Reed Johnson’s article identifies the importance of having relevant content for diverse markets. On a related topic, I had a conversation with a film executive that shared information on another film that did well among Hispanics: ”The Haunting in Connecticut,” where the genre of the film makes it popular among Hispanics.
Reed Johnson--Los Angeles Times
HOLLYWOOD -- In addition to the roar of car engines and the blast of automatic weapons fire, there's another sound in "Fast & Furious" that's been integral to the franchise's success: Spanish-language dialogue and accents.
The latest installment of the action-thriller series has a distinctly Hispanic feel, including its south-of-the-border location settings (although some actually were shot in California), its soundtrack, several of its characters (including one played by Puerto Rican rapper Tego Calderon) and its plot line (hot-rodding hero Dominic Toretto battles Mexico-based drug runners).
Those elements are no coincidence, and they're partly responsible for the disproportionately large Hispanic crowds that the current film -- and the franchise in general -- have drawn, according to Universal Pictures, the movie's distributor.
Adam Fogelson, Universal's president of marketing and distribution, said that a limited sampling in five U.S. markets last weekend showed that 46 percent of the "Fast & Furious" audience was Hispanic.
Although that percentage was not necessarily "representative of the national sample," Fogelson said, "it was again recognition of a huge part of the core fan base of this movie."
The movie has performed well so far in Latin American territories, bagging the biggest opening of 2009 in Mexico and Central America and accounting for 50 percent of the weekend box office in Mexico and Brazil, according to Universal.
Fogelson said that the Hispanic media marketing budget for "Fast & Furious" was the largest ever for a Universal film.
The promotional campaign included running advertisements during a Mexico-U.S. World Cup qualifying match last winter, tapping into Spanish-language Internet social networking sites and dispatching stars Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez to do publicity in key Hispanic markets.
Fogelson said any future installments of the franchise would continue to take care of an audience segment that always has "taken care of the franchise."
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Sign is at the Box Office
The news of downward trends among many industries paint a scary picture of the current economy but if you do your homework and search, you find areas of growth and opportunity.
Case in point, the entertainment industry that in a down economy continues to grow box office results year after year. On March 29, 2009, the domestic B.O. was up a whopping 40% over the same frame last year, thanks to "Monsters" and Lionsgate's horror entry "The Haunting in Connecticut." This was not an isolated incident and continued on April with the opening of "The Fast and Furious" that brought the box office 65 percent ahead of same week last year.
What makes the success of "The Haunting in Connecticut", "Monsters" and "Fast" unique is the contribution of Hispanics to the box office office success. According to exit poll stats, Hispanics made up 46% of Furious and50% of Haunting's audience. The core audience for both movies is young man and women (17-24).
I was not able to find exit polls for "Monsters" but the genre of the film (animation) has children and families as their key demo. I will venture to make an estimate and place the percentage of Hispanic audience for this movie at 30%. After all, the majority of first graders at the top 10 DMA's in the U.S. are Latino. You do the math.
Talk about purchasing power, economics, opportunity and the implications for corporations targeting Hispanics: they generated about 63 million dollars at the box office in 2 weekends. Most film studios recognize this market and its potential but few know how to reach it successfully.
Recent news from comScore on the growth of online Hispanics further highlights the value and potential of the market but also presents the need of experts when communicating with them.
My questions for marketers that have not implemented a Hispanic strategy is:
Can any other segment in your business contribute about 63 million dollars in 2 weekends?
And if you already have a Hispanic strategy, is it effective, efficient or are you leaving money on the table?
Do you know how to reach them on line?
It all starts with how you see the current situation: is your glass half full or half empty. If you have done everything possible in the general market and your glass is half full, it is time you look for new opportunities and fill the other half.
By Ivan Cevallos, founder and CEO of ethosGroup Inc.
April 17, 2009
Case in point, the entertainment industry that in a down economy continues to grow box office results year after year. On March 29, 2009, the domestic B.O. was up a whopping 40% over the same frame last year, thanks to "Monsters" and Lionsgate's horror entry "The Haunting in Connecticut." This was not an isolated incident and continued on April with the opening of "The Fast and Furious" that brought the box office 65 percent ahead of same week last year.
What makes the success of "The Haunting in Connecticut", "Monsters" and "Fast" unique is the contribution of Hispanics to the box office office success. According to exit poll stats, Hispanics made up 46% of Furious and50% of Haunting's audience. The core audience for both movies is young man and women (17-24).
I was not able to find exit polls for "Monsters" but the genre of the film (animation) has children and families as their key demo. I will venture to make an estimate and place the percentage of Hispanic audience for this movie at 30%. After all, the majority of first graders at the top 10 DMA's in the U.S. are Latino. You do the math.
Talk about purchasing power, economics, opportunity and the implications for corporations targeting Hispanics: they generated about 63 million dollars at the box office in 2 weekends. Most film studios recognize this market and its potential but few know how to reach it successfully.
Recent news from comScore on the growth of online Hispanics further highlights the value and potential of the market but also presents the need of experts when communicating with them.
My questions for marketers that have not implemented a Hispanic strategy is:
Can any other segment in your business contribute about 63 million dollars in 2 weekends?
And if you already have a Hispanic strategy, is it effective, efficient or are you leaving money on the table?
Do you know how to reach them on line?
It all starts with how you see the current situation: is your glass half full or half empty. If you have done everything possible in the general market and your glass is half full, it is time you look for new opportunities and fill the other half.
By Ivan Cevallos, founder and CEO of ethosGroup Inc.
April 17, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
When They Go Online, Hispanics Download
Adoption of broadband, digital downloads high.
More US Hispanics are going online than ever before, and most are using broadband.
According to Scarborough Research, 54% of Hispanics were online in 2008. While that is up slightly over the previous year, it still trails the 69% penetration rate of total US users.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
The Paradigm of Transformation
We are going through a period where media and communication models that have been used to deliver messages to consumers at eroding at a rapid pace. That in combination with the transfer of control from marketers to consumers has left traditional media and the echo system they support wondering what to do next. The shift is taking place among all segments of the population. This is both a tread and an opportunity for companies that develop new communication models and understand the role consumers play in a brand's strategy under the new paradigm. There is no magic potion but the answer lays on a good understanding of the basics: know your target and how your product or service satisfies a specific need in the target.
Confronted with these changes, marketers can not use the same strategies they have used for the last 30 years. It is not about old or new media, it is about the role consumers have taken as creators of content whose distribution is facilitated by technology. This content can be in the form of a consumer complaining about your product and notifying the entire network in Facebook or all their followers in twitter. So brands listen up to what consumers have to say and use the same technology to empower your brand evangelizers.
The common denominator here is that the same technology consumers use to communicate is available to brands and they can identify trends and truthfully engage audiences in a conversation. You may not have the entire resources in house and need to bring them on board or outsource. There is no single formula for success. What can make a difference is the preparation of your internal resources along with a strategy that was derived from research and arrives at the intersection of a clearly defined consumer profile and how your product or service satisfies a specific need.
Confronted with these changes, marketers can not use the same strategies they have used for the last 30 years. It is not about old or new media, it is about the role consumers have taken as creators of content whose distribution is facilitated by technology. This content can be in the form of a consumer complaining about your product and notifying the entire network in Facebook or all their followers in twitter. So brands listen up to what consumers have to say and use the same technology to empower your brand evangelizers.
The common denominator here is that the same technology consumers use to communicate is available to brands and they can identify trends and truthfully engage audiences in a conversation. You may not have the entire resources in house and need to bring them on board or outsource. There is no single formula for success. What can make a difference is the preparation of your internal resources along with a strategy that was derived from research and arrives at the intersection of a clearly defined consumer profile and how your product or service satisfies a specific need.
The Paradigm of Transformation
We are going through a period where media and communication models that have been used to deliver messages to consumers at eroding at a rapid pace. That in combination with the transfer of control from marketers to consumers has left traditional media and the echo system they support wondering what to do next. The shift is taking place among all segments of the population. This is both a tread and an opportunity for companies that develop new communication models and understand the role consumers play in a brand's strategy under the new paradigm. There is no magic potion but the answer lays on a good understanding of the basics: know your target and how your product or service satisfies a specific need in the target.
Confronted with these changes, marketers can not use the same strategies they have used for the last 30 years. It is not about old or new media, it is about the role consumers have taken as creators of content whose distribution is facilitated by technology. This content can be in the form of a consumer complaining about your product and notifying the entire network in Facebook or all their followers in twitter. So brands listen up to what consumers have to say and use the same technology to empower your brand evangelizers.
The common denominator here is that the same technology consumers use to communicate is available to brands and they can identify trends and truthfully engage audiences in a conversation. You may not have the entire resources in house and need to bring them on board or outsource. There is no single formula for success. What can make a difference is the preparation of your internal resources along with a strategy that was derived from research and arrives at the intersection of a clearly defined consumer profile and how your product or service satisfies a specific need.
Confronted with these changes, marketers can not use the same strategies they have used for the last 30 years. It is not about old or new media, it is about the role consumers have taken as creators of content whose distribution is facilitated by technology. This content can be in the form of a consumer complaining about your product and notifying the entire network in Facebook or all their followers in twitter. So brands listen up to what consumers have to say and use the same technology to empower your brand evangelizers.
The common denominator here is that the same technology consumers use to communicate is available to brands and they can identify trends and truthfully engage audiences in a conversation. You may not have the entire resources in house and need to bring them on board or outsource. There is no single formula for success. What can make a difference is the preparation of your internal resources along with a strategy that was derived from research and arrives at the intersection of a clearly defined consumer profile and how your product or service satisfies a specific need.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Where Shall We Invest?
Hispanics 211% More Likely to Download Digital Content
Univision the # 3 Network
Though their use of broadband is slightly lower, online Hispanics in the
Univision the # 3 Network
Univision held its Premio Lo Nuestro a la Musica Latina last week
Latino Kids are Majority of First Graders in 10 largest DMA’s
According to new data from the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at USC, Latino kids are a majority or near majority of first graders in nine out of the ten largest cities in the country with 74% in
Coke unveils marketing pitch for Hispanics
The Coca-Cola Co. has launched a multi-media marketing campaign aimed at the nation’s 45 million Hispanics
The campaign began airing a new television commercial on March 20, and expanded its media presence with a strong showing during Univision’s highest rated program “Premio Lo Nuestro” music awards, on March 26
Also, beginning in May, Coca-Cola will start national marketing, advertising and public relations campaign featuring the Mexican National Team in the
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