• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, October 25, 2011

What to wear, what to wear? It’s a question most women must confront nearly every day. Telemundo is marrying this daily wardrobe dilemma with online video in a smart new Web series created in partnership with fashion brand Old Navy and its agency AKQA. The six-episode show Estilos Robados, translated as “Stolen Styles,” launched on October 14 and runs on Old Navy's Facebook page and Old Navy's Spanish YouTube channel. The partnership is particularly noteworthy for two reasons — because of the brand integration from the get-go and the rapid growth in the Hispanic market.

The U.S. Census counted more than 50 million Hispanics last year, and networks that cater to them have been looking for innovative ways to reach the market online. The interactive made-for-Web novela seems tailor-made for this audience. Stolen Styles is designed to be a bit of a send-up of the plot-twisty and turny genre of novelas, and in this go-round the cliffhangers are tied to fashion. (Honestly, all my life’s cliffhangers are tried to fashion, so this makes perfect sense to me. Do I wear the purple boots or the pink ones? But really, where can I get purple lace-up boots with a cute heel?)

At the end of each episode, the audience can choose between two outfits for the protagonist to wear in a pivotal scene in the next episode, and the outfit will help determine her dramatic fate. It’s sort of like a choose-your-own adventure tale, with each decision leading the characters down a new path.

Old Navy declined to share stats on viewership of the early episode, but did say it’s pleased with the show’s performance and is “extremely happy with the engagement metrics so far,” according to AKQA.

But broadly speaking, here’s what’s poised to work about the show. About 64% of U.S. Hispanics visit video-sharing sites compared to 50% of the general population, according to comScore. In addition, about 50% of Hispanic Facebook users are fans of clothing, shoes and accessories retailers, and 39% of Hispanic women 18 to 49 have watched a novela online in the past 30 days, AKQA said.

The mobile aspect of the series is vital too for Old Navy, given that its target audience for the show is the 20-something Hispanic woman, who is fashion forward and hyper-connected. Translation — she is always on her phone. eMarketer has found that 22% of Hispanic mobile phone users own a smartphone compared to about 17% of the total population.