Localspeak

Latino Social Sentiment Shows Hallmark Cares Enough to Send the Very Best

22 January 2012

When the going gets rough, Hallmark gets going. Responding to the rise in America’s recessionary unemployment, the iconic brand—considered the behemoth of emotional marketing—launched a new line of greeting cards last fall for the country’s growing number of downsized, laid off, and otherwise pink-slipped workers.

Continuing our exploration of net sentiment, we looked at Latino social media insights for the Hallmark brand using the recently released NetBase Spanish social insights and analytics tool.

This whimsical message appears on one of the “recession” joke card lines:

…“No lo piense como pérdida de su empleo, piense que es tiempo libre de jefes estúpidos”. Los compradores dicen que las tarjetas son un reflejo de los tiempos que vivimos y quizás una señal de lo que viene.

Translation:
“Don’t think of it as losing your job, but rather as time off from your stupid bosses”. Consumers say that the cards are a reflection of the hard times we’re living in and may be a sign of what’s to come.

Although at least one post had another take on the economic meltdown:

La economía está mal cuando Hallmark lanza tarjetas para desear feliz desempleo. Source

Translation:
The economy must be bad when Hallmark publishes happy unemployment cards.

Hallmark, which celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2010, is no stranger to curating to a troubled national psyche. Historically it has responded to our national crises by creating cards for the Great Depression, the tragic events of 9/11, and military personnel serving in war zones. Announcing the new “unemployed” card line, Hallmark’s Creative Director Dereck McCracken commented:

“During difficult times, people need to stay in touch, and when our customers ask us to help them stay connected during these difficult times, we try to respond authentically and creatively”. Source

Latino consumers exhibit a strong affinity for the variety of Hallmark cards that enable them to tap at anytime into a “Hallmark Moment.” Latino customers also highly rate the convenient ease of personalizing e-Cards with Card Studio Deluxe. Significantly, many posts reflected on Hallmark’s tradition of emotional marketing or, if you will, mining of the American psyche. The availability of Spanish language cards, citing notable Spanish writers in the “language of Cervantes,” is considered quite important. Univision’s televised Hallmark Channel in Spanish also has struck an emotional chord.

Hip to the contemporary pop innuendo of the iconic Hallmark Moment and “Hallmark Holiday,” Latinos have unleashed their own irreverent humor on the subject:

RT @elchamuko: Feliz Día de San Hallmark y San Hershey’s!“Source”:

Translation:
Happy San Hallmark and San Hershey’s day!

Los cumpleaños fueron inventados por Hallmark para vender cartas @gomiso“Source”:https://twitter.com/#!/Pigonna/statuses/66899144857493504

Translation:
Birthdays were invented by Hallmark to sell cards.

The Hallmark Moment, which was originally conceived to convey a serendipitous event, has evolved from a pure American English vernacular to easily translatable global slang, connoting cheeky, inauthentic and tactless commercialism. Having endured a century, the brand has experienced its own serendipitous “coming of age” in social media, and today it’s refreshing to see it even inspires a bit of Twitter humor:

@Sh3lyta: Sabes q estas adicto a twitter cuando escribes en una tarjeta Hallmark para un amigo y usas hashtags…. Source

Translation:
You know you’re a Twitter addict when you use hashtags when writing a Hallmark card…

A mi no me engañas María Teresa Guerrero, todos tus tuits los sacas de trajetas de Hallmark! Source

Translation:
Don’t kid me Maria Teresa Guerrero, you steal all your tweets from Hallmark cards!

@CarmenPadron: Mucho poetuitero suelto RT @EldoctorNo: Hay quienes confunden twitter con tarjeticas Hallmark. Source

Translation:
Some people confuse Twitter with Hallmark cards.

While Spanish net sentiment ran high for Hallmark, critiques derided Hallmark messaging as disingenuous and commercially exploitative — including the self-proclaimed impudent, cynical and agnostic.

@agustinjaime: El amor no existe fue adquirido por Disney y Hallmark, procesado, envasado y vendido en pedazos – Lisa S.

Translation:
Love doesn’t exist. It was bought by Disney and Hallmark, processed, packaged and sold in pieces.

According to the negative theme mapping below, some Latino consumers dismiss Hallmark movies as boring and emotionally exploitative. While demographics show that greeting card purchases typically rise when people get married and start families, they questioned the brand’s ability to sell authenticity to 50 million millennials.

Alas, although Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, Latino social sentiment for the holiday has yet to peak. And while economic worries may be superseding lonely hearts for the moment, some Latinas at least have a sense of humor about it all:

“Girls, how did you celebrate your last Singles Valentine’s Day?”
Answer: “I didn’t celebrate it. I think it was invented by Hallmark Cards!”

Insights

• Latinos outpace the general population in social media usage, according to a ClickZ report , underscoring the need for marketers and brand innovators to implement a social media strategy.
• Latinos are prolific content creators and bloggers and they highly value peer network recommendations. This points to a marketing prerogative to track Latino brand sentiment using a Voice of Consumer Buzz By Source Monitor, an aspect of the NetBase Spanish analytics engine.
• It appears that Hallmark is addressing the young Latino irreverence toward the “Hallmark Moment,” introducing such online popular mini-series as The Twilight Saga and including related product marketing.