ADVERTISING DOLLARS TARGETING THE HISPANIC MARKET

With Bill Smith, Advertising Director, La Conexión and George Mesa, Managing Director, El Estandar

By DINAH ENG

Advertising dollars targeting the Hispanic market are growing, and newspapers working to earn a share of that revenue are moving to overcome challenges in perceptions and obstacles in gaining access to the buyers. For small and medium-sized papers, the opportunities to gain national and local dollars designated to reach the Hispanic audience are there, but the approach may require different tactics than larger papers use.

Two executives with newspapers that have recently started Spanish-language publications in non-metropolitan markets have agreed to share their expertise.

Bill Smith, director of advertising for The Free-Lance Star in Fredericksburg, VA (morning, 47,065), oversees ad sales for the Star and La Conexion, its 15,000 circulation Spanish-language monthly, which launched in December 2003.

Smith is the co-founder of PrimeTime Solutions LLC, a creator and publisher of sales books and sales training materials. Prior to joining The Free Lance-Star, he worked in sales or sales manager positions at The Roanoke Times, The Virginian-Pilot and The Washington Post.

George Mesa, managing director of El Estandar, sells much of the advertising for the 10,000 circulation Spanish-language weekly himself, but works closely with the ad staff of The Standard Examiner in Ogden, Utah (morning, circulation 60,884). El Estandar debuted four months ago and targets Hispanic readers in northern Utah. Mesa owned Comunidad al Dia, a monthly Spanish-language publication in Temecula, Calif., for four and a half years, and served as a regional director for K-Mart and Wal-Mart portrait studios in southern California before moving to Utah.

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QUESTION: Where are you finding the greatest ad revenue growth?

SMITH: It’s in local business. Our real strength is in employment classifieds, and in furniture and real estate display ads. For example, we have a Hispanic realtor who buys a full color ad on the back of every other issue, and says she gets more calls from that than from the local ads she buys on Hispanic radio.

MESA: Our sales reps started by offering advertisers in The Standard Examiner a low pickup rate if they put an ad in El Estandar. I then started with moms and pops, and got into national advertising. Our press had to be modified to do inserts into the tabloid size, but we’re getting pre-print accounts now, too.

QUESTION: What have been the greatest challenges in selling ads for your Spanish-language publication, and how did you address them?

SMITH: Our biggest challenge is getting advertisers to be aware of what we’re doing, and convincing them of our value. You have to show retailers that Hispanic people have just moved here, and that their shopping patterns aren’t set yet, so retailers need to reach out to them. Also, you have to tell them that Hispanics are an upscale market and buy in equal quantities as non-Hispanics. They buy a little more in groceries and baby products than others do, and a little less in terms of home ownership.

MESA: When it comes to national ads, the biggest problem for me has been finding the right person to pitch to. You have to research leads through contacts, and go through the Internet, to get names. Most of the national companies have a local budget as well, like K-Mart has a budget for the region that I’m going after. It won’t be the same amount as from the corporate budget, but it’ll still bring in money.

The national companies let agencies take care of their placement needs, so I now work with about 10 agencies. I send out material to them constantly so that they don’t forget about us when they formulate their campaigns. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is doing a campaign against smoking, and had two weeks of meetings with Hispanic media in their agency’s office in town, and bought a share from everybody. We got about 10 to 15 percent of what was allocated.

SMITH: The Association of Hispanic Ad Agencies also has a list of companies who want to find out how to better target Hispanic buyers. We met with them, and they gave us some pointers, but we learned that for the most part, most of the big companies are looking for the top 15 to 20 markets.

QUESTION: Do you sell ads to many Hispanic-owned businesses?

SMITH: We don't have many here, but for those we do have, we call on them. The biggest issue on the advertiser side is, “Do I need someone on my staff who speaks Spanish in order to field the response from these ads?” For example, if a retailer has six salespeople and none are bilingual, he’s hesitant to buy. We tell them that many times, our readers are bilingual, or they’ll bring someone with them who is, to the store. Another concern is that these folks don’t have credit. We tell them that some Hispanics may not have credit because they prefer to pay in cash.

MESA: We’re doing a big launch February 23, and we’re partnering with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. We’re also trying to work with all the banks who want to target Hispanic customers. Zions First National Bank opened two branches in Salt Lake City and West Valley, where everyone is bilingual and the offices are decorated with Mexican decor. It’s amazing how fast this market is growing.

QUESTION: How about classified ads? What’s the response been there?

MESA: We have one person on The Standard Examiner sales staff who speaks Spanish, and he is in charge of the liners for both papers. We generally have about four pages of classified in our 24-page paper, so it’s fine for now. We use plug-ins to promote the classifieds and offer specials to attract people. For example, classified ads that are selling articles for $50 or less get four lines for free. One line is about four to five words.

QUESTION: What else can affect an ad buy?

SMITH: We’ve made changes in the distribution of our product based on what the advertiser wanted. We have a chain of grocery stores here called Shoppers Food Warehouse that has the largest ethnic foods area within their stores in this area. A lot of Hispanics like to shop there, so we got questions on whether we were distributing at Shoppers. We had to find a way to get in there, and we did. Shoppers, and Giant Food Stores, which also have high volume Hispanic customers, sell their distribution rights. So we had to find out who had the rights, and sub-contract with them.

We’ve also found that having a Spanish-language publication helps The Free Lance-Star. We formed a partnership with D.C. United, our professional soccer team, because Hispanics are big soccer fans, and ran a contest to give game tickets away to La Conexion readers. We also ran poster ads on the soccer team in The Free Lance-Star that featured each player on 22 pages. We sold the package to a local Toyota dealer who wanted to be connected with soccer, and who also wanted to reach out to the Hispanic market. That didn’t get counted in the Hispanic product revenue, but it was a direct result of having it. There are all kinds of opportunities to sell things in combination with one another if you think of them.