In order to win advertisers, publishers geared towards the Hispanic market have to do a lot more
than just sell ad space. “We have to be able to put together ad programs which include a
combination of media,” explains Enedina Vega , National Sales Director for Meredith Hispanic
Ventures.
Deborah Meyer, Director of Marketing for iVillage Parenting Network, explains that
Lamaze para Padres (circulation 850,000) says advertisers are increasingly looking for
online and direct-to-consumer programs.. Now that NBC Universal owns iVillage network,
Lamaze para Padres can offer its print partners a presence at the health fairs NBC holds
throughout the year. Meyer adds that demand for custom publications and direct mail campaigns
is also increasing. Meredith’s Enedina Vega echoes this statement. Meredith utilizes its growing
Hispanic database to do direct mailings, primarily for their existing print partners. “We have been
able to capture data on many of the Hispanic women who read our publications and have developed
a database that is in the 100’s of thousands,” says Vega.
Todobebé, a producer of multimedia Spanish-language pregnancy and parenting content, has
also experimented with direct mail. It ran several campaigns in 2005, including a bilingual publication
co-sponsored by Fisher Price and Pampers. CEO Gillian Sandler says the company won’t be
running any direct mail campaigns in the first half of 2007, but that they are planning something
for the second half of the year. (Look for details on www.portada-online.com)
TV gets left out of the mix
Fisher Price’s, a subsidiary of toy maker Mattel, Hispanic campaign has evolved over the past three years as they’ve learned more about the best and most cost-effective ways to reach Hispanic moms.
One interesting finding was that Spanish-language TV wasn’t a good investment. “Our ads are so visual and don’t rely heavily on language, so most Spanish-speaking moms were watching the English version,” says Brenda Andolina, Senior Brand Manager at Fisher Price. The TV component of the campaign was dropped after the first year. Fisher Price also determined that event marketing was too costly, so they discontinued events and added direct mail programs and FSIs distributed inside Spanish-language newspapers. Fisher Price continued out-of-home advertising and increased circulation on their custom publications to 1.5 million.