From the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to Alzheimer’s Association, national non-profit organizations making a difference for those suffering from diseases seeking cures and additional research have stepped up their Spanish-language outreach in recent years. In the case of the Alzheimer’s Association, Houston-headquartered López Negrete Communications has created a dynamic relationship between itself and the charity organization. This involved a partnership with The Ad Council.
How agencies and nonprofits can better work together to share their respective stories with multicultural audiences, thus raising their fundraising goals, is a subject Alex López Negrete is proud to share.
“The Alzheimer’s Association work is a very special body of work for us, for many reasons,” he says. “Many at the agency have been touched by this and other forms of dementia. So, it’s personal. It’s also important to note that Latinos are 1.5 times more likely than non-Hispanic whites to develop Alzheimer’s disease. There is a need, and it is dire.”
Is there a learning lesson that can be easily shares as to how agencies and non-profits can better work together to share the story with multicultural agencies? “This is no different than working with for-profit or commercial marketers,” he says. “There should be no lines, and no limitations where and how deep you let your Hispanic — or segment — agency in. The earlier in the strategic process you let us in, the deeper you embed us in your process.”
In the case of the Hispanic market, Alex López Negrete shares, “So many non-profits think we’re only on the receiving side – wrong! Latinos are ready to engage, give, participate, donate, and volunteer. All you have to do is inform and invite.”
For its work for Alzheimer’s Association, one thing that is unique is how López Negrete Communications is working with The Ad Council, which Mr. López Negrete says “is built and designed to get the best possible work out of the agencies they select to work with.” He continues, “Their campaign managers and teams understand the agency dynamics and they absolutely respect what we bring to the table, creatively and strategically. While they may be a client they really don’t behave like one. They are true allies and are dedicated to making sure their clients get the best work by facilitating, negotiating and sometimes even defending the insights, research, and of course, the work.
Research conducted by López Negrete Communications on the Alzheimer’s Association work discovered that unique factors are at play within the Hispanic family and caregiver structure. Mr. López Negrete explains, “We have a higher propensity to live in multigenerational households, we see and interact with our elders far more often, our elders may have more than one caregiver in a household (don’t forget our collectivist nature), and there is the issue of respect and potential hesitance to have ‘the difficult’ conversations.”
The bottom line for Lopez Negrete? “The signs of Alzheimer’s disease (and other forms of dementia) are right in front of our eyes but we can’t see them, mainly because they either manifest themselves very subtly over time or, simply, we don’t know the difference.”
This is what generated the Alzheimer’s Association effort for the Hispanic market named “Some things come with age, and some don’t.” Mr. Lopez Negrete says, “We were given the freedom to execute this campaign both in-language and in-culture (in English) across all media channels. This was particularly important for this effort because we had multiple audiences within the household and very broad age demos as a result.”
He believes the resulting creative is “powerful, emotional, emotive – and impactful.” So far, LNC shares, Hispanic pre-care partners who are ad aware were 2.7-times more likely to say that they “learned the difference between the signs of aging and signs of Alzheimers” (52% vs. 19%) and Hispanic Pre-Care Partners who are ad aware were also much more likely to say they spoke to a family member about Alzheimer’s in the last six months (50% vs. 19%) and visited a website in the past six months to learn more (40% vs. 11%).
Most importantly, Mr. Lopez Negrete concludes, non-profits are advised to use their Hispanic (and other segment) agencies as fully as corporate clients should. “Our thinking, our insights and our work could and should be applied through the entire funnel and not limited.”
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