Four Steps to Hispanic PR Outreach

The Hispanic population is America's largest minority demographic, consisting of 39.9 million people or roughly 14% percent of the population. This group also represents the

fastest growing portion of the population. Yet in some cases, PR professionals have been confused and uncertain in trying to reach out to this demographic.

Part of this challenge is due to the relative newness of this demographic's numeric power. It was not until the 2003 release of U.S. Census figures, when Hispanics bypassed

African Americans as the largest minority group, that many people acknowledged the depth and scope of this segment. Within this segment, 40 percent of the Hispanic population is

foreign born, and of that segment 52 percent arrived in this country between 1990 and 2002.

At the same time, many PR people find themselves making common mistakes based on misperceptions regarding language and ethnic identity issues. For any PR outreach to Hispanic

audiences, there are four key considerations that need to be addressed.

Communities, Not Community

Unlike other demographics measured by the U.S. Census, Hispanics are not viewed as a racial group. That's because there is no such things as a Hispanic race. Hispanics

represent a wide range of racial heritages traced to Europe, Africa, Asia and the indigenous nations of the Americas. The Hispanic world is also acutely separated by

nationalism.

"I'd like to set the record straight about the myth of the Hispanic monolith," says Felix Vasquez Jr., president of the New York agency RPG Communications. "There is no

Hispanic community, per se. There is a Mexican-American community, a Cuban-American community, a Salvadoran-American community, etc. And, of course, there are the four million

people living in Puerto Rico - all of them are American citizens."

Vasquez adds that among the different communities, there is very little in the way of pan-Hispanic brotherhood. "It is the same thing with the Europeans," he says. "You won't

find much common ground between Latin Americans. Go to a soccer match between a Mexican and a Colombian team and see how much Hispanic solidarity you'll find in the stands."

Kit Parker found that out the hard way. "Ten years ago, I did PR for the U.S. theatrical release of a movie called Nueba Yol," recalls Parker, president of Kit Parker Films.

"In New York, the PR was easy because the local Dominican community loved the film's star, TV comedian Luisito Marti. The film made a lot of money in New York. But once we took

it to other cities, it died." She acknowledged that a large portion of the Cuban community in Miami and the Mexican community in Los Angeles never heard of Luisito Marti and

didn't care about a Dominican movie. "Yes, the film was in Spanish, but their reaction was ' so what?' The Dominican culture was totally alien to them and they didn't want to

know about the movie," she says.

English Spoken Here

In some cases, it appears PR professionals abstain from outreach to many Hispanic media outlets unless the campaign is aimed directly at Hispanics. From the media side,

journalist Carl Gomez is more than aware of this absence of communications.

"I've worked at Spanish-language newspapers and English-language newspapers, and the English-language newspapers would get at least 75 percent more news releases than the

Spanish publications," says Gomez, associate publisher for the online magazine Latino Review. "Even for benign stuff, like new beauty products or the opening of a new movie, I'd

hear about that over at the English newspapers but I would rarely hear about it in the Spanish-language newspapers."

From the PR side, there is evidence of disregarding Hispanic media.

"I know an agency (no names, please, but it is pretty big) that openly refuses to pitch the Spanish-language media in the U.S. unless there is a Hispanic angle to their work,"

says Vasquez. "I even asked one of their VPs why they don't include Hispanic newspapers and radio and TV stations in their outreach, and he said: 'Because they don't speak

English over there.' It doesn't get dumber than that."

Spanish, Correctly

But that is not to say all PR professionals operate in that manner. Of course, it helps to communicate in Spanish without bungling the translation.

When Loring Barnes, managing partner of Clarity Communications Group LLC in Millis, MA, was planning a Hispanic media outreach as part of this year's National HIV Testing Day

campaign, she made sure she had Spanish-fluent talent at all levels.

"You absolutely have to have that capability," says Barnes. "We have someone on staff who is of Mexican descent, so we have the translation capacity here. Plus, for this

campaign the program managers at the Centers for Disease Control are bi-lingual - so we had a lot of resources."

Barnes also worked with bi-lingual celebrities spokespersons, including actresses Salma Hayek and Laura Ceron and talk show host Cristina Saralegui, to help spread the

campaign's message via public service announcements and podcasts. "We worked with celebrities who had affinities with that market and had different ways of communicating with

their own style," she adds.

When asked about using free English-to-Spanish translation services found on the Internet, Barnes had an answer that is the same in both languages: "No."

Into The Communities

PR programs aimed at Hispanics should not just be limited to media outreach. For Larry Borden, president of The Borden Group in Philadelphia, bypassing the media for a direct

communication with Hispanic communities is a B2C PR success story.

"Experiential promotions of consumer goods aimed at neighborhoods within the Hispanic population are among the most popular that we produce," says Borden. "Whether we show up

at sporting events or music festivals, or even if our tour bus turns up in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods, the fact we are going into the community shows that we are

interested in doing business there. It means a lot to our Hispanic customers."

On the B2B side, however, PR outreach to Hispanic business professionals may require more focus and input.

"Maybe there will be a couple of advertisers in Hispanic Business Magazine or a few vendors showing up at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's convention in Philadelphia

this September," says Vasquez. "But on the whole, the corporate PR outreach to Hispanic business owners is lagging. However, how long did it take before corporate America

realized there were African Americans who ran businesses? Hopefully, it won't take the same amount of time until Hispanic business owners get noticed."

Contacts:

Felix Vasquez Jr., [email protected]; Kit Parker, [email protected]; Carl Gomez, [email protected]; Loring Barnes, [email protected]; Larry Borden, [email protected]

America's Foreign-Born Hispanic Population
COUNTRY	2000	2005	% CHANGE
Mexico	9,092,288	10,969,941	+20.7%
El Salvador	810,814	987,499	+21.8%
Cuba	855,704	895,861	+4.7%
Dominican Rep.	676,615	700,845	+3.6%
Guatemala	476,510	625,652	+31.3%
Colombia	507,955	556,407	+9.5%
Honduras	278,894	378,605	+35.8%
Peru	272,904	371,716	+36.2%
Statistics: U.S. Census Bureau and Queens College Department of Sociology