American Honda Motor Co. Inc. began an online marketing effort yesterday targeting U.S. Hispanics for its Civic model.
The car debuts on YupiMSN.com, a Spanish-language Internet service, as part of a campaign by La Agencia de Orci and Asociados, Honda's Hispanic marketing agency of record.
Running through July, the Honda effort targets Hispanic men ages 18 to 24. The Los Angeles agency has used skyscraper banner ads as well as rich media floating units.
The online ads push the Civic Coupe, Sedan and Si models through two creative renditions. Called “Thumbprint” and “Silhouettes,” the executions emphasize that there is a Civic for every lifestyle. Consumers who click the ads are directed to the hondacars.com site to research all models in Spanish.
A sweepstakes campaign will support the online ads.
There are more than 12 million U.S. Hispanics online, according to comScore Media Metrix. Another poll by Roslow Research showed that 84 percent of Hispanics are more likely to do their car shopping and research online if they can do it in the Spanish language.
One of the nation's leading Hispanic marketing agencies with billings last year of $100 million, La Agencia de Orci has worked on Honda for 14 years. Clients include Allstate, Bacardi, Tampico, Gamesa USA, Washington Mutual and Verizon.
The online marketing is Honda's latest effort to target young, affluent and educated Hispanics. La Agencia and the Japanese-owned automaker have a four-pronged approach to Hispanic marketing: cultural enrichment, community support, sports marketing and product advertising.
Honda has been the No. 1 or No. 2 vehicle of choice for Hispanic consumers for the past 12 years.
