• by Aaron Baar , August 1, 2009

The Hispanic market may not be untapped when it comes to video games, but Sega certainly seems to think it is ripe for expansion. For its launch of the Wii title, "Daisy Fuentes Pilates," the company is out with its largest Hispanic-targeted marketing effort to date.

"While we've done little bits and pieces [of Hispanic-targeted marketing] over the years, this is our strongest effort to date," Rick Naylor, Sega's senior director of marketing, tells Marketing Daily. "The packaging is completely bilingual in English and Spanish, and the advertising has all been in [both]."

Fuentes, a former MTV VJ, is very popular and well-known within the Hispanic community, and her involvement with the game is a big reason that Sega chose this title to lead this marketing effort, Naylor says. "We felt like we wanted to take part in that," he says.

The marketing effort includes print advertisements in Hispanic publications such as Latina, People en Español and the Spanish-language version of Cosmopolitan. Sega will also advertise the title, which launches Tuesday, on several Hispanic-targeted online sites. In addition, the Fuentes and Sega representatives will launch a public relations and event marketing effort that targets Hispanic media.

With the campaign, Sega is hoping to determine whether a fitness-oriented game -- really, a new category since the Wii came out -- will do well with Hispanic audiences, Naylor says. Its success will help Sega determine how to best target the market in the future, he adds.

"We would like to see how well it resonates and how effective our reach is to the Hispanic market," Naylor says. "There are certain types of [games] that lend themselves better to the market. This will be a good bellwether for what we plan to do there ... If this type of product and marketing is successful, it's something you'll see more from us in the future."