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That's what State Farm essentially did for a marketing campaign aimed at primarily first-generation Mexican immigrants. The campaign is featured in the May 15th Marketing News feature, "La Musica To Their Ears."

State Farm has traditionally lagged behind Allstate in Hispanic advertising spend, until last year, when State Farm spent $84 million on TV, print and radio, a $45 million increase from 2007, according to Nielsen. One small ingredient of that campaign was a TV spot featuring a fabricated musical group, Los Felinos de la Noche, struggling with high gas prices on the road to stardom.

State Farm was itching for a campaign that reached consumers beyond their TV screens. And so its Hispanic agency, Alma DDB, partnered with its sister agency, Fire Advertainment, transformed the made-for-TV band into an actual band, complete with its own songs, TV and radio appearances and tour.

So how would a group of little known musicians help with State Farm's identity? And why would an audience bother listening to a marketing-made musical group?

The answer to both questions ties back to the audience State Farm wanted to reach. By launching this band, State Farm was crafting its own rags to riches story for the struggling musicians that made up the group; a couple of the guys worked in construction and landscaping before they took to the airwaves. As Fire's creative director Christian Reslen says, "Latinos can reflect themselves in the lives of these guys."

As for audience reception, the teams made sure the songs weren't straight-up commercial jingles - State Farm isn't mentioned in the lyrics - and that they were set to an up-tempo Mexican cumbia beat with a broad appeal. Even though some Hispanic consumers know State Farm's marketing agenda with the band, it is a demographic that doesn't seem to mind, says Felipe Korzenny, director of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communications at Florida State University, and one of the orchestrators for the AMA's Hispanic Marketing Hot Topic Series in Los Angeles and Chicago this month and next.

"In this case, [State Farm is] actually helping Hispanics succeed," Korzenny says. "For Hispanics living in the United States, the main goal is to make a good life and be successful. When they see examples of that, they tend to really like it."

Find out more about this campaign in the May 15th edition of Marketing News. And to hear Los Felinos' sonic stylings, watch their first music video, posted below.