• by Ross Fadner , January 13, 2004

Over the past several years, the Latino community has emerged as a critical market for traditional planners and buyers, but only recently has the online sector begun taking the presence of Hispanic users as seriously. In fact, it was only last November that online giant America Online launched its largest Spanish-language advertising effort in an attempt to corner the lucrative market. Now the entire online community appears to be following suit with an industry-wide effort aimed at Hispanic consumers.

Major online Hispanic publishers, including AOL Latino, MSN Latino, Yahoo! en espanol, Terra Lycos, and Nielsen//NetRatings, among others, have banded together through the Interactive Advertising Bureau to form the IAB Hispanic Committee, marking the first time these major companies have worked as a unified voice on issues related to Hispanic marketing on the Internet. The committee's primary function will be to educate advertisers and agencies about how to reach the online Hispanic community through advertising, as well as the marketing benefits and value of using advertising to reach them. The committee expects to complete these initiatives through research, standards development, and stakeholder education.

"Since U.S. Hispanics are coming online three times faster than the general market, the Internet has become a great new way to reach the largest minority group in the country," said Peter Blacker, vice president-international & Hispanic advertising at AOL Latino.

"Through this committee we plan to educate brand marketers about the ways in which Latinos are consuming the Internet, and how we can become a valuable partner in reaching them. We plan to issue reports to break the myth about U.S. Hispanics' Internet habits, and will work to empower leaders within the industry to help bridge the digital divide and offer consumers a real value proposition for getting connected," Blacker added.

In conjunction with the formal announcement of the committee, the IAB Hispanic Committee readied its first presentation, entitled "Reach U.S. Hispanics through Online Marketing," which they plan to send out to agencies, advertisers, and marketers. The presentation includes research, case studies and demographic evidence intended to demonstrate the effectiveness of marketing to the Hispanic community.

According to research conducted by comScore Media Metrix cited by the committee, U.S. Hispanics view 15% more pages and spend 9% more time online than the general U.S. market. Also, more than 14 million U.S. Hispanics already have access to the Internet, a number that will certainly continue to rise, especially since a staggering 45% of Hispanics are 24 years of age or younger, according to Nielsen NHTI 2002 Universe estimates.

"The Internet has opened a world of new opportunities for Hispanic marketers seeking to reach a national audience with one media buy," said Adam Gelles, director of industry initiatives at the IAB, who cited that the committee's success will surely be founded on the strength and support of all the industry leaders who participate on the committee.

The full list of IAB member companies currently participating on the Hispanic Committee is as follows: 360i, AOL, comScore Networks, InsightExpress, La Opinión Digital, MSN Latino, Nielsen//NetRatings, StarMedia, Terra Lycos, Univision, and Yahoo! en español.