Campaign ‘Build Peru, Buy Peru’ becomes one of the most watched videos on YouTube.

Hispanic Group announced the campaign “Build Peru, Buy Peru,” launched only a month ago, has generated great interest among Peruvians living in the U.S. In fact, the ad has become one of the most watched videos on YouTube worldwide, and merchants already have noticed an increase in the demand of Peruvian products.

“At Hispanic Group we know the Hispanic community in the United States is not homogeneous and to be effective in communicating with our clients we should seek symbols that are in sync with the idiosyncrasies of each one of the groups found in this community. ‘Build Peru’ is an example of our creativity with regards to effective ethnic campaigns,” said José Luis Valderrama, president and founder of Hispanic Group.

The Peruvian-American Chamber of Commerce (PERUSA Chamber of Commerce) is a pro-bono client of Hispanic Group, which is how the advertising agency became involved in the creative development of the “Build Peru, Buy Peru” campaign. The campaign is meant to encourage Peruvians abroad, especially in the U. S., to buy products from the South American nation.

The ad begins with a few simple questions: Are you Peruvian? Do you live in the United States? What would you do for Peru? The answers include: build a bridge, a school or a soccer field and it concludes by saying “choose Peruvian products, I’m going to buy Peruvian [products] because each time I do I provide work for a Peruvian.”

The Hispanic Group team developed the creative concept and arranged for musician Eva Ayllón, among others, to donate the rights to the song so it could be downloaded free of charge through the PERUSA website. In addition, the agency maximized the visibility of the campaign by adding to its communications plan the use of YouTube.

“Our objective is to take this message to the largest number of people possible. The campaign evolves around TV and print media, mainly those media outlets aimed at reaching the Peruvian community. Among the sponsors of the campaign are Sur Corporation, with Canales Sur and Sur Perú. We also added to the opportunity to help PERUSA by uploading the video on YouTube and the public’s reaction has been marvelous,” stated Valderrama.

In less than one month, the video “Build Peru, Buy Peru” has been seen by more than 24,000 people and as a result has been included in the list of 80 most seen videos on YouTube. This site on the web is very popular since it has a large variety of movie clips, television programs, music videos and home movies. This demonstrates the ad developed by Hispanic Group has managed to catch the attention of visitors to this site even when it competes against varied content.

The links to YouTube videos can also be placed in blogs and personal websites. Many that have visited “Build Peru, Buy Peru” have transferred the video to their personal sites. Additionally, a large majority have left messages in the YouTube blog expressing the emotional impact they have felt upon seeing these images of their country from a remote location.

“We achieved our objective to maximize the message having reached all kinds of people, from young Peruvians who recently migrated to older people that have been away from Peru for some time. YouTube has registered clicks from all the states throughout the U.S., in addition to countries as far away as Sudan and Algeria,” said Valderrama. “This ad demonstrates that by appealing to the audience’s emotional and rational sides you can achieve the desired goal.”

In fact, visitors to the YouTube blog have set a goal of generating one million viewers of the video to help further increase the demand of Peruvian products around the world. This has opened the door not only for traditional sales, but for internet sales as well. For example, many have already tried to obtain the t-shirts the actors of the video wear on-line.

According to Javier Payet, owner of Belmont International Trading Corp., a business that introduced the Belmont brand to the Hispanic market and which is dedicated to distributing Peruvian products in supermarkets and restaurants, has noticed an increase in demand for Peruvian goods. “Generally, Peruvians are very proud of their roots and consume Peruvian products. Nevertheless, since the campaign was launched those Peruvians who did not know where to find certain brands, have already begun to buy them in select stores and an additional demand is being generated,” said Payet.

This is the initial phase of a campaign that will include a second ad directed towards targeting the U.S. community in general, inviting them to try Peruvian products. The initiative is part of the projects PERUSA is developing to help further the benefits offered by the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed in 2007 between the United States and Peru.