Ad Age Releases 2013 Fact Pack

 Ad Age released its Hispanic Fact Pack that includes information about the Hispanic market including the the top 50 Hispanic advertisers, the 50 largest Hispanic agencies and all agencies with media-services revenue above $3 million.

It also includes data about marketers, 2012 ad spending and demographic trends as well as rankings of top properties in TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, online media and social networking.

The digital edition of the Hispanic Fact Pack will be available free to viewthrough Aug. 21, 2013, and then for $29 after that.

Día de los Muertos: There's an app for that!

While many are still trying to figure out what to dress up as for Halloween, many Hispanics are preparing for Día de los Muertos or "Day of the Dead." (Read a previous post about what is Día de los Muertos)

Now, there is "Day of the Dead Me" photo booth app available on iTunes. 

Feel free to share any pictures with me from the app.

Hispanic more digital-savvy than Non-Hispanics

New analysis from the Hispanic InsightCenter reaffirms other studies showing that Hispanics are outpacing Non-Hispanics in the areas of mobile and social media. The new report further reports that the are using social media and mobile technology to give and seek advice about products and services.

According to an article in MediaPost, Hispanic consumers tend to be early adopters and are more likely to own smartphones and tablets. iPad ownership specifically is up among Hispanics from 4.2% in June 2010 to 21.3% in 2012. (14.6% of Non-Hispanics report having an iPad in 2012.)



Viewing on Mobile Devices
	% of Users
Mobile Used to View	Hispanics	Non-Hispanics
Email	48.1%	29.2%
News	26.6	17.5
Sports	15.2	10.2
Video/TV	15.5	9.6
Source: BIGinsight, August 2012

In addition Hispanics’ regular usage of social media also largely outpaces Non-Hispanics counterparts. Usage among Hispanics indexes higher across all sites tracked in the InsightCenter.

Regular Use of Social Media/Online Communities – Index (Hispanics 18+ vs. Non-Hispanics 18+)
Media	Index vs. Non-Hispanics
Facebook	109
Foursquare	166
Google+	133
Hulu	144
LinkedIn	127
MySpace	155
Pinterest	109
Twitter	141
YouTube	133
Source: BIGinsight, August 2012

Hispanic Millennials and Mobile Usage

More than 40% of Hispanics have smartphones, and that figure is expected to rise to 63% by 2016 with the Hispanic Millennial segment as the driving force, according to an Insight Tr3s article.  Other good insights from the article are that Hispanic Millenials are:

• Nearly twice as likely to get online at home using a phone. 50% of Hispanics 18 to 29 use a phone for Internet access at home, vs. 27% of Hispanics 30 to 49.

• More active in using their phones to connect with others. Hispanics 18 to 29 are significantly more likely than thirty- and forty-somethings to be heavy social media users, as well as to agree with statements like, “I like to be connected to my friends and family wherever I am,” “Texting is just as meaningful as an actual conversation with a person on the phone,” “My cell phone connects me to my social world,” and, “My friendships would not be as close without my cell phone.”

• More interested in status and what their phone says about them. Having the latest technology confers status among younger Hispanics. Compared with the older group, they heavily over-index in agreeing with statements like, “My cell phone is an expression of who I am” and “I’m always the first among my friends to have the latest electronic equipment.”

• More likely to use their phone to get information. The younger group is far more likely to agree with statements like, “I use information from my cell phone to decide where to go or what to do in my free time” and “I rely on my cell phone to keep up with news or sports.”

• More receptive to mobile advertising. Hispanics 18 to 29 are more likely than those 30 to 49 to agree with statements like “I am willing to accept advertisements sent to my cell phone if I were to receive something of value in exchange” and “I would be interested in a service that would let me use my cell phone to make purchases in a store.”

Hispanics use multiple devices to go online and more likely to own high-tech gadgets

Technology is among the main factors advertisers need to keep in mind when marketing to Hispanics, as they are early adopters of the latest devices, including Internet-enabled TVs, e-readers and iPads.

According to an article in AdWeek -- which contains some neat info graphics like this one -- they're also slightly more likely than the overall population to own a mobile phone.

The Internet is a prime source of entertainment, and social media are a big part of that, with Hispanics spending more hours a day on social networks than other ethnic groups or races.

Portada Magazines' Hispanic Marketing 12 Predictions for 2012

Portada Magazine again published predictions for the 2012 Hispanic Marketing and Media industry.

1. Univision’s IPO will take place in 2012
The investors who took the broadcast media private will want to monetize their investment in 2012 through an IPO.

2. Mobile becomes huge for Hispanic Marketing
Mobile media (Mobile phones, Tablets and E-Readers) will become a major force in Hispanic Marketing and Advertising. That is why Portada is dedicating a special event (The Hispanic Mobile Marketing Forum on Sept. 19, 2012) to analyze this phenomenon. Hispanic Consumers spent more than $5.15 billion during this year’s holiday season on mobile devices, according to the Hispanic Holiday Mobile Survey 2011 by Zpryme.

3. The “SoLoMo” trend will continue
“SoloMo”, or Social-Local-Mobile will be increasingly applied to marketing strategies. Particularly in the Hispanic market, where both social networking and mobile usage overindex. Geolocalization when using mobile media, e.g. checking in on Facebook and/or FourSquare, or in review sites such as Yelp will be driving local consumer marketing and advertising. QR Code integrations in print advertising will play a particularly important role for retail. Online-Mobile Gaming and In-Game Advertising will play an increasingly important role.

4. T-Mobile will end in the hands of a Latin Telecommunications giant
Now that AT&T has officially announced that it is no longer pursuing a T-Mobile acquisition, we know for sure that as “a contractual penalty for the collapse of the merger, AT&T will pay T-Mobile $3 billion in cash, and give T-Mobile at least $1 billion worth of spectrum rights. Portada predicts that Latin Telco giants America Movil and Telefonica have a strong chance to end up acquiring T-Mobile.

5. U.S. Hispanic Advertising Market will grow by 5% in 2012…
As 50+ Hispanic marketing executives said in a recently published Portada Survey, U.S. Hispanic Advertising will grow by approximately 5% in 2012 driven by Auto, Political and Financial Advertising.

6. Hispanic Digital Advertising’s expansion will continue to grow at a high rate
While digital advertising in the U.S. Hispanic market still amounts to less than 5% of the overall advertising pie, compared to nearly 20% for the overall U.S. market, the U.S. Hispanic digital advertising market will continue to grow in 2012 at a very high rate.

7. Online Video will be on a roll
Within digital media Hispanic online video advertising will be growing the most. The rationale is very compelling: Hispanics watch more video online than their general market counterparts. Content providers will be working hard to increase their online offerings, particularly of Spanish-language online video, and satisfy the needs of the online video advertising markets.

8. Hispanics Newspapers will do well overall
Hispanic Newspapers will continue to have a relatively strong performance, particularly when compared to their U.S. general market counterparts. The strong community media element of Hispanic newspapers plays in favor of them. So does the fact that print media continues to be a great way to target Spanish-dominant U.S. Hispanics.

9. ImpreMedia will be acquired
Impremedia private equity backers Clarity Partners, Halyard Capital Fund, ACON Investments and Knight Paton Media as well as Goldman Sachs (who provided a loan) are looking for an exit. The likely buyer is a large general market newspaper chain who wants to place a strong bet on the Hispanic digital and print media markets.

10. Measurable (Targeted) Media will continue its expansion
The rise of digital media and the data about audience reach engagement etc that comes with, is impacting other media. Targeted TV (e.g. Hispanic audiences of general market TV programs) are also being developed and increasingly sold to advertisers.

11. E-Commerce and Online Media will get closer
Content Marketing applied to online media has a lot to do with SEO. Once the content attracts an audience, that audience can be monetized via advertising or via e-commerce. Major companies, who attract millions if not tens of millions of unique visitors, are betting on content production to attract the right audience and then convert readers into buyers. Watch out for more and more CPG’s and retailers hiring journalists and editors to produce and curate content on their corporate (media) sites.

12. Spanish-Language Media will continue to lead
During the last months of 2012 several new ventures, particularly digital media properties, have been launched to target English-dominant Hispanics online. Will these in-culture English-language media be able to differentiate itself enough from general market English-language media and obtain major advertising buys? The jury is still out. In any case, while English-dominant targeted Hispanic media is a great addition to the Hispanic advertising and media landscape, we think that, when it comes to mass media, in 2012 Spanish-language will continue to be the pre-eminent way to market to and reach the U.S. Hispanic population.

Hulu Latino launches

Hulu today announced it has launched Hulu Latino, billed as the "most robust and complete Spanish-language content library available through an online video service in the U.S." per a press release sent to me by Hulu.

As part of the launch, Hulu announced content partnerships with  Azteca America, Butaca, Caracol Televisión, Comarex, Estrella TV, Imagina US, Laguna Productions, Maya Entertainment, RCTV, Todobebé Inc, and Venevision.

Hulu Plus subscribers can find current and classic Spanish-language programming, including the entire current season of primetime TV shows from Univision, Galavision and Telefutura. Users of the free Hulu service now have next-day access to a selection of popular current season programming, including recent episodes of popular favorites like La Fuerza del Destino, Aqui y Ahora, Protagonistas and Noche de Perros. Hulu Plus subscribers will be able to watch all the content available on the free Hulu service through any Hulu Plus enabled device.

Hispanics Are Online, But do Marketers See Them?

eMarketer expects U.S. online advertising spending to reach $31 billion in 2011.  How much of that is spent targeting U.S. Hispanics? Industry figures show it at only $200 million in 2011, a mere 0.65% of the total investment in U.S. online advertising, according to an article in MediaPost's "Engage: Hispanics."

Woefully low, even if you're only targeting Spanish-dominant Hispanics.  This has to change in 2012 as studies continue to show Hispanics prevalence for on-line from both traditional and mobile/tablet platforms.

Online Hispanics Have A Hard Time Finding Health Information In Spanish

"When it comes to being healthy, Hispanics have several things going against them: language and cultural barriers, lack of access to preventive care and lack of health insurance. But there is another, lesser-known barrier that prevents them from living healthier lives: lack of online health information in Spanish." So says Lee Van in his MediaPost article about the lack of Spanish-language health content.

In the past 12 months, usage of health websites skyrocketed among the bilingual and Spanish-preferring online Hispanics. As a result, more than half of all online Hispanics visits a health site each month.

Growth in health site visitation by segment September 2010 - 2011
English Preferring: 25%
Bilingual: 47%
Spanish Preferring: 35%
All Hispanics: 32%

Percent of given segment that visited a health site in September 2011
English Preferring: 53%
Bilingual: 52%
Spanish Preferring: 51%
All Hispanics: 52%

This article ties back to what I wrote about in January 2010 after the release of the AOL Cyberstudy, which pointed out that Hispanics recognize the disparity between the availability of English and Spanish-language content. They perceive English sites as more comprehensive in part because they know the Spanish content is not.

Further, the study showed that Hispanics often prefer English content and mistrust Spanish content because Spanish-language sites are often little more than literal translations of English content. In fact, only 3% of respondents found Spanish sites more trustworthy and useful than those in Spanish.

The only way to overcome this challenges is to offer relevant, comprehensive and trust worthy health information in Spanish.  As Lee points out at the end of his article, there is a clear demand for Spanish language health information online and relatively few companies providing it.

PR Pros agree social media is important for reaching Hispanics, but only 45% use it

While acknowledging social media's importance, only 45% of respondents to a recent study say they uses said they actually use it, compared to 92% who use it to reach mainstream markets.


The study -- conducted by TeleNoticias and LatinoWire, surveyed PR professionals in conjunction with the Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA), Hispanicize, HispanicAd.com and Survey.com -- points out that the Hispanic market is top of mind for marketers as the results of the 2010 US census are released, and as the audience demands that companies interact with it where it is — online.

FTC takes translation route in "educating" Hispanics on financial issues

The Federal Trade Commission recently announced the creation of a new microsite called "Money Matters" that it also offers in Spanish as "Asuntos de Dinero." Pitched by their agency as "important to provide (Hispanics) with smart money management techniques. Hispanic consumers are a powerful economic force, and like all consumers, they need access to practical and reliable financial literacy resources" a review of the Spanish-language site shows it is essentially a literal translation of the English site.


Money is green and a translation shouldn't matter, right? Wrong. Research clearly shows the Hispanics (along with African Americans) have among the lowest saving and investment rates of any demographic. 56% of Hispanics have never had a bank account, according to Simmons, Inc. Socio-economic reasons alone do not explain this phenomenon, and Hispanics continue to have among the highest rates of discretionary income.

What does help explain this phenomenon in a larger part is Hispanics' relationships (or lack of)with financial services institutions, and the role that culture plays. Whether it's coming from countries where there is inherent distrust of financial institutions, perceived racism (and certainly plenty of examples of real racism) or other reasons, there are other reasons besides lack of basic money management skills that contribute to this. In addition, the AHAA Latino Identity Study points to other reasons such as our interpersonal orientation, fatalism, and perception of time and space as areas that need to be addressed in marketing financial services.

These factors and the inherent conflicts they often cause within Hispanics need to be addressed in copy aimed at Spanish-dominant Hispanics. If that's not enough, the recent AOL Cyberstudy pointed out that Hispanics recognize the disparity between the availability of English and Spanish-language content. They perceive English sites as more comprehensive in part because they know the Spanish content is not. Further, the study showed that Hispanics often prefer English content and mistrust Spanish content because Spanish-language sites are often little more than literal translations of English content. In fact, only 3% of respondents found Spanish sites more trustworthy and useful than those in Spanish.


BTW, I tried twice to reach the FTC's agency contact at Fleishman-Hillard to ask about the strategy in creating a translated site with no response.

Michael Jackson is Tops Yahoo! En Espanol's most popular search

Yahoo! en Español reports that The King of Pop was the top search topic, like it was for every search engine in about every language.

Here's the complete Yahoo! en Español top 10:

1. Michael Jackson
2. Farrah Fawcett
3. Jennifer Aniston
4. Adam Lambert
5. Michelle Vieth
6. Real Madrid
7. Yuri
8. iPhone
9. Janet Jackson
10. Demi Moore