Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

stance, do not bother to carry sportscasts of bullfights; it just isn't part of the culture of Puerto Ricans, who make up most of the city's Spanish-speaking element. Taped bullfights from Mexico City, however, are popular on cutlets such as KMEX-TV Los Angeles and KWEX-TV San Antonio, and on other tv outlets which buy programs from Mexico's Telesistema. A Spanish-language station like KWKW Los Angeles or KCAL Redlands, for example, will feature many Mexican musical artists via records, and will have extensive coverage of Mexican political developments and national holidays. At the same time, the Mexican influence is felt much more lightly on stations like Miami's WFAB or WMIE, which give heavy attention to developments reported in Castro's Cuba or to news of a hurricane bearing down on Puerto Rico. From the advertiser's viewpoint, this means that he must usually (not always) depend primarily on local-level air personalities to voice his sales message, using whatever "local style" has proved popular with listeners. He is by no means getting a second-best commercial treatment; it's practically impossible, admen familiar with the field agree, to develop a uniform, national Spanish-language air media campaign for a major product. However, many supportive elements of the campaign — merchandising pieces, premium offers, display units keyed to radio or to tv announcements, etc. — can be developed for multi-market use. That the Spanish-language radio and tv stations in the United States, in Puerto Rico and across the Mexican border serving U.S. markets are finding ready acceptance and a genuine "hunger" for their programing isn't always easy to prove to an advertiser or agency. One good case in point, however, ;Was provided Sponsor in its survey of Spanish-language air media by KWAC Bakersfield, Calif., whose manager, Ed Hopple, reported: "The interesting 'story' KWAC has to tell is the fact that it went Spanish on Nov. 1, 1963. In the January general Pulse (to which the station did not subscribe), KWAC came out number two — with more ladults listening in the morning driv October 19, 1964 ing times than any other Bakersfield station. The interesting thing to note is the 9 percent increase in the sets-in-use in the morning segment. "Analysis shows that the Spanish-language element (18 percent of the general population) started to listen to radio in the morning. The afternoon (basically Englishlanguage at that time) showed little or no increase in sets-in-use." Often geared strongly to premium offers, redemption offers, contests, endless syndicated soap operas in which domestic crises are a way of life, parades and other festivities, sports and specialized community projects, Spanish-language radio and tv sometimes strikes big-city agencyman or client as being a bit naive. In a way it is, and broadcasters do not deny this fact. But, it is providing a brand of service and entertainment which mirrors listeners and viewers — and gets results. This, typically, was a "case history" result story to be found in Spanish-language air media, reported to Sponsor by KIFN Phoenix and concerning a nationally advertised pharmaceutical product: "Commenced use of KIFN as its sole advertising expenditure (to Spanish-language market) in central Arizona area in February, 1962. Used modest budget for flights on a seasonal basis. "In February, 1963, the records showed a 33.4 percent increase in sales. Monthly budget was left same, but fUghts were discontinued in favor of year-round schedule which actually increased advertising expenditure by nearly 40 percent. "A 1964 recap showed that sales again had increased another 3 1 percent over previous period. Budget has been increased by a third." Such results speak for themselves. ♦ Does Spanish-language radio really sell? National advertisers use a wide variety of advertising media, and thus it is difficult — if not impossible — to pin down a cause-andeffect relationship between a particular medium and product sales. In the Spanish-language radio field, the "pull" of the medium has often been directly demonstrated in the sackloads of returns in contests and self-liquidating premium promotions. Some admen, however, write these off as "freaks," or attribute it simply to a supposed Latin fondness for obtaining somethingfor-nothing when buying a product. Two clear-cut marketing examples, unearthed in studies in 1954 and 1960 for Los Angeles' KALI by Belden Associates Marketing Research, however, give a striking picture of the changes in market rankings caused by the use of Spanish-language radio: • INSTANT COFFEE: In Spanish-speaking Los Angeles homes in 1954, Nescafe was the leader with 34 percent of the market. Maxwell House was close behind with 33 percent. Borden's Instant had 14 percent and Chase & Sanborn had 6 percent. Folger's had a mere 3 percent. During the intervening six years, Folger's launched a major. continuing campaign in Spanishlanguage radio. In 1960, another Belden survey showed Folger's with 20 percent of the instant coffee market in Spanish-language Los Angeles households, highest for any brand. Nescafe, with little direct approach to the Spanish-speaking market, had fallen from its top spot to a 10 percent level, and Maxwell House to 15 percent. • ALL-PURPOSE SHORTENING: In wide use in MexicanAmerican cookery, shortening is an important market item in Spanishlanguage communities. In 1954, a Belden checkup in Los Angeles showed that Crisco had 47 percent of the shortening market, Luer's (local brand) had 11 percent, Spry had 8 percent and Rex (regional brand) had a mere 4 percent. In the intervening years between 1954 and 1960. Crisco received little or no direct promotion to the Spanishlanguage market, although it had heavy spending in general media. Rex, however, was the subject of a continuing campaign in Spanishlanguage radio. In 1960, Rex had jumped to the leadership position with 31 percent of the market in Spanish-speaking households, trailed by Crisco with only 19 percent. 43