Walmart Champions Education for
Hispanic Heritage Month
Hispanic Heritage Month
Print Ad with
Real Students
Nothing gets our juices flowing quite like the opportunity to do something truly special for our client partners and the community at large. Last fall, something very special came together with Walmart, National Hispanic Heritage Month and one of the most remarkable, fully integrated campaign efforts in our history. This is the story of how the world’s largest retailer broke new ground in connecting with their Hispanic customers like never before.
But first, a quick primer on National Hispanic Heritage Month. What began as a one-week observance in 1968 under President Lyndon Johnson became a one-month celebration 20 years later, and enacted into law under President Ronald Reagan in 1988. From September 16th through October 15th, we now recognize the contributions of Hispanic Americans to the United States, while celebrating Hispanic heritage and culture. Research tells us that for some, the celebration is mostly about their country of origin’s independence. To others, it’s about a connection to their heritage in general. To Lopez Negrete, it’s an opportunity to elevate the occasion with an exciting new association . . . education.
- Walmart Giving Back
English (MP3) - Walmart Giving Back
Spanish (MP3)
What We Learned About Higher Learning
Ironically, qualitative research indicates that the relevance of Hispanic Heritage Month is somewhat low for most Hispanics. Meanwhile, education is the #1 issue of importance for Hispanics across the nation, regardless of acculturation levels. So it’s no surprise that Hispanic Heritage Month would achieve a whole new dimension when tied into higher education, which is exactly what we did with Walmart.
Since 2006, Walmart has actively supported the nonprofit organization Hispanic Scholarship Fund and its mission through a multi-year grant that has funded the HSF/Walmart Scholarship Program, making the dream of higher education possible for more Hispanic students. During Hispanic Heritage Month in 2008, Walmart’s deep commitment to education culminated with the dramatic presentation of one million dollars to HSF. In fact, in the last year, Walmart donated more than $67 million to education-focused organizations. Of that, $29 million has gone directly to local schools in every community where Walmart and Sam’s Club have a presence.
Breaking New Ground Online
Considering Hispanics have the highest high school dropout rate (23.8 percent, U.S. Census 2006) as compared to any major racial or ethnic group, this education initiative was very important to Walmart, which employs more than 165,000 Hispanic associates. So a national campaign was conceived to show the world Walmart’s commitment to supporting education initiatives. While the campaign was fully integrated with a variety of components, the clear flagship was the launching of AhorraMasViveMejor.com, Walmart’s first dedicated Spanish-language Web site, which uses the company’s corporate Hispanic slogan as the site’s URL address (literally translated to “Save more. Live better.”). This innovative Web site makes Walmart the first and largest online retailer to address their Hispanic online audience in this fashion, from a true user-centric point of view.
This wasn’t just a re-creation or translation of Walmart.com, but a lifestyle/content oriented site to create a two-way dialogue with our audience, and allow them to interact with content, user tools and forums created specifically for them. For Hispanic Heritage Month’s education initiative, we provided useful resources and information for parents and high school students to enable and empower them. We partnered with other trusted nonprofits and governmental resources to bring unique content to the site. And, we utilized video and real-life testimonials from scholarship recipients to add depth, nuance and reality. Online users have access to tools and resources such as studying skills, test preparatory, loan information, scholarships, colleges and applications. It fully integrates viewers with an enhanced knowledge of the overall steps necessary for pursuing a college education, and addresses questions and answers that are typical of the college admission process.
360 Degrees Means More College Degrees
Lopez Negrete created messaging that positioned education as the best heritage Hispanic parents can leave for their children. The resulting campaign tagline for Walmart: The Greatest Heritage is a Good Education (La mejor herencia es una buena educaciónSM). We then selected student recipients of the HSF/Walmart scholarships to feature in our 360-degree, fully integrated advertising campaign, from national magazines, local newspapers and bilingual radio coverage to extensive in-store signage, local circulars and a national television campaign in both English and Spanish. There were also educational vignette sponsorships on popular Spanish-language TV shows such as Telemundo’s Al Rojo Vivo and Univision’s Sábado Gigante, where the one-million-dollar check was presented to HSF.
Lopez Negrete also brought a powerful public relations component to bear. In conjunction with widely distributed national press releases, a radio media tour was conducted with a Walmart senior level executive and past scholarship recipients serving as spokespersons. The media tour was broadcast on both national and local Spanish stations. The result was extremely positive news coverage from radio stations both nationally and locally, print publications, national television shows and dozens of websites, positioning Walmart as an industry leader in providing funding for education. The PR efforts delivered an increase in impressions of 78 percent over 2007, and a publicity value increase of an astounding 836 percent over last year.
As for advertising, consumer awareness, favorable perception and website traffic all indexed substantially higher than established goals, resulting in a 16 percent increase in the likelihood of shopping at Walmart. The AhorraMasViveMejor.com website not only received enormous numbers of average page views per month, but consumers tended to stay a while, demonstrating its usefulness and relevance. Walmart has been so pleased with the campaign, the company’s government relations representatives presented the education initiative to the U.S. Congress.
For Walmart customers, shopping is about saving money and living better. But with millions of dollars in Hispanic scholarships, Walmart is also helping countless students enjoy the opportunity to live better through higher education. And when people in our communities are better educated, we can all live better, thanks to Walmart.
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Our Spanish-language online campaign was a first for Walmart.
