This season, it seemed as if every NFL team jumped on the Hispanic marketing bandwagon, a recognition of the ethnic group's status now as the country's largest minority.
So it should come as no surprise that this week's Super Bowl festivities are chock-full of Hispanic outreach, making this the most concerted effort of its kind by the NFL during its showcase contest.
"This will set the bar for any Super Bowl to come," boasted Javier Loya, a first-generation Mexican-American and a minority investor in the Houston Texans who worked with the NFL on this week's activities. "Ultimately, we want to grow the fan base, to be inclusive, to spread a message that American football, the Super Bowl, the Houston Texans really want the support of the whole community. You got a lot of recent [immigrants], and they have not been exposed to the sport."
The league's first Super Bowl dip into the Hispanic market was last year in San Diego. That effort tested the waters, but now the sport is planning a far larger splash.
The end game: To ensure that when Hispanics, better known for their love of soccer, think football, it's the game played with two goal posts, not two nets. Soccer in Spanish is called futbol, pronounced like the American sport.
Planning for this week's events began last April when the Texans' Hispanic advisory committee began meeting with the NFL and local community groups. With 37 percent of Houston's population defining itself as Hispanic, planners like Loya called it critical to fully involve Latinos in Super Bowl week.
The results are scores of events, an advertising campaign, promotions, merchandise and, most important, the NFL's commitment to use its biggest spectacle for Hispanic marketing. Sources say the NFL is spending about $1 million this week just on Hispanic outreach.
The league's sponsors also have gotten into the act, with what are believed to be the first Hispanic promotions around a Super Bowl. Brewer Coors has been airing Spanish-language Super Bowl commercials on Telemundo and Univision this month. The company also leased billboards in the Houston area featuring the Hispanic version of the Super Bowl logo.
Meanwhile, Pepsi was set to host Si Latin Day at the NFL Experience last Sunday, and promoted the event this month with four half-page ads in Spanish-language newspapers and through giveaways.
"The primary point for the NFL is to make an impact on Hispanic fans and make the game relative to them," said Beth Colleton, the NFL's director of community affairs, who spearheaded the league's initiative. "The result of that may be to watch games, buy T-shirts. But the first thing we need to do is build a relationship with a growing population."
For the record, there are thousands of Reebok and VF T-shirts with Spanish Super Bowl logos for sale in Houston this week.
Hispanics are already a significant percentage of NFL fans. Anecdotal evidence from several teams indicates league gear sells better in Hispanic neighborhoods than elsewhere. And according to the NFL, four of the top 10 regularly scheduled TV programs among Hispanics from Sept. 4 through Dec. 28, 2003, were NFL games.
