latino lingo

Number of Hispanic public school students doubles

2008-08-26T10:45:00.002-04:00

Pew Hispanic Center released a report that Hispanics are now 1 in 5 public school students nationwide. Between 1990 and 2006 they were 60% o the total enrollment growth, and now total 10 million.

By 2050, there will be more school-age Hispanic children than school-age non-Hispanic white children.

The report, "One-in-Five and Growing Fast: A Profile of Hispanic Public School Students," also stated that:
-- The vast majority of Hispanic public school students (84%) were born in the U.S.
-- 70% speak a language other than English at home.
-- 18% of all Hispanic students speak English with difficulty.
-- 57% live in households with both of their parents compared with 69% of non-Hispanic white students and 30% of non-Hispanic black students.
-- More than 70% U.S. born Hispanic students of immigrant parents live with both parents.
-- More than a quarter of Hispanic students (28%) live in poverty, compared with 16% of non-Hispanic students. In comparison, more than a third of non-Hispanic black students (35%) reside in poverty and about one-in-ten non-Hispanic white students live in a poor household.
-- Foreign-born Hispanic students (35%) are more likely than their native-born counterparts (27%) to live in poverty.

Marketing more effective than doctors for Hispanics' medical info?

2008-08-18T18:00:00.002-04:00

More than one in four Hispanic adults in the United States lack a usual health care provider and a similar proportion report obtaining no health care information from medical professionals in the past year, according to a report released by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

At the same time, the report finds that more than eight in 10 receive health information from alternative sources, such as television and radio. This includes most of those who get no information from doctors or other medical professionals. "Nearly as many Hispanics get health information from television as from doctors and medical professionals," said Susan Minushkin, Pew Hispanic Center deputy director and one of the report's authors. "What's more, Hispanics who don't have a usual health care provider are more likely to get health information from television than they are from medical professionals."

The report is based on a nationally representative bilingual survey of 4,013 Hispanic adults. It is unique in the breadth and depth at which it questions Hispanics on health care access and information issues. It also examines Hispanics' knowledge of diabetes - a serious chronic disease that is more prevalent among Hispanics than non-Hispanic whites.

oh, oh, here we come ...

2008-08-14T16:31:00.002-04:00

The U.S. Census is reporting that minorities, today 1/3 of the U.S. population, are expected to become the majority in 2042. Further, minorities will comprise 54 percent of the population by 2050. Hispanics, will be 30% of the population (up from today's estimate of 15%) in 2050.

Hispanic media keeps growing, and growing

2008-08-06T15:25:00.002-04:00

PRWeek picked up on an AP story about the continued growth of Spanish-language media saying: "In a sharp contrast to the changes occurring in traditional US media, Spanish-language publications and TV stations are not only growing in size and scope, but actively reaching the core demographic of Spanish speakers who live in the US."

Specifically, the article discusses how outlets like Univision are continuing to become the #1 media in their markets regardless of language.

Spreading the culturally-relevant gospel one blog at a time ...

2008-08-05T20:45:00.002-04:00

Can't get enough of me on latino lingo? I was asked to be a guest blogger on Ethnic Events. You can now read me and other bloggers on the site. It's a fairly new site, but it's rapidly growing and has lots of great content. Certainly a site to keep on your favorites (even if I wasn't blogging on it :0) ...

Telemundo looking for Gold in Summer Olympics

2008-07-29T11:37:00.002-04:00

Marketing y Medios has a good article profiling some large insurers that are looking at the Olympics as a great opportunity to reach Latinos.

Telemundo will cover the Olympics from Aug. 6 - Aug. 24.

Here's what Target's director of multicultural marketing Greg Cunningham -- who clearly gets it -- had to say in the article:

"The Olympics is a world stage and an opportunity in media -- and there are only a few -- when you are potentially going to get the whole family in front of the TV in a multigenerational opportunity. When you can reach people in those really special moments, and understand the bond that Hispanics family have, and understand that 'if you speak to me in a relevant way during this time, it will make me perceive you and your brand very differently."

Ad Age's Hispanic Fact Pack now available

2008-07-28T11:35:00.002-04:00

Advertising Age's fifth-annual Hispanic Fact Pack was just released.

The Fact Pack includes data about marketers' 2007 ad outlays by company and category; demographic trends; and rankings of top TV, radio, newspaper, magazine and online media. Expanded information on digital media and how it is used by Hispanics is also included. Additionally, the Fact Pack contains an exclusive ranking of the top 50 U.S. Hispanic agencies, including, for the first time, non- Hispanic agencies that report a significant amount of Hispanic business.

Spanish-Language Advertising Spending Up 3% in '07

2008-07-14T23:40:00.001-04:00

AdWeek article reports advertising spending in Spanish-language media, "reached $5.78 billion in 2007, up 3 percent from $5.63 billion in 2006, with cable TV showing a 76 percent jump, buoyed by the addition of Fox Sports en Espanol and Telemundo's mun2 as measured media, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus."

Ah! So that's why my wife yells at me only in Spanish!

2008-07-09T14:25:00.003-04:00

Fortunately my wife says she has better things to do that read my rants so I'm confident she won't read my headline :-)

A group from Baruch College and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee studied several groups of bilingual Hispanic women with varying degrees of cultural identification with Latino and Anglo cultures and found dramatic shifts in frame-shifting in women who identified with both, according to an article on Discovery Channel Canada.

Furthermore, the article says, these women also switched frames more quickly and easily than bilingual women who were monoculturals. This was especially evident when it came to their self-perception of assertiveness; bicultural women classified themselves as more assertive when they spoke Spanish than when they spoke English.

Going beyond language ... and Spanish-language media reps

2008-06-18T15:19:00.002-04:00

Rochelle Newman-Carrasco has a good on-line column in Advertising Age that's worth reading.

She outlines many of the reasons by communicating a brand has to go beyond just putting the general market message in to Spanish. She talks about a practice I've seen often, general market agencies and clients relying on media ad reps to take care of translating their ads.

Media reps are all too accommodating at this practice. After all, they get paid on commission for running and ad; not for whether the ad was effective or not. The result is that legitimate agencies with creative shops don't enter the mix for these types of people because after all, why pay for the leche when you can get the vaca for free? I've seen a bank locally do this and they almost ran into legal problems on a home equity loan ad because the Spanish media rep didn't understand the concept of equity. Thus, the ad read that the bank was giving you a loan for the full market price of your house, and not the equity.

But, beyond the fact it hurts agency business and you could be ending up in legal limbo, I feel the practice of using media reps to translate or do voice overs is a practice actually hurts the market overall. When campaigns don't work, budgets are pulled and agencies tell clients that "Hispanic marketing doesn't work." They don't look at the message or the creative. They never realize that they failed to establish a relationship with the market or create brand awareness. When companies pull out of marketing to Hispanics because they think they did the "right thing" by using a media rep that speaks Spanish and yet the campaign still failed, it hurts the whole market.

The message for agencies and clients here is treat the market with respect . Just like in the general market use marketing and business experts for Hispanic marketing, and not just someone whose credentials are that they speak Spanish or are Hispanic. After all, you don't use Joe at the local English newspaper to do your general market advertising, so why would you use Jose at the Spanish paper? You need a budget as Rochelle says in her piece. The message for the media reps, that are all too accommodating because they just want to sell, is that you might get the 15 cents today but you're jeopardizing the $1 you could make tomorrow if people stop advertising when things don't work. Leave marketing and transcreation to the professionals.

Hispanics most likely to buy HDTV in the next 12 months

2008-06-10T19:39:00.007-04:00

While Hispanics continue to be the least prepared for the pending digital conversion, they are the group most likely to buy an HDTV in the next 12 months; a fact that should help matters.

According to a new study from Vertis Communications, as reported by Media Post, about 28 percent of Hispanics are expected to buy a High-Definition TV in the next 12 months, compared to 23 percent of non-Hispanics.

Additionally, Hispanics are expected to continue purchasing electronics during sluggish economic times, the study reveals. Vertis urges electronics companies to expand their marketing efforts to the Hispanic audience, the article reports.

How not to write a press release

2008-06-05T10:21:00.003-04:00

Wisin and Yandel Concert apparently set an attendance record at a concert. I say apparently because that is the claim on the Hispanic PR Wire press release.

However, they don't mention how many people were in attendance. They also don't say whose record they broke, or in other words, according to who is that record broken (i.e. Guinness Book of World Records?)?

Tell me if I'm missing something. But certainly, you should not make claims in a press release and then not provide any details on the claim or worse not have any attribution to that claim. Otherwise, we're left to think that maybe it's just the most people their promoter has ever seen. Credibility is important.

Cup O' Self Promotion

2008-05-21T10:18:00.003-04:00

Cision "launched" its new "Hispanic Blog" recently, or so it seems. Cision is actually just linking to a blog called Cup O'Mambo that's written by the agency Mercury Mambo that is very promotional to Mercury Mambo and what they are doing.

Nothing wrong with that, the agency can certainly write what ever they want. What I find interesting is that a company like Cision would link to a blog like this as their way to be credible to their clients and potential clients in the area of Hispanic marketing.

Before I'm called a "hater" keep in mind that I do link to several superb Hispanic marketing blogs. Sites that actually provide thoughtful and culturally-relevant insight and analysis to the market, not just letting people know what party they attended.

Cision should either start its own blog with its one experts. Or, if they want to work with a particular agency or blogger, ask them to contribute to Cision's blog.

This is what HispanicAd.com did when it created its blog called "El Blog." They have guest bloggers and authors to their blog rather than linking to an agency blog.

Pew Releases Statistics on Latinas

2008-05-12T11:05:00.002-04:00

The Pew Hispanic Center released "Hispanic Women in the United States, 2007," a statistical portrait of the demographic, social and economic characteristics of this country's 14.4 million Hispanic women.

Key findings from the report:
-- Hispanic women are younger than non-Hispanic women. Their median age is 41, compared with a median age of 47 for non-Hispanic women.

-- The fertility rate of Hispanic women is one-third higher than that of non-Hispanic women.

-- Just over half (52%) of Hispanic women are immigrants. Their fertility rate is about 30% higher than that of native-born Hispanic women.

-- Some 42% of Hispanic women who gave birth in 2005-2006 were unmarried, compared with 34% of non-Hispanic women. The share of out-of-wedlock births to Hispanic women immigrants was 35%; the share for native-born Hispanic women was 50%.

-- Hispanic and non-Hispanic women are equally likely (54%) to be married. Hispanic women immigrants (63%) are more likely to be married than native-born Hispanic women (44%)-in part because the latter group is younger.

Babies, not illegals driving Hispanic population growth

2008-05-01T17:27:00.002-04:00

The Hispanic population's growth continues to be fueled by babies born in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census and in a Wall Street Journal article.

In addition:

-- Hispanics now account for more than 15% of the U.S. population,
-- There are 45.5 million Hispanics in the U.S., up from 35.7 million in 2000,
-- Hispanics were responsible for half of the U.S. population gains between 2000 and 2007,
-- Hispanics control more disposable income than any other minority group.

New leadership takes over at AHAA

2008-04-22T13:42:00.003-04:00

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies announced Jose Lopez-Varela as its new leader today.

He takes over for Jackie Bird. According to the release, during Bird's tenure, AHAA:
-- Tipped the 100-member agency mark and revised the strategic initiatives outlined two years earlier by the Board of Directors.
-- Implemented the first annual AHAA salary survey specific to Hispanic marketing agencies;
-- Created a partnership with Simmons Research and conducting qualitative and quantitative research supporting the Latino Identity project
-- Published, with AdAge, a magazine supplement on the Hispanic advertising industry and AHAA
-- Met with legislators to gain support for unbundling government contracts
-- Executed a partnership with Nielsen to analyze what advertisers are spending in the Hispanic market versus the general market and will be releasing the results in May
-- Planned a re-design the AHAA Web site.

Hispanic telecom spending to further increase

2008-04-17T18:20:00.003-04:00

The Insight Research Corporation' new study reports that minorities will spend $59.8 billion on telecommunications services in 2008, accounting for over one-third of all residential telecom expenditures. Hispanics will spend the most, the report says.

Other findings:

-- 65.5 percent of all Hispanic respondents now have cell phones,

-- Hispanics’ average monthly household expenditures on cell phone service was more than 80 percent higher than the average household spend on wireline services,

-- Of those Hispanics that own a cell phone, nearly four in five had a post-paid contract. Robert

Rosenberg, Insight Research, says that while the market is critical, “.... cell phone companies that now spend millions of dollars on undifferentiated Spanish-speaking advertising campaigns that blanket the Latino community have missed the boat. The Hispanic community must be addressed with nuanced messaging appropriate to its internal diversity or those cell phone carriers simply won’t survive."

Absolut Controversy

2008-04-07T12:04:00.003-04:00

The blogs have been active since last week regarding this Absolut Vodka ad depicting an image where "in an absolut world," the Mexican border is shown extending north to about Oregon, east to Colorado and south to Texas.

While the ad has only run in Mexico, it has come to light here in the U.S. and has certainly further fueled the existing illegal immigration debate and racial overtones on both sides of the issue. Absolut has since apologized for the ad making itself known in the U.S. (I assume someone else purposely put the ad's title in English to make the point, since the rest of the copy, including the disclaimer, is in Spanish).

Since I write about Hispanic marketing issues, I don't want to write about this from a political or other perspective, though it seems natural to do so.

However, from a marketing perspective, the ad's audience is obviously Mexicans who harbor the "border crossed us, we didn't cross the border" sentiment. There are many in that category on both sides of the border. While I don't know how many in this category prefer vodka over tequila, the ad strikes to the core of this sentiment, and was probably pretty well received. Those Mexicans or other Hispanic ethnic groups that don't necessarily harbor those strong feelings would have probably still had a chuckle at Absolut's cojones, and the ad would have also likely resonated with them.

The issue, of course, is that in a global world, it is difficult to keep things only to your specific, target audience.

Case in point is the comments made by Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright. His comments were both racist and anti-American, but they resonated with the very specific Black liberation sentiment that blames America for many of the social ills facing the Black community (certainly the enthusiastic congregation listening to the comments showed that this is true). Like this ad, the "controversy" only ensued when the comments became known to the general public and no longer just by the specific and intended audience.

Perhaps the controversy publicity was part of Absolut's plan or that they felt the benefits of getting new customers far outweighed the negatives of those now calling for a boycott. Perhaps it was something else. Regardless, it's a good lesson on the global impact of any message.

Digital divide

2008-03-24T21:17:00.004-04:00

With the pending conversion from analog to all digital broadcasting as of February 18, 2009, Nielsen reports that Hispanics are the most unprepared. Specifically, Hispanics are nearly twice as likely as whites to be left without television service following the nationwide transition to digital broadcasting next year. Hispanics also have a higher percentage of having more than one unready set.

Percentage of Households Completely or Partially Unready for Digital Conversion

Completely Unready (%)
White - 8.8%
Black - 12.4%
Asian - 11.7%
Hispanic - 17.3%

One or More Unready Sets (%)
White - 15.2
Black - 19.5 %
Asian - 18.8%
Hispanic - 26.2 %

The government has an info site that is available in Spanish, but there is little info in terms of how the word will get out to the Hispanic market.

Muy bien!

2008-03-24T10:16:00.002-04:00

Lopez Negrete Communications -- the second largest independent Hispanic marketing agency -- announced they have established "The Lopez Negrete Hispanic Marketing Education Fund," an annual scholarship foundation to benefit students interested specifically in Hispanic marketing or advertising.

According to the press release, The Lopez Negrete Hispanic Marketing Education Fund will award annual scholarships to select recipients with strong potential for success in advertising, marketing, communications, radio/television, media studies, marketing research or other related fields. The scholarships are currently available at four universities: University of Houston, St. Thomas University, Emerson College and Florida State University.

The fund was established in collaboration with the Advertising Education Foundation of Houston (AEFH), the charitable foundation of the American Advertising Federation - Houston (AAF-Houston).

Hispanic health campaign launched

2008-03-12T12:39:00.002-04:00

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and The Advertising Council have launched a Spanish-language national public service campaign designed to encourage Hispanics to become more involved in their health care.

The campaign consists of two TV spots, developed pro-bono by Casanova Pendrill , and a website. According to the release, the focus of the campaign was developed from insights gained in the Ad Council’s focus group research, which found that most Hispanic adults do not visit their doctor regularly and only go when they experience symptoms of illness.urges

I viewed the TV spots online and they are good. They touch an emotional chord as well as one on family, and they are mixed in with a little humor. The website is also a good resource. A few odd Spanglish phrases like "Nuestro Test" rather than using a Spanish word for test. But, again, a good resource.

My only feedback is that I would have created a custom URL or something much easier to remember at the end of the TV spot than www.ahrq.gov I do understand why they'd list the URL for the government site, but people are less likely to recall that at the end of a TV spot than something like, say "SoyUnSuperheroe.com" or "NoSoyUnSuperheroe.com." What's more important for the TV spot is that it drives people to visit the site than it is to remember the acronym AHRQ or what it stands for.

Ford's odd text "promotion"

2008-03-06T12:53:00.003-05:00

I went to see the Juanes concert last night at Mohegan Sun Casino. Good show. The second time I saw him and he sounds remarkably good live in concert.

During the show and encore they showed a bunch of footage on the big screens. During one of his songs, the screen showed Colombian mine victims, many were children missing limbs (Juanes' charity is the issue of anti-personnel mines in Colombia. According to the charity website, Colombia is the country most affected).

Near the end of the show, there was a Ford text promotion on the big screens saying something to the effect of "To learn about the new Ford Focus text JUANES" to some number.

Does Ford think we're really that bored (or that drunk, Although I only had two beers, I promise) that we'd want to text Ford during the highlight of a concert without any expected benefit other than learning about their car?

I understand the approach being used, but to me it's fundamentally flawed because the so-called "promotion" was only about Ford and not about me (or any of us). The "what's in it for me?" question wasn't answered. Simply using Juanes' name is not compelling enough, even if I were president of his fan club.

What if instead Ford said it would donate $1 to Juanes' foundation for every text that was sent that night? I know I would have done it. Maybe even twice.

I'll put this under the "good idea, bad promotion" category.

No más "press 2 for español" for Dominos

2008-03-03T11:24:00.003-05:00

Domino's Pizza announced they have a dedicated number fully dedicated to their Spanish-speaking customers at 1-888-DOMINOSÒ, according to a posting on HispanicAd.com. I called to number to check it out and it works well. It's a voice prompted rather than pushing an entry. Personally, I'd rather hit a number as my experience with voice prompt hasn't been great. I also wonder if it will pick up the words of every Latin American accent.

Regardless, the effort is a good one. Rather than their usual phone number with a "press 2 for Spanish" option, Domino's has invested in ensuring their Spanish speaking customers' experience is all in the preferred language.

Companies should follow a similar approach on the web. Rather than using wwww.mycompanyname.com/espanol, they should have a specific URL for Spanish speakers. And, when possible, it should reflect the way Hispanics refer to the company or organization. For instance, The American Red Cross is http://www.cruzrojaamericana.org in Spanish. One of our clients is Stamford Hospital. Latinos call them Hospital De Stamford. Thus, the Spanish-language URL is http://www.hospitaldestamford.com/ rather than a /espanol option.

Subtle change, but one that will be certainly picked up, and appreciated, by your customers.

Bigelow Tea launches first Hispanic marketing campaign

2008-02-26T12:17:00.004-05:00

Bigelow Tea, one of the nation’s leading producers of specialty teas, has announced that it has launched its first national Hispanic marketing campaign to extend its existing brand awareness and loyalty to Hispanic tea drinkers.

The new campaign is called, “Dale Sabor a Tu Vida” (Add Flavor to Your Life), and reflects the quality and flavor difference of Bigelow Tea’s more than 80 varieties of flavored, traditional, green, organic green, herbal, decaffeinated, and iced teas.

The campaign, was created by our agency Bauzá & Associates, and begins with a newspaper insert that are being distributed in Miami, Los Angeles, Houston and New York City and a micro site at http://www.tebigelow.com/. Future campaign plans include a print advertising, direct mail, public relations as well as event support and promotional sampling in cities like Miami.

“Hispanics are a very important part of our consumer base and the research clearly shows that, as consumers, they remain loyal to brands based on taste and quality, both areas where Bigelow Tea differentiates itself,” said Cindi Bigelow, President, Bigelow Tea. “The theme ‘Dale Sabor a Tu Vida’ echoes this sentiment as well as reflects a passion and zest for adding flavor to your life that is culturally-relevant.”

"Father" of Hispanic advertising steps aside

2008-02-21T00:36:00.003-05:00

It's been said the Fidel Castro was the "father" of Hispanic advertising as it was the Cuban Revolution in 1959/1960 that exiled some Cuban advertising executives to the United States.

Here's an excerpt from Carl Kravetz talk when unveiling the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agency's Latino Identity Project back in 2006.

"It was the Cuban revolution that kicked off US Hispanic advertising. In 1959 and 60, a number of Havana advertising men suddenly found themselves in exile and they wanted to work at what they knew best. So they began the long arduous process of convincing American advertisers that that there was a vast, untapped market hidden away right under their noses. And the reason they were untapped? Because they didn’t speak English and couldn’t understand advertising in that language!

At first the advertising was local, targeting Cuban communities in Miami and New York, but the numbers weren’t significant enough to get traction with national advertisers.

Enter the US Government who combined Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans into something called “Hispanics,” and, together with prescient advertisers like Procter & Gamble and imported programming from MeTelevisa, national Hispanic advertising was born.

In many respects, we are doing the same thing here today that those early visionaries did. We are looking at the Latino consumer landscape and saying,“something here isn’t working the best it can. We are not connecting with Latino consumers because we are not speaking their language.”

The language I’m talking about, however, is not a language in the linguistic sense. It is a deeper, much more sophisticated and nuanced way of communicating and connecting with Latino consumers today … and in the future. If you take language…Spanish or English…. out of the equation, what makes a Latino Latino?"