• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, May 12, 2011

Discovery US Hispanic, which includes Discovery en Español and Discovery Familia, is joining forces with the company's media innovation outfit (Discovery Solutions) to roll out a group of innovative new ad formats and brand integration possibilities.

The new ad offerings give advertisers access to integration and branded entertainment opportunities in the Spanish-language versions of Discovery Communications' epic shows about the natural and human world. They also give visibility in other marketing channels: Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Science.

The new Spanish-language creative in-house media solutions shop, led by Enrique Montoya, currently the vice president of Discovery Solutions and the Discovery Creative Group, aims to help advertisers amplify and distribute marketing messages with customizable formats, marketing outreach and digital and branded entertainment expertise.

According to the company, it has already completed 450 Spanish-language branded entertainment deals in 2010 alone.

Some of Discovery Hispanic's early efforts have included interstitials for General Motors on Planet Green and Discovery en Español, as well as integration of messages from the U.S. Navy in "At Sea," a series highlighting the global activities of U.S. sea power and Hispanic participation, which ran on the Military Channel and Discovery en Español.

Other brands that have already worked with Discovery for custom Spanish-language ad solutions include Levi's, Sprint, American Airlines and T-Mobile, with work covering integrated custom series and short-form content.

Upcoming branded entertainment projects in the works for Discovery Familia: "Style for a Steal" and "Money and the Menu."

Compared to other ethnic groups, Hispanics are the fastest-growing TV audience in the United States, according to Nielsen. It found that the total number of Hispanic TV-tuning households increased from 12.66 million in 2009 to 12.95 million in 2010 -- a growth rate of 2.3%.

That compares to year-over-year growth rates of 0.3% for both the population at large (to 114.9 million households) and African-Americans (to 14 million households). The Asian-American audience grew 0.8% to 4.78 million households.

Moreover, U.S. Hispanics are also wielding more spending power than ever before. The group's total spending power increased from $490 billion in 2000 to $700 billion in 2004, $863.1 billion in 2007, and over $1 trillion in 2010. Hispanics of Mexican origin alone wielded an estimated buying power of $616 billion in 2010.