The question is often posed: Is a Hispanic ad-buy justified—aren’t most Hispanics reached by mainstream media? To most Hispanic marketers, Hispanic-specific media is a very viable and attractive medium.
Barry Edison, Senior VP Director of Media Insights at Southfield, MI-based Doner, a general market agency, has an interesting, more nuanced view on this. “I do not issue ad buys as much as develop targets,” Edison tells Portada. “These targets are demographically or psychographically based. We look at growth in sales and whether one of the larger groups to come into the market is Hispanic. Another important factor is geography.
Doner typically does Hispanic specific campaigns in regions that are heavily-populated by Hispanics, like the Southwest or the Southeast. Hispanic campaigns are a way to segment an audience. Doner is Mazda’s Agency of Record and works with and provides targets to Exposito & Partners, Mazda’s Hispanic Agency of Record (until last year it was Bravo).
To Alejandra Cavallo, Partner Co- Marketing & US Hispanic Campaign Manager at Intel Corporation, “when you align the message culturally, the consumer remembers it much better. Hispanics are the largest minority in the U.S., a very brand loyal audience, and often they are very young and technology-oriented (cell phones, computers, etc…). This market is particularly interesting because PC penetration is lower than in the mainstream market and therefore the growth potential is higher.