Hispanic Market Weekly
On a sweltering Columbus Day in Miami Gardens, Florida, it was the General Motors brand GMC that sought to provide a little cool to fans of the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins.
Making sure at least one Spanish-speaking representative was on hand to interact with Latinos uncomfortable with using English was an essential element of the high-visibility brand activation event.
GMC’s pre-game presence at Land Shark Stadium, ahead of last night’s National Football League (NFL) Hispanic Heritage Month-themed contest, was the culmination of two days of grass-roots efforts specifically designed to raise awareness for the Terrain – a fuel-efficient crossover vehicle built to compete against the Ford Escape hybrid model.
Street teams were seen across Miami-Dade and Broward Counties throughout the holiday weekend. In Miami, the Terrain made an appearance at Bicentennial Park, site of the Miami-Broward One Carnival – considered the “Mardi Gras” of the Caribbean community. The Terrain also made its way to South Beach and other high-traffic areas of greater Miami. At each event, bilingual GMC representatives shared information about the Terrain’s different features.
The key goal for GMC is to build awareness for the Terrain, especially in a tough market for the brand, says Ed Bailey, who handles marketing and sales promotion for both GMC and Buick in the U.S. Southeast. “We came off a bad month [in September], and this has proven to be extremely cost-effective,” he says.
To help bring traffic to local dealers, GMC teamed up with Hooters. Anyone who visited a GMC dealership and agreed to test drive a vehicle was given a coupon for 10 free wings at the restaurant chain.
Raúl Corrales is one of the Miami street team members, hired by an event planning committee contracted by GMC to carry out its experiential marketing work. Corrales says his one-on-one interaction in both Spanish and English resulted in a lot of positive feedback from mothers and their children, both of whom liked the Terrain’s options and offerings.
That’s good news for Bailey and his team. The South Florida marketplace is still soft for domestic automakers, and GM has a roughly 14 percent market share in Miami, a GMC representative notes. By comparison, General Motors has a 20 percent market share in most U.S. markets.
Thus, Bailey believes GMC is doing its job in educating multicultural consumers about the quality and value of its line of vehicles. “We always build components around the Hispanic and African-American marketplaces,” he says. “We really need to cover the whole market, and putting the buys in the Hispanic market will accomplish this for us.”
While GMC is using a mix of newspaper and radio advertising and some digital marketing to reach Hispanics and non-Latinos, Bailey believes the use of the street team has proven invaluable as the U.S. automotive industry fights to regain its traction in a sour economic climate.
With a crowd of close to 70,000 streaming into Land Shark Stadium ahead of last night’s Monday Night Football match-up, GMC vehicles were on display at one of the stadium’s main entrances. A second was found in the middle of a fan interaction zone complete with pre-game entertainment from Latin recording act Jesse & Joy, family-friendly games and a live outdoor studio for ESPN Deportes.
GMC representatives chatted with fans about the Terrain and its other vehicles. Spanish-speaking representatives were on hand, ready to assist those who were less than proficient in English. Free goodies were given out to those who stopped at the GMC area, including Nerf footballs with the GMC logo.
The message sent to Hispanic consumers is no different than that sent to non-Latinos – that GMC is a brand that stands for quality craftsmanship at a good price.
Even if street teamers were occupied with other football fans, inquisitive passersby took a moment to peek inside the Terrain and check out the vehicle.
To Bailey, that alone is a mark of success for GMC.
“The promotion of the Terrain is designed to show people our product,” says Bailey. “With a newspaper ad, people can see a picture of the vehicle. With our street team, we are taking our product to the people – and there’s nothing better than that.”
* As advertising budgets adjust to a climate where every dollar spent is scrutinized by the C-Suite, the street team has also proven to be a budget-buster for GMC. “We’ve found that they have been especially effective for us in a market like Miami, where the cost-per-point is the highest in the entire Southeast,” says Bailey. Thus, while GMC spends more in Miami on traditional media than elsewhere in the region, experiential marketing efforts have given the brand an extra bump in the highly competitive South Florida automotive marketplace.
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