The Pitfall of Performative Marketing: Why Many Brands Miss the Mark During Hispanic Heritage Month

At SSG, we believe cultural inclusion is not a campaign but a strategy. Here is how performative marketing fails and what brands must do differently year round in order to connect authentically with audiences.

Why Performative Marketing Fails

1. It Signals Posturing, Not Commitment
   When brands only show up during Hispanic Heritage Month and retreat for the rest of the year, they are seen as opportunistic. According to Nielsen’s Nurturing Trust report (2023), 84% of Latinos favor brands that play a positive role in their community and 63% are more likely to buy from brands that feature people like them in their advertising. The halo effect works both ways: if a brand misses the mark, negativity lingers; if it shows up year-round, goodwill grows.
   The NFL offers a good example of moving beyond one-off activations. In recent years, the league has deepened its investment in Latino fans through its season-long “Por La Cultura” campaign and, in 2025, selected Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl halftime performer. These moves signal a commitment to spotlighting Latino culture, identity, and language on one of the biggest stages in entertainment, rather than relegating it to a single month.
2. It Overlooks Language as an Expression of Culture
   Festive visuals and music alone cannot represent a community as diverse and evolving as U.S. Hispanics. Research shows that 64% actively look for brands that acknowledge their culture and traditions (Kantar, 2023). Language is key to that acknowledgment. Many U.S. Hispanics move fluidly between English, Spanish, and Spanglish — code-switching to express identity and belonging. Pew Research (2023) found 63% of U.S. Hispanics speak Spanglish at least sometimes, and 75% can hold a conversation in Spanish, dropping to 57% among U.S.-born Hispanics. Campaigns that rely only on monolingual Spanish or simplistic Spanglish risk alienating audiences. Authentic campaigns flex across dialects, tone, and even accent to truly connect.
3. It Fails to Build Trust
   Trust is one of the most critical factors for Hispanic consumers and requires deep understanding of the community. Yet many brands center themselves as heroes, use token cultural cues, and focus on spectacle over substance. According to the Hispanic Sentiment Survey (2023), the share of Latinos who believe brands authentically represent their values fell from 54% to 45%, signaling growing skepticism.

What Brands Should Do Instead

1. Make Inclusion a Year-Round Operating Model
   Empower internal teams to live with a cultural lens daily and stop relegating Hispanic marketing to a single month.
2. Use Ongoing Feedback and Sentiment Tracking
   Listen year-round. Community panels, social listening, and micro-testing help brands pivot when messaging misaligns.
3. Test Creative Early and Often
   Leverage frameworks like CIIM™ to gain early insights and adjust before major rollouts to protect brand equity.
4. Partner with Community Voices as Co-Creators
   Involve CBOs, artists, and creators from the start, not just as endorsers, to co-create campaigns that feel authentic.
5. Show Up When It Is Hard
   Moments like immigration policy shifts or public health crises are when brands can prove that they truly care.

In Closing

Hispanic Heritage Month is a cultural opportunity, but it should not be treated as a box to check. It’s important to remember that the difference between brands that resonate and those that miss lies in whether inclusion is shallow or embedded into the brand’s DNA. With the U.S. Hispanic population expected to exceed 74 million by 2028 (Claritas, 2022), sustained cultural relevance is a growth strategy, not a nice-to-have.

At SSG, we believe culture-first strategy, real-time insights, and community-led creative are the only path to meaningful, lasting connection. It is time to move beyond symbolism and build credibility.

Sources:
Nurturing trust: Engaging with Hispanic audiences in a diverse media landscape | Nielsen
Creating marketing impact with the Hispanic community
Latinos and Spanish: Views and Experience | Pew Research Center
Press Release | We Are All Human | Hispanic Sentiment Study Cannes
2022-Hispanic-Market-Report-release-Final.pdf