Radio Sales Café

Hi everyone!  I hope you are all having a wonderful Holiday Season!

I have some thoughts that keep rolling around my head and would really like this incredible brain-trust thoughts on this.

First, let me start by saying that I am Hispanic. I also very rarely speak Spanish in my home (my wife does not speak Spanish).  I also NEVER listen to Spanish language radio.  Most of the people Hispanic people I know are the same way.  

That being said, I encounter article after article that highlights the growing affluent Hispanic market and how we must capture this audience in order to stat relevant.  

My question to all of you is: have you been working on any campaigns/initiatives that actively focus on this demo?  I work for a Group of 5 stations, none of which are Spanish language stations, and I would love to get some insight into what can be done to effectively market to this growing demo.

I am excited to see what all of you have to say!

 

Victor, this is a great question. I have worked with some Hispanic television and radio station, and what I hear is whatever their primary language, many Hispanics jump back and forth between Spanish-language and Anglo stations, depending on what they want to hear. So even if all of your broadcasts are in English, the odds are that Hispanics are listening to you.

Do you have data showing the ethnic breakout of your stations' listeners? Perhaps there are one or two of the five that do particularly well with this demographic. If so, I'd focus your efforts on those stations.

Victor, my mom was Puerto Rican and often would speak a mixture of Spanish when talking to her siblings, nephews, and nieces. My brother and sisters are fluent in it out of necessity: one married a Colombian girt he met while traveling there, one teaches ESL in Chicago, and the other teaches Spanish in Michigan; their kids have also picked it up.  That said, none of them listen much to Hispanic radio, though they love going to Hispanic/world music concerts and festivals in Chicago.  I imagine that any advertiser jumping between both languages in a commercial on a station they do listen to would find them paying more attention to the message on that account, all other factors being equal, since it mirrors the way many seem to speak naturally when they're conversant with both languages.

Victor,

I was born in South Florida and built several stations there (Florida Keys). You now have second and third generation Hispanics who speak English. In most cases, Spanish is their second language.

The most important key is the format. English formats such as Top 40, and classic hits tend to lean more rhythmic, and the ratings reflect that.

Magic 102.7 in Miami is a good example. Ratings and revenue have declined. It is anticipated that they will go with some type of classic leaning rhythmic (Rhythmic AC) format.

Rock leaning formats in South Florida have always performed poorly. There are a few success stories in West Palm beach, and North.

Most of the Spanish format stations that do well are listened to by older demos. 

I would discuss this with your programming and sales dept.

XVictor,

Good Question! I moved on from the radio industry, but worked for both a Spanish language station as well as a young adult contemporary English language station with a big Spanish following. I totally agree with the previous replies so I will start off from there.

1). Let us know what research your station has access to so we can tell you where to look for relevant data. We (clear channel aka I heart media) had research with very detailed Spanish language listener data.
2). In order to attract Hispanic advertisers you need to know what percent of and raw numbers of total Hispanic listeners. 3). If you work for a general market station your Hispanic listener percentage may be competitive with the total listenership of the usually smaller Hispanic station.
4). Create a prospect list of their top general market advertisers reaching Hispanics on the Hispanic station.
5). Position your station as being able to reach the same number of Hispanics with the added benefit of the commercial being in English. Many of the big advertisers on Spanish radio and those wanting to be are privately cautious because they cannot be sure that their well put together commercial copy is being translated accurately to the target market (since they do not know Spanish they cannot make accurate copy changes or be sure it is coming out right). You can assure them that they can reach the same # of Hispanics and still have confidence in their copy. (This is very important for agencies).
6). Our station's personalities would sometimes say a few phrases in Spanish for the Hispanic listeners. An audio clip of the personalities with your stations Hispanic listener numbers should garner you some of the "growing affluent Hispanic market" (btw one of the biggest cash advertisers for the Hispanics market is "calling cards") Go to a local gas station / Spanish store and flip to the back of the card to see the contact info. They spend BIG $ (one of my clients had a huge safe in his office with tens of thousands of cards - each one worth $2, $5, $10). They advertise with heavy rotation and cheap spot prices to brand their cards so the listener picks them up to call to their home in, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador etc. Good Luck, Roddie

Victor:  

In Charlottesville, VA,  I sell for 5 radio stations ...  none of which are Hispanic.  Charlottesville has a large Latino community, so I've focussed on three ways to honor them with Spanish on our airwaves: adding a call to action tag in Spanish at the end of an ad, creating a rotation percentage of ads in Spanish (10 to 20%) with their English counterparts   and working with non-profits that serve the Hispanic community (Citizenship & ESL Classes, Hispanic cultural gatherings, Fire Department and other government service providers, etc).

Businesses and organizations that want to include / attract Hispanic buyers have mostly used an English 50 sec ad and 10 sec tag, or a 60 sec ad composed of a 30 second ad in English followed by its exact translation into Spanish. Voicing the Spanish portions has fallen either to myself, or a few willing community members.  I also have 2 people that translate for me and my clients. 

I have not yet been prospecting businesses to specifically attract Hispanic buyers, but you've inspired me to begin doing so.  This will be a new concept for small, local businesses - I am aware of only a few businesses   allocating dollars marketing specifically to Hispanic buyers - mostly thru one niche publication; I have observed a few hiring a Latino person and having them meet one on one with other Latinos.  

Quantifying local buying power will be imperative to closing "ad sales targeting the Latino community."  Having several on-air elements specific to these community members is important (see paragraph one), so that the Spanish words are more of an intentional, woven tapestry, than something that's blurted out / stands apart.

A local dentist has half his ad in Spanish, and he has had a huge response. The market is indeed there. Who's going to step up next to specifically invite Latino persons to become their customers ?

Best wishes !!  

I have worked in several heavily Hispanic markets in Texas (one was 97%, a town of 40,000).

I get what you are saying.  In the 97% Hispanic community our border FM was Top 40, entirely English.  Across the river an English Top 40 music station with Spanish language advertisements that nobody listened to.  Their beef was 'all the Spanish'.  Even if they had limited command of English, they preferred all English.  In this community where Grandparents spoke only Spanish and a percentage of the remaining population, English language programming prevailed as the top dog. In fact, many of our listeners were fluent in both Spanish and English but among friends selected words that were either easier to pronounce or better depicted the point they were making for an interesting Spanglish mix.

I found in the markets where I was working the Hispanic population was very Americanized on a social level but traditionally Hispanic on cultural levels.  We found sensitivity to the cultural aspects was effective.  We encouraged attention from clients to the cultural aspects and saying the client could do business in Spanish, a nice thing if you might not have the confidence your English is on the same level as your understanding of Spanish.

English formats skewing rhythmic seemed to perform well.  In Tejano's run, ironically, in much of Texas, the DJs jocked in English almost entirely with perhaps a word or two in Spanish (terms commonly known to English speakers) while announcing song titles in Spanish.  

I should note the audience was decidedly not immigrant but first and second generation.