Direct Response Radio Advertising Must Target Hispanic Radio Market
With more and more direct response advertising aimed at the Hispanic market, this poses two questions to the advertising professional. Number one, “Is the appeal more effective if made in Spanish?” The answer according to research is a resounding “yes.” According to the Strategy Research Corporation, 96% of Hispanics prefer to receive their information in their first language. Secondly, advertisers need to consider the most effective medium to reach this market. Radio according to the same study is the clear answer. The SRC found that the Hispanic consumer is also a big radio consumer as 92% of Hispanics listen to the radio every day and 9 out of 10 Hispanics listen to Spanish language radio radio player spain.
The Christian population among Hispanics is especially influential and is a viable advertising target for many consumer driven products. This has certainly been seen in the 2008 Presidential election with both candidates appealing to this growing minority. Prior to the election, Yuri Mantilla, director for International Governmental Relations for Focus on the Family called 2008 as the “Year of the Hispanic”. Said Mantilla, “We are the nation’s largest minority and we are poised to make a difference in some of the tightest races because of our concern for family, for life, and for faith. Hispanics are not a monolithic bloc, but a thriving family community, and our values are the values on which this nation was founded.” As more and more advertising dollars are available to Spanish speaking radio stations, we recommend that direct marketers work closely with copywriters at employed at radio stations. It is their job to make the ad message relevant to the Hispanic consumer. As in all languages, it is not enough to simply translate existing English copy into Spanish, rather it must appeal in Spanish with all Hispanic idioms in place. The best way to lose ground with a Hispanic consumer is to assume our English meaning applies.