ContextWeb, which operates the Adsdaq
ad exchange, has added the ability for marketers to target the Spanish-speaking audience online by category and keyword. The new capability is the first time the company has offered targeting through
its exchange in a language other than English.
To lead the effort spanning the U.S. and Latin America, ContextWeb has hired Time Warner veteran Joe Kutchera as director of
Spanish-language markets.
Previously, Kutchera helped develop Time Web properties including Warner Bros. Online, Fortune.com, CNNMoney.com and CNN Expansion, a business news portal focusing on
Mexico and Latin America.
"With multiple countries of origin and degrees of acculturation, it can be a challenge for marketers to reach the fragmented U.S. Hispanic audience," said Kutchera.
"ContextWeb can now provide targeted, brand-safe inventory on a vast scale through page-level contextual placements in Spanish across the Adsdaq Exchange."
EMarketer estimates that 52% of the
U.S. Hispanic population--or 23 million people--are online, with that figure projected to hit 29 million by 2012. A separate survey by the Pew Internet and Life Project last year found that 56% of
U.S. Latinos were online, compared to 71% of non-Hispanic whites and 60% of non-Hispanic blacks. It also found only one in three Latinos who speak only Spanish go online.
Through its new service,
ContextWeb will offer Hispanic marketers in the U.S. Spanish-language contextual banners, Spanish keyword targeting, and behaviorally targeted banners to Spanish readers on English-language pages
across Adsdaq.
In Mexico, it will also offer English-language contextual and keyword banner placements that target bilingual, college-educated audiences there. ContextWeb CEO Anand Subramanian
said that after the U.S. and Mexico, the company would roll out Spanish-language ad placements throughout Latin America.
The Adsdaq Exchange reached 113 million unique visitors in October,
according to comScore's Ad Focus ranking. ContextWeb in July raised $26 million in a fourth-round funding led by Investor Growth Capital.