Florida has the fourth largest Hispanic market in the U.S. And no one doubts that it is the most sophisticated. The high purchasing power of Hispanics and Latin Americans in Florida make the Sunshine state a very desirable market. “The Miami DMA is considered the top Hispanic market in the U.S.,” says Cesar Pizarro, Business Manager at El Nuevo Herald in Miami. In Miami/Ft. Lauderdale 91% of Hispanics are foreign born—the highest percentage of the top 5 markets. Media buyers targeting Floridians know about the Sunshine state’s diverse Hispanic audience. “The make up of the target is different, Florida is very heterogeneous. It’s a melting pot of Latinos, most of them from the Caribbean and South America as opposed to other markets like Texas and California, which have a predominantly Mexican population,” says Margot Bradley, President of Togram, a media & marketing consulting firm. The share of Cubans among the state’s population, while still important, is declining.
Twenty years ago Cubans made up more than half of the state’s Hispanics. Now it’s down to 31 percent. “Florida has a large percentage of Spanish-speakers, over 60% in Miami. Therefore, the question is not whether to advertise to the Hispanic community but when and how,” says Jonathan Blue, Managing Director of Blue Equity LLC, whose subsidiary Cobalt Publishing publishes Enlace Yellow Pages Directories. Kentucky based Cobalt Ventures recently acquired Miami and Broward-Palm Beach En Sus Manos directories.
According to Michelle Villalobos, Publisher of Ocean Drive, “a distinguishing factor of the Hispanic market in South Florida is its affluence. Miami- Dade shows the highest median income for U.S. Hispanics. On top of that, South Florida has seen dollars flow into the market at an unprecedented rate due to the political, social and economic turmoil in certain Latin American markets. As a result, the Miami Hispanic is often more affluent and more brand-conscious than his or her counterpart elsewhere.”
It’s not just Miami, Tampa is also very diverse. “More than 26 different nationalities are represented here,” says Orlando Nieves, General Manager of Hispanic Initiatives for the Florida Communications Group, a Media General unit that launched Centro Mi Diario, a weekly targeting Tampa Hispanics, last year.
Advertisers certainly use print when targeting Florida Hispanics. Maria Guadalupe Romero, a media buyer at BVK Meka, places ads for Movida wireless in El Venezolano, The Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, Diario Las Americas, and Sun-Sentinel. Togram’s Margot Bradley says it’s more and more common to see upscale brands that used to only advertise in general market publications placing ads in Hispanic media.
Not convinced yet?
Many advertisers still need to be convinced of the importance of using Spanish-language and/or bilingual media to connect with Florida Hispanics, according to Terry McAskill, Media Buyer at Media Pros U.S.A. He says American Mint and 12 Canada Drugs are both looking at the Florida Hispanic market.
Laurel Welch, Executive Vice President at advertising agency JL Media, says it took a long time to convince Norwegian Cruise Line to advertise in Hispanic media. Norwegian Cruise Line now advertises in El Nuevo Herald along with English-language newspapers in Tampa and St. Petersburg. “At first, they weren’t convinced that they could service this particular niche. Now they have Spanish-language customer service and reservations agents.”
More choices During the last two decades, the choices available to media buyers targeting Spanish-speaking Floridians have increased substantially. “There are new broadcast choices. The cable market is exploding with new Hispanic programming and there is a full array of new print media vehicles,” says Togram’s Bradley. “As a market with a long standing Hispanic presence, the multitude of Spanish print alternatives make it an extremely competitive environment.
Papers that have been in the market for more than 50 years have a clear advantage in terms of brand awareness and credibility over newer initiatives. In the Tampa DMA, we have more than eight different major print publications,” says Centro Mi Diario’s Orlando Nieves.
There are also regional magazines like La Guía del Golfo, published by TV Net Productions, which also publishes Tampa Bay’s Spanish-language weekly 7 Días, established in 2000 in Sarasota. La Guía has local editions in Sarasota, Orlando (launched last August), Tampa Bay and South Florida. The publication has a combined circulation of 50,000. La Guía has a 60%-40% editorial/advertising ratio.
El Nuevo Herald, along with Diario Las Americas, the only Spanish-language daily in Miami, is Florida’s largest Spanish-language daily newspaper (daily circ. 87,041, Sundays 99,882).
In 2004 it was the top Spanish-language newspaper ranked by advertising revenues, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Approximately 60% of El Nuevo Herald’s circulation is distributed through home-delivery and the remaining 40% are single copy sales.
Last year El Nuevo Herald launched Negocios con Bloomberg, a financial news supplement that provides local insights on the newest business movers and shakers in South Florida. During the week, El Nuevo Herald publishes other special supplements on subjects including Health, Nutrition and Lifestyle, Food, Entertainment, Youth, Real Estate and Travel. El Nuevo Herald’s Pizarro notes that during the first half of 2005 national advertising – mainly Travel, Movies, Telecom and Financial – grew by 15%. “You buy El Nuevo Herald because you have to. They deliver the numbers,” explains Terry McAskill, Media Buyer at Media Pros U.S.A. Cross-selling subscriptions…
The Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald’s parent publication, has done a good job of cross selling El Nuevo subscriptions to The Miami Herald readers. 40% of El Nuevo Herald subscribers also subscribe to The Miami Herald, a very high ratio compared to other publications (e.g. less than 1% of Dallas’ Al Día readers subscribe to The Dallas Morning News).
Yellow Pages publishers want in on the action Other publishers who clearly want to attract national advertisers include Spanish-language Yellow Pages publisher HYP Network. HYP Network
publishes Directorio en Español editions for Orlando, Tampa and Sun Coast, which cover all the counties stretching from Sarasota to just north of Ft. Myers. Luis Bermudez, of HYP Network, tells Portada® that “national advertisers that place ads in our books cover a broad spectrum. We see more and more of the CMR companies developing programs for traditional Yellow Pages advertisers covering all of the titles we publish.”
Louisville, Kentucky based Spanish Yellow Pages Directory publisher Cobalt Ventures acquired En Sus Manos Miami and Broward-Palm Beach editions last year. The directories took on the name Enlace, the Spanish word for “link,” the brand of Cobalt’s other directories, currently published in 15 states.
Direct mail
Because of its ability to reach nearly all Hispanic households and create direct response, direct mail could be a good vehicle for targeting Spanish-speaking Floridians. Media Pro U.S.A’s McAskill says that direct mail has been a tough sell with most of his clients.
In 2004, Harte-Hanks, publisher of the PennySaver in California and the Flyer in Florida, launched Pensando en Ti (“Thinking of you”), a multi-page free standing insert (FSI) designed for the food and grocery industry, targeting households in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods.
Pensando en Ti is published as a monthly insert inside The Flyer. “The Flyer reaches 656,000 Hispanics once a week, 52 times a year through a shared mail shopper magazine in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale DMA,” says Jami Delperdang, Vice President of National Accounts at Harte-Hanks.
Delperdang adds that The Flyer can be used to reach either bilingual or Spanish dominant Hispanics. By selecting Harte-Hanks sub-zones with 75% and higher Hispanic density mailers can reach Hispanic consumers in Spanish. Sub-zones with 74% and lower Hispanic density can be used to reach Hispanics with a bilingual message. Other Florida direct mailers include Advo, which can target Hispanics on a sub-zip code level, and Cox Target Media.
Total market coverage
Some newspapers also offer direct mail programs. “We have a total market coverage product, we distribute 150,000 to non subscribing households on a weekly basis,” says Cesar Pizarro of El Nuevo Herald. He adds that this is very important for El Nuevo Herald’s pre-print (FSI) advertisers, because they can target specific zip codes or block routes.
Direct mail and zoning of newspaper editions is very important to retail (FSI) advertisers. El Sentinel, a weekly Spanish-language newspaper, with a circulation of 95,000 published by Fort Lauderdale based Sun-Sentinel (Tribune), offers advertisers two zones (Broward County, circ. 70,000 and Palm Beach County, circ. 25,000). Potential Despite the large number of print media vehicles, many observers agree that there is still a lot of room for new launches. “I don’t think there are enough print media vehicles,” says Togram’s Margot Bradley. “There are definitely niches for new publications.”
As an example she cites the recent launch of Casa y Hogar, a magazine about home ownership and decor that was inserted in El Nuevo Herald. “There is a lot of potential for publications not just about the home, but also about finance, including how-to information.
You go to big-box retailers and all the magazines are in English.” Another niche with a lot of potential is the “affluent Latin American” Miami resident. Advertisers from the Hospital, Jewelry, Travel and Real Estate categories are particularly interested in this sector. Publications targeting this audience include LOFT, Poder, Latin Trade, Latin Finance and America Economia. In terms of ad categories, Bradley sees most growth potential in the Home Improvement, Builders and Developers, Jewelry and Liquor categories. Terry McAskill explains that many niche publications do not have penetration among Florida Hispanics with high incomes. “CPMs are very high, so ROI is too low. There is definitely room to grow with upper income media vehicles.”
