Emily GrochTelecom providers are seeking to engage Hispanic and Latinx segments through varied influencer partnerships and marketing touchpoints, from social media to direct mail.
Let’s examine how telecoms are using their marketing channels to connect with Hispanic and Latinx consumers in 2020.
1. Latinx Influencers
Brands such as Spectrum and DishLatino continue to build on established partnerships with key spokespeople across channels. For example, Charter Communications worked with actor Gaby Espino and reggaeton superstar Ozuna to promote Spectrum services.
Source: Comperemedia Omni
Working with Ozuna helps Charter reach bicultural Millennials and Gen Z. (Source: Comperemedia Omni)
A bilingual video advertisement featuring Espino first aired in Sept. 2020, and promotes a Spectrum Mi Plan Latino double play bundle. The spot showcases how multigenerational households consume English and Spanish content across devices. (A 15-second version ran online.) Espino also appears in Spectrum email and mail promotions, like the direct mail piece above.
Ozuna, who also appears in Spectrum direct mail promoting Mi Plan Latino bundles, promoted Spectrum Mobile in campaigns across TV, digital, social, radio, and print.
T-Mobile’s first commercial with James aired during the 2020 Premios Juventud award show. (Source: Comperemedia Omni)
T-Mobile, on the other hand, announced a new partnership with influencer and author LeJuan James in Q3 2020, to build on its momentum with young Latinx consumers. T-Mobile promised more social posts and TV commercials featuring James in the months ahead.
Choosing the right influencers for each target audience is crucial for marketers. According to Mintel’s Internet Influencers report, 46% of consumers and 53% of Hispanic consumers say they feel personally connected to internet celebrities they follow.
2. Relevant Social Media
Most telecom providers have separate branded accounts to share content with Spanish-speaking audiences. Xfinity Latino has amassed the greatest audience, driven by its Facebook fans. T-Mobile, however, has the largest Instagram and Twitter audiences of the providers we analyzed.
Source: Mintel social media monitoring [01/01/20 – 10/18/20] as of 10/19/20
Regardless of activity levels, across all of the Latino social media accounts, providers posted almost entirely Spanish-only posts. This suggests that the core target market for these accounts is Spanish-dominant Hispanics. The approach assumes that consumers speaking only or primarily English will follow the primary branded accounts. This makes it important for these brands to share relevant content from their Latino accounts on their primary accounts, too.
Source: Comperemedia Omni
Highly-engaged social media content features celebrities or major live events. DishLatino found success in driving engagement and audience growth through live Facebook sessions with actor Eugenio Derbez. Meanwhile, T-Mobile Latino was able to drive high engagement through its annual sponsorship of Univision’s “Premio Lo Nuestro” music awards show, with posts featuring award-winning music artists. T-Mobile’s most-engaged social posts were those featuring Latin American boy band CNCO.
3. Mainstream Mail
Telecoms used mail to send broad-reaching campaigns, with little tailoring of messages or products to engage Hispanic consumers. Bilingual or Spanish mailers typically featured direct translations from English. Additionally, most TV providers stopped featuring their Spanish-language packages in direct mail. Charter was the exception, remaining very active in the mailbox, and incorporating Hispanic celebrities and augmented reality experiences into its creatives.
Spectrum Mobile’s bilingual mail often featured a letter that was in Spanish on one side and English on the other. Unlike its English-language mailers, these campaigns were always signed by Marisol Martinez, VP of Multicultural Marketing. Los Angeles was its top market for bilingual or Spanish mail.
Source: Comperemedia Omni
Each major TV provider offers distinct TV packages for Hispanic consumers, but by August, only Charter used direct mail to promote its Hispanic package.
Source: Comperemedia [09/01/19 – 08/31/20] as of 10/20/20; chart includes acquisition mail with an offer including “Latino” or “Mundo” or “Optimo” or “Mas” or “Maximo”
