content like trailers and teasers and can see in real time what the reactions are using the analytics now available to them.
Language Lessons. While most of these films are in English, studios are committed to Spanish-language creative. That’s because it resonates and, as Castro mentioned, drives theater attendance. Miravete reinforced the importance of Spanish-language to Hispanics as Google data shows that Hispanics are conducting more entertainment-related searches in Spanish than they are in English. He also noted that click-through rates for digital campaigns in the entertainment category are higher in Spanish than they are in English.
