• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, August 12, 2010

Azteca America, one of the nation's leading Latino broadcasters, announced the official launch of new branded promotion for AT&T developed in collaboration with AT&T's agency of record, MEC. The site, called Paparazzi, blends product integration, mobile marketing, blogging and celebrity endorsements.

Paparazzi had a soft launch back in February, with regular updates from six TV personalities from Azteca's Ventaneando entertainment news team, who use AT&T handsets to post up to 100 short blog items per month to the site.

The blog, accessible at www.blogventaneando.com, runs the gamut from celebrity gossip to sports, beauty and fashion tips, as well as amusing or endearing stories about their personal lives. Content includes weekly polls, as well as photos and videos of the team and their celebrity subjects.

To date, Paparazzi has attracted over 20,000 Facebook and Twitter followers. Viewers can have posts sent directly to their mobile devices via SMS by texting AT&T to 55225.

The Hispanic media marketplace has seen a surge in cross-platform initiatives.

Last week, Telemundo announced the launch of a new DO network targeting Hispanics outside the home, called Telemundo en tu Mundo (Telemundo in Your World). The new DO network consists of digital screens in 200 supermarkets, 800 retailers, 2,000 metro buses and major entertainment arenas visited by large numbers of Hispanic consumers.

In July, MobileEdgeMedia Group and San Diego-based EPMG unveiled Connect, a mobile ad 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.

Last November, a study presented at the Datos conference on Hispanic consumers found that Hispanic adults ages 18 to 34 use their cell phones for an average 1,200 minutes per month, versus 950 minutes for the overall population.

On the other hand, Pew Hispanic Center's latest National Survey of Latinos found that Latino adults index somewhat lower on certain mobile activities. About 50% of young Latino adults (49% of 16- to-17-year-olds) said they send mobile text messages every day, while 45% talk on a cell phone, compared to 64% for non-Hispanic 16- to-17-year-olds, while 51% of non-Hispanics ages 16-17 said they talk on the cell phone every day.

The apparent discrepancy between daily and monthly figures may be due, in part, to immigrants who use mobile devices to call home, making a few long calls per month, rather than short calls every day.