Shifting its advertising strategy, Sprint has moved from the ‘Framily’ campaign, to a new value family plan message for both Hispanic and General Market TV audiences.
As reported in Ad Age, the company is positioning its Bolivian CEO Marcelo Claure as the “celebrity” of its Hispanic targeted TV spot, which made its debut during the Latin Grammys in late November. The spot features simulated news reels sharing Claure’s immigrant story and how, through hard work, sweat, and tears, he worked his way to the top as Sprint’s CEO. The spot then moves to Claure speaking directly to the consumer about his family’s mobile usage. According to Sprint’s Hispanic marketing manager, Kymber Umaña, the company is hoping the spot will resonate with the Hispanic community and create a personal connection.
After watching the ad, I couldn’t help but question the effectiveness. Will this new execution accomplish Sprint’s goal and establish a connection with the Hispanic consumer? It is inspiring to see someone with similar heritage rise to the top in the corporate world, but is being Hispanic enough for the CEO to create and foster brand affinity with consumers?
Perhaps it will, but I have my reservations. First and foremost, with a focus on Claure’s success story and his personal story on how he’s simplifying the convoluted world of cell phone providers, the ad feels more like the Sprint CEO is running for office, instead of trying to personally connect with the consumers.
The script, featuring phrases like “family man” and “our family likes to stay connected using mobile phones,” sounds like Claure is reading an article on the mobile device behaviours of Hispanics. That said, it still fails to provide genuine evidence supporting any of these assertions.
To compound the difficulty in persuading this target, the majority of Hispanics aren’t just watching Univisión and Telemundo; we spend much of our television viewing time on networks like ABC and NBC. As such, Hispanics are also engaging with the General Market commercial replacing “Framily:” the screaming goat, which pokes fun at other mobile companies. An accomplished Hispanic CEO, a screaming goat – where’s the connection? Even the tone and message of each campaign vary. If Sprint is trying to effectively advertise to Hispanics, then they need to have a consistent and clear message across all of their advertising, both English and Spanish.
The concept of utilizing a company’s Hispanic CEO to relate to Hispanic consumers could be very effective, but most companies don’t have an inspirational Hispanic C-suite resident and need another option. Portraying ordinary Hispanics who are actual users and fans of the brand could resonate even more with Hispanic consumers, particularly since they’re continually looking to their peers for help when making many of their purchasing decisions. After all, how many of us can truly relate to a CEO?
