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Client Hooters of America
Year 2024
Industry QSR · Hispanic activation
Discipline Cultural Activation

Hungry for Revenue.

How a single shift in budget allocation activated Hispanic consumers across 25 US markets, without growing total spend.

The challenge

Hispanic guests visited Hooters, but no one in the building was speaking to them.

Hooters of America was running national campaigns optimized for a general-market audience. Hispanic consumers were a meaningful share of foot traffic across 25 priority markets, yet the brand had no dedicated voice, no Spanish-language channel mix, and no culturally rooted creative reaching them.

The internal hypothesis was clear, but the proof wasn't there: would activating Hispanic audiences specifically move sales, or simply add cost on top of existing media?

50%
of the US market is multicultural, yet less than 5% of marketing dollars reach it.
25
priority markets identified for Hispanic activation across the brand footprint.
Cultural insight

Hispanic families gather around food differently. The brand needed to feel inviting, not translated.

Our qualitative research surfaced three insights that shaped the entire activation. Hispanic guests visit in larger family groups, decisions about the venue are made collectively (often led by the women in the family), and the audience responds to brands that show up in Spanish-language and bicultural channels with authentic creative, not retrofitted general-market spots dubbed into Spanish.

The work would need to feel native to the audience, not adapted for it.

Their out-of-the-box thinking delivered prompt solutions to our advertising and sales challenges. Tagliani was 100% dedicated to ensuring every Hispanic initiative was successful.
Noela Searano
(Former) Director of Marketing, Hooters of America
The activation

A full-funnel Hispanic campaign across 25 markets, built around how families actually eat.

We developed original Spanish-language and bicultural creative anchored in family rituals, designed market-by-market media plans for Hispanic radio, OOH, and digital across all 25 priority cities, and synchronized the rollout with localized in-store experiences so the brand felt consistent from screen to seat.

The budget came entirely from reallocating a portion of existing general-market spend, not from adding new dollars. This is the operational core of Cultural Activation: shift, don't add.

The results

A measurable lift in market share, on the same budget.

25mkts
Priority US markets reached with localized creative, media, and in-store activation.
100%
Of Hispanic sales targets met across the activated markets within the campaign window.
0$
In incremental budget. The lift was funded entirely by reallocating existing spend.
Client
Hooters of America
Year
2024
Markets
25 US priority cities
Services
Cultural research, multicultural campaign strategy, creative direction, media buying, in-store activation.
Recognition
Endorsed by Noela Searano, former Director of Marketing.
Next case
Banking on Cultural Relevancy.
SouthState Bank 2023 Finance