Hispanic Heritage Month can amplify an established strategy or be the moment that starts one. The bigger question is what role Hispanic consumers should play in the brand’s growth plan.
When I started working in Hispanic marketing in Los Angeles in 1995, one of my first clients was Kraft Foods. At the agency where I worked, we led Hispanic promotions for the brand, and some of my earliest experiences involved being on the ground at major Mexican Independence celebrations — sampling products, handing out coupons and putting Kraft products directly into consumers’ hands.
Those events mattered. They gave brands mass, in-person reach and an immediate opportunity to generate trial. But even then, the event wasn’t the entire Hispanic strategy. Kraft was also investing in branding and promotions developed specifically for the audience. The cultural moment had a role within a broader effort to grow with Hispanic consumers.
Thirty years later, nearly everything about the Hispanic market has changed — its size, economic power, media habits, cultural influence and role in driving growth.
Yet every September, I’m reminded that one part of the marketing playbook hasn’t changed nearly as much.
For some brands, Hispanic Heritage Month is still the only time Hispanic consumers move to the center of the marketing conversation.
Brands should show up. Hispanic Heritage Month can and should be a major cultural moment.
There’s nothing wrong with treating it like the Super Bowl. Go big. But know what you want that moment to set in motion.
What Is the Moment Designed to Do?
An established advertiser may use the Super Bowl to build on years of brand investment. A newer company may use it to introduce itself to millions of consumers and create momentum for what comes next.
Both can make strategic sense because the event has a role within a larger plan.
Hispanic Heritage Month can work the same way. It can strengthen an existing relationship, build momentum around work already underway or become the starting point for a company beginning to recognize a Hispanic growth opportunity.
The same is true of other culturally relevant occasions. Mexican Independence, fútbol, music, entertainment and community events can create powerful opportunities for reach, relevance and engagement. A brand may intentionally build much of its Hispanic marketing around these moments. The question is what connects them.
Were they chosen because the brand understands the Hispanic consumer and the business opportunity they represent? Or are the moments themselves what make the organization to think about Hispanic consumers?
The Opportunity Is Bigger Than the Moment
U.S. Latino GDP reached $4.4 trillion in 2024. From 2019 to 2024, it grew at an annualized rate of 5.4%, more than double the 2.4% growth rate of the U.S. economy overall. Latinos also drove 28.2% of total U.S. economic growth in 2024, despite representing about one-fifth of the population. These aren’t simply a measure of the size of the market. They point to the role Hispanic consumers are already playing in U.S. economic growth.
But those numbers alone don’t tell a brand what to do.
A company first needs to understand whether Hispanic consumers represent a meaningful growth opportunity for its business — in the markets it serves, within the categories in which it competes and among the customers it needs to attract or retain. For some businesses, that may uncover a significant opportunity. For others, it may support a more focused level of investment. The point is to understand the opportunity first and let that guide the strategy.
Many brands have already evolved in this direction. But when Hispanic consumers enter the plan only when Hispanic Heritage Month approaches, the strategy may be considerably narrower than the opportunity.
Start With the Hispanic Growth Opportunity
An integrated Hispanic growth strategy begins while the brand is deciding where future growth will come from.
Which markets and audiences matter most? Where are there gaps in awareness, consideration or conversion? How should investment be allocated? What consumer and cultural insights could strengthen the work? How will the brand know whether the investment is working?
Those questions come before deciding whether the answer is a Spanish-language campaign, creator partnership, media investment or Hispanic Heritage Month activation. Sometimes the opportunity calls for Hispanic-specific creative or Spanish-language communications. It may influence media, promotions, partnerships, creators or community engagement. In other cases, Hispanic consumer insights can strengthen the broader brand strategy without requiring a separate Hispanic execution.
A brand may determine that Hispanic Heritage Month is exactly the right place to concentrate significant investment. What matters is why. Is that decision grounded in the consumer and business opportunity, or did September create the strategy?
What Sustained Commitment Looks Like
I’ve seen this play out firsthand through our work at AXIS with ALDI in Southern California.
For nine years, ALDI has maintained a commitment to Hispanic consumers in the market while the strategy has continued to evolve. AXIS has helped shape that work across audience strategy, cultural insight, media and execution. Depending on the opportunity, it has included television, paid social, promotions, creators and influencers, integrations and other ways of connecting with Hispanic consumers. The tactics have changed. Hispanic consumers have remained part of the strategic conversation.
We see a similar philosophy elsewhere. The Home Depot, named the Hispanic Marketing Council’s 2026 Marketer of the Year, has worked with its Hispanic agency partner for more than 15 years and incorporates Hispanic insights into targeted efforts as well as broader brand work. Its CMO, Molly Battin, captured the rationale well: “The Hispanic customer is not a segment for us — it’s central to how we think about growth.”
There isn’t one formula for Hispanic marketing. What these examples demonstrate is sustained consideration of the consumer and business opportunity rather than rebuilding the strategy around a single annual moment.
What Should the Moment Set in Motion?
Thirty years after I began my career standing at Mexican Independence celebrations and putting products directly into consumers’ hands, I still believe in the power of cultural moments. Hispanic Heritage Month should be one of them.
Invest in the creative. Celebrate the culture. Build partnerships. Create experiences worth engaging with. And if Hispanic Heritage Month prompts a company to examine its Hispanic growth opportunity for the first time, use that attention to start something. A brand can introduce itself during the Super Bowl. What makes that investment strategic is having a clear idea of what the attention is meant to accomplish and where the brand intends to go from there.
Hispanic Heritage Month deserves the same thinking.
If it is the biggest moment in a brand’s Hispanic marketing strategy, that may be exactly right. But it should be the biggest moment because it serves a defined consumer and business opportunity — not simply because the calendar made the decision. So perhaps the question to ask as September 15 approaches isn’t only, “What are we doing for Hispanic Heritage Month?” It’s “What do we want Hispanic Heritage Month to set in motion?”
Sources
The 2026 LDC U.S. Latino Economic Impact Report – Part One.
HMC Honors The Home Depot as 2026 HMC Marketer of the Year.
References to Kraft Foods are based on the author’s professional experience working on the brand at a Hispanic agency in 1995. References to ALDI are based on AXIS’s work developing and executing the brand’s Hispanic marketing strategy in Southern California since 2018.
