Essay 477

From the current issue of Marketing y Medios…

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Seven Tips to Create Good Ads in Spanish
March 01, 2006

[Yehudit Mam is a Hispanic market creative consultant. Until March 2005 she was vp creative director at The Bravo Group. Born and raised in Mexico City, she has lived in New York for 14 years.]

Spanish Is Not English

All too frequently, marketers and advertising agencies wish Spanish behaved a little more like English. It doesn’t. Spanish has a different grammatical structure. It’s a third longer than English. In Spanish, to communicate a word like “crowded” we need at least two words. So it’s helpful to be flexible with translation. As long as the gist of the communication is the same, make sure your message is delivered in correct, user-friendly Spanish.

López is Not Cervantes

I recall one general-market client that had its TV commercials for a beauty product translated by a legal translation agency. Not only was the copy 37 seconds long, it was scary. You wouldn’t expect a paralegal to write your dishwasher commercial, would you?

A good rule of thumb is: Don’t do in Spanish what you wouldn’t do in English. Unless they’re linguistics professors, most people with a Hispanic last name don’t speak better Spanish than the average professional Hispanic market copywriter. So why trust them more than the pros? This drives Hispanic agencies crazy, and with good reason.

Some Adaptations are More Equal Than Others

There are different degrees of adaptations. Some campaigns or slogans, like “Good to the last drop,” for example, translate perfectly in Spanish. Buy many don’t. Sometimes the same global strategy works for Hispanics but with a different execution, like the Heineken “It’s all about the beer” campaign. The fact that a global idea works well for the Mexican or Latin American market doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work for the Hispanics in the U.S. Your Hispanic agency should be able to tell you honestly when an idea translates successfully and when it does not.

You Need Not be Cheesy

Some marketers demand single-minded, clutter-breaking advertising from their general-market agencies. Yet when it comes to their Hispanic agencies, they forget about all that. Perhaps it’s because they are unfamiliar with the culture or because they have one chance a year to make a splash and they want to say everything about the brand in 30 seconds.

Remember, Hispanics channel surf and they may come across an exciting commercial for a brand on English stations and then watch its cheap, confusing counterpart for the same brand on Spanish TV. How do you think they will they feel about that brand?

Hispanics Are Like Everyone Else ... Only Different

A marketer for a financial services company wanted to know how Hispanics get married. Well, besides the fact that there may be more relatives at the wedding, or that instead of vodka tonics people may drink rum or tequila, the Hispanic agency came to the conclusion that, at weddings, Hispanics booze, boogie and bawl just like everyone else.

A better question would have been, “What do Hispanics think about financial services?” This is where they differ from the general market. This is the difference between a relevant cultural insight and a stereotype.

A Good Idea Is a Good Idea

General-market clients tend to ask: What’s Hispanic about this idea? We may have a different sense of humor, different customs and cultural traits, but what will persuade us above all is a good idea. And good ideas for Hispanics don’t always need to include a piñata, men with moustaches, enormous families or silverhaired abuelitas (in many cases all in the same commercial). The rule should be that if it’s relevant and it strikes a chord, then it is Hispanic.

Show Us the Love

Hispanic consumers are not as jaded as their general-market counterparts. New immigrants appreciate the fact that marketers reach out to them in their language. Acculturated Hispanics appreciate when marketers court them across language boundaries.

Therefore, fresh ideas with good production values and a solid media buy will get your brand a lot of good will, whereas dubbing a commercial intended for someone else and putting it on air for two weeks will not.

In conclusion, build up your brand with quality, consistence and perseverance. The rewards can be enormous.

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