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 Will Spend $17.6B on Mobile Devices in 2012

U.S. Hispanic consumers will spend more than $17.6 billion on mobile devices and over $500 million on mobile apps in 2012, according to a new Zpryme INFOgraphic, 2012 Hispanic Mobile Consumer Trends
Download the Zpryme INFOgraphic, 2012 Hispanic Mobile Consumer Trends here: link

Other findings include:

1. Over the next six months Hispanics are likely to purchase: smartphone (24%), laptop (21%), and tablet (18%)
2. Top three smartphone OS used by Hispanics: Android (27%), Apple (21%), and Blackberry (7%)
3. Top three mobile devices owned by Hispanics: laptop (70%), smartphone (52%), and mp3 player (42%)
4. Top three daily deal sites visited by Hispanics are: Groupon (40%), LivingSocial (26%), and Eversave (10.2%)
5. Top four mobile app types purchased by Hispanics are: games (48%), songs (41%), navigation (24%), and books (23%)
6. Of Hispanics that own apps: (84%) of apps are primarily in English, 13% about half in English and Spanish, and 3% primarily in Spanish
7. Of Hispanics that own apps: (19%) have 1 - 5 apps, (18%) have 11 - 20 apps, and (17%) have 6 - 10 apps
8. Top three activities online by Hispanics are: (84%) email, (67%) social networking and (54%) video/music

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.

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.

Latinos Leading the Mobile Web (and sleep with their phones)

The rapid growth of Hispanic mobile use is reshaping the way consumers use their devices. Here are some statistics from an article from ClickZ:

-- Almost half of Latinos own a smartphone, a much higher percentage than the general population.
-- 65% of Latinos use their handset as their primary access to the Internet.
-- 60% of Latinos use their mobile phone as their primary phone service.
-- 75% of adult Hispanics sleep with their phone.
-- 74% of Latino mobile subscribers are between 18 and 44 years old.
-- More than 30 percent of iPhone users are Hispanic. But they are also Android fans: around 30 percent of Latinos with a smartphone have an Android phone and growing.

Hispanic consumers spend more on average during holiday season

During the holiday season, Hispanic consumers spend on average $730.30 compared to non-Hispanics’ $683.08, and they sneak in more purchases for themselves – $141.95 versus $104.46 for non-Hispanics.

The data comes from a BigResearch study on Hispanic holiday spending trends, and is mentioned in the blog "The Lipstick Economy" along with these other differences between Hispanics and non-Hispanics:

1. Hispanics list clothing and accessories as their number one gift this year, versus non-Hispanics who prefer gift cards. Also indexing high among Hispanics are electronics and beauty items.

2. Quality and customer service are more important in determining where they shop, versus discounts or price; even though 67% say the economy will affect their spending plans this year. Discount stores are still the number one shopping destination, followed by department stores.

3. Hispanics are 2x as likely to use their smartphone to research a purchase. The Hispanic population is generally younger and 67.6% own a smartphone compared with 57% non-Hispanics.

4. According to comScore, online Hispanics value opinions, recommendations and reviews of others. They are more likely to search the Internet (43% Hispanic v. 37% non-Hispanic) and comparison shop (39% Hispanic v. 31% non-Hispanic). And they have more positive associations and are more receptive to online advertising.

30% of mobile banking users are Hispanic

Mobile banking has grown 129% in two years to 13 million+ mobile subscribers, fueled in large part by the younger Hispanic market, according to the Nielsen Company. Those who use their mobile phone for banking tend to be younger, male and more ethnically diverse. Specifically, 30% or 3.9 million users are Hispanic.

Further, and this is a plus for the Hispanic market, mobile web banking is expected to level the playing field for the banked, unbanked, young, old, rich, poor, downtown, uptown or out-of-town, the study says.

Other findings included:

-- 36 percent are between the ages of 25-34, while only 18 percent
represent that same age group online
-- Males represent 53 percent of this population versus 43 percent online
-- 30 percent are Hispanic while this same user group represents only 11
percent of the online banking population
-- Those who use SMS texting for mobile banking – either from a smart phone
or a standard feature phone – represent the largest group of mobile bankers.

More proof that Hispanics outpacing others on broadband

The Hispanic Institute just released a new study entitled, "Hispanic Broadband Access," further demonstrating how Hispanics are outpacing others on the adaptation of technology.

Findings include:

• Hispanics and African Americans lead mobile broadband use (53% and 58% respectively), with both communities far ahead of Whites (33%).
• Hispanics are more mobile than the general U.S. population and, thus, rely more on cell phones. Hispanics account for more minutes used and for a higher percentage of cell-phone ownership despite their relatively low incomes.
• 40% of U.S. Hispanics are born abroad in countries where wireless service often is more common than land line phones making them more open to mobile broadband than many other population groups. This familiarity makes the leap to smartphones and other connected mobile devices a more intuitive step for many than turning to wired, home broadband adoption and computer usage.
• In 2008, Hispanics outpaced the general population in accessing and downloading digital media (music, video, audio, movies, television programs, video games and podcasts), 42% to 35%

Read the full report (.PDF)

Citi first to offer mobile banking in Spanish nationally

Stating that 1/4 of their customers are Spanish-speaking Hispanics, Citibank announced they are the first major U.S. bank to offer mobile banking in Spanish, according to a Hispanic PR Wire release. The mobile platform will allow customers to manage their accounts, pay bills, locate branches in Spanish from a cell phone.

Citi Mobile en Espanol mirrors the functionality of the English-language Citi Mobile for Smartphones.

Hispanics internet and mobile use continues to grow

Media Post's "Engage Hispanics" has a posting by Alvaro Cabrera listing a top 10 list regarding Hispanics and Internet and mobile use.

These include the fact that:

-- Hispanics' Internet use is growing 2x faster than the general market
-- 88% of Hispanics making more than $50,000 are online
-- Hispanics are early adapters to mobile with 64% penetration at age 15
-- Hispanics spend 14 hours per week (compared to 8 in the general market) with a technology device

Hispanics Rush to Get Online with Cell Phones

A new report from market research firm Mintel shows that online Hispanic adults are quickly surpassing other demographic groups in acquiring new online communication skills.