I received plenty of press releases following yesterday’s debate touting the brilliance of one candidate or another. But, only one of the Republican debaters (to the best of my knowledge) sent out a press release in Spanish. And that was Mitt Romney. The release quoted Al Cardenas touting Romney´s performance in the debate. I won’t bother translating because you can pretty much guess what he says.
“En este debate, el gobernador Romney brilló otra vez más al demostrar su incomparable conocimiento de los temas económicos que afectan a tantas familias y a las dos millones de empresas hispanas en Estados Unidos.”
It made me wonder if it was really worth issuing a Spanish-language press release after the debate? I suspect so, but I can´t point to any hard data or proof confirming my suspicions. I ask because the ins and outs of Latino political marketing lie at the heart of La Política, the weekly newsletter we are launching on November 5th.
Did the releases garner any additional coverage in Spanish-language media? None that I could find in Spanish-language blogs, dailies or television newscasts. (I have no way of tabulating Spanish-language radio mentions.) The Spanish-language dailies carried wire service write-ups of the debate so there was no real opportunity to insert an original quote in Spanish.
I would argue, though, that given its low cost (an outsourced translator and a Spanish-language media list) a Spanish-language press release is probably worth the time and money for any candidate that is already trying to communicate with Latino voters. Admittedly, though, this is little more than a hunch.
Aside from Romney, I receive a steady stream of Spanish-language press releases from the Clinton and Richardson campaigns. I asked Fabiola Rodriguez-Ciampoli, Clinton´s Director of Hispanic Communications, if all those releases were worth it. She said yes and pointed to the large number of Spanish-language weeklies with few editorial staffers who take advantage of the releases. Furthermore, Rodriguez-Ciampoli said, “there is just a connection you create with people when you see it in Spanish. They see the campaign is interested in reaching out to them in whatever language they prefer.”
Obviously, there are a number of presidential candidates (Tancredo, Huckabee) philosophically opposed to sending out press releases in Spanish and doing so might well anger their supporters. But, for most other Republican as well as Democratic candidates it seems like there is a modest benefit.
And that benefit, no doubt, increases the further along you get in the race.
Update:
Alex Burgos, Mitt Romney´s director of specialty media, has weighed in on the matter. He says
“I would have to agree with Fabiola on this one. Our efforts should make clear that the Romney-Clinton battle for the Hispanic vote is going to be a classic one.
I would also add that these statements are sometimes read on the radio and distributed at the grassroots level.”
Tags: Election, Hispanic, Mitt Romney, Political marketing
