Campaigns Miss Opportunities With Hispanics

Everyone talked about the Hispanic voter in the recent election, yet campaign spending on TV and mobile, channels with higher percentages of Hispanic audience, did not target messages specifically to Latinos. The Republican campaigns and PACs, who spent big bucks on television, largely ignored Latinos in their messaging, and were rebuffed when 71% of Hispanic voters chose President Obama, even though 54% of Hispanics identify themselves as "conservative," as Sam Thielman points out in a recent "Adweek" article. "If there's one lesson from the presidential race for marketers, it's that you can drop all the money you want on digital, but if you don't devote a significant percentage of it to reaching Hispanics, you're missing a large opportunity," he concludes. Some numbers to make the case clearer: Trendrr data for broadcast outlets during the election put 1.46 million viewers on social media during the election on NBC. There were 1.43 million watching coverage on Fox, 1.37 million on ABC and 1.32 million on CBS. But the Spanish-language broadcasters came in next, with 1.3 million and 1.29 million on Telemundo and Univision, respectively. For more, see the article at http://www.adweek.com/news/television/lessons-election-hispanic-market-edition-145304

Hispanic Voters Get Short Shrift in Political Ads

Wooing Hispanic voters doesn't seem to be a priority for 2012's crop of political ads. The United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce looked at 10 states (California, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Illinois, Florida, Arizona, Texas, New York and Virginia) from April through September and found that just 4.57% of the political ad spend went to Spanish-language advertising. These figures represent ads for local, state and federal elections. At the presidential campaign level, the Obama campaign has spent less than 10% of its budget to woo Latinos, and that the Romney camp has spent just over 4%. So despite the political pundits, 2012 is not going to be the "year of the Hispanic voter." For more, see http://www.smartbrief.com/news/aaf/storyDetails.jsp?issueid=2053008D-0CCA-430F-A554-2DE5809C39C1&copyid=9BE87D57-E2A2-4B4F-9C82-C6E15D3E566B