Respondents said they shun a hard sell, with people representing the sponsor brand and expect a live event to be complemented by social networking, blogs and mobile phone activities.

The online survey of 500 respondents focused on acculturated Hispanics, typically U.S. born and bilingual. Of those surveyed, 39% said they had participated in a live brand experience in the last year. Asked which medium would be mostly likely to drive their purchase of a product, respondents ranked experiential media first (30%); word-of-mouth (24%); TV (23%); internet (14%). Print media, direct mail and radio all 4% or less.

Word-of-mouth is especially important in the Hispanic market; 68% of survey respondents said they interact with between three and 10 family members weekly.

2% of respondents said they preferred hard-sell; most preferred a softer sell and a more passive message at an event, conveyed through signage or video presentations. The main technologies respondents expected live events to be linked to were social-networking sites and blogs (25%) and mobile phones (18%).

Isabel Villegas, senior Latino market specialist at Jack Morton Latino, said the live-concert series the agency created for client Alltel in key Hispanic markets in the Southwest also involves Facebook and MySpace web pages, as well as pictures of concert attendees on "find yourself" screens.