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.

Record number of Latinos registered to vote, but not credibly courted

The Pew Hispanic Center report indicated 23.7 million Latinos are eligible to vote November 6, an increase of 22% since 2008, and the most than at any other time in U.S. history.

A report on CNN.com outlines that despite the high registration rate, there is a concern voter turn out will remain low. According to the article, only 50 percent of Latino registered voters turned out in the 2008 election. The two main reasons that Pew suggests are reduced enthusiasm for a non-presidential election, and an economic downturn that has displaced many Latinos (and subsequently caused their voter registration to lapse).

I would like to add a third: lack of credible outreach by candidates. While the presidential candidates are spending money to try to court the Hispanic vote in battleground states like Florida, the percentage of money allocated to that effort is abysmal.  The lack of attention Latino voters receive and lack of focus of issues that are important to Latinos and positioned from a Latino-perspective I believe results in voter apathy and a lack of name awareness of candidates at many levels.

Looking at places where there is a high Puerto Rican population helps to illustrate my case.  Voting rates for Puerto Ricans on the island are over 80 percent,  That rate but drop off considerably to 57 percent for Puerto Ricans in the United States.

And, despite the record number of advertising dollars being used in the 2012 election, The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce issued a release in early October on a study it commissioned that found only 4.57% of the advertising dollars were spent on Spanish-language media.

As Javier Palomarez , President and CEO of the USHCC said in their press release, "Political commentators from both sides of the aisle have said repeatedly that 2012 is the 'year of the Hispanic voter.' And, in fact, Hispanic voters are poised to play a decisive role in some of the most hotly contested battleground states from Nevada to Florida. But you wouldn't know it from the advertising of our political parties. Thus far in 2012, both parties seem to be spending comparatively little trying to reach Hispanic voters on the media platforms they prefer. The difference between rhetoric and action is striking and, frankly, troubling."

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

10 industries set to benefit from growing Hispanic market

By 2016, the Hispanic demographic will comprise 17.8 percent of US residents and, while the nation’s buying power is projected to grow 27.5 percent to $14.7 trillion, the Hispanic population’s buying power is forecast to grow a whopping 48.1 percent to $1.6 trillion.

Industry research firm IBISWorld analyzed the Hispanic population’s contribution to numerous industries between 2011 and 2016 and identified the top 10 US industries in which Hispanic market share is growing the fastest.

Ranked by percentage of growth expected from 2011-2016 they are:

1. Consumer Electronics Stores


2. Men's Clothing Stores


3. Children and Infants Clothing Stores


4. Car/Auto


5. Advertising Agencies


6. Single location full service restaurants


7. Credit card processing/money transferring


8. Trade and technical schools


9. Department Stores


10. Sports Franchises

Spanish-Language Advertising Spending Up 3% in '07

AdWeek article reports advertising spending in Spanish-language media, "reached $5.78 billion in 2007, up 3 percent from $5.63 billion in 2006, with cable TV showing a 76 percent jump, buoyed by the addition of Fox Sports en Espanol and Telemundo's mun2 as measured media, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus."

Babies, not illegals driving Hispanic population growth

The Hispanic population's growth continues to be fueled by babies born in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census and in a Wall Street Journal article.

In addition:

-- Hispanics now account for more than 15% of the U.S. population,
-- There are 45.5 million Hispanics in the U.S., up from 35.7 million in 2000,
-- Hispanics were responsible for half of the U.S. population gains between 2000 and 2007,
-- Hispanics control more disposable income than any other minority group.

USA Today on Three Kings Day

I've previously written about Three Kings Day and the opportunity that many retailers are missing. USA Today has an article today about how retailers are getting smarter on the holiday as a way to extend the Christmas (or, if you're PC-minded "Holiday") season.

Happy New Year!

Hispanics among marketer's top 2008 priorities

Brandweek is reporting on the “Top Marketing Trends for 2008” survey by the Marketing Executives Networking Group, consisting of 1,700 members at the VP-level or above, that shows marketer's priorities for 2008.

Baby Boomers are still #1 with 88% but Hispanics are second -- tied at 86% with Generation Xers. This is followed by women at 85% and Generation Yers at 84%.

Hispanics buying most gift cards

Article in BrandWeek reports that Hispanics spend more on gift cards than any other ethnic group. According to Comdata-Stored Value Solutions, Hispanics purchase an average value of $71, African-Americans spend $60 and Caucasians spend $41 on the average gift card purchase. The amount spent by Hispanics soared 87% compared to last year, per CSVS which polled 800 consumers online between Sept. 12-18.

The main reasons cited are that Retailers are actively marketing to this segment in a culturally-relevant manner, and the fact Hispanics are "underbanked" leads 26% of Hispanics to buy cards to their children in rather than an allowance or as a budgeting tool.

Other findings"
-- Hispanics are more likely to buy gift cards for themselves (40%) vs. Caucasians (30%) and African-Americans (24%);
-- Hispanics, always or often, spend more than the value of the card (69%) compared to Caucasians (52%) and African-Americans (44%).
-- Hispanics buy cards with higher initial values and are most likely to reload the cards.