Spanish Communication & Advertising Style

High-Context Communication

Spain is a high-context culture. This means that there is often an underlying meaning in a message that is not explicitly stated and requires context to fully comprehend. Since Spain is a high-context culture, oral communication tends to be preferred to written communication (Communicating).

Spanish Communication Style

Spaniards are friendly as a society, and conversational like no other. “Sobremesa,” or chats over the table during and after a meal, are an extremely frequent occurrence. Spaniards are quite informal communicators, getting to a first-name-basis with people very quickly, as well as rapidly candid with one another. Spaniards are known to be very outwardly expressive with gestures and volume increases as they speak (Spanish).

Affection and physical touch are very normal in Spanish culture. The typical greeting is a kiss on each cheek in all social or familial circumstances, regardless of the gender or age of parties involved. Spaniards only use handshakes as greetings in professional settings. Spaniards, as previously mentioned, are often quite informal. They love joking, and swearing is quite common (Spanish).

Media Consumption

The average Spaniard spends 210 minutes (or 3.5 hours) per day watching TV. This number is from 2018, and is at a low (Time). That being said, TV is still a highly consumed medium in Spain, and 99.7% of Spanish households have a television (Reaching). The most popular hours to watch television in Spain are between 2:00 and 4:00pm (lunch/siesta time), and 9:00-11:30pm (after dinner and before bed). The top 5 most watched channels (in this order) are Telecinco, Antena 3, La 1, La Sexta, and Cuatro. The most popular television programming is dramas, reality television, and telenovelas (Reaching).

Around 60 percent of Spanish people listen to the radio for close to two hours daily (Advertisements). On average, Spaniards spend 1 hour and 38 minutes per day on social media sites (Digital). 68% of Spaniards use the internet daily, with 98% of teenagers participating in daily usage (Reaching).

TV and radio are definitely the best way to reach Spaniards based off of how much time they spend consuming content via these media, however social media is also on the rise in prevalence and usage especially among a young crowd.

In terms of music consumption, 75% of all music sales in Spain are related to streaming. Paying a small price for access to streaming music is viewed as highly normal in Spain, as of 2018 (Cantor-Navas).

Advertising Style

Historically, Spanish advertising pre-civil war centered around art. Right before the beginning of the civil war, “J. Walter Thompson introduced ‘reason-why’ advertising in Spain (hard-sell advertising appealing to reason),” (Advertising). During this introduction of new tactics in Spanish advertising, the testimonial also gained popularity (Advertising). The usage of celebrities in Spanish advertisements, specifically TV spots, is highly successful and a common tactic among advertisers. There is often a story or narrative in TV spots in Spain, whether communication is high or low context.

In the past, print advertising in newspapers was a quite effective form of advertising, seeing as Spain has the largest number of newspapers of any European country. However, the readership has decreased significantly in the past decade, and only 25.6% of Spaniards read the newspaper daily (Trade).

While laws differ from country to country, the European Union has specific legal regulations in place for what is misleading or appropriate in advertising. These regulations focus heavily on the advertisement of medicine, food, and tobacco (Advertisements).

Using English in advertisements has become increasingly popular in Spain. Pilar Varela told El País that, “English is associated with what is desirable and upmarket. Those who advertise in English are projecting a cosmopolitan image or a guarantee of advanced technology or quality,” (Grigelmo).

Television advertising has the most impact with nearly 90% penetration (Reaching). TV advertisement spending, as of 2017, exceeded 2.27 billion Euros in Spain (Reaching).

Example Spanish Advertisements

Coca Cola, 2017

This ad showcases unity and group values, specifically around food consumption and sobremesa.

La Sexta, 2007

This ad tells a story in a very high-context communication style. You have to understand the importance that Spaniards place on soccer, and the rivalry between Madrid and Barcelona, both in soccer and culturally.

Panrico, 2005

This ad uses both a famous celebrity, Paz Padilla, and a testimonial style.

Works Cited

Advertisements in Spain and Trade Promotion. (2010, February 24). Retrieved from https://www.globaltrade.net/f/business/text/Spain/Consumer-Marketing-Advertising-Trade-Promotion-and-Advertising-in-Spain.html

Advertising Styles In Spain. (2003, September 15). Retrieved from https://adage.com/article/adage-encyclopedia/spain/98888/

Cantor-Navas, J. (2018, September 06). Streaming in Spain Surges to Nearly 75% of All Music Sales. Retrieved from https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8473809/spain-music-industry-sales-streaming-revenue-promusicae-report

Communicating in High Context vs. Low Context Cultures. (2018, August 17). Retrieved from https://unitedlanguagegroup.com/blog/communicating-high-context-vs-low-context-cultures/

Digital in 2018: World’s internet users pass the 4 billion mark. (2018, January 30). Retrieved from https://wearesocial.com/blog/2018/01/global-digital-report-2018

Grijelmo, Á, & Villanueva, J. (2016, June 16). What is it Spanish advertisers love about English? Retrieved from https://elpais.com/elpais/2016/06/14/inenglish/1465909866_176433.html

O’Brien, C. (2019, March 21). Social Media: What Countries Use It Most & What Are They Using? Retrieved from https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/en-us/blog/social-media-what-countries-use-it-most-and-what-are-they-using

Spanish Culture – Communication. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/spanish-culture/2202-communication

Time spent watching television Spain. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/451446/tv-watching-time-per-day-in-spain/

Trade Promotion and Advertising in Spain. (2018, July 12). Retrieved from https://www.export.gov/article?id=Spain-trade-promotion-and-advertising