Marketing D Jul08

Tecate Light Targets Mexican American Generations by Karl Greenberg, Tuesday, Jul 1, 2008 5:01 AM ET

Tecate Light beer dual language adsTecate Light is targeting second- and third-generation Mexican Americans with its first-ever campaign in both Spanish and English. The Heineken division, which has until now focused U.S. marketing on Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans, will run dual-language TV ads in both Hispanic and general market media, with two distinct executions with the tags : "Para los que quieren más" or "For those who want more." The ads urge consumers to "break the habit" of drinking other light beers via two 30-second TV spots, which were created by Tecate's AOR, N.Y.-based Adrenalina. The English-language ad shows guys enjoying such addictions as "telenovelas," gabbing on their cell phones and drinking generic light beer. An English-speaking Mexican American chastises the men for their bad habits and invites them to try a Tecate Light. The Spanish-language testimonial-style ad shows Mexican parents speaking to other parents about their child, who is in the U.S. They are distraught because their son drinks a brand other than Tecate Light. The ads will run in Phoenix, Tucson and Albuquerque, N.M., and San Antonio, Texas, markets initially. The campaign will run through the year with the English-language ads on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC; as well as several cable channels, including ESPN, History Channel, and Discovery Channel.

The Spanish-language ads will air on Univision, Telemundo and Telefutura throughout the 20 markets where Tecate Light is currently available. Print ads will run in the July issue of Maxim en Español while radio, out-of-home and POS materials launched Monday to further support the campaigns. MediaVest New York is handling the media buy for Tecate. Said Manuel Wernicky, founder and principal of Adrenalina, in a release: "We recognized that there are two different types of consumers of Mexican descent, which is why we created two unique campaigns under one brand platform instead of simply translating the same work in English and Spanish. This is not a one-size-fitsall campaign." Karl Greenberg can be reached at [email protected]