Super Bowl XLIX: A Brief History of the Super Bowl’s Hispanic Market Advertisements & How the NFL Embraces Its Latino Base
#SpeakAmerican trended like wildfire on Twitter following the premiere of the multicultural themed "It's Beautiful" Coca-Cola ad, which aired during 2014's Super Bowl.
The unexpected commercial featured a same-sex couple, Americans of various ethnicities and the patriotic hymn "America The Beautiful" sung in eight languages – including Spanish – signifying America's position as a melting pot, or a nation of immigrants. Spanish was sung second, directly after the English, and the commercial featured numerous Hispanic subgroups (Puerto Rican, Mexican and Mexican-American).
While reactions to the "It's Beautiful" commercial resulted in many American rearing their ugly head, brand marketers know they must continue to pander to the multicultural consumers, particularly Hispanics. Brands like Toyota, who refused the one-size-fits-all "total" market approach, will likely champion those who choose not to cater to the booming market. And, networks like Fox Deportes have embraced Spanish-language segments that are culturally intelligent and have winning wit.
In 2012, the Chicago Bears partnered with a local Spanish radio station, La Ley 107.9, to air the team's games in Spanish on the radio, marking the first time this was done. Being that football is a favored sport among Latin Americans, it makes sense that marketers are attentive to the demographic.
According to a Nielsen report, African American, Hispanic and female viewers increasingly take part in Super Bowl viewership, and that will only heighten as U.S. born Latinos increase in numbers. The NFL is the only major league in the U.S. to tevevise all of its games in Spanish. Twenty-five million of of the 54 million Hispanics in the U.S. identify as NFL fans. And Mexico is the NFL's second most attentive market, as the population closely follows the teams that contend. The wise marketer, who's hopefully taking marketing cues from the NFL, understands that the Super Bowl is a global event, and it's important to concisely appeal to diverse audiences.
This year, NBC sold all available commercial space to 18 advertisers for its online live stream of the game, and the network will also run a Spanish-language telecast of the NFL championship on its NBC Universo cable channel, which will be offered for free by NBCU to stimulate viewership. The Hispanic network will televise its own independent Spanish-language pregame show, post game show, sideline reports and in-game programing. The vast majority of advertisement that will be featured on Universo will be in English and Spanish, and they're said to mirror the creativity of the spots being featured on NBC, but will certainly reach targeted Hispanic viewers.
In 2015, NBC Universo will televise the Mexico-based NASCAR Toyota Series, and in 2016, NBC Universo will televise the Summer Olympics from Rio to better serve Spanish speakers and to show that the Hispanic audience has a very real interest in sports.
NBC isn't the only network that has thought to cater to Hispanic audiences, however. When Fox Sports broadcasts Super Bowl XLVIII from MetLife Stadium, Fox Deportes, the Spanish-language network, will do so as well.
This year, there will plenty of commericial that are looking to be Latino-inclusive, including a Snickers commerical featuring Danny Trejo.
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