Source: Survey of 500 Latinos commissioned by Jack Morton

Word-of-Mouth, TV Much More Effective Than Print, Survey Finds
By Laurel Wentz

Published: November 03, 2008

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Experiential marketing is the medium most likely to persuade Hispanic consumers to buy a product, according to a recent survey commissioned by experiential-marketing company Jack Morton Latino, but respondents had strong opinions about how events should be organized.

Respondents said they shun a hard sell, with people representing the sponsor brand and expect a live event to be complemented by social networking, blogs and mobile-phone activities.

The online survey of 500 respondents focused on acculturated Hispanics, typically U.S.-born and bilingual. Of those surveyed, 39% said they had participated in a live brand experience in the last year. Asked which medium would be mostly likely to drive their purchase of a product, respondents ranked experiential media first (30%); followed by word-of-mouth (24%); TV (23%); and the internet (14%). Print media, direct mail and radio all got responses of 4% or less.

Word-of-mouth is especially important in the Hispanic market; 68% of survey respondents said they interact with between three and 10 family members weekly.

Just 2% of respondents said they preferred hard-sell "active interaction" with people representing the brand; most preferred a softer sell and a more passive message at an event, conveyed through signage or video presentations. The main technologies respondents expected live events to be linked to were social-networking sites and blogs (25%) and mobile phones (18%).

Isabel Villegas, senior Latino-market specialist at Jack Morton Latino, said the live-concert series the agency created for client Alltel in key Hispanic markets in the Southwest also involves Facebook and MySpace pages, as well as pictures taken of attendees at the concerts to be put on "find yourself" screens during the events and posted later.

Labels: advertisement, Latinos