In 2014 we touched base on the pulse of Phoenix, Arizona Hispanic advertising which is evidenced in the southwest via billboards. The $8.3 billion dollar U.S. Hispanic advertising industry is constantly evolving and as we draw near to the mid-point of 2015 we wanted to check in on the same topic and note any developments.
For this round we are focusing on an area very representative of the Phoenix market, which is 7th Street in the heart of central Phoenix. For this research we focused on the area north of Baseline Road in the south up to Bethany Home Road in the north.
As we started north and headed south, the billboard pictured above is in the more affluent area of central Phoenix. This particular billboard is always occupied by an ad for the Fox Restaurant Concepts group who rotates ads for a selection of their 20 Phoenix area restaurants from this space. This billboard is located just next to their prime central Phoenix location, Culinary Dropout, The Yard, and their newest tenant, fellow local restaurant favorite, Barrio Urbano.
Fox has used their recent partnership with this successful Mexican favorite to take the opportunity to launch their first Spanglish ad. It’s a humorous ad as you can see in which the well regarded Chef Silvana Salcido of Barrio Urbano proclaims in the ad that her ‘…huevos bring all the boys to the Yard’ rather than ‘her milkshake’ as the 2003 Kelis pop song elegantly states.
Now, most valley area hipsters worth their salt know that huevos are the Spanish word for eggs. So based on the fact that this is the only Spanish word in the ad, it can be assumed that most viewers of all races will comprehend the meaning, regardless of their language of preference.
Does Spanglish Advertising Work?
However, this ad goes deeper and touches on a current Hispanic marketing topic, does bilingual or Spanglish advertising work? According to the 2010 census study, Phoenix is home to nearly 600,000 Hispanics, making up over 40% of the total population. And 79% of these valley area Hispanics speak at least some Spanish at home, while 28% of them list Spanish as their dominant language. Based on these statistics there is no doubt that Spanglish conversation happens in Hispanic households, but there is much debate nationally on the actual functionality of Spanglish in marketing and advertising.
Read the rest on the Nativa blog:Â http://www.thenativa.com/blog/phoenix-arizona-hispanic-advertising-learning-from-7th-street-billboards/