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Farmers' Insurance (above) and U.S. Navy (on home page) are some of the marketers breaking new creative during Telemundo's broadcast of the Summer Games.
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Olympics a Golden Way to Reach Hispanics
July 28, 2008
By Della de Lafuente
NEW YORK Major North American marketers will set records of sorts when the Olympics open in Beijing on Aug. 8, debuting a slew of Hispanic-targeted ads during Telemundo's broadcast of the Summer Games.
Target, Farmers' Insurance, U.S. Navy and AT&T are among the various marketers lining up -- many for the first time -- to secure ad placements that will showcase new creative in Spanish during the high-profile Olympics telecast. AT&T also is the sole telecommunications sponsor of the NBC and Telemundo broadcasts of the games as part of a wide-scale media buy with parent NBCU.
Telemundo's coverage of the 2008 games begins Aug. 6 and runs through Aug. 24.
Details on the 2008 ad spend for Telemundo's Olympics broadcast weren't disclosed, though the network described the Beijing games as its "best ad-supported" telecast since making history in 2004 as the first U.S. Hispanic network to televise the games in Spanish. Ad spending in Spanish network TV for the 2004 games in Athens totaled $20.57 million, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
For marketers, being out in front of a major televised sports event such as the Olympics is a strategic move designed to appeal to the cultural and emotional connections Hispanic consumers will experience as the games play out, including a sense of pride, nationalism and competitive spirit, said marketing pros interviewed for this story.
Some marketers will use the wide platform that the Olympics offers to showcase inspirational stories about Hispanic athletes and high-profile Latinos while others will use celebrities and scenic locales to convey messaging aimed at a bicultural and an increasing affluent viewing audience.
"The Olympics is a world stage and an opportunity in media -- and there are only a few -- when you are potentially going to get the whole family in front of the TV in a multigenerational opportunity” said Greg Cunningham, director, multicultural marketing, Target Stores, a first-time sponsor of the games in Spanish.
"When you can reach people in those really special moments, and understand the bond that Hispanics family have, and understand that 'if you speak to me in a relevant way during this time, it will make me perceive you and your brand very differently,'" Cunningham added.
Target's media buy via Telemundo will give the retailer a global marketing vehicle for reaching Latino consumers with inspiring and culturally relevant messaging featuring Hispanic athletes and celebrities. The retailer also will have a significant advertising presence in the general market coverage of the Olympics, Cunningham said.
Others, including the Mexico Tourist Board, are buying airtime during the quadrennial sports extravaganza because the sizeable Hispanic viewing audience anticipated for the nearly 400 hours of sports programming is an opportunity to cast a wide net and reach Latino Olympics' enthusiasts with bilingual and English messaging.
"The Olympics gives us a platform that is so unique and quite opportunistic as a media strategy because we know that a high percentage of consumers traveling to Mexico later this year will begin to plan their destinations several months in advance," said Manuel E. Machado, CEO, Machado/Garcia-Serra, Miami, which developed the creative spots in English for the Olympics and is the tourist board's media agency for North America. "That’s why tooting our own horn during the Olympics is most appropriate."
For Telemundo, the Olympics' broadcast in Spanish provides an opportunity to provide a significant audience with 51 percent of Hispanic households, or 5.4 million homes, tuning in for the network’s 2004 coverage of the games from Athens, per the Nielsen Home Television Index (NHTI).
"It's so exciting to see advertisers recognize the opportunity that this global sporting event provides and who want to make a cultural and emotional connection with Hispanics in Spanish," said Jacqueline Hernandez, COO, Telemundo. "It’s taking something very global and making it very individual for the consumer."
Here’s a sampling of some of the creative breaking via Spanish TV during the Olympics:
TARGET
As a sponsor of the games via Telemundo, the retailer will air Olympic-themed advertising in Spanish during the medal-round events for sports such as live men's soccer, baseball and boxing.
Target multicultural TV spots will air throughout the games, including its "Dream in Color" campaign featuring music mogul Emilio Estefan, designer Sami Hayek and actor Tony Plana giving their take on what it means to dream in color and sharing their own dreams and how they transformed them into reality. Other spots will include Target branding, awareness ads, including those that illustrate the retailer's commitment to community, giving 5 percent of its pre-tax profits back to local communities. Creative duties were handled by the retailer's in-house team and various agencies.
"We look for those really special moments when we know the viewer is going to be hyper-sensitive to 'who is speaking to me' in the most relevant way and 'who understands me best,'" said Cunningham.
Amid the wall-to-wall sports coverage, Target will also aim its message at young, bicultural women who embrace media in Spanish and English are likely to tune in for female-driven events such as gymnastics.
Ten Olympic-focused vignettes and profiles will precede the retailer's 30-second TV spots and will celebrate Latino pride, courage, triumph and the obstacles various Hispanic athletes have overcome to make it to the games. Hispanic athletes, including a female taekwondo competitor from Mexico and basketball star Manu Ginobili of Argentina, will be featured.
FARMERS’ INSURANCE
As part of an ongoing Spanish-language effort launched in 2006, the insurer has tapped actor turned pitchman Edward James Olmos to make touting the benefits of being insured one big adventure.
In a spot that will debut during the Olympics broadcast on Telemundo, Olmos is depicted as a sort of Hispanic Indiana Jones action figure who is shown navigating rough terrain and tight spots to convey the message: In real life, things like this don’t happen. But for dealing with life's unknowns, Olmos says he has Farmers' Insurance. Accentmarketing, Coral Gables, Fla., developed the creative and handled media.
Olmos has been shown in earlier TV spots jumping out a plane, driving a car that's un-destroyable and traveled ahead of his time, per Accentmarketing.
"We want consumers to remember that if they are [insured] with us, their safety is assured," said Luisa Acosta-Franco, assistant vp, emerging markets and diversity, Farmers' Insurance, which is an Olympics sponsor in Spanish for the first time. "You’ve also got to have the right message and the right person giving the message. It's a different way to present insurance to people."
Farmers' TV spots are aimed at Spanish-dominant multigenerational Latino families and will appear throughout the games, along with various billboards showcasing the insurer's name during the Olympics' broadcast.
The Summer Games via a Telemundo is the right fit for breaking the Farmers' TV spot because of Latinos' affinity for sports "and because it's not just the males who will be watching -- women and our youth are going to be watching," Acosta-Franco said.
"Farmers' is about family and a lot of families will be getting together to watch something that is wholesome, fun, competitive and just good," she added, noting that the insurer made it possible for a jazz band from a school in San Antonio to travel and perform at the pre-Olympics in Beijing.
The story of the young group's journey to Beijing will be highlighted in as one of several vignettes that Telemundo is producing that will air during the daily recap shows as part of its Olympics' coverage.
The idea to focus on Farmers' work in the community came as a result of a brief conversation Acosta-Franco had with a Telemundo sales rep nearly a year ago in which she mentioned the project and its significance in helping to make the jazz group's trip to China possible.
"Telemundo does a great job of outreach with us, and really finding out what we’re doing in the community, and not just asking us how much we have to spend in advertising," Acosta-Franco said. "They loved the idea and we started talking about it and now [the day of this interview] they are in San Antonio interviewing the students who went on the trip."
Separately, Farmers' also is debuting Asian creative developed by IW Group, Los Angeles, in Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean, Acosta-Franco said.
MEXICO TOURIST BOARD
As part of a wide-reaching media buy via NBCU, the Mexico Tourist Board is advertising during the Olympics for the first time, per Machado/Garcia-Serra.
Two English-language TV spots are airing in advance of the games on NBC, rolling out Aug. 6 on Telemundo, and expanding to CNN during the Olympics' broadcast period ending Aug 24.
"To reach general market Hispanics and non-Latinos, we felt that it would be apropos to put Mexico on the radar screen as a cultural, culinary, extreme sports and eco-tourism destination," Machado said.
Tourism officials want to pique the interests of TV viewers who may be inspired by the games exotic locale to embark on their own travel adventures abroad, albeit a bit closer to home, familiar in language and culture and involving less time and money to get there.
"We're hoping that Latinos and non-Latinos see these spots and opt for Mexico instead of Europe or some other destination," Machado said.
Mexico's message is aimed at a wide audience with an income above $50,000 (which Telemundo is able to deliver) and who can afford to visit the country from any city in North America.
U.S. NAVY
A first-time Spanish advertiser in the Olympics, the U.S. Navy hopes to make a big splash with the launch of a TV awareness spot during the games as part of a targeted effort to reach Hispanics. Accentmarketing handled the creative and media.
"This opportunity speaks more to our target and gives us a more direct approach than in other mediums," said Cornell Galloway, enlisted program advertising manager, U.S. Navy. "For those who are watching the games, it's an opportunity to appeal to the pride in the Hispanic community and put our message in front of them."
Much like the Navy, the Olympics symbolize the ability to compete and achieve, Galloway said, adding, "It's what the Navy is all about -- it's all the good, a very diverse market with a singular message of achievement. It's a perfect fit for this audience."
The creative is a fast-moving spot (think "Top Gun" whenever the flying team is in the air) that showcases the wide opportunity that the Navy offers to excel, earn money for college and have a career, Galloway said.
The ad is predominantly in Spanish and ends with a kicker about the Navy in English, an acknowledgement that Hispanics consume media in both languages.
"We're very proud to address such a large audience in this format," Galloway said. "We know how important the Olympic athletes are, and the pride in country that exists for them among Hispanics, and we just wanted to be part of that in some way. If at the end of the day, they remember those four little letters of N-a-v-y, then we've done a good job."
The partnership is specific to Telemundo and is part of an ongoing business relationship that the Navy has its eyes on expanding in the future. "It's something we will look at going forward," Galloway said.
Ads in 30-second and 15-second spots will begin airing via Telemundo on Aug. 4 and will run through Aug. 18, per Accentmarketing.
"We want people to think of us as a solution -- not a way out, but a way ahead," Galloway said. "In the spirit of the Olympics, you get a chance to participate, compete, achieve -- and that's the same message that we're trying to share about the Navy."
AT&T
MarketingyMedios.com reported in June that the telco has mounted a multicultural, multiplatform campaign via TV, radio, online, digital and direct mail that showcases Hispanic siblings Steven, Mark and Diana Lopez of the U.S. Olympic Taekwondo Team.
The marketing push is part of the AT&T's sponsorship of the U.S. Olympic Team and is the first time the telco has developed Olympic-themed messaging aimed at Hispanics. Omnicom's Dieste Harmel & Partners, Dallas, handled creative duties and WPP's Mediaedge:cia was responsible for media.
A series of three Spanish-language TV spots will air through early September as part of a wide-scale media buy for the Olympics with NBCU.
The ads will air in 22 Hispanic-dominant and emerging markets via local Telemundo stations, Univision, Azteca America, Mega TV and others.
The spot "Jumps" features the entire Lopez famioy, including parents Julio and Ondina, and is a take on the left-to-right footwork that taekwondo athleters use to keep their bodies in motion when they are training (sort of like a runner who jogs in place to keep muscles and joints limber).
"During the entire spot the Lopezes are jumping from side-to-side while on a home phone, using a cell phone or chatting online with each other and coordinating a family gathering to watch a movie," said Laura Hernandez, AT&T's executive director, diversity marketing.
The message is intended to show the Lopez family interacting together as a family, which is how AT&T's Hispanic consumers use technology.
Said AT&T's Hernandez: "This allowed us to put a family of athletes in our commercials who are pretty inspirational."
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Copyright 2007 Marketing y Medios |
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