• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, April 15, 2014

Mobile ad platform Opera Mediaworks is boosting its reach among U.S. Hispanics through the integration of Hunt Mobile Ads, a mobile ad network focused on Latin America that also reaches U.S. Hispanics through a number of premium publishers.

According to the companies, Hunt reaches 90 million mobile consumers and generates a billion ad impressions per month via its network of over 500 publishers, including major media companies like Terra, Infobae, Univision and Grupo Expansion.

On the advertising side Hunt has executed mobile campaigns for brands including Nissan, Kelloggs, Nestle and Coca-Cola, reaching consumers in Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, among other places.

Opera Mediaworks has already executed mobile campaigns targeting U.S. Hispanics for brands including Syfy and T-Mobile, incorporating in-store interactivity to reach Hispanic consumers close to the point of purchase. Opera also offers behavioral targeting to reach Hispanic consumers when they are accessing content in English or Spanish, as well as custom site lists and social-trigger targeting. Opera's ad formats include rich media, interstitial video and standard banners.

Data from a number of recent consumer surveys indicates that U.S. Hispanics over-index in mobile usage, including mobile shopping and media consumption.

Last year, Experian Hitwise found that Hispanics' share of visits to the top 500 retail Web sites was 21% higher than the online population in general. This behavior is enabled by smartphones, with 54% of Hispanic smartphone owners visiting a shopping site with their mobile browser during a typical month.

Experian also found that adult Hispanic smartphone owners are twice as likely as non-Hispanics to say they are interested in receiving ads on their phone, 58% are more likely to purchase products they see advertised on their phone, and 13% are more likely to say they use their phone while shopping to find local deals.

In November, Valassis released the results of a study showing that 84.2% of U.S. Hispanic consumers have searched for an online coupon based on a recommendation, compared to 70.6% of all U.S. consumers, and 80.2% have used discounts from a mobile device or downloaded them to a loyalty card, compared to 66% of the overall population.