Targeting ads to Hispanics is a big trend nationwide, but you’d better know New Mexicans to do it here, agencies say
By Dan Mayfield
Tribune Reporter
“The problem is, you have these people who do analyses and they make some significant assumptions that are applicable across the country, and that’s not the case,” said Del Esparza, a partner in Esparza-King Inc., an Albuquerque advertising firm. “They use a broad brush and paint us all the same color. That’s something we can take advantage of.”
The assumptions that New Mexico Hispanics are like Hispanics in other cities don’t take into account the state’s unique demographics, Esparza said. Although New Mexico has many native Spanish speakers, most Hispanics here don’t speak much Spanish, say market researchers.
“I think New Mexico has a unique Hispanic demographic. The majority are not bilingual,” said Maria Elena Alvarez, publisher of Prime Time Monthly in Albuquerque. “I can tell a joke, and know an insult.”
Alvarez was the founding editor of Hispanic Magazine in the early 1980s and found, from reader surveys, New Mexico was different.
“New Mexico always skewed the numbers,” she said. “In California and Texas there’s a stronger history of first- and second-generation Hispanics. Here, we have seventh-generation Hispanics who speak English. We’re much more mainstream here,” she said.
Local advertising companies are using those differences to create campaigns, but that doesn’t mean they ignore the Spanish-speaking market.
“Most every campaign we do has a bilingual companion campaign,” said Debbie Johnson of Rick Johnson & Co. in Albuquerque.
The agency has studied regional differences in the state and incorporated that into its marketing, often producing separate campaigns for northern and southern New Mexico.
Albuquerque Tribune
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