OOH Case Study

Cinelatino Problem How does a Spanish-language premium cable channel boost awareness and subscription rates?

Solution Use outdoor formats to target Hispanic audiences on the go.

Background CineLatino is the top rated Spanish-language film channel in the United States. It has been on the air for 15 years and is fully distributed all across the United States and Latin Ameri- ca as a premium pay, commercial-free channel.

CineLatino began operating a specific US cable feed to broad- cast exclusively to the USHispanic audience, who represent 85 percent of the channel’s revenue. Using the new feed, CineLatino was in the position to acquire first-run movies and series in Spanish, allowing the channel to position itself against HBO, Showtime, and Starz as a Spanish-language movie alternative.

Objective The objective of the campaign was to evaluate outdoor adver- tising’s effects on two primary target groups and one second- ary target group. The primary target audiences were payTV subscribers not subscribed to CineLatino and CineLatino subscribers. The secondary target was non-pay TV subscrib- ers who were open to becoming CineLatino subscribers (a small sample group).

Strategy The strategy called for an outdoor advertising program utiliz- ing multiple formats that targeted the Hispanic areas in the Los Angeles market. The outdoor messages used a series of provocative Spanish-language references to the films current- ly appearing on CineLatino with a subscription call-to-action that alleged, “Only on CineLatino.”

Plan Details The study consisted of two waves of telephone interviews measuring pre-campaign and post-campaign results. A total of 420 outdoor units carried CineLatino messages over a two-month period in February and March 2009. The campaign included 10 digital billboards and 10 rotary bulletin units, 60 poster panels and 150 junior panels, 100 bus shel- ter displays, 50 bus king panels, and 40 mall displays.

Outdoor Advertising Association of America 1 Results Over the two-month testing period, total brand awareness of CineLatino increased significantly as a result of the outdoor campaign. In particular, brand awareness among viewers who had never watched CineLatino increased 15 percent, while awareness among non-pay TV subscribers increased an impressive 24 percent. Total CineLatino ad awareness also increased during the same period and total brand linkage grew from one percent to eleven per- cent. Among CineLatino subscribers, brand linkage went from zero to 24 percent.

The overall prompted recall of the campaign headlines was dramatic after two months with combined recall of all three headlines growing to 37 percent. The recall was even stronger among those familiar with CineLatino, reaching 50 percent.

Interest in CineLatino programs grew 16 percent over the course of the campaign, while CineLatino brand appeal increased nine percent.

Outdoor Advertising Association of America 2