"It's well known that the Hispanic market is a growing and increasingly important segment to advertisers and marketers," said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "However, any business attempting to effectively reach this segment needs to understand the behavior of the U.S. Hispanic online consumer as a fundamental component of their marketing and media strategies."

Hispanic Online Audience Growing Faster than Total U.S. Internet Market

The U.S. Hispanic online population reached 20.3 million visitors in February 2009, an increase of 6 percent from the previous year. Hispanic Internet users also exhibited a surge in online engagement, including strong increases in time spent and pages consumed. The total amount of time spent online by Hispanics increased 6.9 percent in 2009 (3.9 times faster than the total U.S. online population), while total pages consumed grew 6 percent (3.6 times faster than the total U.S. population).

Growth in Internet Usage: U.S. Hispanic Internet Population vs. Total U.S. Internet Population
February 2009 vs. February 2008
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Source: comScore Media Metrix

With affordable unlimited texting plans available from most cell phone carriers, it’s easier than ever for teenagers to use their thumbs to communicate. The number of teens who text has increased 50% since 2007, vs. a 13% decline in the number of teens using instant messaging. Texting is now the #1 feature teens use on mobile cell phones, aside from making phone calls.

Not only are more teens texting, there is ample evidence that texting holds an important place in teens’ lives. For instance, 78% of teens who text agree that “text messaging is an important part of my daily life.” And, 75% of texting teens report they text while watching TV. The most common reason teens text is to communicate with friends and family. However, 1 in 5 texting teens also use texting to vote in contests, and 1 in 7 texting teens report they looked at an advertisement sent with a text message.

“These findings from MRI’s TeenMark study provide insight into the shifting digital socializing habits of teenagers,” said Anne Marie Kelly, SVP, Marketing & Strategic Planning at MRI. “Texting via cell phone is a growing form of communication among teens and, therefore, a growing platform for advertisers. Many marketers now offer coupons, promotions and other marketing messages through texting. And TV shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance have recognized the influence of teen texting by incorporating texting into their voting and communication methods.”

For more information at

We've launched a Spanish speaking U.S. Hispanic online ad network.

Have you noticed on your Google Analytics, (es or es-US ) visitors

"Mundial Sports Network www.mundialsportsnetwork.com

Geoffrey Gonzalez
Tel: 1-800-BEISBOL

BY LEWIS LAZARE Media & Marketing Columnist

The Chicago White Sox are expected to announce Thursday that the team has selected the San Jose Group/Chicago as its first Hispanic ad agency of record. The move is part of an effort by White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and the team's top management to grow a significant, loyal segment of the White Sox audience at U.S. Cellular Field, where on average about 14 percent of the crowd is Hispanic.

Energy BBDO/Chicago will continue to handle White Sox general market advertising.

"Baseball is a powerful passion-point for Latinos, and we are going to tap into that excitement for the game and continue building affinity for the White Sox among Latinos," said George L. San Jose, president and chief operating officer of the San Jose Group, which was founded in 1981. The agency also will assist with public relations outreach to the metro Chicago Hispanic community, which numbers nearly 2 million people.

Meanwhile, the White Sox are expected to unveil the first print executions for their 2010 general market ad campaign next week to coincide with the start of individual ticket sales on Feb. 12. The new campaign will carry the tagline "White Sox baseball: It's black and white."

The theme is intended to suggest there are no gray areas at the White Sox, particularly when it comes to winning and losing. TV commercials may break as early as March, and some of the ads are expected to feature particular players.

X-Change Corporation completed the merger with Connected Media Technologies, Inc., and in doing so the purchase price was paid in stock. Control has been turned over to the share holders of Connected Media.

Hispanic Direct Sales Development
Third Party Sales Agents Resellers Network Marketing.

Are you looking to build grass root sales programs?

Call Geoffrey Gonzalez at Tel: 203-746-7589 Hispanic Marketing

Yet, more often than not, the decision as to how much to invest in Hispanic advertising is made heuristically or worse yet, simply handed down as the "scraps" of what is left after general market and other lead agencies lay their claims. As the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) Right Spend report has been chronicling for years, advertisers have failed to allocate the minimum recommendation of 8% (based on Hispanic population and buying power alone) of their advertising budgets to the Hispanic market. While each industry and company will ultimately invest varying allocations based on their particular situation, the aggregate 8% AHAA benchmark indicates that, on average, companies are under-investing in the Hispanic market.

So how much of an advertiser's marketing budget should be allocated to the Hispanic market? The more relevant question is how should companies, together with their agency partners, approach the question of budget allocation? A decision as important as how much to invest in the fastest-growing minority group should be based on more than "rules of thumb" or an after-thought exercise of pooling leftover resources. I suggest that budget allocation models should be used and that marketers gradually employ more sophisticated approaches based on increasing availability of data.

As I've alluded to so far, most companies use simple heuristics, or rules of thumb, such as allocating marketing budgets based on some arbitrary percentage or a bottoms-up decision rules approach (i.e., determining desired awareness or reach / frequency levels and then backwards calculating required marketing spend).

Instead, I recommend using the two-part marketing allocation approach described by Harvard Business School's Gupta and Steenburgh "Allocating Marketing Resources" (2008) paper. This approach initially models demand and then uses those estimates as input into an optimization model to determine appropriate allocations across the marketing mix. Without getting too academic, Gupta & Steenburgh suggest modeling the demand that will be created or how much additional Hispanic consumer sales will be generated by an increase in Hispanic marketing resources (i.e., demand elasticity).

There are three ways to model this Hispanic demand:

1. Statistical Models: When historical figures for Hispanic market sales and marketing expenditures are available, the impact of Hispanic marketing activity on sales can be modeled using a demand function. This is the best option, available to companies with recent experience marketing to Hispanics.

2. Experiments: When there is a lack of reliable recent data on Hispanic market sales / marketing activity, companies can undertake experiments to gauge Hispanic consumer response to new marketing activities. This incremental approach allows companies to use small test initiatives to model out expected results from larger-scale initiatives.

3. Expert Judgment: When past data is not available and experiments are not feasible, companies should use the managerial judgment and experience of their Hispanic agencies to forecast Hispanic sales.

While the data-based approaches of options 1 and 2 provide the most accurate models of Hispanic demand, use of any of the three approaches will provide companies with an excellent starting point to model Hispanic demand and therefore determine proper Hispanic marketing budgets. As opposed to taking a passive approach to Hispanic marketing, these models provide companies the basis for a proactive approach based on the bottom-line return on investment.

The next step is to optimize a Hispanic marketing budget among the growing marketing mix of elements ranging from promotions, to direct response, to branding and across vehicles such as TV, digital, radio and out-of-home (a topic for another day!).

There's tumult playing out among Orange County's burgeoning Hispanic supermarkets. Anaheim-based Northgate Gonzalez Supermarkets, the county's largest Hispanic supermarket operator, just opened its 16th store, this one in Anaheim-just down the street from Mexico's Grupo Gigante SA de CVs first OC store.

Yet another twist: Northgate took over the store on Euclid Avenue near the Santa Ana (1-5) Freeway from Fullerton-based La Rioja Ranch Markets, which had been the county's second largest Hispanic supermarket chain.

Juan Vallejo, La Rioja's owner, said he's closing what's left of the chain in OC because of slow sales. He said he's looking to regroup with a new store in La Puente this fall.

Northgate's new 20,500-square-foot store is a couple blocks south of Gigante, which opened with fanfare last year. Northgate, with an estimated $325 million in sales, dominates the Hispanic grocery business here.

But Gigante, which has its U.S. base in Santa Ana, is a force to be reckoned with. In Mexico, the company counts yearly sales of some $3 billion and has strong name recognition with Hispanics in OC.

* Aldi

* Costco Wholesale

* Delhaize Group
o Bloom
o Bottom Dollar
o Food Lion
o Hannaford
o Harveys
o Kash n' Karry
o Sweetbay Supermarket

* Kroger
o Baker's Supermarkets
o City Market
o Dillon's
o Food 4 Less
o FoodsCo
o Fred Meyer
o Fry's Food
o Hilander
o Jay C
o King Soopers
o QFC
o Ralphs
o Smiths
o Scott's Food & Pharmacy

* Piggly Wiggly

* Safeway
o Carrs
o Dominick's
o Genuardi's
o Pavilions
o Randalls
o Tom Thumb
o Vons

* Sam's Club

* Sears Holdings Corporation
o Kmart Supercenters

* SuperValu
o Acme
o Albertsons
o bigg's
o Bristol Farms
o Cub Foods
o Farm Fresh
o Hornbacher's
o Jewel/Jewel-Osco
o Lazy Acres
o Lucky Stores
o Save-A-Lot
o Shaw's
o Shop 'n Save
o Shoppers Food & Pharmacy
o Star Market
o Sunflower Market

* SuperTarget

* Wal-Mart Supercenters

* Whole Foods Market

[edit] Regional and local chains

* The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P)
o A&P Supermarkets Operates various A&P banners throughout New Jersey and New York, & Connecticut
o Food Basics USA (Philadelphia & New York Metropolitan areas)
o Pathmark (Metropolitan New York, New Jersey, Long Island and Philadelphia Metropolitan areas)
o Super Fresh (southern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Delaware & Baltimore)
o The Food Emporium (New York City and surrounding area)
o Waldbaum's (Long Island, NY, including the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, and Staten Island, NY; plus a single store in Connecticut)
* Acme Fresh Market operating in the Akron, Ohio area
* Andronico's (California)
* Associated Supermarkets (New York City area)
* Balducci's (New York City, Washington, D.C., and their suburbs)
* Bashas' (Arizona)
* Big Y Foods (New England: Massachusetts and Connecticut)
* BI-LO (southeastern United States)
* BJ's Wholesale Club (eastern United States)
* Breaux Mart Supermarkets (New Orleans area)
* Brookshire's (Arkansas, Texas & Louisiana) - also runs Super1 Foods in East Texas; Shreveport, Louisiana; Monroe, Louisiana; and West Monroe, Louisiana
* Brookshire Brothers (Texas) - brother of aforementioned Brookshire's
* Broulims (Idaho)
* Brown & Cole (Washington)
o Cost Cutter (New Jersey)
o Food Depot - also in North Carolina, Georgia as part of SuperValu
o Food Pavilion
o Red Apple
o Save-On-Foods
* Bruno's Supermarkets (southeast)
* Buehler's (Ohio)
* Buehler's Buy-Low (Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky)
* Butera (Illinois)
* Busch's (southeast and Central Michigan)
* C-Town (northeastern United States)
* Cannata's Family Market (southern Louisiana)
* CobornsDelivers (Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota/Wisconsin online grocery)
* Copps Food Center (Wisconsin)
* D&W Food Centers (Michigan)
* Dahl's Foods (Des Moines, Iowa, area)
* David's (rural north Texas)
* Dehoff's Key Markets (Bay Area, California)
* DeMoulas' Market Basket (New England: Massachusetts/New Hampshire)
* Dierbergs (Greater St. Louis, Missouri)
* Dorothy Lane Market (Greater Dayton region)
* Econofoods (Twin Cities, Western Wisconsin)
* El Super (Los Angeles and Phoenix)
* Fareway (Iowa)
* Felpausch (Michigan)
* Fiesta Mart (Houston, Dallas, Austin & Waco, Texas) Hispanic and International foods.
* Food City (Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee)
* FoodFair (southeastern Ohio, Eastern Kentucky, and western West Virginia)
* Food Giant
* Foodland (including Sack&Save) (Hawaii)
* FoodLand Supermarkets (West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania)
* Food Lion (Southeast & Mid-Atlantic)
* Foodtown (Northeast, mainly New Jersey) (a similarly named store, "Food Town", operates in the Houston, Texas area)
* Fresh and Easy (California,Arizona and Nevada)
* The Fresh Market (North Carolina based - southeast, Midwest, Pennsylvania)
* Gelson's Super Market (southern California)
* Gerland's Food Fair (Houston, Texas)
* Giant Eagle (Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland)
* Glen's (northern Michigan)
* Grand Union (Hudson Valley New York, rural Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania) - a.k.a. GU Family Markets
* Great Wall Supermarket (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Virginia and Georgia)
* Gristedes (most in the Borough of Manhattan, New York City)
* Grocer's Pride (Houston, Mississippi)
* Haggen Food & Pharmacy (Washington, Oregon)

In some ways, Tony Romo might even be better suited to marketing the NFL to the Hispanic community. Romo, a three-time Pro Bowler, is more of an established star player than the rookie Sanchez, and while Sanchez plays for a New York team, Romo’s Dallas Cowboys are one of the premier franchises in all of professional sports. (It’s also worth noting that Dallas’s Hispanic population is primarily of Mexican descent, whereas Hispanics living in the New York city metro area are more likely to trace their roots back to Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic.)

But will a star quarterback (or two) of Mexican descent be enough to significantly increase Hispanic interest in the NFL? I would tend not to think so, especially among recent immigrants. Most Central American countries already have a beloved sport that they call futbol – the United States calls it soccer. As recent immigrants and their children become more assimilated, it’s possible that Hispanics could become bigger fans of the NFL. In the meantime, the presence of a talented and exciting player at football’s glamor position who happens to be part of the US’s fastest-growing ethnic group can’t hurt – but he might not be the first one who comes to mind.

Jason Clinkscales: When Mark Sanchez got drafted by the New York Jets last April, advertising and publicity analysts immediate salivated over his prospects. They were less interested in his prospects on the field, rather than endorsement and sponsorship opportunities if he essentially becomes the Mexican-American version of Joe Willie Namath.

Yet, despite admirable performances in three postseason games, the suggestion that he will be the one that takes the NFL into apparent unchartered territory with the Latino populous has a bit of problem; Sanchez has to win and win beautifully.

It is not that he is incapable. His rollercoaster rookie season showed that while there is plenty to learn, the Jets have someone who is the unquestioned leader of the offense for the next decade, barring they are patient (a foreign concept for the franchise) with his development for the next few years. He has a very good defense that has the chance to become great along with one of the better running games in the league and three big play receiving options in Dustin Keller, Braylon Edwards and Jericho Cotchery.

While having covered the other NFL team in the New York area for the last four+ years, I witnessed the Giants’ Eli Manning grow from the unfortunate moniker of ‘game manager’ that caught lightning in the bottle during the run to Super Bowl XLII to one of the top ten signal-callers in the game while the rest of the team fell apart this past season. The Super Bowl win opened up a few local and national endorsement deals while allowing him the chance to work with brother (and best-marketed athlete today) Peyton for Oreo. Yet, while he’ll never be his brother, he can at least stand on his own because his play has improved year after year.

We don’t know this about Sanchez yet. He’s a good-looking guy with the Southern California mystique and runs the offense of a team located just miles away from Madison Avenue. We’ve come to accept that he has to win games; you don’t stick long enough in the league if you don’t win. However, Jim McMahon, Phil Simms, Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson were quarterbacks that won championships because they were told to hand off the ball, don’t throw too much and let the defense do the rest.

None of those guys became infinitely better after those wins and none became superstars in the so-called mainstream (read: white & somewhat affluent) market in the way that some expect Sanchez to become for Latino fans across the country.

Beyond Sanchez or any individual Latino player in the league, what the NFL could use is a broadcasting contract with any of the Spanish-language networks. There is no more dominant content provider in television today than the NFL, to the point that any news that breaks is Election Night-like in its coverage (this writer is admittedly a microscopic part of that). Yes, there’s the SAP option from the networks and Spanish-language radio. Yet, they’re not going to reach the desired market without a unique, stand-alone contract with any of the Spanish-language networks here in the States, notably Univision and NBC Universal-owned Telemundo.

It will be interesting what kind of player Mark Sanchez becomes in the next few years. Since he has much to learn about just playing the game at this elite level, we should be fair enough to hold off on making him the NFL’s biggest Latino star.

Tags: Mark Sanchez, New York Jets, NFL marketing to Latino community, Tony Romo

Past Economic Trends Suggest Hispanics are Recession Aloof

Register for AMA’s Hispanic Marketing Hot Topic Series today! Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how you can quickly position your company for growth and to potentially leapfrog your competition by devising a winning Hispanic marketing strategy

ABOUT THE SERIES - Over the last one hundred years, few groups have had as great an impact on the demography of the United States as Hispanics, with the most dramatic impact taking place over the last few decades. The Hispanic population of the United States is estimated to have reached 45.5 million – or 15 percent of the nation’s total population – making Hispanics the nation’s largest cultural segment. Looking beyond 2010, growth projections reflect double-digit proportions for every ten-year period between 2000 and 2050. Clearly, it can’t be denied that this significant Hispanic demographic shift is one of the greatest transformational forces of the 21st century.

With a purchasing power estimated at $926.1 billion and increasing sophistication as consumers, the Hispanic Market is indisputably a critical segment of companies’ core consumer base and one that requires disciplined and holistic strategic integration for profit maximization.

In this Hispanic Marketing Hot Topic seminar, mid to senior-level decision makers from across industries will learn from the brightest minds in Corporate, Academia, Authors and Consultants. They will share their knowledge and perspectives on Hispanic marketing research, consumer insights and behavior, marketing best practices and overall Hispanic organizational strategies that are integrated, aligned and sustainable. This full day seminar goes beyond the tactics and will expose you to a higher level of thinking and understanding of what is required to create Hispanic market strategies that are include the entire organization, gain internal traction, are market relevant and achieve sustainable Hispanic market success.

If you are in charge of taking your company’s Hispanic market initiative to the next level, you can’t afford to miss this Seminar!

FACULTY - Terry Soto, CEO, About Marketing Solutions & Author 'Marketing to Hispanics: A Strategic Approach to Assessing & Planning Your Initiative' (Chairperson)

Felipe Korzenny, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication, Florida State University and Author of 'Hispanic Marketing: A Cultural Perspective'

Russell A. Bennett, Vice President, Latino Health Solutions, United Health Care

Entitled Guia de Compras 2010 de Consumer Reports, the foreword is penned by Julie Stav, host of Univision's "Tu Dinero con Julie Stav".

"With Hispanic buying power in the United States projected to hit $1.3 trillion by 2013, it is more important than ever to provide this demographic with the information to make informed purchasing decisions," said John Sateja, Executive Vice President of Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports.

Elena Chavez, Manager, Spanish Language Outreach added, "Based on our celebrated tradition of accepting no advertisements and providing unbiased reviews, Guia de Compras 2010 will help Spanish-speaking consumers navigate through advertisements, faulty claims and thousands of product options."

"Based on my experience, which I have shared in one of my books, I understand firsthand the importance of proper budget management and learning to live within our means, and I am thrilled to be working with Tide to share this knowledge with Hispanic women across the country," said Collins.

"We are all going through difficult times and it is imperative to learn to better manage both our time and money so we can get the most value as well as achieve and maintain financial stability and a good quality of life," added Collins.

Open to the public, the seminars will be taking place starting January through June in the following Hispanic dense cities:

-- Miami: January 27, Miami Dade College
-- Nueva York: February 24, Queens Flushing Library
-- Dallas: March 23, Mountain View College
-- Los Angeles: May 12, Boys and Girls Club
-- Houston: June 6, Ripley House

"Tide understands that, because of the difficult economic situation, everyone is looking for ways to get more value for their money every day without sacrificing on quality," said Anelsie Ramos, External Relations Manager for Tide. "Through the Tide Home Economics Seminars, we want to show women that there are simple yet effective ways to get more value for their money on an everyday basis."

"This announcement represents a milestone for the Texas Rangers," said John Blake, Rangers executive vice president of communications. "The partnership with SBN allows us to upgrade and expand the products and services we offer our Hispanic fans and sponsors. Our Spanish-speaking fans have provided tremendous support and loyalty over the years, and it gives us great pleasure to continue to serve this valued audience."

The Spanish Beisbol Network (SBN) was founded in 2001 as a premier sports media broadcasting and content company. Through the years, SBN has expanded its national footprint within Major League Baseball and evolved into a multi-layer marketing platform using the high passion point of baseball to connect teams and brands with the Latino community. SBN currently has contracts with the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals, Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, CBS and the New York Yankees, and the Caribbean World Series. In addition, SBN is supporting other MLB teams in their Hispanic sales initiatives. SBN has created integrated marketing programs with baseball-related events and promotions designed to help sponsors reach the growing Hispanic population.

SBN kickoffs the season with the broadcast of the Texas Rangers spring training game on Friday, April 2 verses Kansas City from the Rangers ballpark. "We're proud to bring our first-rate Spanish language programming with Latino-focused baseball content to the Dallas-Fort Worth Hispanic community," states Bill Kulik, president of SBN. "We also look forward to working with the Rangers on Hispanic programs and special events for their fans. We thank the Texas Rangers for their tremendous cooperation in making this deal a reality."

About the Texas Rangers Baseball Club - The Texas Rangers of the Major League Baseball's American League, enter their 39th season in Arlington, Texas in 2010. The club finished second in the A.L. West Division with an 87-75 record in 2009, the fourth best overall mark in the league. The Rangers play their home games at the beautiful Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, which opened in 1994. Texas finished with a home attendance of 2,156,016 in 78 dates in 2009, a Major League best increase of 3,318 per date from 2008. For more information about the Texas Rangers, please visit www.texasrangers.com.

About Spanish Beisbol Network - The Spanish Beisbol Network (SBN), founded in 2001, is a multi-layer sports marketing and media broadcasting company for Spanish-language baseball content. SBN currently has contracts with the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals, Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, CBS and New York Yankees, and the Caribbean World Series. In addition, SBN supports other MLB teams in their Hispanic sales initiatives. In 2008, SBN was acquired by Celeritas Management Inc. (www.celeritasmgmt.com). Celeritas Management, a portfolio management and operating company funded by Palladium Equity Partners, LLC, seeks to invest in and grow businesses in the sports, entertainment, and marketing services industries by bringing together innovative assets with talented management. Celeritas partners with companies whose products and services strike a chord with the passions of American consumers, especially the Hispanic demographic. For more information about SBN