Join Forces with Top Brands at Portada Live, NYC, Sept, 19, 2024!

The Golden State, The Heart of Hispanic America

Hispanics are fueling growth in California, the most populous state in the U.S. According to the 2010 U.S. census figures, no less than 37,6% of Californians are Hispanics.

Content

Hispanics are fueling growth in California, the most populous state in the U.S. According to the 2010 U.S. census figures, no less than 37,6% of Californians are Hispanics.
How have media consumption habits of Hispanics changed over the last 10 years? Oury Tamboura, print specialist at Horizon Media in Los Angeles says that “with the new census results, marketers have come to realize that Hispanic consumers use media in different ways. Hispanics have the highest readership when it comes to newspapers. The majority of them consume their digital media via a mobile device and that makes them a potential market when it comes to mobile marketing and social media. The new generation of Hispanic consumer is acculturated and bilingual”.
Lupe de los Santos, Group Manager – Hispanic Marketing Communications, Clorox, says that “the role of digital and social media growth has been amazing. This type of media and consumer engagement won’t be slowing down any time soon”.
How do you best reach the masses of California’s Hispanics? Mark Stockdale, Director Hispanic Marketing at T-Mobile, seems to know this very well: “I will tell you that for telecom – the order of highest reach and frequency follow the following order: TV, Radio, Print and Out of Home. The best results are when you have a successful mix of at least three”.
“Most advertisers still rely on the true tested mechanism of TV, Radio and OOH”, says Clorox’s de los Santos. He adds that “there are much more digital initiatives than ever before”.
Retail advertising, both from local retailers and from national big box retailers is crucial to most California based Hispanic media properties. Horizon’s Tamboura notes that many retailers have increased their Hispanic focus over the last 10 years because they understand the buying power of the Hispanic consumers and have put in place targeting campaigns. Their preferred advertising vehicle is the Free Standing Insert or FSI. Tamboura buys media for Corona Light, Extra, Pacifico, Victoria and Modelo Especial. Sara Gaviria, Hispanic Product Manager at the San Diego Union Tribune notes that “we’ve seen a major acceleration in national advertising for ROP and preprint advertising in Enlace, our Spanish-language publication, during the past 10 years, especially in the past three years. The biggest ROP growth categories have been banks, insurance companies, telecommunications/cable and movie studios. Preprint growth has come from package goods FSI’s. In general, we’re seeing a more holistic planning approach to national advertising. Decision-makers are now including the Spanish-speaking consumer audience in initial strategies and budget planning, while third party media buying agencies routinely include Enlace distribution in their proposals for the San Diego DMA. Major retailers have also incorporated Hispanic advertising into their FSI advertising programs”.

Los Angeles
According to the recent 2010 Census, Hispanics or latinos of any race living in Los Angeles amounted to 1,838,822 persons (48.5% of total). Among the Hispanic population, 31.9% are Mexican, 6.0% Salvadoran, 3.6% Guatemalan, 0.6% Honduran, 0.4% Nicaraguan, 0.4% Puerto Rican, 0.4% Peruvian, 0.4% Cuban, 0.3% Colombian, 0.2% Argentinian, and 0.2% Ecuadorian.
A myriad of media properties reach Hispanics in Los Angeles. Among newspapers they include the Impremedia owned Spanish-language daily La Opinión (daily circ. 120,000) which has the largest weekly circulation in the country. La Opinión also publishes a weekend TMC (Total Market Coverage product) with a circ. Of 255,000 that is designed for inserts and has an editorial wrap that focuses on life style and is bi-lingual. This product is delivered to La Opinión non-subscribers. It is distributed to 5 high density Hispanic areas: East Los Angeles, Huntington Park, Montebello/El Monte, San Fernando Valley and Santa Ana.
La Opinión ’s main competitor in the Los Angeles market is Los Angeles Times Media Group (Tribune) owned Hoy Los Angeles, a weekly published every Friday with a circulation 142,000. Hoy’s TMC weekend product Fin de Semana has a circulation of 700,000. Roaldo Morán, publisher and general manager of Hoy Los Angeles, tells Portada that revenues in Hoy Los Angeles have increased by 15% year on year.
Another Los Angeles born media property is El Clasificado, which connects buyers and sellers in the Hispanic community through its niche-oriented websites and a verified publication with a weekly circulation of 460,000. El Clasificado reaches more than .5 million latinos and is distributed in more than 250 cities in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, San Diego and Kern Counties. El Clasificado recently created EC Hispanic Media, a company that intends to expand the company’mostly California centered properties to the rest of the U.S. EC Hispanic Media’s online properties include Elclasificado.com, Quinceaneras.com, Pacoslist.com, AlBorde.com and SuSociodenegocios.com.
EC Hispanic Media, which defines itself as a print, online and grassroots event marketing solutions company, recently announced that it has inked advertising and sponsorship deals with regional California retailer La Curacao and TV network Azteca America.
In 2009 Grupo Radio Centro, one of Mexico’s largest radio broadcasters introduced Exitos KMVN-FM (93.9) in the Los Angeles market. “We see this as a great opportunity to enter the country’s number one Hispanic market with a proven formula of hit music that appeals directly to the musical tastes of this young, dynamic market” said Carlos Aguirre, GRC Chief Executive Officer.
Less conventional media vehicles are also making noise to reach Los Angeles Hispanics. They include Transit TV, a television network on Los Angeles Transit Buses which serves 900,000 people daily. Transit TV is a “one hour loop” which means all programming is a one hour total, the idea stemmed from the fact that the average length of a travel of the average passenger is 1 to 1 ½ hour. Says Everett Lopez, Account Executive at Transit TV “Our programming is bi-lingual and we provide the news in Spanish by Telemundo and Associated Press in English. Los Angeles Metro buses have installed in their front door a laser counter, this is to count everyone who boards the buses throughout its System. Our daily weekday count averages 1,160,000 boardings. We are the only media that offers an accurate count of its views, therefore a realistic and true CPM value”.

Orange County-Riverside
Both Orange County and Riverside are counties that are in some ways overshadowed by Los Angeles. La Prensa Riverside, the Spanish-language weekly published by A.H. Belo’s The Press Enterprise, has a weekly circ. of 107,500. Its areas of circulation include East Los Angeles as well as Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Circulation was increased in 2010 because of advertiser demand and the significant growth of the Hispanic population in both San Bernardino and Riverside counties. At the time Frank Escobedo, publisher of La Prensa cited a Brookings Institution study, published in May 2010, according to which the Inland Empire is the fastest growing area in the U.S. for the Hispanic population.
Other Hispanic print media vehicles covering Orange County include Excelsior, published by Freedom’s Orange County Register and Media New’s Impacto USA.
Para Todos magazine (bimonthly, Spanish, circ. 60,000) is another property targeting the area. Silvia Ichar, its publisher, says that she decided to stay local and serve the latino community of Orange County and South Los Angeles. Ichar best embodies the passionate, yet challenging job of the independent publisher: “Para Todos is a respected magazine that lasted this long because of faithfull local small advertisers, but I am very tired of the uncertainty that I have from magazine to magazine and this terrible economy” she concludes.

San Diego
Southern California, with its hub in San Diego, is a major market in its own right.Fanny Miller, publisher of El Latino, tells Portada that “some advertisers believe that if you cover Los Angeles you are covering all of southern California, which is far from the truth. San Diego has the 4th highest Latino concentration in the U.S. making it 31% of San Diego’s population, nearly 1 million Hispanics call San Diego home, that’s more Hispanics than in 43 states combined! The median Hispanic household income is $40,916. San Diego Latino’s have an estimated buying power of $12.6 billion annually. The San Diego Tijuana border is the busiest international border crossing in the world.” El Latino, the publication led by Miller, has a weekly audited circulation of 60,000.

Sara Gaviria, Hispanic Product Manager at  The San Diego Union Tribune agrees with El Latino’s Miller about the importance of the market: “San Diego is the eighth-largest city in California. The city’s main economic engines are military and defense-related activities, tourism, biotechnology, international trade, and manufacturing.”
Gaviria adds that it’s the combined border region of San Diego/Tijuana-Mexicali that distinguishes our local media industry’s Hispanic market from Southern California. With the busiest International border crossing in the world and approximately $6 billion in annual consumer spending coming from Tijuana, we take great care in understanding the needs of the large Hispanic demographic, especially Spanish-speaking, Hispanic households.”
The San Diego Union Tribune publishes Spanish-language weekly Enlace with a total circulation of 112,982. Enlace is distributed Saturday’s. Enlace is complemented with Enlace Extra and La Bolsa Azul, which allows them to directly reach communities on both sides of the border. Last month the San Diego Union Tribune launched Vida Latina, a free glossy entertainment magazine available throughout the South Bay. Vida Latina has a circulation of 30,000 and mostly targets Hispanic Women in South San Diego County. It features entertainment news, novelas, television and cable program listings, music, movies, health, lifestyle and cultural events. The magazine is available through free rack distribution every Friday at Food 4 Less, Ralphs, CVS Pharmacies, 7-Eleven, other major grocery chains, strip malls, carnicerías and panaderías in high density Hispanic areas throughout San Diego’s South Bay.
Regarding the online strategy, Gaviria says that they continue to focus on increasing visitor engagement on SanDiegoRed.com, which serves as the online arm for the U-T’s website SignOnSanDiego.com (3.5 million monthly unique visitors) and our Latino-focused publication Enlace. Visitors to SanDiegoRed.com have access to in-depth news, sports and entertainment information applicable to life on both sides of the border, but are also encouraged to share their own community news, photos and videos.

Trends towards Home Delivery  
Gaviria says that there has been an uptick in regards home delivery and, due to advertiser demand, Enlace increased home delivery quantities earlier this year by 53 percent -46,190 to 70,581. “Home delivery now makes up 62 percent of Enlace’s distribution, while 38 percent is available through rack distribution. Our distribution strategy targets Spanish-speaking Hispanic households, to meet retailer and advertiser demand.”
El Latino ’s Miller says that “after speaking with several national advertisers, we have modified our distribution to target more specific zip codes with El Latino’s home delivery targeting major retailers. El Latino has a 97% pick up rate and 30% penetration of the market, both some of the highest in the industry.”

Popular Now

Boost Your Sales

Who is Moving Now

The Latest

Get our e-letters packed with news and intelligence!