Cinco de Mayo is a day to celebrate Mexican pride by commemorating the defeat over the French in 1862 and for advertisers to offer their brands to the Hispanic community on Cinco de Mayo. Ideally it should be planned weeks in advance but if not then there are a few last minute options that allow brands to market their products on Cinco de Mayo.
EVENT ADVERTISING
Advertisers can set up booths in any festival nearby to promote their product through anticipated events, which gives the customer a chance to actually get to know the brand. Festivals may be open to negotiate a lower price in exchange for an item in the sponsor package like fliers. Adding features to the booth helps attract customers such as having your own music, dance contests, and games for kids.* Advertisers must keep in mind that this is a cultural celebration and a good way to honor that is by flying the Mexican flag or decorating the booth with vibrant colors; however, advertisers should also avoid putting their logos on anything related to Mexican pride because some people will find that offensive.
With people walking to and from different areas around the festival, event marketing opportunities through booths, exhibits, and giveaways facilitate brand promotion. Further helping to promote the brands presence, giveaways offered can also be shared on social media by a Facebook tag or hashtags and retweets on Twitter, which then helps to capture consumer databases to build relationships between customers and the brand. On-site SMS contests also encourage greater product exposure to continue after the event as people can respond to it at their homes or when they have free time, establishing a longer connection with the brand.*
One common mistake to consider avoiding when operating from a booth is holding a raffle. In many cases, certain festivals may be too large an event and people will forget to come back for the prize.* If a company were to hold a raffle, it should look to utilize various other methods for delivering prizes to the winners that can further help to increase brand interaction such as digital prizes that can be delivered electronicially through email, which also helps to increase a company’s database pool for brand interaction at later dates.
PARTNERING WITH LIKE MINDED COMPANIES AND MEDIA OUTLETS
In many cases, advertisers are able to partner through various media outlets. In printed publications, many companies will not have locked their display advertising deadline until two days prior to the publication date for dailies and weeklies. Advertising with print media helps advertisers reach already established target markets geographically for situations where they may not have been able to develop a following for their campaign already.
With online advertising, the turnaround can often be much quicker as well, with campaigns launching the same day. Sites, such as elclasificado.com and alborde.com, will offer unique advertising opportunities that can potentially include High-Impact campaigns, native advertising opportunities, as well as standard classified and banner advertising to help advertisers reach their targeted demographics.
In other cases, companies are able to team up with other brands to roll out special promotions in another effective way to reach out to Hispanics by Cinco de Mayo. For example, the “Fiesta of Flavor” is a retail savings promotion between three companies; Tabasco brand, Tyson foods and Jose Cuervo’s non-alcoholic margarita mix. This promotion has in-store coupons that are given out to consumers and offer discounts on two pounds or more of Tyson Boneless, a bottle of Tabasco and a bottle of Cuervo margarita mix. On social media it will be reared by Tyson’s DeliAnytime Facebook Page and they will have a live chat session two days before the holiday which will offer tips on hosting a Cinco de Mayo party. This promotion will roll over to the summer utilizing Cinco de Mayo as a launching platform to increase their profits for more than just one day.** It is an effective strategy that uses special discounts, social media advertising and customer interaction which advertisers should take note of and consider applying to their product campaigning.
Learn More About Cinco de Mayo
Reach Hispanics Around Cinco de Mayo Today!
*Mercurymambo.com, “Got A Booth? 5 Ways To Fire Up Your Cinco de Mayo Celebration-Revisited!”
****Mediapost.com, “Brands Go Big With Cinco de Mayo”
