Elements of an Effective Hispanic Marketing Campaign

Even as the U.S. Hispanic population growth is increasingly driven by U.S.-born Hispanics, a recent “Facebook IQ” study found that marketing in Spanish is still important. The study reports that 80% of U.S. Hispanics say they do not feel the need to give up speaking Spanish in order to assimilate into American culture.

This contradicts a recent trend of replacing Multicultural Marketing with an all-encompassing message delivered in a single language. As the number of bilingual Hispanics continues to grow, so do the opportunities for marketers to deliver culturally relevant messages.

When consuming media online, the majority of bilingual Hispanics use Spanish at least half of the time. This stands in opposition to the idea that Spanish becomes less relevant as a Hispanic consumer becomes acculturated.

It is important to note, however, that there is a gap between the ROI of TV ads in English and in Spanish. A Nielsen study found that the ROI of English ads were $0.30 higher than those of Spanish ads.

After an in-depth analysis of these results, Nielsen found that 54% of the Spanish ads actually had equal or higher ROI than the English ads. Several factors were found to increase the effectiveness of these ads:

·        Original Spanish language rather than translations from English ads or voice-overs

·        Humor relevant to Hispanic culture

·        Relatable settings

Ads that incorporated the above elements saw significantly higher ROI than English-language ads.

In order to effectively reach the growing population of U.S. Hispanics, campaigns not only need to incorporate the Spanish language but also culturally relevant messaging.

GenX has more Affluents than Baby Boomers

Part of media strategy includes understanding the generation shifts in the consumer marketplace. For years, the Baby Boomers have had the majority of Affluent status in America. A new report shows that Generation Xers have recently become the majority, which is a first.

According to the Center for Media Research, the 2015 Ipsos Affluent Survey USA reports the following generation breakdown for American Affluents.

American Affluents by Generation (At Least a HHI of $100K)
Generation	Share of Affluent Population	Median Self-Reported Annual HHI
Millennials (18-33)	25%	$516K
GenX (34-50)	37%	$552K
Baby Boomers (51-69)	33%	$913K
Seniors (70+)	5%	$1.42M

The Affluent group consists of the top 23% of American households. This group is defined as adults living in households with a minimum annual household income of $100,000.

While the GenX population has topped the largest share amongst the Affluent, the Baby Boomers and Seniors still index high on the annual household income.

In addition, the study reflects how even people within the same generation can respond more like other age groups. Findings show that the younger side of GenX acts similar to Millennials in the marketplace, and the older side tend to be more like-minded with Baby Boomers.

Marketers will have to absorb this generation move and evaluate what this will mean for a brand. Strategies may have to be altered.

Television is still prime media choice for US' youth

With all of the hype surrounding new technology and how the younger generations adapt earlier, it can lead to the question, what happens to the older technology? The simple answer is it is still there. eMarketer recently reported on a few studies that researched how younger audiences still consume television in spite of other newer digital options.

While the exact amounts of television consumption across younger age ranges differ amongst the research studies, each come to relatively the same conclusion. That is, television is still the primary media consumed by children. One study by Nielsen found that kids, between the ages of 2 and 11, watched approximately 111 hours and 10 minutes per month of “traditional” TV. These kids also spent another 10 hours and 45 minutes watching timeshifted television. In regards to content viewed on a DVD or Blu-ray player, children watched about 9 hours and 18 minutes per month. Another report by Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop put 8 to 10 year-olds as watching 1 hour and 24 minutes of TV per day. This information was according to the children’s parents.

With the introduction of streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, or Amazon, kids have more access to on-demand programming. While the adult counterparts have been accused of “binge viewing” TV and movie content, the term “déjà view” has become a moniker for younger audiences. This term describes the habits of repeatedly watching the same episode or movie many times. If you have kids, how many times have you seen Frozen?

Younger American audiences are watching TV. While researchers may argue the exact amounts, the fact remains that television consumption is still high with the younger audiences.

Social Habits of 2014 High School Grads

Marketers are constantly tracking the demographics for social media in terms of the younger and upcoming generations. It is evident that social media can take many forms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, etc., but Facebook continues to hold the lead in the realm of popularity. According to eMarketer, nearly nine in 10 of every 2014 US high school graduate have remained active on Facebook since graduating.

Research conducted by Niche shows that 87% of 2014 US high school graduates use Facebook, and 68% of the same demographic are active on Instagram. Forty-seven percent of Facebook users access their account multiple times a day, while a close 43% of Instagram users do the same.

Experts do mention a shift in terms of age of the high school generation. According to McAfee, 58% of social network users ages 13 to 15 use social media during school, compared to the 75% of users ages 16 to 18. As far as gender is concerned, the users are nearly equal, with 52% of males and 54% of females active on social media during school hours.

In terms of searching and browser history, two-thirds of 2014 US high school grads report closing or minimizing a window when a parent walked in the room, and 67% of these older teens clear their browser history.

Is television reaching an older audience?

With broadcast television, some networks skew younger than others, but how exactly are they ranking? From looking at the first two weeks of the fall 2012 season, it appears that most networks are growing older.

According to MediaPost, most of the median ages increased from the year prior:

·       CBS: Median age of 57.8 years; 55.3 in 2011.

·       ABC: Median age of 55.3 years; 53.4 in 2011.

·       NBC: Median age of 47.8 years; 48.7 in 2011.

·       Fox: Median age of 43.3 years; 41.8 in 2011.

·       CW: Median age of 40.9 years; 36.6 in 2011.

·       Univision: Median age of 40.4 years; 36.8 in 2011.

What does this information tell us? First of all, the data was pulled from the initial two weeks of the fall season. Therefore, it may have leveled out throughout the season. However, it does still show a trend towards an older audience.

It’s up to advertisers to figure out how best to reach their audience. For example, if the desired consumer is younger, look at younger skewing networks or look at younger skewing programming within all networks. Just because the median is slightly older, doesn’t mean that the younger audience has left. It simply means that the active audience is staying with certain programs and networks in spite of the fact they are getting older.

Ethnic breakdown of popular media sites

Since social media user demographics shift as new options enter the market or get more established, it can be useful to advertisers to check and see what the landscape looks like from time to time. AdvertisingAge recently reported on research from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

From a poll of 1,802 people, the following was revealed:

Twitter’s audience

·       26% of black internet users

·       19% of Hispanic internet users

·       14% of white internet users

·       The percentages of users in the black and white categories have grown since 2010. The Hispanic category has stayed relatively consistent.

Instagram’s audience

·       23% of black internet users

·       18% of Hispanic internet users

·       11% of white internet users

Pinterest’s audience

·       18% of white internet users

·       10% of Hispanic internet users

·       8% of black internet users