In “El Capo 2,” one of the first original shows on new U.S. Spanish-language network MundoFox, a Colombian drug kingpin fights off challenges from all sides, the U.S. authorities, rival cartels in Mexico and the victims of his violence.

The show, from its origins and target audience to its plot, is emblematic of the escalating battle over Hispanic television viewers in the United States. In the world of U.S. Spanish-language television, Univision stands at the top with a majority of the audience while Telemundo nips at its heels. Other networks such as Azteca America and MundoFox are trying to carve out their own piece of the market, one that shows great potential for growth and increased interest from advertisers.

MundoFox launched in August and immediately sought to carve its own niche while challenging the traditional powers in the market, much like the Fox broadcast network did in 1986 when it went on air.

In a distinction from the popular telenovelas on market leader Univision, MundoFox airs “teleseries,” which have fewer episodes than telenovelas while emphasizing action and higher production value. “El Capo 2” was one of the first teleseries on MundoFox, which is a joint venture of Fox parent News Corp. and the Colombian broadcaster RCN Television. The first season aired in the United States on Univision’s sister network Telefutura. But under RCN’s partnership with News Corp., the popular and high-cost show moved to the upstart.

“There is an increasing demand for quality Spanish-language content in the U.S. from both viewers and advertisers,” Hernan Lopez, president and CEO of Fox International Channels, said at the announcement of MundoFox’s creation in January 2012. “Fox saw similar dynamics in play 25 years ago when it launched the Fox network, and it would be a missed opportunity not to provide an alternative for the 50-plus million Hispanic viewers who currently have limited options in Spanish-language broadcast television. Our partnership with RCN will help us do this, and we aim to do it in a big way.”

MundoFox launched in 49 markets, including Las Vegas, reaching an estimated 80 percent of U.S. Hispanic households, and has since added at least 10 more affiliates.

Not only are there more Spanish-language networks, the already-established networks are launching new channels to target specific audiences.

All of the action in television aimed at Hispanics comes with one target in mind: a piece of the $1 trillion in annual purchasing power of the U.S. Hispanic market.

Go where the growth is

Advertisers have awakened to the potential of reaching loyal viewers of Spanish-language television. In fact, ad dollars spent on Univision could pay off more than money spent on one of the major English-language U.S. networks.

Univision has been outperforming NBC in primetime viewing this season among adults 18-34. Univision is firmly entrenched as a top-five network in the United States in terms of viewers, and on some weeknights it beats more than one of the major English-language networks among adults 18-49.

While CBS, NBC and ABC all saw their total ad revenue fall from 2010 to 2011, according to Kantar Media, Univision saw an increase of 16.7 percent to about $2.18 billion, and Telemundo saw 2011 ad revenue rise 2.8 percent to about $915.4 million.

That kind of success among a relatively young and upwardly mobile demographic has caught the eyes of advertisers, networks and production companies.

The U.S. Hispanic population now stands near 50 million, and its members spend upward of $1 trillion a year, which would place the community among the top 20 economies in the world, according to a 2012 Nielsen report on Hispanic consumers. By 2015, Hispanic buying power is estimated to reach $1.5 trillion annually.

In Nevada, Hispanics account for a quarter of the population and make up half of all Clark County elementary school students. At $12 billion, the Southern Nevada market ranks 23rd in the nation for Hispanic purchasing power, according to market research firm Vision Advertising & Marketing.

Despite the down economy, U.S. Hispanic households that earn $50,000 or more annually are growing at a faster rate than total households, and the Hispanic population is expected to grow 162 percent by 2050. The total population is anticipated to grow only 42 percent. The median age of U.S. Hispanics, 27, also falls in the sweet spot of the 18-34 demographic for advertisers; the median age for non-Hispanic whites is 42.

Las Vegas’ Hispanic population does not compare to those in Los Angeles, New York or Chicago, but it is roughly a third of the population and is a fast-growing, diverse community. Las Vegas was included in MundoFox’s first list of coverage areas, and the city has affiliates for Azteca America, Telemundo and Univision.

Other Spanish-language stations available in the valley include V-me, EstrellaTV and Telefutura. The bigger networks also have sister channels such as Univision’s Galavision and UniMas, and NBC’s Mun2. National Geographic, ESPN, Discovery and Fox Sports all have Spanish-language cousins. More offerings from new and established networks are on the way. Comcast is funding a new network dubbed El Rey that will feature programming by director Robert Rodriguez.

“Las Vegas has been seen as a test market,” said Miguel Barrientos, an expert on Hispanic marketing and host of a radio program on KRLV 1340 AM. “It’s a smaller market. but it can be a good place to see how things are received, and there is room here for a lot of folks to get into the market.”

Univision pulls in big audiences for its news, variety shows and telenovelas, but competitors see an opening as the Hispanic population grows and evolves.

“The ‘New Latino’ audiences we are targeting are clearly more demanding than previous generations,” Emiliano Saccone, president of MundoFox, said in May 2012, when the network’s initial programming was announced.

“The mere fact that a program is in Spanish is not enough of a differentiator. Today’s Latino wants content that is more enriching, challenging and ‘Americano como tú’ (American like you),” he said, invoking the network’s tagline.

Besides the teleseries, which have English subtitles, MundoFox has a version of the game show “Minute to Win It” and also carries UFC fights and programming.

But Univision is not simply sticking with the hand it’s currently holding while Telemundo, MundoFox and others try to siphon off viewers.

Univision, which was founded in 1962 and for two decades was the only national Spanish-language network, has entered into distribution deals with Hulu and Microsoft Xbox. In October, Univision and ABC announced they were partnering on a new cable channel aimed at Hispanics. The English-language channel, called Fusion, is scheduled to launch late in 2013. Sandra Tomas Esquivel, Univision’s senior director for affiliate and local news, said Fusion would target the “bilingual population that leans more toward English than Spanish.”

“We are expanding our social media platforms at Univision media, and with Fusion we expect to grab the segment of our audience that leans toward English-language television,” Esquivel said. “They have strong ties to our culture and our heritage, and it’s going to be something attractive for them – especially for younger viewers that grew up in the United States.”

In one example of Spanish-language networks looking at their audience in new ways, Univision and NASCAR are co-producing a telenovela about a Hispanic female race car driver torn by her love for two other racers. The series airs online before making it onto the network.

More options for viewers and advertisers

Ray Garza, owner and head of Las Vegas’ Diversity Agency, said that 20 years ago it was hard convincing many businesses that advertising to Hispanics was worth the expense. Today, business owners are coming to him asking about how they can tap the market.

“I was in Los Angeles 20 years ago, and nobody was buying Spanish media spots,” Garza said. “Now it’s more competitive than mainstream media. Spanish media costs more than mainstream in L.A. now. That will happen (in Las Vegas), as well.”

The increased competition means more content and options for viewers, and more points of entry for advertisers.

“The Hispanic market is ripe, low-hanging fruit,” Garza said. “The harvest is there. Businesses just have to be smart enough to allocate the commitment of money, staff and time to see results.

During the 2012 election season, Univision again flexed its muscle, scoring interviews with President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. Spanish-language network news played a more prominent role than ever, which meant more campaign ad dollars. Garza and Barrientos said MundoFox would be wise to expand its news offerings.

“A local news show would be such as big plus for MundoFox,” Garza said. “If MundoFox jumps in to be a local news company and parallel what Fox did with its earlier time slots, I think they will get a lot of attention.”

Telemundo and Univision are the only Spanish-language stations in Las Vegas with a local news broadcast. However, MundoFox launched with a national news show and the affiliate in Las Vegas, KMCC, said it planned to have a local news team in place by June.

It’s a top priority for station manager Patrice Donely, who agreed local news would help increase KMCC’s presence and visibility in the community.

MundoFox and other smaller networks can be more accessible to smaller businesses and those that have not tackled the Hispanic market previously. Univision and Telemundo’s ad rates can be two or three times higher than Azteca America or MundoFox’s.

“At this point it’s all about cost,” Barrientos said. “The local businesses that can’t be on Univision because of the price scale can do MundoFox.”

KMCC had one ad sales agent before switching its affiliation to MundoFox last year but is now looking to hire three or four more, Donely said.

“There are definitely people out there now that don’t speak Spanish, but they want to tap the Hispanic market and we can be that bridge,” Donely said. “We help them walk over the bridge in a culturally appropriate way. Some sponsors just want to dub over their English-language ads, and that’s not always culturally appropriate.”

Before MundoFox, KMCC ran programming from the small network VasalloVision, which folded in 2012. Donely said it had been “looking for a MundoFox” to come along.

“It was just a great opportunity,” Donely said. “Fox, as a company, just doesn’t lose. When they first started, people said they couldn’t compete, but they grew and went out and got football and look at them now. We think they can do the same thing in the Hispanic market.”

While Univision fights to keep its place at the top, and MundoFox claws for market share as the newcomer with deep pockets, Telemundo, which is rolling out new, original content produced in the United States, may be the darkhorse for future success.

“I think NBC and Telemundo are poised for the future,” Barrientos said. “They are going into the younger Latino market and they are tapping into English dominant and bilingual Latinos. I think Mun2 programming, the reality shows, the bilingual and ‘Spanglish’ programs attract the younger market. That’s something we don’t see with Univision. They are sticking more to the Spanish-language programming and trying to control the market with that.”

Source: LasVegasSun.com

Credit unions from the West Coast to the South and the Midwest are waking up to the fact that reaching out to potential Hispanic members is an important part insuring a growth for the industry.

According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, there are roughly 52.0 million Hispanics living in the United States, representing approximately 16.7% of the total population, making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or race minority. The U.S. Hispanic population is estimated to reach 132.8 million by 2050.

“Reaching and serving the Latino community is not only philosophically a good thing for our credit union, it is also an investment for membership growth for our credit union,” said Chad Cunningham a loan officer for the $385 million in assets Consumers Credit union in Kalamazoo, Mich.  “We want to live out our mission statement of providing quality products and services that contribute to the economic and social well-being of our entire field of membership. It is essential that our strategies take into account the fact that the Latino population is currently the fastest growing demographic in Michigan. Over the past 10 years, while the total state population has decreased, the Latino population has grown 35%.”

Consumers CU created a strategic Hispanic outreach plan as well as a local Hispanic businesses group, similar to a Hispanic chamber a commerce with the help of Des Moines, Iowa-based firm Coopera Consulting.

“To truly compete in a rapidly changing financial marketplace, credit unions must be strategic about their positioning within the communities they serve,” said Miriam De Dios, CEO of Coopera. “Not all credit unions have embraced the prospect of increasing efforts to attract, serve, and retain Hispanic and new American populations and I think this is still an untapped market.”

With the Hispanic population on the rise and nearly half of the Hispanic community lacking mainstream financial services, credit unions are in the perfect position to distinguish themselves from the competition, De Dios said.

“The Hispanic community can be very hesitant to join credit unions because of the history many have with the financial institutions in their home countries,” she said. “There are also policies that have been created that prevent Hispanic consumers from obtaining financial services. Without traditional forms of identification, Hispanics are reluctant to try and become members.”

With that in mind, credit unions such as Security Service Federal Credit Union headquartered in San Antonio and  Santa Cruz Community Union in Santa Cruz, Calif., accept the matricula card– a form of identification issued to Mexican nationals by consulates–as a valid form of identification to open a checking account.

Late last year, the  $103 million in assets Santa Cruz Credit Union hosted a Mexican consulate’s matricula ID event, and more than six hundred people attended  to obtain identification cards. In the weeks following the event, account openings in the credit union’s Watsonville branch increased nearly 5% as a result of the credit union’s participation. California’s Hispanic population is 14 million, the highest of any state and in Texas, Hispanics are the fastest-growing population group, making up 38% of the population according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Some credit unions struggle with persistent, yet false, assumptions that most of the Hispanic population is undocumented. A recent poll by the National Hispanic Media Coalition  found that more than 30% of Americans believe that more than half of Hispanics are in the country illegally. The reality is that 37% of U.S. Hispanics are immigrants, and only 18% of Hispanics are undocumented.

“We accept the matricula, and I know other financial institutions in the area do not, and I think that’s ridiculous,” said John Worthington, senior vice president for the $6.7 billion Security Service Credit Union. “This is an underserved population and we go above and beyond to serve our Hispanic members because we are all part of the same community.”

Once credit union are able to get Hispanic members inside their doors, there is still a lot of work to be done, De Dios said.  “What we have seen is that Hispanic consumers prefer high levels of member service, valuing personal relationships over things like speed and efficiency,” she said. “We believe credit unions are well-suited to providing the Hispanic community with the financial services it needs.”

American Hispanics show a great deal of loyalty towards brands and companies that cater to their needs. When Hispanics find a product or service that they have confidence in, they tend to stick with it. Research by the Pew Hispanic Center has found that 61 % of Hispanics find it difficult to change brands once they find one they like. Further, 59% claim to have no time to investigate the quality of different brands. Given this reputation for brand loyalty, the Hispanic market should prove to be the credit union community’s dream said Worthington.

“It’s  in a lender’s best interest to develop a strong relationship with the burgeoning Hispanic market,” he said. “We didn’t just discover this though, we’ve been serving this market for more than 50 years.”

Hispanics also have a purchasing power that’s expected to reach $1 trillion next year, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, Athens, Ga. And yet 40% to 55% of U.S. Hispanics don’t have a relationship with a traditional financial institution.

That’s a rich vein for credit unions to tap. With Hispanics’ wealth and population rising three times faster than the U.S. average, the FDIC predicts that they will account for more than 50% of U.S. retail banking growth over the next decade. That amounts to more than $200 billion in new business, since U.S. retail banking revenues are projected to increase 44%, to $963 billion over the decade, according to Economy.com.

A report commissioned by the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues and Applied Research Institute  conducted estimates for California and Nevada, estimating that if 10% of each state’s Hispanic adults were members of a credit union, the numbers would be compelling. In California, they would contribute an estimated $2.1 billion in loan balances and $592 million to annual income. Nevada’s Hispanic adults would contribute an estimated $82 million in loan balances and $28 million to annual income.

“Working closely with local organizations with deep connections to our Hispanic community is key,” said Elizabeth Carr, CEO of Santa Cruz Community Credit Union. “These partnerships provide a conduit for our credit union to do financial education, teach the value of saving, borrowing and credit building, as well as help underserved Hispanic members open accounts in a safe environment.”

The Economic Impact

To see an example of the economic impact Latinos can have, one need look no further than their local grocery store aisle, where tortillas, taco kits and salsa outperform hamburgers, hot dog buns and ketchup sales, according to Reportlinker.com’s new market research report, Hispanic Foods and Beverages in the U.S.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. According to a recent blog in AdAge by Tony D’Andrea: “In the wake of Barack Obama‘s re-election by a wide multicultural coalition, evidence is growing that Latino influence on mainstream society is growing far beyond the consumption of tacos and salsa music. This has important consequences for marketing by multicultural and general-market professionals alike.”

Its All About The Numbers

According to the Center for Hispanic Leadership, there is a debate among advertisers about how to best reach the younger-skewing Hispanic consumer. Advertisers argue that they can effectively reach the Hispanic demographic by advertising more during programming that is popular with youthful viewers, such as American Idol, National Football League (NFL) games, and The Simpsons. The counter argument is that reaching them is not the same as earning their loyalty and trust; Hispanic consumers don’t want to be “sold to” – but rather, courted by brands that authentically empower their cultural relevancy and communicate in ways that naturally resonate with Hispanic cultural values.

Corporate America Needs to Connect

This strained relationship between brands and Hispanic consumers is negatively impacting corporate decision-making and the development of new markets, products, services, and revenue streams. At a time when the U.S. economy and the stock market are looking for a leg-up, corporate executives are leaving economic development opportunities on the table because they fail to invest, engage and learn more about how to connect culturally with this vibrant Hispanic consumer segment.

In 2013, corporations must invest more wisely and strategically in theHispanic consumer – who are not only early adopters of social media and mobile device use, but are now translating their super-user status into super-consumers via social and tablet shopping. In doing so, Hispanic consumers have become super-trendsetters.

According to PR Newswire, the marketing agency Lapiz, a division of Leo Burnett, recently released a new consumer research study called LatinoShop. Per the study’s findings, Latinos view shopping not so much as a chore; instead it’s “a multisource, multisensorial and multigenerational experience that provides retailers and marketers with a wide range of opportunities to engage.” They go on to say: “The study is part of a landmark global research initiative, PeopleShop, focused on illuminating cultural, geographical and economical influences that impact how and why people shop around the world.”

Here are just a few of the LatinoShop study’s findings:

Hispanics Love Technology

Mobile and Tablet Shopping

• 56% Hispanics vs. 33% Non-Hispanics – shop mobile with a phone
• 43% Hispanics vs. 25% Non-Hispanics – shop with a tablet

Hispanics Shop with Their Senses

• 55% Hispanics vs. 38% Non-Hispanics – like to touch and feel a product
• 36% Hispanics vs. 13% Non-Hispanics – think it’s fun to immerse themselves in the store atmosphere
• 49% Hispanics vs. 19% Non-Hispanics – judge product quality by product packaging

Social Shopping (online and offline)

• 37% Hispanics vs. 17% Non-Hispanics – reach out to friends and family
• 36% Hispanics vs. 18% Non-Hispanics – share opinions and write reviews
• 48% Hispanics vs. 31% Non-Hispanics – use social networking sites

Trendsetting (Hispanics are more than twice as likely vs. non-Hispanics to):

• 41% Hispanics vs. 18% Non-Hispanics – follow the trends
• 31% Hispanics vs. 14% Non-Hispanics – like to try new products first
• 30% Hispanics vs. 13% Non-Hispanics – like to be first to share with friends

Radio, Billboards and Infomercials (Still Rank High Amongst Hispanic Consumers)

• Radio: 72% Hispanics vs. 46% Non-Hispanics
• Billboards: 59% Hispanics vs. 35% Non-Hispanics
• Infomercials: 52% Hispanics vs. 23% Non-Hispanics

The Hispanic community is rapidly becoming the most influential voice in pop culture, business, and politics; their trendsetting impact will make or break the success of those seeking to gain brand popularity, market share and / or win the next election.

Source: Forbes and Glenn Llopis- www.glennllopis.com

Below Pili Tobar of www.americasvoiceonline.org writes a very good data synopsis of the recent election and how Latinos played a pivotal role.  As we know the economic and political voice of this community has and continues to increase dramatically.  Pay attention to these trends if you want to see the economic benefits of engaging this community.

NEW POLL: LATINO VOTERS MAKE BIG IMPRESSION IN 2012 ELECTION RESULTS

by Pili Tobar on 11/07/2012

The 2012 elections demonstrate that Latino and new citizen voters are changing politics.  In 2012, Latino voters turned out like never before, comprising an  estimated 10% of the overall electorate.  This heavy Latino turnout, combined with the historic 75%-23% margin in favor of President Obama over Mitt Romney, was one of the keys to President Obama’s re-election and kept the Senate in Democratic hands yet again.  Latino voters’ impact was felt not only in traditionally Latino-heavy states (such as Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas) but also in other battleground states with relatively newer and smaller Latino populations (such as Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia).

On a webinar today, pollsters, national Latino leaders and immigration experts discussed the 2012 election results and lifted up new election-eve polling from ImpreMedia and Latino Decisions, which showed just how influential Latino voters and the immigration issue were in determining the final results.  In addition to nationwide poll numbers, data on Latino voters’ preferences and voting decisions are also available from Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia.  See the topline data here, crosstabs here, and graphs and charts here.

Said Gary Segura, Professor of American Politics and Chair of Chicano/a Studies at Stanford University and Principal at Latino Decisions, “The most historic thing in this election is that for the first time in history, the share of the national popular vote margin is smaller than the Latino vote margin.  That means that if Latinos had evenly divided their vote between both Candidates, the outcomes would be reversed.”

Among the poll’s findings:

Latinos Influence the Outcomes of National and State Races

• In the presidential race, 75% of Latinos voted for President Obama, while 23% voted for Mitt Romney.
• In U.S. Senate races, 72% of Latinos voted for the Democratic candidate, while 27% voted for the Republican.
• In U.S. House races, 77% of Latinos voted for the Democratic candidate in their district, while 23% voted for the Republican.

Latino Voters Have a Lot at Stake in 2012

• 53% of Latinos said that fixing the economy and creating more jobs was the most important issue facing the Latino community that Congress and the President should address.  This was followed by 35% who said the same about immigration reform and the DREAM Act, 20% who said education reform, and 14% who said health care.  In two states (Arizona and North Carolina), immigration was either tied or above the economy.
• When asked about the best approach to reduce the 1.4 trillion dollar deficit, 12% said only spending cuts, 35% said raising taxes on the wealthy and 42% said a combination of both.
• On the Affordable Care Act, 61% said it should be left to stand as law and 25% said it should be repealed.  When further pressed on health care, and asked “do you think the federal government should play a role to ensure that all people have access to insurance, or do you think it is better for people to be responsible for getting their own health insurance,” 66% said that the “government should ensure,” 25% said “people should get their own,” 2% said “none of these,” and 3% said “something else.”

Candidates’ Positions on Latino Issues Weigh Heavily on the Minds of Latino Voters

• 66% of Latinos said that Obama “truly cares” about the Latino community, 23% said he “didn’t care too much,” and 3% said he “was being hostile.”  Meanwhile,  14% of respondents said that Romney “truly cares” about the Latino community, 56% said he “didn’t care too much,” and 18% said he “was being hostile.”
• After hearing about President Obama’s deferred action policy, 58% of respondents said that they were “more enthusiastic” about voting for Obama and 6% said that they were “less enthusiastic.”  Meanwhile, after hearing about Mitt Romney’s campaign platform of “self-deportation” and learning that he would not revoke deferred action for DREAMers whose applications are approved under Obama but would stop approving new applications once he is elected, 7% of respondents said that they were “more enthusiastic” about Romney and 57% of respondents said that they were “less enthusiastic.”
• If the Republican Party “took a leadership role in supporting comprehensive immigration reform, with an eventual pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and Republicans worked to ensure it would pass,” 31% of respondents said they would be more likely to vote Republican, 11% said they would be less likely and 48% said it would have no effect on their vote.  Importantly, this includes nearly 20% of Latinos who voted for Obama this year.

The Two Parties are Starting to Realize that Latino Voters Matter, and the Issues Matter to Latinos

• 31% said that they had been contacted by someone from a campaign, political party or community organization asking from them to vote or register to vote.  Of those, 59% said they were contacted by Democrats, 39% said Republicans, and 33% said community organizations from both parties.
• 36% of respondents said that they voted in 2012 because they wanted to support and represent the Latino community, 39% they voted to support the Democratic candidate and 15% said they voted to support Republican.
• 57% of Latinos said that they think of themselves as Democrats, 14% as Republicans, 20% as Independents, 4% said “other party,” and 5% said “don’t know.”

For the full poll national and battleground state poll results, click here.

Eliseo Medina, Secretary-Treasurer at the Service Employees International Union, has been leading efforts in Latino voter mobilization battleground states around the country.  On today’s call, he remarked: “The Latino giant is wide awake and cranky, and Mitt Romney and the GOP paid the price. Yesterday, Latinos helped elect a president. We are now a part of history and of the political future of this country. The election sends a signal that if Republicans want to be a viable political party in the future, they need to get right with Latinos. They have to support comprehensive immigration reform. If immigration reform is not done in 2013, politicians who stand in the way will suffer the consequences in the 2014 election.”

“NALEO Educational Fund projected that 12.2 million Latinos would cast ballots in this election, a historic record,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of NALEO Educational Fund. “Latino voters played a key role in shaping the nation’s political landscape last night, demonstrating for the fourth presidential election in a row that the race for the White House was heavily decided by the Latino electorate.”

According to Clarissa Martinez, Director, Civic Engagement and Immigration at the National Council of La Raza, “Latino voters confirmed unequivocally that the road to the White House goes through Hispanic neighborhoods.  Our community cares deeply about restoring the American Dream for all, expanding economic opportunity, and resolving immigration once and for all.  The real work on common sense solutions begins now, and Latinos will be a powerful ally in moving the nation forward together.”

“From negative campaigning to voter-suppression laws, this election cycle has been characterized by extreme pessimism and anti-democratic actions, yet Latino voters have responded with great optimism about the future of our country,” said Ben Monterroso, National Executive Director for Mi Familia Vota Education Fund. “This is a sign that if invited and if informed, Latinos will participate in our democratic process, making them a core-voting bloc of the American electorate. The 2012 election is a story of the Latino arrival; an optimistic group of voters who are playing a key role in rebuilding this country and trusting government to play a role.”

Frank Sharry, Executive Director, America’s Voice Education Fund, said, “The GOP’s lurch to the right on immigration destroyed their chances of re-taking the White House and the Senate. Obama leaned into the issue by protecting DREAMers, a move that mobilized Latino voters and did not hurt him with swing voters. As a result, the 2012 election is a game-changer. It produced a mandate for immigration reform.”

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• Toplines: impreMedia/Latino Decisions election eve state by state polling
• Crosstabs: impreMedia/Latino Decisions election eve polling
• View Latino Decisions’ presentation of the data
• View graphical representations of the data
• Read Latino Decisions’ description of their poll methodology

logy

This is especially significant for the long run. According to the 2010 Census, one in six U.S. residents is Hispanic and half of Hispanic internet users are under 35 years old. Hispanics are fueling the nation’s population growth, and by 2020 the total Hispanic population is projected to reach 66.3 million people, accounting for 53% of the total population growth. This young and growing demographic group’s  research and purchasing patterns will have a huge influence over the future of digital marketing.

Terra’s 2012 Hispanic Digital Consumer Study by comScore shows specific ways that digital marketers can more fully reach the Hispanic audience. We took category-deep dives across the entire purchase cycle by source and device used: from research, to purchase and intent to purchase within Automotive, CPG, Entertainment, Financial Services/Insurance, QSR, Retail, Technology and Telecom.

Here are six trends culled from the study; they point the way to marketing’s future.

1. The shopping experience is very social, enabled by Hispanics owning the latest gadgets. Two in five Hispanics describe themselves as trendsetters, and rely heavily on the opinions of their trusted circle; 25% texted or called friends or family about a product, and 23% sent a picture of a product to friends or family while in a retail store.

2. Hispanics use their mobile devices to connect online to a much greater degree than non-Hispanics: 48% access the internet from their smartphone, against 38% of non-Hispanics; 20% access the internet from their iPads against 14% among non-Hispanics. On-the-go, 55% access the internet outside of home/work/school, against 46% of non-Hispanics.

3. Forty-two percent of Hispanics agree that, “The online ads that are most likely to get my attention are ones that are more sophisticated in their implementation of newly available technology and are creatively sharp.” That figure is up from 35% from the Terra 2010 Ad Value Study by comScore.

4. Online content/ads emerged as a leading source of online research to a greater degree for Hispanics than non-Hispanics: 29% of Hispanics used online content/ads for researching entertainment DVDs, music and games, against 15% of non-Hispanics; and 30% of Hispanics used online content/ads for researching computers/tablets, against 24% of non-Hispanics.

5. Hispanics are more likely than non-Hispanics to purchase across a wide variety of categories from their mobile phones and tablets: 24% of telecommunication purchasers did so from their mobile phone, against 10% among non-Hispanics; and 18% of financial-services purchasers did so from their tablet or other connected device, against 7% among non-Hispanics.

6. Hispanics on average are spending 8.3 hours per week watching TV, against 8.7 hours per week online. They are more receptive to digital advertising than non-Hispanics, particularly with regard to traditional television. When given the statement, “Online video ads are more interactive, meaning that more information is easily obtained by scrolling over, clicking through, or simply viewing  than traditional television ads,” 41% of Hispanics agreed, against 37% of non-Hispanics. These figures have increased among Hispanics from our 2010 study.

In all of these situations, as the Hispanic population grows advertisers need to recognize the behavioral shifts and adjust their media ad spend accordingly.

Terra’s study surveyed a nationally representative sample of 3,048 Hispanic and non-Hispanic consumers from February 29-March 14, 2012. Participants gave comScore explicit permission to passively observe their online browsing and transaction behaviors from January- March 2012.

In 2011, the purchasing power of the U.S. Hispanic market was recorded at 1.09 TRILLON dollars. That number is projected to grow to 48.1% to 1.6 trillion dollars by 2016. During the same period of time, the U.S. spending power is projected to grow by only 27.5%.

Online, U.S. Hispanics are also the fastest growing segment, demonstrating the highest growth rates in 2011 (7.2% growth) and projected to be the highest growing segment for the next five years. U.S. Hispanics are leading the way for population growth, Internet growth, online video growth, smartphone and tablet penetration and buying power!

Did you know…

• 1 in 3 Hispanics are likely to take action after viewing an online banner ad. Hispanics are approximately 2X as receptive to online ads as non-Hispanic audiences.
• Spanish-speaking Hispanics embrace online video and are fueling the growth of online video.
• Hispanic mobile users are nearly 17 percentage points more likely to use mobile web than whites.
• 19% of all Hispanics will use a tablet in 2012 vs. 16% of white Americans.
• Among those exposed to online advertising on Hispanic/Latino sites, there is a 2.0% increase in intent to purchase the brand, as opposed to the 1.2% increase seen at the overall normative level.
• Furthermore, respondents exposed to ads on Hispanic/Latino sites also display stronger impact on Brand Favorability.
• Spanish Dominate Hispanics extend their average 24 hour day into a 31 hour day, largely through multi-tasking with digital media.
• In 2011, the biggest lift in online video site usage was among Bilinguals and Spanish Dominate, 66% of whom used video sites.
• Hispanics spent more per online transaction than non-Hispanics: $103.19 vs. $90.82, respectively.
• Hispanics over-index in smartphone adaptation, 45% vs. 31% of the entire population and 27% of white Americans.
• Hispanics are early adopters of the iPhone and Android platforms, with more than 30% iPhone users are Hispanic and another 30% owners.
• Hispanics use their mobile phone to access the Internet more than any other group. 32% vs. 25.5% non-Hispanic.
• In 2012, 18.9% of Hispanics will own a tablet, vs. 17.3% ownership of the total population.

Source: http://batangamedia.com

Hernan Lopez

Hernan Lopez doesn’t look like a guy who produces telenovelas, the soap operas that dominate the airwaves throughout Latin America. He looks like a guy who stars in them. With his wavy black hair, firm jawline and velvety Argentinean accent, it’s easy to picture him galloping home on a white horse to rescue his childhood sweetheart from losing the family hacienda to a corrupt patrón.

But Lopez has a different quest ahead of him. As CEO of Fox International Channels he’s the point person and prime mover behind News Corp.’s effort to capture an outsize slice of a $1 trillion pie: the surging U.S. Hispanic market. Standing in front of 900 ­potential advertisers at the Ziegfeld Theatre in ­Manhattan, as part of the annual upfronts, when TV networks spare no expense to showcase their upcoming offerings, he provides an early glimpse of ­MundoFox, a national ­Spanish-language broadcast television channel News Corp. is launching later this month.

“The late Steve Jobs used to say if you asked a focus group to come up with an iPod, they would have told you they were perfectly happy with their Walkman,” he says. Viewers of the established Spanish-language networks, he says, are like those hypothetical focus groupies: “They think they’re happy with their current choices,” but they’ll soon know better.

Within the first year of its existence, Lopez gushes, MundoFox expects to be distributed on 60 terrestrial stations covering more than 75% of the country’s 10 million-plus Hispanic households. It’ll spend $50 million in the process.

It’s a shrewd bet for a company whose fortunes are built on disrupting the status quo, most famously in 1986, when chief Rupert Murdoch gambled billions that there was room for a fourth major American broadcast network. Obvious as that proposition seems now, plenty of critics predicted disaster for Fox, which has finished the last eight seasons ranked No. 1 among its target audience of adults 18 to 49.

“We think the established Spanish-language networks today are trapped in the same formula that ABC, CBS and NBC were 25 years ago,” says Lopez, over coffee two days before his upfront presentation. “And we’re going to use the exact same strategy to win a ­significant space.”

News Corp. will have some competition, though. Across the landscape of news and entertainment, there’s scarcely a company that’s not scrambling to launch new offerings targeted at American Hispanics while searching for ways to draw more of them to its existing ones. Riding a wave of ratings success, Univision, the longtime leader in Spanish-language broadcasting, has launched three new networks already this year. In 2013 it will test its audience’s ­appetite for English-language programming, introducing a 24-hour cable news network in partnership with Disney-owned ABC.

Comcast, the parent of NBC Universal, is backing a new network called El Rey, to be programmed by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. Meanwhile, its Telemundo network is committing to a big increase in original programming, a bid to differentiate its lineup from the largely imported fare at the other networks, and pooling its resources with NBC News for election coverage. And it’s much the same wherever else you look, from Viacom and Time Warner to Yahoo, AOL and YouTube.

“I think about my time in media,” says Univision CEO Randy Falco, an industry veteran of 37 years. “There’ve been times when things have changed very quickly, but this is probably the fastest I’ve seen.”

It’s no mystery what’s driving all this activity. The growth of the Hispanic population is far and away the most significant demographic trend reshaping America, as the most recent census, conducted in 2010, made clear. There are now 52 million Americans of Latin-American ­de­scent. By 2050 that number is projected to reach 133 million, meaning that nearly one in three Americans will be Hispanic. A full 50% of U.S. population growth over the past decade has come from this group, whose annual spending power is already $1 trillion and will climb to $1.5 trillion by 2015, according to Nielsen Media Research. If Hispanic Americans were a nation, it would have the world’s ninth-largest economy.

“The Hispanic ­market is no longer being viewed as a niche, minority market for a lot of companies,” says Alex Ruelas, cofounder of the Austin-based ­marketing agency LatinWorks. “It’s becoming a fairly major part of the mainstream, and it’s helping to reshape the overall ­universe of consumers in a way that’s a bit surprising to people.”

If you’re a big marketer like ­ Pepsi Co or Procter & Gamble, you look at the Hispanic market and see an ­audience that’s not just growing fast but also punching above its weight at the checkout. Despite trailing behind the general market in average ­household income — a gap that’s closing — Hispanics over index in product categories from carbonated beverages to apparel to consumer electronics, not to mention diapers, cribs and all other things baby-related. “We really like to shop,” says Telemundo President Emilio Romano.

Such advertising-friendly stats are burnished by a demographic exclamation point: The median age of U.S. ­Hispanics is 27 — smack in the middle of the media world’s most coveted 18-to-34 age range — compared with 42 for non-Hispanic whites. Marketers pay a premium for young adults for a host of reasons: Their brand preferences are less established; they’re disproportionately likely to be so-called influencers, whose early endorsement can launch a trend; and they’re hard to reach through traditional channels. Own them, as Murdoch and the rest clearly see, and you own the future.

These “New Americans” aren’t just less-wrinkly versions of their parents. While less than a quarter of the total Hispanic population now describes itself as using English as its dominant language, among those born in the U.S. — a designation that belongs to nine out of ten under the age of 18 — that number rises to 40%, with most of the rest describing themselves as bilingual, according to a recent study by Pew.

An increasingly common language means an increasingly common culture; these young Hispanics identify far more with their non-Hispanic peers than their predecessors. “The world is not the way it was for the ­previous generation,” says Ruelas of LatinWorks. “There’s less distinction between young consumers, regardless of their background, than there would have been in the past.”

All these TV upstarts share a common target: Univision. Founded in 1962 — it encompasses the eponymous flagship, as well as a second broadcast network, Telefutura, and the Galavision cable network — Univision was acquired in 2007 for $13.7 billion by a consortium led by Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban. For more than 20 years it was the only national Spanish-language broadcaster, and the head start shows: Among bilingual Hispanics 48 of the 50 most popular shows are on Univision, and the network reaches a staggering 97% of Spanish-speaking households.

Thanks to those demographics, even with its dominance, Univision’s median age remains 36, making it increasingly competitive with the major English-language broadcast ­networks among viewers 18 to 49, and it routinely beats them in this bracket in Los Angeles, Miami and other big Hispanic markets. “I don’t think you can talk about the ‘Big Four’ networks anymore when we beat NBC 195 nights out of the year last year in prime time,” says CEO Falco, who spent three decades at General Electric’s ­network.

In this contest Univision has a built-in advantage: the telenovela. Like soap operas, novelas air serially with a new episode each day rather than each week. Reruns are all but nonexistent. It all makes for an incredibly sticky viewing experience. As ad-skipping technologies cause marketers to question the value of the 30-second spot, ­Univision can tell them that 94% of its audience watches shows live. (For the Big Four it’s less than 80%.) “We’re DVR-proof,” boasts Falco.

Haim Saban

But they are suspectible to competition. Univision’s share of the Spanish-language market has dropped to 73% from 79% ten years ago. Of course, 73% of an exploding market is nothing to pity, but between the debt from Saban’s takeover and a $600 million settlement with Grupo Televisa, the Mexican studio that provides much of its programming, it’s still losing money—$14.1 million in the most recent quarter.

Falco is adamant that the changing face of the Hispanic market doesn’t mean a flattening of Univision’s trajectory. “The biggest segment of our audience is 18 to 34, and, believe it or not, they still speak Spanish, and they still watch novelas and soccer games and news,” he says.

But he’s also hedging his bets. Besides its three primary outlets, ­Univision has recently added new niche cable channels devoted to sports and novelas, as well as distribution deals with Microsoft’s Xbox and Hulu. “What I’m concerned about is making sure that every single time somebody who grew up with us goes off to a different platform or a different device,” says Falco, “we’re going to be there with a Univision-branded product of some kind.”

Ben Sherwood

When the new president of ABC News, Ben Sherwood, ­approached him last year about partnering on an English-language 24-hour news channel, he jumped at the opportunity. The joint venture doesn’t yet have a name or a firm launch date, but with the backing of Disney and Univision, it’s guaranteed instant scale.

Murdoch’s Fox Network established itself a quarter-century ago by steering national TV habits toward the gross and lowbrow (think Married With Children and Cops). Which makes it ironic — albeit in keeping with News Corp.’s contrarian ethos — that Hernan Lopez wants to carve out a niche for MundoFox through higher-quality writing and production. “If you take the average schedule of any channel for Latinos and you throw a dart at it, you’re going to find a telenovela, and that tele­no­vela hasn’t changed much in the last 20 years,” he says.

Lopez spent his first few years at Fox stationed in Miami, far from the company’s traditional power bases of New York, L.A., London and Melbourne. “I don’t know if it’s because we weren’t part of the U.S. team, but we always took it to heart what Fox stood for—the aggressiveness, the innovation, the edge,” says Emiliano ­Saccone, his longtime colleague and MundoFox’s president.

“Hernan is like a dog with a bone,” adds David Haslingden, who oversees Lopez as head of the Fox Networks Group. (If and when News Corp. divides into two companies, as it recently announced plans to do, Fox Networks will be part of the same spinoff company as the Fox film studio and cable channels; the other company will ­contain News Corp.’s publishing operations.)

The two have been colleagues since Lopez, who moved to the U.S. from Argentina 15 years ago, was named general manager of Fox’s Latin-American channel in 2000. Though usually in different cities, they talk every day, often multiple times. “I can vividly remember, in probably my second or third conversation with Hernan, him ­giving me this long spiel about how he felt the U.S. Hispanic market was under served, was an ­untapped potential market for us,” Haslingden recalls.

Saccone recalls drawing up a detailed business plan for the network with Lopez and pitching it to Fox brass. That was eight years ago. “It was regarded as just not a large enough ­opportunity to demand the type of attention and effort that is required to do it well,” says Haslingden.

Where others might have grown discouraged, Lopez bided his time, ­refining the concept and letting the demographic boom sell the concept for him, gradually enlisting support from key higher-ups like News Corp. COO Chase Carey, who calls the Hispanic market a “massive opportunity,” and Murdoch himself. So thoroughly has the 81-year-old chairman hopped on board that he’s raising his two youngest children to speak Spanish.

The most successful network show created around a Latin principal was George Lopez’s eponymous sitcom, which ran on ABC for five years and is now in reruns on Nickelodeon. Other than that, few outside of Univision have shown much success. The 2010 NBC series Outlaw, which starred Jimmy Smits as a former Supreme Court judge, lasted only eight episodes. The CBS sitcom Rob, which starred comedian Rob Schneider as a man who marries into a huge Mexican-American family, flamed out after just four episodes earlier this year. A highly anticipated new show from Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry, Devious Maids, didn’t even make it to the air. Co-produced by Eva Longoria, it was to have starred four Latina actresses, but ABC elected not to pick it up for the upcoming fall ­season.

Fox has had flops, too. FORBES may rank Jennifer Lopez as the most powerful celebrity in America, but the queen bee of American Idol couldn’t translate that to her reality talent show, Q’Viva. The show aired in ­Spanish on Univision and then in ­English on Fox, where it attracted only 1.8 million viewers per episode.

“There’s a misconception that this is an easy-to-reach segment because they have fewer and more contained options to them,” says Monica Gadsby, CEO of SMG Multicultural, part of the Starcom MediaVest Group advertising and marketing agency. “You almost need to think of it as the opposite. The reality is that Hispanic Americans have more options than any other consumer. They have options that make any consumer’s head spin, and what happens at that point is good TV just becomes good TV.”

Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez thinks they need still more. The Texas-born director, who broke out 20 years ago with a low-budget Spanish action film (El Mariachi) and has since segued to big-budget English-language family fare (Spy Kids), says that American Hispanics need media created specifically for them, not imported fare or general market entertainment with token Latin characters.

“I have five children, and even though they’re bilingual, there’s nothing on TV that represents who they are and what they can be inspired by,” he says.

El Rey, which Comcast expects to launch in 2013, is meant to remedy that. The channel hopes to follow in the tracks of successes like AMC and FX, starting out with one or two signature original shows and gradually ramping up from there. Another model Rodriguez has in mind is MTV in the 1980s. “You didn’t just go there for the programming — you went for the philosophy,” he says.

For Comcast-owned Telemundo, the answer is to stick to Spanish while customizing programming to the tastes and expectations of American ­Hispanics. The only way to do that is to produce it here, says Telemundo’s Romano, rather than relying on a foreign studio, as Univision does with Mexico-based Televisa.

This fall’s lineup will represent a 40% year-over-year increase in original programming, he says. “Most of the new entrants to this business are trying to capture Hispanics in English,” Romano adds. “We think that’s a business case that’s not been proven in the sense that once that barrier of language gets crossed, they’re an elusive target. They can be entertained by anybody.”

Lopez, too, thinks there’s a bigger potential audience for Spanish-language programming — as long as it’s the right programming. He intends to carve out a niche for MundoFox with fare like Kdabra, a supernatural series about teenagers with mysterious powers, and El Capo, a gritty thriller about a Colombian drug lord.

Both are not traditional telenovelas but a hybrid format Lopez calls a teleseries, a new genre calculated to appeal to both men and women by mixing action and romance. Unlike no­velas, teleseries air new installments weekly, not daily, and they also feature higher budgets, more scenes shot on location and more naturalistic dialogue. El Capo comes from RCN, MundoFox’s primary production partner. Lopez said MundoFox signed the Colombian studio because of its reputation for making “an American style of series that looks, feels and is perceived by viewers as ­having the quality of an American series, but in Spanish.”

In his upfront presentation, Lopez screens plenty of clips from his network’s lineup to make his point. But the most effective might be the one he shows from Triunfo del Amor, a series that aired last year on Univision, used as an example of the type of programming MundoFox won’t be doing. The segment’s hammy acting and cheesy music get the desired reaction: knowing laughter. Lopez chuckles along.

Then he goes in for the kill. “Breakthrough TV beats formula TV,” he says. “Fox has a history of making breakthrough television. We’ve done it in English, and we’re going to do it in Spanish.”

Source: Forbes.com

Amazon says that eBooks Kindle en Español offers “the most Spanish-language bestsellers, as measured by Nielsen.” That includes “all of the Spanish-language Nielsen best sellers available as e-books in the United States, and 65 of the top-100 Spanish-language print best sellers from Amazon.com.” Bestselling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho is offering a $1.99 nonfiction title, El Libro de los Manuales, exclusively through the store.

Amazon also struck a deal with Spanish-newspaper El Pais (Grupo Prisa) through which it offers “compilations of articles from El Pais, including exclusive pieces from Mexican journalists writing about Mexican current affairs,” . eBooks Kindle en Español also offers subscriptions to Latin American newspapers. Amazon has translated 9 Kindle Singles to Spanish.

Barnes & Noble Competition

The U.S. Hispanic market is also an area of concentration for Amazon competitor Barnes & Noble. Last year, B&N’s Patricia Arancibia said the company’s sales of foreign-language e-books were growing faster than sales of English e-books, and “it’s one area where we completely win over any competitor.” Barnes & Noble’s Nook Books en Espanol currently contains 45,293 titles— a larger number of titles than eBooks Kindle en Español carries.

Last September Amazon launched a Spanish website targeting the book reader market in Spain. The site, Amazon.es went live on Sept. 14th and offers books in Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Basque. The Spanish site joined Amazon’s other websites for the US, Canadian, English, French, Italian, Chinese and Japanese markets.

Source: Portada.com

“The credit unions must understand that the face of the U.S. consumer is changing and that for there to be growth, (they) must adapt to new consumers, instead of forcing those consumers to adapt to (them),” Miriam De Dios, vice president of Coopera Consulting, in Des Moines, Iowa, told Efe.

De Dios emphasized that, according to reports, 50 percent of U.S. Hispanics do not have a traditional relationship with financial institutions, such as banks and credit unions, but rather use alternative financial services, generally at higher cost.

“Because of that, there’s a great opportunity,” she said.

The Mexican-born De Dios grew up in the United States, where she saw her parents “suffer due to many things, including not knowing the U.S. financial system.”

That personal experience led her to become interested in financial matters and five years ago she joined Coopera, attracted by the vision of founder Warren Morrow.

Morrow was born in Mexico to a Mexican mother and an American father and spent part of his childhood there before moving to Tucson, Arizona. Later, he studied biology at Iowa’s Grinnell College, where, in 1999, he founded the non-profit Latino Leadership Project that, after several transformations, became Coopera Consulting.

Coopera is now the property of the Iowa Credit Union League.

Morrow died unexpectedly in February at age 34. “It was something unexpected and impacted us deeply. Warren was a very passionate person and believed in the idea of bringing dignified financial services to the Hispanic community through the … credit unions,” De Dios said.

She feels that she and her colleagues should continue with Morrow’s mission to “help the community to get ahead.”

One of the ways to do that, she said, is to educate Hispanics about traditional financial services.

But the other option is to educate the credit unions about the need to implement a systematic process to serve the Hispanic market.

“Having a strategy to better serve the Hispanic community is a need nowadays for the savings institutions and credit unions. It’s something good they should do and also it’s an investment in their future,” De Dios said.

By attracting new Hispanic members, credit unions can reduce the average age of their members, thus creating a “sustainable future.”

“Hispanics are a solution to the challenges of the financial institutions, since they represent a young and new market with a growing buying power and an appetite for a variety of financial services. The credit unions need the Hispanics, and the Hispanics (need) those credit unions,” she concluded.

Source hispanicallyspeakingnews.com

The Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles plans to educate Latinos about opening bank accounts

By Aaron Schrank

Later this year, the consulate will work with Clearpoint Credit Counseling Solutions, a non-profit organization with four offices in Los Angeles.

Latinos are one of the groups least likely to invest in a bank account. A 2009 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) survey found that 43 percent of Latinos are “unbanked” or “underbanked.”

Underbanked households are those that have a checking or savings account but rely on financial serces like payday loans, check cashing services, rent-to-own agreements and pawn shops

Clearpoint president Martha Lucey says these services can be costly.

“I think that there can be a distrust of financial institutions that may be culturally based and, depending on people’s country of origin, they may not have had a banking system that has the type of protection we have in the United States with the FDIC,” Lucey said. “The combination of factors makes it less likely for Hispanic households to be banked, and that’s an opportunity for us to talk about the benefits of getting into a formal banking relationship, and how it can actually save a family money over using cash.”

A Pew Hispanic Center report found that many Latino immigrant remittance senders (those who regularly sent money to Latin America) held skeptical views of banks.

Lucey echoed the Center’s findings, identifying mistrust as one of many factors why many Latinos don’t deposit their money in banks.

“Having to pay to cash your check takes money out of your pocket,” Lucey said. “Having to pay to purchase money orders to pay your utilities or rent or mortgage costs the family money as well. If folks can get a low-cost checking account, to be able to write checks or do electronic transfers for those services, families are going to be able to keep more money in their pockets.”