The Dodgers aren’t the first baseball team to make a foray into the Latino market. But the team that represents Los Angeles — a city that is over 44% Latino — certainly seems to be the most aggressive. The Dodgers recently launched a website in Spanish and now appear to moving into the television arena, with an all-Spanish content news magazine show:

A Spanish-language news magazine show covering the Los Angeles Dodgers will debut this season on KBEH-63, featuring interviews with Dodger players and executives, feature stories, fan contests and educational segments, the club announced today. “Vamos Dodgers” is scheduled to debut on April 9 at 10 p.m. and will air 15 times throughout the 2006 season.

Marketing baseball to Latinos, a population whose Dominican, Cuban, Venezuelan and Puerto Rican sub-segments seem to live, breath, eat and die by the sport, may seem like a no-brainer to some. But I have to applaud the Dodgers for truly going all out. Many sports teams (like many other businesses) have thought that having a “Latino Day” at the ballpark would be enough to engage Latino fans and fans-to-be, without really thinking of all the possible touchpoints they could have with the Latino consumer that would really complement their gameday experience and thus make them more loyal.

Simply providing content is Spanish online is an easy way to engage Spanish-speaking Latinos. It helps them get more involved with the game, learn more about the players and, in addition, adds a feeling of inclusion to the customer experience. It’s nice to see a web site for something you are already interested in and find that it has been tailored to you, in your language. It shows that the team (or company) cares enough about Latinos to make the extra effort.

Not surprisingly, however, of the 30 teams that currently comprise Major League Baseball, only 12 have web sites in Spanish (links at the end of this post).

Another reason to applaud the Dodgers is that in looking at their website, it’s clear that they are committed to providing content that is relevant to the Latino community and is written for that audience; they have writers on staff who produce content in Spanish instead of re-purposing English content via translation. They also provide Spanish-language audio of game live and streamable on the site.

Yes, it takes a bit more effort, maybe a few more dollars, but in the end it pays off.

Via LA Dodgers website

Related: MLB’s team sites in Spanish - Los Angels | Los Medias Blancas Los Astros | Los Padres | Los Dodgers | Los Rangers | Los Marlins | Los Rockies | Los Mets | Los Gigantes

Technorati Tags: Dodgers, Latino marketing, Los Angeles, Spanish, Hispanic marketing