So, I’m sitting at home last night watching the World Series (because I live in Detroit, which apparently is one of the only two markets who are interested in watching) and a Chevy truck spot comes on that’s completely in Spanish. The voiceover is Spanish. The supers are Spanish. And the storyline follows the contributions of hard-working Latino Americans over the years, everything from working on the Hoover Dam to inventing color TV.
Now, I have occasionally seen Spanish-speaking spots on regular network TV before, but this one got me thinking. Probably because we’d spent the greater part of the day in our agency working on a new strategy for a client we do Hispanic advertising for. We want to beef up their already strong presence in Hispanic marketing and talked about things like, needing to be a part of the Latino community and to speak bilingually.
And that’s why the Chevy spot made a lot of sense. It gave respect to the customer base it was trying to reach, tapped into the strong pride of their community and they weren’t afraid to put it out there as a Spanish-language spot on a non-Hispanic station. There it was – in the middle of big event TV. Without knowing Spanish, I could follow the storyline of the spot and get the relevant points just fine. And they ran it again later in the game, same spot, with voiceover and supers in English. Plus, baseball has become a very popular Latino sport. My Tigers are largely made up of Latino players, who are followed closely by people back in their home countries.
I think Chevy made a smart move. One that will connect well with their Latino customers without alienating the rest of their consumer base. And as our population shifts, we’re going to see more and more marketing like this. In fact, Spanish-speaking networks, not the Internet, had the biggest growth in marketing dollars in the last year. Because, like the Internet, it’s all about connecting with your customer in a more personal way.
Mike McClure
MWM seeking Multicultural Marketing Solutions
