#12 Best Multicultural/Ethnic Campaign
SCOTT COMPARTE TU DICHO
AGENCY: MASS Hispanic Agency
CLIENT: Kimberly-Clark, Scott Brand
Brands often consider ethnic promotional campaigns as entirely separate from their mainstream marketing. But an initiative to raise awareness and trial of Scott bathroom tissue among U.S. Hispanics gave parent Kimberly-Clark a way to take its appeal among the general public and give it a spin that was relevant to, and respectful of, the Spanish-speaking audience.
“We had a program in the general marketplace in 2007 called “Pass It On,” which was all about people passing on their common sense,” says Aric Melzl, senior brand manager at Kimberly-Clark. “We then took that core insight and made it applicable to our Hispanic audience.”
With MASS Hispanic agency, Scott came up with a Latin twist on that theme using dichos, the proverbs and traditional sayings that make up the folk wisdom of Hispanic culture.
“It was really cool to find that we could talk to this audience in the same general way we do to the broad audience,” Melzl says.
Launched in third quarter 2007, Comparte Tu Dichos (“Share Your Proverbs”) encouraged Hispanic consumers to contribute the dichos they valued to an informal Dichonario of proverbs. By submitting their favorite dichos, either online at www.ScottSentitdoComun.com or at live events, participants entered a sweepstakes to win a $3,000 grand prize, two $500 first prizes, a year’s supply of Scott bathroom products or a collection of daily prizes.
Though centered in the heavily Mexican markets of Los Angeles, Houston and Austin, the campaign moved out to other regions through in-store events with Walmart and other retailers.
“One of the ways Hispanics of all nationalities show their common sense is through this rich store of dichos that pepper our everyday conversation,” says Maria Madruga, president and co-founder of MASS Hispanic.
The live events, both in stores and at festivals, featured dicho-based games and puzzles, dicho puzzle cube giveaways, product sampling and video teams to film live submissions to the Dichonario, later available for viewing on the Web site.
The Comparte Tu Dicho effort gained placement on popular Hispanic radio programs such as the syndicated call-in show of psychologist Dr. Isabel Gomez-Bassols, allowing listeners to phone in, contribute and talk about the proverbs that have meant the most to them, and win coupons for product.
On the Web site, visitors could browse through the Dichonario in a bilingual format and send viral e-dicho greeting cards to their friends online, driving them to the site.
In terms of generating response, the four months that the 2007 campaign was activated showed almost 2 million hits to the Web site, 75,000 unique visits and 1 million page views. Almost 100,000 dichos were submitted either online or at the live events. More than 500,000 Hispanic consumers took part in the activities, while 650,000 were reached through Scott’s presence at cultural festivals in the target markets.
And in sales, the campaign in the Los Angeles market alone saw sales volumes increase 16% over the pre-launch period, and 27% compared to the same period in the previous year. Results in the specific Hispanic parts of town were even better: a 26% sales jump over the pre-launch, and a 34% increase over the same period in 2006.
IDEA TO STEAL: TAILOR MEDIA TO YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
Tailor media used in ethnic campaigns to the habits of your target audience. Research shows the Hispanic audience listens to more radio per day than the average consumer. Hispanics also make up one of the fastest growing populations online.