Latino and multicultural bloggers are getting an early Valentine’s Day present today courtesy of Hispanicize 2013 sponsors and the Latina Mom Bloggers network. Thanks to strong corporate support from some of the nation’s largest Hispanic brands, media companies and marketing … Continue reading
Category Archives: Latino
For Latinos Shopping is an Experience
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Latinos view shopping much differently than their non-Latino counterparts. For Latinos, shopping is not a process or a chore; it’s an experience – a multisource, multisensorial and multigenerational experience that provides retailers and marketers with a wide range of opportunities … Continue reading
Latinos Continue to Drive Grocery Sales
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The market for Hispanic foods and beverages reached almost $8.2 billion in 2012, up 3% from the previous year and up 8% from $7.5 billion in 2009. In addition, sales of Hispanic foods and beverages are expected to reach $10.7 … Continue reading
Cultural Relevancy
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There is a growing necessity for brand marketers to provide culturally relevant content and messaging that specifically targets US Hispanics. In fact, Nielsen’s recent study, The Hispanic Market Imperative – clearly states that Hispanics are the largest immigrant group to exhibit significant sustainability of their culture and are not disappearing into the American melting pot. Now that we have confirmed that cultural sustainability matters to US Hispanics, companies must become more educated about the Latino community not just as consumers – but more importantly, as people and the identity we represent as a diverse community. They must recognize that Hispanics buy brands that empower their cultural relevancy.
Read more: Hispanic Trending
U.S. Future “Unthinkable” Without Hispanic Population
The enormous demographic growth and buying power of the Hispanic population give this community a key role in the present and future of the United States, experts in Miami agreed on Thursday.
The figures and statistics confirm that “it’s going to be impossible to think about the future of the U.S. without thinking about Hispanics,” emasized Leo F. Estrada, UCLA associate professor or urban planning.
Read more: Fox News Latino
The Browning of Media on the Internet: A Step Forward or Back?
With the advent of new media and advances in access to technology the internet is supplementing, complimenting and slowly siphoning viewers from television. While the delivery mechanisms for viewing video are changing, mainstream content providers remain frustratingly rooted in a world which ignores the demographic changes our country is experiencing. Nowhere is this more apparent then in the lack of representation of Hispanics on television.
The reality is the countries demographic changes are starting to influence how everyone interacts with video content from mainstream television on the web. While a majority of people still watch T.V. on a television a growing number of viewers supplement their T.V. viewing with video content on the internet. Hispanic’s are actually leading this trend. Hispanic video viewers are 68 percent more likely than non-Hispanic White viewers to watch video on the Internet. This change is beginning to foster a analogous growth in representation of Hispanics on the internet. This raises several important questions: how do content providers better define and reach English language Hispanic consumers. Does more segmentation and micro targeting on the internet let television off the hook for years of under-representing Hispanics? In 2012 does it even make sense to have a token Hispanic character on a mainstream T.V. show when they could have their own web series?
Read more: The Huffington Post
Shut Out by Mainstream Media
I worry that the proliferation of advertising, entertainment and news organizations hoping to engage predominantly English-speaking Hispanics will also isolate a continuously assimilating community from a mainstream that seems to view Latinos as newcomers who don’t quite want to blend into the crowd.
The list of news and entertainment companies jumping into bilingual or English-only programming aimed at Latinos is long and ever-growing, the two most recent examples being Cosmopolitan magazine and Univision-ABC News.
Hearst Magazines premiered Cosmopolitan for Latinas earlier this month to its target audience, “the young, bold, Latina woman who is sexy, stylish, and intelligent,” according to editor Michelle Herrera Mulligan, “and wants to see herself reflected in the pages of a magazine.”
Well, OK. But isn’t that what Latina magazine has been doing for about 16 years? And even it wasn’t the only magazine already aimed at bilingual, fashion-conscious Hispanic women.
You have to wonder why Cosmopolitan sought to capture the attention of young Hispanic women with a separate publication instead of simply folding in more Latina celebrities, models, staff writers and photographers into its flagship offering. It’s not as if you couldn’t quote a Dominican starlet saying “I’m very proud to have Latin blood” or feature photo spreads of Brazilian Carnaval dancers in the regular Cosmo.
Read more: GazetteXtra.com
Agencies Risk Becoming Irrelevant In A Multicultural America
As ad agency honchos descended on LA Last week for their annual convention, the executives would have benefited from a short ride to Hollywood Boulevard, home of the Kodak Theatre, for a moment of reflection. Just as disregarding the impact of digital technology led to making the Kodak brand irrelevant, general-market agencies are risking becoming irrelevant as well by ignoring the cultural and ethnic diversification of America.
Our society is moving toward becoming truly multicultural. According to the 2010 Census, the so-called minority population, mostly Hispanic, African-American and Asian-American, is rapidly rising and now makes up 35% of the population. It is an unmistakable trend that will make these multicultural groups the majority by mid-century. California, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Texas – as well as the District of Columbia already have so-called minority populations that have exceeded 50%.
Read more: Forbes
Groundbreaking Study on Latino Mobile Usage in Retail Settings
Latinos rarely – if ever — shop alone, they over-index in their use of social media and the Web and much of that usage is through smartphones.
“Hispanics rarely, if ever shop alone,” Sensis President José Villa said. “They also over-index in their use of social media and the Web, and much of that usage is through smartphones. This gives retailers an opportunity to craft unique experiences for their Hispanic customers.
Those are some of the research findings from a groundbreaking study conducted by agencies Sensis and White Horse on how U.S. Hispanics use mobile when they shop.
Read more: Hispanic PR Blog
Doing Multicultural Advertising Right: Carnival Cruise Lines
What’s the future of advertising in the multicultural world in which we live? I officially predict the fall of multicultural advertising and the rise of advertising that’s multicultural.
Riding the PATH train last week from New York to Hoboken, I spied a great ad for Carnival Cruise Lines. It featured a couple on a ship having fun in the pool. The man was a light-skinned Hispanic male while the Hispanic woman was dark skinned. But that was not the first thing I noticed. The first thing I noticed was this fun-loving couple enjoying each other on a Carnival Cruise.
The ad has as much meaning to members of the Hispanic community who see it as it does for me, a White Boomer. Hispanics get to see themselves represented in an ad for a mainstream brand—more popular and prevalent in today’s landscape but still not the norm. I saw a couple having fun and thought it might be a good idea to follow in their footsteps. I could certainly use a trip to the Caribbean.
It was one of the first ads I can remember seeing that crosses cultures in such a simple, honest and successful way. Unselfconsciously. So many marketers still make the mistake of continuing to market in silos.
Carnival touched everyone in one execution, without trying to prove a point. And, it likely made members of the new majority feel pretty valued in the process.
The ad finally made the lyrics sung by Jack Jones from 1977 to 1985 and Dionne Warwick from 1985 to 1986 ring true. “Love, exciting and new. Come aboard. We’re expecting you … The Love Boat promises something for everyone.”
On my crowded train, I enjoyed the reprieve (and memories) the ad provoked. I was also proud of our industry for reaching out to all Americans, the majority becoming the minority and the minority becoming the majority.
Read more at: Adweek
