Cell Carriers Catering to Hispanics

Good New York Times article today on how cell phone carriers are giving Hispanics extra attention as a business growth strategy.

The industry is on track to spend more than the $140 million it spent on Hispanic marketing campaigns last year, the article says. They cite Verizon sponsoring the Shakira concert tour and Sprint promoting its phones that let you watch TV and download Spanish song .

Reasons?

-- One of the country's fastest growing demographic groups
-- Hispanics come from large families that span international borders
-- We are younger as a group

One way they are reaching Hispanics is by promoting themselves in a culturally relevant manner. For instance, Verizon Wireless will broadcast clips in Spanish from the World Cup and cut in half the cost of making international calls to the 31 other nations with teams in the tournament, the article says. Sounds pretty smart to me

Verizon has also sent out its "Latino Street Team" that travels in a branded sport utility vehicle to Hispanic concerts and festivals, where they show off mobile technology. Festival sponsorships, as I've spoken about, are a great way to not only market your products and services to the Latino audience, but they also have great community relations benefits.

Verizon, for instance, is the title sponsor for the Areyto Latino Festival (in an effort to be open, I do need to say that this is a festival I work on in my capacity at Mason y Bauza).