All the wonderful ads of last night’s 2012 Superbowl have been praised, but one thing is not clear yet. Have these ads appealed to Hispanics? Have Hispanics even been taken into account? Fox News recently reported that the 2011 Superbowl drew an average of 10 million Hispanic viewers, making last year’s broadcast on Fox the most-watched television show in history among U.S. Hispanic viewers beating out the 2010 World Cup final. “I think most advertisers missed the mark to talk to the large growing segment of Hispanic viewers”, John Durham, CEO, Managing General Partner at Catalyst S+F tells Portada. “The Super Bowl plays to middle America which tonight was proved strongly. Yet, the ads ignored for the most part the Hispanic demo,” says Durham who also is Adjunct Professor of Advertising School of Management at the University of San Francisco, Perhaps, the “Un-Hispanicness” of the ads has to be attributed to the strong jingoistic feel many of the ads had. In this regard Durham highlights Budweiser and the Detroit cars. “You expect that with America's party day,” Durham notes.
Regarding the ads themselves the advertising expert notes that NBC sports ads as well as Doritos, M&M, Fiat, Best Buy, Samsung, Honda, Acura and the Coke commercials along with Pepsi Max BIG HITS hit the mark of good messaging.. These ads will also drive people to do something.
$3.5 million commercials
Frances Allen, the CMO of Denny’s, a company which has increased its outreach toward the Hispanic demographic, explained in a Forbes article why Denny’s did not appear in a 2012 Super Bowl ad. “At roughly $3.5 million a commercial, a 2012 Super Bowl ad is a marketing decision that I hope companies have truly thought out this year – does it reach their segment; is the spot unique, memorable and differentiating; does it make an emotional connection that is lasting with their audience? With such a high profile advertisement, you can be certain there will be significant critique and commentary on all Super Bowl ads in the days and weeks to follows. There may be no worse fate to advertisers than to have one of their Super Bowl commercials deemed a “failure” or “irrelevant” from the chorus of advertising “critics” who seem to appear on morning talk shows and the like each year.”
Exception
However, Pizza Patron, did use the Superbowl, although not through a TV Ad, to push its Party Paquetazos targeting Hispanics. “Super Bowl Sunday is not the biggest day of the year for us, but it’s in the top four or five, and we want to improve and capture more business,” Gamm told the Nation’s Restaurant News. Pizza Patrón has introduced four new Party Paquetazos — which means “combo” in Spanish and is pitched toward the chain’s core Hispanic demographic — combining wings, large pepperoni pizzas and five-piece orders of QuesoStix. They range in size from a $34.99 Paquetazo of 30 wings, two orders of QuesoStix, two pizzas and three dips, to an $84.99 combo of 90 wings, four orders of QuesoStix, four pizzas and eight dips.
