• by Emily Burg , October 11, 2006

Chase has launched a multimillion-dollar Spanish-language ad campaign to position itself as the brand of choice among the 43.5 million Hispanics in the U.S., many of whom lack bank accounts or do not use credit cards.

The campaign's theme is "Confia en Ti. Confia en Chase" or "Believe in Yourself. Believe in Chase." It plays on two themes central to marketing financial services to the U.S. Hispanic market: instilling confidence in financial institutions, and recognizing the burgeoning personal and collective financial power of the increasingly acculturated and moneyed Hispanic population.

Less than 45 percent of U.S. Hispanics have credit cards, although the purchasing power of the group was $735 billion in 2005, and is projected to rocket to $1 trillion by 2010.

Hispanic agency Lapiz worked on the television ads, while T3 developed the online strategy and ads.

The campaign uses TV and online ads and sponsorship to promote Chase's credit card services--a market that has tremendous growth opportunity compared to the U.S. population as a whole. Hispanics traditionally do not favor the idea of buying on credit, preferring to pay in cash and on time.

"The Hispanic segment is somewhat newer to credit. We're working off our usual branding platform, but with a message focusing on more is possible. Let Chase open up a world of possibilities," says James Andrade, Hispanic market manager for Chase Card Services.

The Hispanic consumer is known to be highly brand-loyal, meaning that a financial services marketer could leverage a cardholder acquisition into a deeper banking relationship. Rival Citibank has advertised in Spanish for some time.

The TV spots began airing this week on the big Spanish-language networks: Univision, Telemundo, Telefutura and Galavision. The spots include recognizable tunes from a popular Argentine group, Los Pericos, and musical artist Fito Paez. Internet ads are also running on AOL Latino, MSN Latino, Terra Online and Univision Online.

Chase also is doing direct and in-branch marketing to support the campaign. The company, historically a sponsor of Hispanic events and a contributor to Hispanic causes, will also sponsor this year's Latin Grammy awards.