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Case Study: Honda Revs Up Multicultural PR with Hispanic PR Wire Press Release Distributions

Background
Ranking second in automobile sales to Hispanics, Honda saw an opportunity to build on its previous multicultural market success – an important strategy during a recession that saw the U.S. auto market shed millions of car sales a year. Honda did its homework. According to “Car Buying in the United States 2010,” a report from Research and Markets, Hispanics are more likely to buy cars than African-Americans or Caucasians – and Hispanics are also more brand loyal.

With this in mind, Honda moved to engage its strong Hispanic consumer base at a deeper level, as well as reach out to key U.S. Hispanic media with a bilingual public relations campaign that would drive mass market exposure. The goal was to grow market share by maintaining regular conversations with Hispanic consumers who already have an affinity for the brand, as well as introduce new Hispanic families to Honda. Honda needed a guaranteed reach that would strengthen its credibility with U.S. Hispanic media. “By producing and distributing Spanish versions or our press materials we hope to extend our reach beyond just Hispanic automotive media,” said
Gina Jorge, assistant manager for Honda Public Relations. “We are also interested in reaching moms and families that read lifestyle magazines. Hispanic PR Wire was able to provide all of that and more.”

The Campaign
Sending press releases in English and Spanish to Hispanic-targeted publications was a natural evolution of Honda’s consumer and media outreach. Honda partnered with Hispanic PR Wire to tap into an audience of 45.5 million U.S. Hispanic consumers.

Hispanic PR Wire distributed Honda’s press releases to more than 2,900 unique media points, reaching more than 6,000 national Hispanic journalists. Honda also benefited from guaranteed placement on more than 100 Hispanic news Web sites – with 90 percent of those placements visible on the homepage.

Honda kicked off its Hispanic public relations campaign on September 10, 2010 with news about the 2011 Odyssey, a family-oriented vehicle that appeals to the Hispanic culture – http://www.hispanicprwire.com/news.php?l=in&id=17874&cha=2. Honda positioned the new Odyssey as the “ultimate family vehicle” with “style, technology and fuel economy.”

As part of its new Hispanic PR outreach, Honda also developed a Spanish-language Web site called “Noticias en Español” (News in Spanish) – http://www.hondanews.com/channels/Noticias-en-Espanol – so the company’s Spanish language materials could be easily accessed through a Web site that caters to media with a Spanish language preference.

The Results
Honda didn’t have to wonder about the outcome of its Hispanic public relations campaigns. With PR Newswire’s Hispanic media monitoring tools, including Hispanic ReadReports and ReleaseWatch™ Latino, Honda was able to quickly evaluate the return on its Hispanic media investment.

PR Newswire’s media monitoring tools provided a wealth of informative data, including how many people read the releases and how many clicked hotlinks within the releases. The analytics revealed that Honda received strong initial results from its first Hispanic PR Wire campaign for the 2011
Odyssey. Within days, Jorge saw numerous stories about the 2011 Odyssey based on the press materials distributed via Hispanic PR Wire.

Honda’s feedback from media that attended the automaker’s press event for the 2011 Odyssey was also very positive. “Hispanic media are appreciative that Honda took steps to offer press materials in Spanish,” Jorge said. “Media were able to use our Spanish press materials as the foundation for robust stories. Hispanic PR Wire was integral in helping us get the word out to Hispanic auto and lifestyle media.”

A recent Honda press release distribution via Hispanic PR Wire:
All-New 2012 Honda Civic Emphasizes Style, Fuel Economy and Performance – http://www.hispanicprwire.com/news.php?l=in&id=18981&cha=2