Promising Practices for Engaging Spanish-Speaking Audiences through Community Outreach Efforts, Broadcast and Digital Media

Background: Although Hispanics/Latinos are the fastest-growing minority with over 53 million living in the United States, the percentage lacking a regular health care provider is more than double the general population. Most Hispanics/Latinos receive health information from media or members of their community.  Effectively engaging this audience can be difficult considering the population’s diversity and the language divide between primarily English speakers and primarily Spanish speakers.

Program background: Populations respond differently to media outreach. Spanish-speaking Hispanics/Latinos  are more likely to ask health care professionals questions as a result of media exposure than are English-speaking Hispanics/Latinos, emphasizing the importance of Spanish-language media in educational efforts (http://www.pewhispanic.org/2008/08/13/ii-hispanics-and-chronic-disease-in-the-u-s/).  This presentation provides practical insights for improving engagement with Spanish-speaking audiences based on observations  across multiple outreach efforts by CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health.  Examples will be shared, including a partnership with Telemundo television network and TX and FL anchors that featured well-respected doctors promoting the Spanish Quitline (1-855-DÉJELO-YA) and campaign messaging. The presentation will also summarize learnings from specialized tracking of paid Spanish ads throughout 2013, along with unpaid digital/social media engagement.

Evaluation Methods and Results: Paid and unpaid outreach, both digital and offline, were given unique identification codes or associations (e.g., specific phone numbers and URLs). Paid digital ads in English and Spanish were placed on websites with adult smoker viewership, and immediate interaction (clicks, video completions) was recorded. To capture delayed information-seeking behavior prompted by ad exposure, technology embedded within the campaign website provided aggregate tracking of visitors exposed to paid digital ads within the previous 30 days. Detailed website and social media traffic for all visitors, regardless of paid ad exposure, was collected for the target URLs. Quitline calls were also tracked. Analysis indicated increased web traffic and quitline calls in association with paid and unpaid outreach. For paid digital placements, Spanish-language video ads received higher attention than did other placements, with a video completion rate 10% higher than the campaign average.  Display ads showed promise as a cost-effective alternative to video,   though Spanish speakers showed a tendency towards delayed response. They clicked on ads at lower rates, but were more likely to later visit the campaign website on their own and showed higher engagement with the content:   overall post-view conversion rates for Spanish were a minimum of three times that of the comparable English rates.

Conclusions: The outreach was successful in driving Spanish quitline calls and increasing traffic to Spanish campaign content. Careful integration of paid and unpaid efforts, along with new techniques of digital tracking, can provide additional information on the impact of multi-channel outreach. Since preliminary data indicate Spanish speakers respond differently to digital communications, online outreach to Hispanic/Latino populations may require strategy adjustments, including a different mix of ad types and support for delayed information-seeking.

Implications for research and/or practice: Digital tracking and other trends in digital media allow campaign planners to gauge differences in the responses of various populations to media outreach efforts.  Observing and understanding these differences allow health communication professionals to further enhance their abilities to reach underserved populations.