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A remarkable find for market researchers planning their advertising campaigns around Copa America 2016 is the great ethnic divide in interest when it comes to soccer preference among Hispanics and non-Hispanics in the United States.

When it comes to high ROIs from Copa America this year, expectations remain positive as encouraged by the current results of target marketing campaigns lead by US Major League Soccer (MLS).

With a bit of refocusing the target audience to through social media and tailoring to cultural preferences, MLS is managing to help boost soccer’s recognition as America’s second-most popular sport. [1] And that number just continues to increase.

What does this US market insight mean?

Well, as the Hispanic population along with the popularity of soccer continues to rise, there is a grand conclusion: Soccer is a good avenue to target the US Hispanic Market.

Follow the breakdown of the logic…

Soccer remains an outlet of cultural pride for Hispanics

With good reason Hispanics will be particularly proud of this centennial Copa America 2016 event. Featuring an unprecedented amount of major Hispanic nationalities and team representations, US Hispanics will easily side with their parent culture. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela will make up the CONMEBOL representation and U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica and two more to be determined countries will consist the CONCACAF representation. And all will come together for joint competitions. [2] A lot of different flags will be represented in Copa America 2016 and with that US Hispanics will rally their television viewership and social media engagement.

The broadcasting of soccer expands beyond Spanish-only audiences

Increasingly networks are reacting to findings such as resulted from the Nielsen Company’s reporting that Hispanics in the US have over $1 trillion in purchasing power and represent a large part of the US population. [3] Furthermore, in about 50 percent of homes where both Spanish and English are spoken, Spanish-language television is watched regularly. Contrast this total with the mere 3 percent of Spanish-language television watched within while English-dominant Hispanic households. [4] How are brands like Univision reacting? Hoping to win over majority preference among young English-speaking Hispanics, Univision Communications followed by ABC News have launched new English-language cable news and entertainment channels grouped by the name “Fusion.” The channel is aimed at young English-speaking Hispanics. [5] MSNCB for example is experiencing high returns from following this market trend. [6]

Overall engagement with soccer is growing

Taking a look back at the target marketing success by MLS, it’s clear engagement on social media with soccer fans is a hit. And to further encouraging results of these campaigns, lets not forget the mobile numbers. Right now over 70 percent of Hispanics are on mobile devices. The possibility of an increase in soccer popularity is imminent due to the vast reaches mobile and social media allow. Octagon Access, an agency that helps global brands leverage sports marketing to reach multicultural and millennial consumers, stated in a report that 31 percent of Hispanic Millennials claim to be soccer fans. That’s more than double the general population. And 75 percent of Hispanic Millennials are actively using social media according to them. [1] Overall, it can be assumed that Hispanic Millennials are driving a major growth in the conversion for online soccer campaigns, television ratings, and live event sales.

So expect Copa America 2016 to be a big deal

Announcing its continuation every 100 years, the games are celebrating this year’s centennial in a big way. They’ve added an additional 10 teams to the roll beyond their usual amount as well as invited six teams from CONCACAF to play in a joint match.

 

[1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2014/04/17/report-highlights-importance-of-soccer-to-hispanic-millennial-market-segment/#28beed9a5871
[2]https://giltedgesoccer.com/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-copa-america-centenario

[3]https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2014/engaging-the-evolving-hispanic-consumers.html

[4]https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/jan/01/why-are-latino-viewers-important-for-networks

[5]https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304682504579157822879466110

[6]https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-msnbc-phil-griffin-changes-20141228-story.html