• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, November 23, 2010

Findings presented by comScore chief research officer Josh Chasin, "A Closer Look at the U.S. Hispanic Online Audience," on 11/18, found that U.S. online Hispanic consumers' sentiment towards, and response to, advertising often varies significantly from Non-Hispanic online consumers, providing critically important insights for brands looking to reach and engage this dynamic consumer segment.

"The U.S. Hispanic online marketplace is a fast growing and potentially lucrative sector that marketers cannot ignore," said Josh Chasin, comScore chief research officer. "Online Hispanics are younger and more acculturated than their offline counterparts and they are quite receptive to advertising when it is sufficiently engaging. What's especially interesting is that engagement with advertising has more to do with narrative elements and storytelling than it does with actually running the advertisement in Spanish."

U.S. Hispanics were more likely to find advertisements enjoyable and entertaining than their Non-Hispanic counterparts. Specifically:

• 48% of U.S. Hispanic consumers expect advertising to be entertaining and 31% enjoy watching advertisements
• Hispanics were also more likely to recall advertising, with 35% stating they remembered advertised products when shopping
• Advertising was also more likely to influence Hispanic consumers' product decisions when buying for their children with 30% stating that advertising helped them choose products to buy for their children

Respondents Strongly Agreeing With Following Statements About Advertising
	Percent of Consumers
	U.S. Hispanic	Non-Hispanic
Expect advertising to be entertaining	48%	39%
Remember advertised products when shopping	35%	22%
Enjoy watching advertisements	31%	19%
Advertising helps me to choose products to buy my children	30%	15%
More inclined to buy from a company that sponsors events	26%	14%
Source: comScore, November 2010

Additional findings from the study include:

• More than half (52%) of U.S. Hispanics online prefer English as their primary language, with 26.1% choosing bilingual and 21.9% preferring Spanish as their primary language
• Hispanic Internet users tend to be younger than their non-Hispanic counterparts. The average age of a Hispanic Internet user is 31, compared to 34.5 for a non-Hispanic Internet user.
•  When asked about Hispanic-themed advertising, approximately 50% of Hispanic online consumers prefer the advertisement to be in English, while 28% have no language preference

To read the preliminary release about this study, please visit comScore here.