Features

ADVERTISING: A Welcome Bull's-Eye -- in Two Languages

Christina Hoag

Volkswagen's doing it, so is Coca-Cola, and, as the population of U.S.-born Hispanics continues to rise, other advertisers will, too -- use bilingual ads in both Hispanic and general markets -- speakers at a conference said Monday.

"This is really what the future is going to start looking like," said Dolores Kunda, president and chief executive of the Chicago-based Lápiz Media at the 10th annual Marketing to U.S. Hispanics & Latin America conference, held at the Roney Palace in Miami Beach.

Experts at the three-day conference scheduled to wrap up today pointed to recent TV commercials by Coca-Cola and Volkswagen as examples of what is known in the industry as "crossover creative."

The Coca-Cola spot, which features the Mexican actress Salma Hayek speaking Spanish in the kitchen of a restaurant and then English at the table with her dining companions, aired on both English- and Spanish-language networks without subtitles.

Hispanics "are perceived by the general market as cool and aspirational, so that's why we're able to run this type of advertising," Kunda said, adding that society today is more open and tolerant of other cultures than in the past.

Volkswagen recently ran two commercials that featured Hispanic actors in both markets. One had no dialogue; the other had only one word, in Spanish.

The key is "visual storytelling," said Daniel Marrero, president and creative director of Creative on Demand, the shop that designed the ads.

"General consumers like the spots because they're good spots, and Hispanics like them because they say, 'Hey, this is for me.'" Marrero said.

The marketing pros predict that more advertisers will follow suit as they attempt to reach the burgeoning bilingual market, which will soon surpass the foreign-born Hispanic immigrant population, which speaks mainly Spanish.

"The consequence of that shift will be more of a bilingual marketplace," said Mónica Gadsby, chief executive of Tapestry, a Chicago marketing firm.

The picture gets even more complicated, she said, because Hispanics who speak more English than Spanish do not show quite the same media preferences as the general market.

Hispanics like watching Hispanic-theme programs in English, such as "The George Lopez Show," as well as wrestling and "The Simpsons," none of which shows up in the top 10 programs preferred by the Anglo audience.

Source: Copyright (c) 2004 Miami Herald.