Everyone’s effort to engage Hispanic boaters

The Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation hosted a webinar on Monday, March 28 on “Reaching the Hispanic Community.” The webinar talked in detail about the demographic realities in the U.S., best practices for reaching this community and anecdotal evidence of its potential, based on the existing campaigns of organizations such as the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and Freedom Boat Club.

When you look at the numbers presented in the webinar, it’s really hard to make the case for not making a long-term effort to reach the Hispanic community. The median age among this group is 29, compared to 43 for non-Hispanic whites, meaning that if you are looking to reach “younger buyers,” you are looking for the Hispanic community. They are not mutually exclusive.

This group is also projected to grow by 167 percent by 2050, while non-Hispanic white population growth is expected to remain flat. States with seemingly low Hispanic populations are showing huge growth, including Alabama with 158 percent, Kentucky with 132 percent and South Dakota with 129 percent.

So there is certainly a case for starting your own campaign. The next step is to start the work. One piece of the message in the webinar, which covered many best practices for how to start outreach efforts, is worth consideration before you begin: It has to be an organization-wide initiative. While it is great to have a leader or champion for the campaign (which is helpful for connecting with this community), it can’t be done without everyone’s buy-in. That is what made the campaigns with the South Carolina DNR and Freedom Boat Club so successful.

“Once you develop a strategy, you need to make sure that the organization itself is ready for that. You need to get everybody on board with the same understanding that this is the right thing to do for the business; this is a growth opportunity. Get everybody on board, optimize what you have internally and then set the stage and finally initiate the action,” said Ed Cantú of Lopez Negrete Communications.

If you are a company leader looking to begin your own Hispanic outreach initiative, or you are the advocate in your business championing this effort, make sure you aren’t a lone voice at your organization. There are several resources from RBFF you can use to not only make the case with your team, but to help you create a successful campaign. You can also learn from the best practices of others who have taken the leap.

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Source: RBFF

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