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2017 Hispanic Social Marketing Report
“In one example, a beer company released a product for Latinos, and they had some difficulty rolling it out in some markets due to perceived authenticity of that brand,” he says. “For us, we conducted an extremely organic rollout in certain markets.”
In another example, Universal Pictures in January suffered backlash resulting from the release of footage of the film A Dog’s Purpose that showed a German Shepherd being forced into rushing water and nearly drowning. PETA called for a boycott of the feature film. The film’s director rushed to get the word out that he was “horrified” of the incident.
To create positive buzz, social media was used to allow Hispanics recruited to view the film to place their reviews online, in an organic paid promotional campaign. The film was released on Jan. 27 a result of the effort, Rios says.
As of March 20, the film has grossed $63 million in the U.S. alone, on a budget of $22 million.
While Rios can’t take all of the credit, the effort demonstrates the power social media can have – and the power that Latinos possess to influence and affect change.