Cox Communications Inc. plans to launch an aggressive
Spanish-language marketing campaign next year targeted at the country's growing Latino
population. To that effort, the MSO said it hired Ad Americas as its national Hispanic
advertising agency.
Not only are Hispanics expected to count for 12 percent of
the overall U.S. population sometime next year, but there's also a high concentration of
Latinos in the Southwest markets that Cox serves, manager of core video Nancy Heffernan
said.
"It's important that we're marketing with sensitivity
to the nuances of the culture," she added.
In choosing the agency, Cox sought input from its systems
in Orange County, Calif.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; Tucson, Ariz.; San Diego; and west Texas.
"We were looking for a Southwest-based agency,"
Heffernan said, "one very attuned to Mexican-American customers and one that was
geographically close" to Cox's primary Hispanic markets.
The MSO wanted an agency that specialized in Hispanic
marketing, but that also had experience in the cable industry. Ad Americas has worked with
MediaOne Group Inc.'s Los Angeles system.
Ad Americas will be called upon to assist other Cox systems
in their marketing efforts, Heffernan predicted, adding that there are pockets of
Spanish-speaking customers in all of its markets, including Omaha, Neb., and Oklahoma
City.
She added that some Cox systems, such as San Diego, have
been doing Hispanic marketing for years with great success.
Next year's corporate campaign will take Hispanic marketing
beyond translating direct-mail pieces, introducing all-new television, radio, newspaper
and outdoor ads.
"We've learned that you don't translate, you
'transcreate' something according to the culture," Heffernan said, adding that it's
important to appeal to the needs of the whole family.
Heffernan said the efforts would include marketing
telephone packages where Cox offers them, and she estimated that the Hispanic market would
hold great potential for long-distance phone service.
Local Spanish-language programming will be highlighted
wherever possible. Cox will also educate the market on the secondary audio feeds available
in Spanish from certain major networks.
"We're also looking forward to working with
programmers for joint promotions," Heffernan said.
Cox also plans to use Ad Americas to help recruit new
Spanish-speaking employees. Other Ad Americas efforts will include public relations and
events planning.
One of the first priorities for the agency is to come up
with an effective Spanish translation for the MSO's image theme, "Now You're
Living."
