Exclusive: NFL Voting Campaign Expands the Playbook for Hispanic Fans

Football is a team sport, and the NFL doesn’t want to keep certain fans on the sidelines until there’s a special day to acknowledge them.

So when the NFL and the NFL Players Association decided to continue the NFL Votes public awareness and voter registration campaign launched in 2020, they wanted Hispanic and Latinx fans to be included in the conversation. Alongside a player-packed NFL Votes ad from longtime league creative partner 72andSunny, the league created a parallel campaign addressing the Hispanic audience.

“The Latinx community—they’re part of our fan base 365 days a year, and they are part of our mainstream messaging,” said Marissa Solis, svp of global brand and consumer marketing at the NFL. “Everything that we do is to engage them in every way, so that is why you will continue to see Spanish language, and you will continue to see the Latinx audience in a variety of our campaigns throughout the season.”

Hispanic fans are a pivotal part of the NFL’s audience. In total, Hispanics account for more than 40 million of the NFL’s U.S. fanbase, which league data and analytics partner Genius Sports puts at nearly 170 million. Globally, more than 100 million of the league’s 410 million fans are Hispanic. 

With its massive reach, the NFL is looking to make an impact in the Hispanic voting community and what civil rights organization UnidosUS calls a “voter registration opportunity gap.”

In its Hispanic Electorate Data Hub, UnidosUS points out that there are 31.2 million Hispanic U.S. citizens of voting age. However, just 18 million are registered to vote, leaving 13.2 million potential voters without a voice. The NFL brought in Hispanic-focused earned media agency MEL—formed in September by Alma founder and chairman Luis Miguel Messianu, Edelman CEO Richard Edelman, and Lerma/ CEO and founder Pedro Lerma—to give fans a pep talk.

MEL recruited new Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales, currently the only Hispanic head coach in the NFL, and featured him in two spots—a 30-second ad talking to a packed locker room about the importance of Latinx votes during a presidential election year and a 15-second clip encouraging Latinx voters to register.

“As a Latino in the NFL, I understand the importance of representing our communities and making our voices heard to shape the future of our country,” Canales said. “Latino voices matter greatly, not just in politics, but in every aspect of our lives. I am proud to be part of this voting campaign as I believe we need to ensure that our perspectives are heard and valued because us Latinos bring strength to our collective future.”

MEL’s Messianu said Canales was exactly who his agency had in mind as the face of the campaign as it started the planning process, noting that his surname translates to “channels” in English. As MEL attempted to channel the NFL’s get-out-the-vote message across multiple channels, Messianu said that commitment from Caneles, Solis, and NFL representatives, including cultural marketing strategist Javier Farfan and CMO Tim Ellis, allowed MEL to help the league further normalize its interaction with Hispanic fans.

“We don’t live in a vacuum, and what I love about this continued, ongoing effort from the NFL is that this is not opportunistic,” Messianu said. “A lot of brands come in during Hispanic Heritage Month. They say hello, and they leave, and that is part of the problem. It’s an opportunity to have a continuous dialogue, not just a one-off.”

A shared language

Admittedly, the NFL has also used the Hispanic Heritage Month window to drop in and say hello to Hispanic and Latinx fans. The league launched its “Por La Cultura” initiative in 2021 to focus on partnerships with Hispanic and Latinx nonprofits, tell the stories of its Hispanic and Latinx players and staff, and draw attention to its El Snap social media channels, its Mundo NFL Spanish-language coverage and fantasy football.

When it drew criticism for its use of a tilde in Por la Cultura promotional materials in 2022, the NFL and Solis’ team took it as a challenge to “double down” and “elevate our efforts”—focusing more intently on local markets, athletes, musicians and cultural ties in 2023.

“There’s a saying that sometimes you have to see it to be it, and for the Latino community, I think seeing role models is so critical,” Solis said. “We’ve always said we’re just getting started. There’s a lot of players, coaches, and people within the league that are part of the community that we want to showcase.”

For half a decade, the league and its creative partners have focused on “helmets-off” marketing that worked to humanize players through their interests in entertainment, fashion, music, gaming, social issues, and philanthropic endeavors. There’s been a strong Hispanic and Latinx presence within that push.

Last year, the NFL and 72andSunny made Mexican flag football quarterback Diana Flores the focus for the league’s 2023 Super Bowl ad and an ambassador for the NFL FLAG program, promoting flag football as both a youth and adult sport. Those efforts not only helped local youth programs expand but also made flag football an Olympic sport for both women and men at the upcoming 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Messianu gives Solis considerable credit for that campaign’s success.

“Having worked with Marisa before that, there are very few champions like her in our industry. I wish we could clone her,” Messianu said. “What she has done in a relatively short period at Pepsi before, but now at NFL, is bring the Latino perspective to the mainstream, and I think the perfect example was the Diana Flores Super Bowl spot.”

Expanding the playing field

NFL’s efforts with Hispanic and Latinx audiences have expanded beyond both its marketing and its traditional market.

The NFL has played regular-season games in Mexico since 2005 and has hosted five International Series games at Azteca Stadium since 2016. That helped make the NFL the most popular U.S. sports league in Mexico, with 32% of fans surveyed by YouGov claiming it as their favorite, compared to 30% for the NBA.

In 2025, the NFL makes its regular-season debut in Spain for a yet-to-be-announced matchup at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. Since starting its Global Markets Program in 2022 and allowing teams to promote themselves and build partnerships in different countries, 10 NFL teams have secured global rights in Mexico, while the Miami Dolphins have also reached out to fans in Argentina and Colombia.

“It goes beyond what’s in front of the camera,” Solis said. “You can see Diana Flores, you can see Coach Canales, but the entire ecosystem has to have representation in that community.”

Solis said there’s as much a need for diversity among production crews, writers, corporate sponsors, and agency partners as there is for the final marketing product. Messianu agreed and noted that bringing in MEL COO Carla Santiago, chief digital officer Gustavo García, and chief strategy officer Omar Quinones from Edelman—as well as executive creative director Danny Alvarez and head of client services Jennifer Rangel from GUT—created a valuable message for the NFL’s sizable platform, but kept building the network that allowed him, his MEL partners, Solis and Farfan to make speaking to Hispanic audiences as conventional as Sunday football.

“The realization was that my heart and my conviction is in the Hispanic markets,” said Messianu, who spent nearly 30 years with Alma and was DDB McDonald’s global chief creative officer. “This is something that I decided based on how I want to live my every day, how I want to lose sleep in the middle of the night and wake up charged every morning. “