U.S. Hispanic online ad-sales representation networks have emerged this year as powerful players in the fast growing Hispanic online advertising market. For many Ad-sales executives at Hispanic media properties, online advertising networks are an important part of the sales process. When asked whether online advertising networks will play a more important role in the future, Loida Ruiz, National Sales Manager of The Houston Chronicle Spanish-language publications and websites La Voz and La Vibra answers: “Yes, without a doubt. We believe this is where we will experience the most growth in the future.”
Diverse origin and future
Some of the Hispanic online ad sales representation companies, like Miami-based U.S. Media Consulting, are venturing into print media ad sales representation. Yet others, like Publicitas & Charney Palacios, have traditionally been print advertising sales firms and now have expanded into online.
Almost all of them sell Latin American websites to advertisers wanting to reach U.S. Hispanics in home country websites. Some of these intermediaries like ClickDiario and DirectaNetwork, which recently were bought by Fox and merged into PuntoFox, have their origins in Latin America, and others like Admixture and HispanoClick are based in the U.S. (Admixture) and Canada (Hispanoclick).
Consolidation
Although there has been some consolidation in the Hispanic online advertising sales representative sector, it has been nothing like the general market. “The consolidation among ad networks seen in the general market has been substantial in the last year (Yahoo/Right Media, Yahoo/Blue Lithium, WPP Group/24/7 RealMedia, Google/DoubleClick, Microsoft/aQuantive, AOL/Tacoda). Although there has been some consolidation among ad networks in the Hispanic market, it does not seem to be near the levels of the general market.
In the past few months, Fox International formed DirectaClick.FOX through the acquisition of ClickDiario and Directa Networks. “This seems to be part of a strategy of establishing a strong presence in Latin America, although DirectaClick.FOX still maintains a presence in the U.S. However, I think their primary focus is Latin America,” says Danny Allen, co-founder and CEO of Admixture Inc., a website representation company and online banner ad network.
Does Fragmentation bring with it more complexity?
Online, the big websites continue to gain a large share of the web visitors. However, increasing Hispanic Internet usage has brought an increasing number of websites that are created by, and target, Hispanics. Additionally, general market websites are starting to recognize the value of the Hispanic market and are launching Spanish-language versions of their websites, says Admixtures's Allen. He adds that "Admixture has a very good relationship with Major League Soccer, which has a very rich Spanish-language website in addition to their English-language content. Online options for Hispanics will only continue to increase. So to the extent that the long tail of the Hispanic internet is growing, yes there will continue to be fragmentation."
The platforms from which Hispanics access their information are also becoming more fragmented. Hispanics have been shown to over-index in mobile phone usage. As that continues and as the mobile market matures, Hispanics will probably receive more of their information through that medium. Also, as more Hispanics go online and have broadband access, their use of online video will likely grow very quickly, causing fragmentation in the ways that video content is consumed.
"Everyday more and more, publishers are developing new online offerings including video, sweepstakes, mobile marketing integration,” says Luis Cabrera, managing director of Bravo Uno-a-Uno.
This is exactly where online advertising sales networks can help advertisers and where a good knowledge of the Hispanic online market becomes important, because Online Advertising Sales professionals may know where to find quality without paying high prices, Admixture's Allen concludes.
Related Article: Fox Acquires Spanish-language Online Advertising Directa Network