• by John Gaffney , August 27, 2002

In this economy, in which CMR says ad growth was flat for the first half of the year, any growth is good growth. But 26% growth would be celebrated by any medium. That’s what Spanish language TV came in at for the first half. Experts in the area say that growth is being driven by more Spanish language TV outlets as well as increased brand spending.

According to Abbott Wool, who runs a self-named multicultural marketing consultancy, the spike in Spanish language TV has been brewing since the beginning of the year. The biggest driver, he says, is the expansion of category network leader Univision. Univision started a new network early this year called Telefutura, which immediately opened new opportunities for advertisers, and put more sales pressure on advertisers to think multiculturally.

The second driver is the continuing awareness of multicultural marketing as an essential ad vehicle. “This country and the ad business continues to be in demographic denial,” says Wool. “We’re getting close to the point where fully one-third of the country is made up of minority groups. Advertisers seem to react to this only after census data is released, but now they’re being more pro-active.”

The multicultural category is still defining itself as a marketing strategy, says Wool. Nothing particularly innovative is happening in it; nothing beyond the basics is being executed. Brands are simply allocating more and more dollars to Univision, Telemundo and other Spanish TV properties because they realize the size and power of the audience.

“If a big company was allocating one percent of their budget to Spanish language TV, it’s easy for them to justify a big jump in that when you consider the size of the audience they’re trying to reach,” Wool says. “There’s a lot of room for that budget allocation to increase even further.

You could argue that multicultural budgets have room to go to 30% of total ad spend, says Wool. He also believes that the 26% growth rate ion the category is sustainable through the end of the year.