Hispanic Advertising

That’s the key finding of a new Hispanic marketing trends survey commissioned by Los Angeles-based Hispanic advertising agency Orcí sent to 9,300 senior marketers at Fortune 1000 companies. The survey, conducted via email in February of 2010, was designed to offer a broad and deep look at advertisers’ strategy, spending plans and viewpoints of the U.S. Hispanic market. Respondents included senior marketing and advertising executives of B2B, consumer, small, medium and large Fortune 1000 businesses across the country.

Latinos comprise more than 15% of the U.S. population, and are predicted to rise to 50 million in the 2010 Census, an increase of 42% since the last Census in 2000. In the 2000 report, the Hispanic growth rate of 24.3% was more than three times the growth rate of the total U.S. population (6.1%).

Yet the Orcí research showed that 51% of respondents do no marketing to Latino consumers. And, 82% have no plans to begin or increase existing efforts aimed at American Hispanics in the next 12 months. This despite the fact that the great majority of respondents—more than 8 out of 10—agreed that Latinos will impact U.S. companies’ product and service offerings in the next five years, particularly in food tastes, fashion and technology.

The survey also found that 78% of respondents do not use social media to engage Latinos despite the fact that Hispanics are the heaviest users of wireless access through mobile phones and laptops than any other ethnic group. In addition, close to 80% of Latinos engage in some kind of online socializing.

The survey found that among those companies who do use social media to market to Hispanics, Facebook was the site of choice with Twitter a close second.

“Hispanics are tech savvy, young trend setters with incredible spending power,” Orcí said. “Companies that recognize the potential of the market by effectively engaging them will see a return on their investment.”

Other key results of the survey include:

• 89% believe Latinos will somewhat or significantly impact American taste in foods in the next five years
• 87% believe Latinos will impact fashion and beauty
• 82% expect Hispanics to impact entertainment
• 78% believe Hispanics will impact technology/communications

To receive a copy of the full survey results, please visit www.orci.com

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