Marketers have a lot to choose from that paying increased attention to the multicultural consumer is a smart strategy was very clear to attendees of the 2009 Association of National Advertisers Annual Conference (ANA) held in early November in Phoenix Arizona.
Prestigious news outlets such as the New York 'Times reported that ANA speaker Andy England, CMO at MillerCoors, said that advertisers not reaching out to young Hispanic consumers “are not going to win in the market,” whatever the category. Neil Golden, CMO at McDonald's U.S.A., devoted his presentation to what he called ,”leading with ethnic insights”- in other words, initiatives in multicultural markets can generate significant gains in sales and market share. Golden added that If McDonald's U.S.A. conducts nine focus groups; two will be composed of Hispanics and be conducted in Spanish. Marketers should be aware, and they sometimes are not, that there is a wide and sophisticated supply of media vehicles in order to reach the heterogeneous Hispanic market. There is a view of the Hispanic media market as being highly concentrated. That is not the case.
Spanish media giant Prisa recently bought a stake in Hispanic TV Network V-Me, which in 2010 is going to increase to a majority stake. As Carmen di Rienzo, CEO of V-Me, told us: “The transaction highlights the value of the Hispanic market as an important component of Latin markets overall”. Interestingly, Prisa bet on a relatively new platform that according to Prisa's CEO Juan Luis Cebrian represents deep expertise in the U.S. market, an existing national distribution platform, high-quality content for a desirable audience, and roots in education and respect for consumers.
As we also recently reported contrary to the general market newspaper circulation malaise, Hispanic newspaper circulation has been stable or even growing. Publications can be an interesting platform to reach first generation Spanish-dominant Hispanics. Segmentation long a reality in general market media is catching up fast in Hispanic. This is particularly the case in the digital media space, where the effectiveness of reaching “long tail” users of niche websites is delivering high ROI's to advertisers.
Targeted content and high quality Spanish-language information from anywhere in the world is now accessible to Hispanics through the Internet. An increasing amount of online ad networks, e.g. the recent launch of Orange Ad Network in the Americas, is taking note of that and offering “Hispanic eyeballs” to advertisers.
We at Portada view these new offerings as a very positive development. The increasing sophistication of the Hispanic advertising and media market is good news for both marketers and consumers.
