Total by Verizon ad will target Latino market during Super Bowl

Verizon’s Total by Verizon prepaid brand is making a major play to reach Latino audiences by advertising during the Super Bowl on February 11.

The traditional broadcast of the Super Bowl will be on CBS, but TelevisaUnivision secured the rights to the event on the nation’s largest Spanish-language TV network, Univision. That’s where Total by Verizon will debut a new 30-second ad during the first commercial break in the second quarter.

According to Verizon Value President Angie Klein, the Latino audience makes up a large portion of Total by Verizon’s consumer base. “We are committed to reaching them authentically and in language,” she told Fierce via email. “That’s why we selected the Univision telecast to make our big game advertising debut.”

In the past, other carriers and MVNOs have targeted the Spanish-language market. Ten years ago, for example, then-Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure starred in an ad directed at the Hispanic market and highlighting Sprint’s value proposition.

That same year, Univision teamed up with T-Mobile US to launch its own branded MVNO, Univision Mobile. The Univision mobile brand later fell under the management of Ultra Mobile. T-Mobile is currently in the process of acquiring Ka’ena Corporation, the parent company of Ultra Mobile and Mint Mobile.

What’s new?

Verizon introduced Total by Verizon in the fall of 2022 after acquiring TracFone and its myriad prepaid brands in 2021. Total by Verizon is designed to take on prepaid rivals Metro by T-Mobile and AT&T’s Cricket Wireless head on, whereas Verizon’s other prepaid brands, like Visible, serve other demographics; in Visible’s case, it’s digital-only consumers. 

What’s unique to Total by Verizon that might appeal to the Latino market?

Klein said Total by Verizon brings customers no-contract single line and family plans on Verizon’s 5G network, a broad range of devices and promotional offers. It’s pitch includes Unlimited data plans that include international calling from the U.S. to five countries of choice – including Colombia, Peru and the Dominican Republic – and roaming when in Canada and Mexico, as well as features like Disney+.

“With presence in more than 50K national retail locations including Walmart and Target, and our growing fleet of exclusive doors in urban areas, we are there to meet customers where they want to shop, and to provide unique benefits to help connect Latino families with their loved ones across the globe,” she said.

More stores coming

Total by Verizon also has been opening up stores across the U.S. – at a time with rivals are shutting down stores or trying to make a business out of selling wireless in an online-only strategy.

Klein declined to say how many Total by Verizon stores are now open across the U.S., but she acknowledged that they’ve opened “hundreds of stores” since the brand launched and they’re opening hundreds more in 2024. “We recently surpassed a milestone of 50 stores in the greater Los Angeles market alone,” she noted.

According to Wave7 Research, Total by Verizon had 378 stores open as of November. Jeff Moore, principal of Wave7, wrote in an August commentary for Fierce that at some point, the plan is to have “several thousand” Total by Verizon stores open.