The launch of Telemundo’s Nuestros Negocios campaign was a direct response to the devastating blow COVID-19 presented to the Latino Small Business community. One in every four small businesses in the U.S. is Hispanic-owned and 75 percent of new businesses in the U.S are created by Hispanics. These fast-growing enterprises are what fuel the economic engine of our country and leads small business growth across all groups. At the start of the pandemic, Telemundo felt it critical that we help our small business community overcome the unprecedented crisis.
The goal of our campaign was two-fold. First was to highlight small and medium-sized Hispanic-owned businesses impacted by the pandemic and help them promote their services at a local and national level to help them remain in business. It also became very apparent that of all the Federal and Community resources available, the amount of Spanish-language guidance was slim to none. Thus, our second - and most important - goal was to develop, aggregate and provide expert resources and guidance, in Spanish, to the Latino small business community.
The integration across local and network news, daytime programming, web, digital franchises and social platforms played a major role in the success of the Nuestros Negocios campaign. Given the true lack of Spanish-language resources and guidance available, our content strategy intended to reach as many business-owning members of our community as possible, across all the platforms they engage with. This content includes a dedicated Public Service Announcement, weekly on-air segments on national programming and local news, educational FB Live Sessions, informational videos, and ad-hoc digital and social content. All this content was then aggregated to a dedicated landing page – Telemundo.com/NuestrosNegocios – and continuously promoted on-air and across digital and social for our audience to explore.
In addition to the content noted above, a highlight of our social efforts came from the launch of our biweekly Nuestros Negocios Facebook Live interview series in collaboration with Noticias Telemundo. The FB Lives (or “Charlas” as they are dubbed) featured 1-on-1 conversations with one of Noticias Telemundo’s Multimedia Journalists and key small-business experts. The topics discussed and covered varied in focus, all with the specific needs of the hispanic community in mind - from complex details about the federal funding available (Payment Protection Program/CARES Act), to additional sources of funding, tips on how to best navigate the setbacks and new normal, digital and social media marketing, and more.
These Facebook Live “Charlas” proved to be incredibly well received by our audience, allowing us to truly engage with them, understand their needs, and provide them with responses in real time. Not only were questions fielded via social posts prior to the interview, but our MMJs and producers moderated the questions coming in via the comments section and fed them to our experts throughout the interview to maintain engagement and value throughout the duration of the event. Additionally, each “Charla” ended with 15 minutes of Question and Answer, where our viewers had the opportunity to ask questions about what they learned or issues that they face. All videos were recorded and amplified across Telemundo's digital and social platforms.
Facebook Live Experts included small business expert Marcus Lemonis from CNBC’s The Profit, artist and philanthropist Armando “Pitbull” Perez, CNBC and Acorns affiliate Janet Alvarez, CEO of Rizos Curls and influencer Julissa Prado, CEO of nonprofit lending organization Accion East Paul Quintero, celebrity Chef Lorena Garcia, and more.
Since launch, Nuestros Negocios tagged video content has reached over 3,000,000 video views across Telemundo’s social and digital platforms, solidifying the need for Spanish-language information and advice on navigating businesses through the quarantine and the pandemic.
The Nuestros Negocios bi-weekly Live “Charlas” make up for over 1 Million of those video views, with the rest coming from amplified on-air segments, PSA and editorial content.
Throughout the length of the campaign, Telemundo’s local stations have seen and continue to see a flood of positive responses and increased affinity stemming from our efforts in highlighting and promoting the services of new small Latino businesses every week to our viewers, which have positively impacted now a substantial number of Latino businesses in each market.
The live, interactive “Charlas” continue to provide a steady place and time for Spanish-dominant Latino entrepreneurs to receive real-world advice from experts who are truly looking out for their best interests. Given how difficult it is to navigate the financial and legal world of self-employment and entrepreneurship as an English-fluent professional, let alone amidst a pandemic, the need for Spanish-language advice, training and expertise was at an all-time high in our country. Telemundo is proud to be filling that gap with the help of our Hispanic partners and experts.
