I received the following question via email recently, and felt it was worth passing along / opening up for discussion to the crowd at large:
Why do media buyers and ad agencies not invest more of their clients $$$ into Hispanic advertising on radio, TV and print in Idaho?
Thoughts? Opinions?
I was in California when the media serving various ethic communities were struggling and had a hard time attracting advertising dollars. The argument at the time was that minorities read/watched “mainstream” media, so it really wasn’t necessary to buy ethnic media as well. Perhaps there’s some of that sentiment in Idaho. Eventually enough research was done that demonstrated — particularly with Hispanics — that they held a strong sense of community and loyalty, and that advertising in ethnic media was very useful in terms of strengthening brands and products and tapping into that loyalty. Of course, there are about 12 million hispanics in California, so there’s a critical mass to support hispanic media. I suspect the numbers in Idaho are fairly small. Also hispanics probably fall on the lower end of the income scale, relatively speaking, and may not be perceived as attractive targets of advertising for certain products. But that is just speculation, as I have no direct experience in Idaho with the issue.
I buy media throughout the United States and many times the client requires an outreach
to Hispanic/Latinos. My experience has been that Hispanic and Latin targeted radio
stations are significantly higher cost per point than other stations. Further, many won’t
run an English ad, they force you to have it translated, which the client feels is a loss of
control of the message. I have the same experience here in Boise, that the Hispanic stations
are not cost effective.
Robert is right: generally speaking, Hispanics who have the disposable income companies want are fluent in English and may actually be offended when addressed in Spanish only (as in, Why do you assume I don’t speak English?) Also, it’s really obvious when an ad is translated directly from English to Spanish, and that’s a huge turnoff that can do serious brand damage.
That said, smart companies know when to reach out to the Hispanic market. Locally I’ve worked with agriculture, foodservice and public service clients who reach out to Hispanics on a regular basis. Most efforts are in order to share information or influence the public’s opinion of a company, not to sell a specific product.