• by Ken Liebeskind , August 10, 2001

Batanga, a Latin music Web broadcaster in the U.S., is successfully selling itself to major advertisers who run clickable audio ads on the stations on Batanga.com.

The Greensboro, NC based company, whose partners are T1msn, the largest Mexican Web portal that is a joint venture between Mexican telco Telmex and Microsoft and Hispanic Broadcasting, the largest Spanish language terrestrial radio broadcaster in the U.S. that is partly owned by Clear Channel Communications, offers 16 channels of Latin music at Batanga.com, a mix that includes a variety of formats.

Almost all of the music is in Spanish, with in language content preferred by most U.S. immigrant groups. The ads are in Spanish, too. Most of them are 30s that run during the programming, although the company also offers "channel starts" or gateway ads that run as the stations load. The ads are synchronized to provides textual information that accompanies the audio, such as a New York Times ad that provided the option to sign up for subscriptions after an audio prompt.

Other major advertisers have included McDonalds, Terra Lycos, the global Internet network, the U.S. Post Office, the U.S. Navy and Pfizer, which has advertised Dentine Ice Gum, Sudafed and Benadryl.

Ads are run six times an hour.

The company offers different CPM rates for its ads, from $25 to $45 depending on the visual accompaniment. Interstitial pop ups are more expensive than standard banners.

McConnell says most of the advertisers start with small tests but increase their buys after getting heavy click-throughs. "They're renewing at greater amounts," he says.

He also says the company provides detailed reporting on a per station, per day and per format basis. Ads can be moved to the stations that perform best.

MediaAmerica, the large radio rep firm that is now working with Internet ads, sold some of the campaigns. Batanga's in-house sales staff sold the others, including McDonalds and Terra Lycos.

There are 500,000 U.S. listeners now, according to CEO Tim McConnell. Internet access among U.S. Hispanics is between 40 and 50 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. There are nearly 22 million Hispanics in the U.S., including about 11 million between 12 and 34, Batanga's target audience.

"Many Spanish language media companies imported content from Mexico and Latin America because that's who the audience is," McConnell says. "But now there is a real crossover. There is a tremendous growing audience of young Hispanics who were born here." The Batanga site appeals to them with contests and other Americanized content that goes along with the Latin music.

Success will also come because of the appeal to youth. "White Americans are older, but Hispanics are the youngest minority group," McConnell says. "We believe their impact on pop culture will be huge, like rap and hip hop. The impact is still unseen but it will be huge on popular culture."