NGL Media Targets Latinos Cross-Platform

John-Leguizamo

With the Latino market growing in both numbers and spending power, new media companies are popping up to help advertisers reach the burgeoning demographic. NGL Media, which specializes in delivering both Spanish and English-language video content to Latino audiences across a variety of digital media platforms through partnerships with premium content producers and distributors, has launched.

The company can also boast of celebrity support; actor-comedian John Leguizamo is a partner and spokesperson for the NGL's content aggregation and sponsorship hub, UrbanoTV.

NGL has already amassed a video library of "in-culture" content from over 100 Latino producers and is also working with producers to create original content, focusing on "advertiser-friendly episodic productions" offering opportunities for brand integration and product placement.

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Most of the video will be short-form content suitable for distribution via the Web, social media, smartphones, IPTV, tablets and VOD.

NGL CEO and founder Dave Chitel stated that the new company would satisfy multiple demands: "Independent Latino content producers are looking for greater exposure and ways to monetize their work, while professional content outlets are always seeking more eyeballs around scalable revenue-driven opportunities."

NGL is just the latest in a flurry of deals and new launches to enable content-sharing, content creation, and marketing targeting Hispanic audiences.

And in January of this year, Audio Network, which creates and syndicates music for use in broadcast programming, announced that it struck a deal with Disney Latin America and renewed deals with leading Hispanic broadcasters and content creators, including Telemundo, Claxson, Warner, SiTV, HBO Latin America and Cinelatino.

In December 2009, Univision upped its investment in original content with the launch of a new production company, Univision Studios, based in Miami. In January 2010, Hispanic MediaWorks struck a deal with Telenueva TV, which provides Telenueva TV with ad sales representation in exchange for access to some of its content through syndication.

In July 2010, San Diego-based EPMG announced a partnership with MobileEdgeMedia Group to create a new service targeting mostly Hispanic audiences with standard text message integration, mobile coupons and various video content options, including Web-to-mobile video and user-generated mobile video.

According to the American Community Survey, there are now more than 45.4 million Hispanics living in the U.S., representing 14.6% of the total population of 308 million. That's twice the number living in the U.S. two decades ago. If current trends continue, the number of U.S. Hispanics will triple to roughly 130 million by 2050, when they will make up one-third of the total population.

Over the last half-decade, Hispanic buying power has also steadily increased, from an estimated $800 billion in 2006 to $850 billion in 2007, $950 billion in 2008, and $1 trillion in 2009. It is on course to reach $1.3 trillion by 2013 and $1.5 trillion by 2015, according to projections from the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia.

New technology adoption is also rising dramatically. According to Scarborough, the proportion of Hispanic adults living in a household with smartphone access jumped from 5% in 2005 to 19% at the end of 2010. The latter figure compares with 23% for the general population.

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