Executive Summary

• US Hispanic online audience growth in terms of unique visitor metric increased 11% from Dec 06 to Dec 07 to 18,535,000 unique visitors during Dec 07 – growth exceeds General Market by a factor of 2.1.
• Hispanic youth aged 2-17 years old comprise 26.9% of the overall Hispanic online population during Dec 07 after an increase of 52% in unique visitors from Dec 06 – Dec 07.
• Retail-Food, Shipping, News and more are top-gaining categories for Hispanics in terms of increase in unique visitors between Dec 06 and Dec 07. Specific aspects of the Hispanic audience such as demographics or behavior (online and offline) are used to explore these increases.
• As marketers are pushed to prove ROI on campaign investments, research is also becoming more sophisticated and employs a variety of techniques not only to improve analysis on visitation growth overall or by category, but it can also be used by marketers for their specific brands, target audiences, and interests.

Chart #1

As evident in the chart above, unique visitors increased 5% in the general market panel to 183,619,000 from Dec 06 vs. Dec 07. Meanwhile during the same time period, the US Hispanic panel increased 11% to 18,535,000 unique visitors online during Dec 07, resulting in Hispanic audience growth twice (2.1) that of General Market. Although less than the blistering 13% growth last year (Dec 05 – Dec 06) among US Hispanic unique visitors, 11% (Dec 06 – Dec 07) is still comfortably snug into the double digits and is regarded once again as a significant accomplishment (Smart Marketer January 2007).

US Hispanic visitors, age 2-17 years old, comprise 26.9% of the overall Hispanic online audience during Dec 07 and have grown 52% in unique visitors from Dec 06 – Dec 07. 1 To place this in perspective, 34% of the overall Hispanic ( online and offline) audience is under 18 years old, as Hispanics skew very young in comparison to General Market. 2 According to Chart #2, Hispanic females (27.7 years old) are 10 years younger on average than General Market (37.5 years old).

Chart #2

To learn how this age group distinguishes itself from their older brethren by category usage and implications to marketers, please view November’s Smart Marketer.

Top category growth in unique visitors sheds light into where Hispanics are increasing their attention online lately, which may be tied to unique circumstances pertaining to Hispanics.

Chart #3

For sake of brevity, only a few categories are highlighted as possibly increasing in visitation due to unique factors associated with being Hispanic.

• Retail – Food: Hispanics have larger households than General Market. Indeed, 38.7% of Hispanics have HH Size 5+ versus 23.4% from General Market, Dec 07 3. Hispanics online leverage the Retail-Food category because they have more mouths to feed. [Not surprisingly, 22% of Hispanics bought Hispanic/Spanish food within the past 30 days, or 190% more likely to do so than General Market. Not to ignore online, 15.4% of those that spent $25 - $49 online on organic food within the past 30 days were Hispanic or 176% more likely to do so than General Market.] 4
• Women: please refer to our previous article ‘The Latina Online’ for more insight into this category (Smart Marketer February 2007). We have been growing our women’s channel (http://terra.com/mujer/) and have 3 diverse regular columnists for our visitors to enjoy: Chef Douglas, Isabella Santodomingo, as well as the caricature Aleida.
• Shipping: As 73% of Hispanic adults are foreign born, and over half (54%) are foreign born, it is no surprise that the shipping category meets the needs of Hispanics with a penchant to send care packages back to their country of origin. 5 Terra specifically caters to this particular penchant by offering several services through its partners:
• Send Money (Enviós de Dinero) https://www.cashpin.com/terra/
• Shopping in USA (Compras) http://comprasenusa.us.terra.com/
• Politics: Hispanics, being the largest online and offline minority, may be considered as one large swing vote! Relevant issues such as immigration weigh heavily on their minds, and more (Smart Marketer October 2007).
• News/Research: Hispanics are news junkies. [Of those who have read the Wall Street Journal newspaper (not online) within the past 7 days, 34% were Hispanic, and as a result over index General Market by 563%. Likewise, of those who consider CNN as their favorite channel, 27.2% were Hispanic, or 389% more likely than General Market to do so. To add to the theme of Hispanics and their penchant for learning, tying in radio as a top category above, 14.9% of educational format radio listeners were Hispanic or 167% more likely to do so than General Market.] 6

A special call to action for marketers is to determine the unique underlying factors of being Hispanic and how it affects ones category or product, as either demographic differences or special needs due to being foreign born in comparison to general market.

Be a Smart Marketer. Demand category by age range research plus psychodemographics to fine tune campaigns targeting the Latino market. Hispanic youth (aged 2-17 years old) stand out from the pack as yielding high % composition within the overall Hispanic online audience of 26.9%, yet also 73.1% of Hispanics online are 18 years old or older during Dec 07. 7 That said, there exists the opportunity to allow Hispanic youth to grow along with a brand, so by the time they reach their peak earning years it will be top of mind and ahead of the pack.

Likewise, behavioral research indicates that Hispanics consume a variety of media such as traditional newspapers (e.g. English language Wall Street Journal) at a faster clip than General Market. Push beyond obtaining research singularly on the brand or category in question to determine how unique attributes of simply being Hispanic, such as high degree of foreign born, may effect your message (e.g. tendency towards a brand awareness campaign). Likewise, comprehensive behavioral research helps to both add more clarity to general findings such as top audience growth categories above - as well as fine tuned behavior related to a specific brand. As the online industry continues to move towards more refined measurements to prove ROI from campaign efforts, likewise media buyers and clients may leverage a full arsenal range of research methods increasing in sophistication to stand out from the crowd.

Terra Networks proudly congratulates the Hispanic online audience for its continued audience growth as well as the Internet as a medium. According to eMarketer, 2007 is the 1 st year in the US that Internet advertising spending ($21.4 billion) left radio advertising spending ($20.5 billion) in the dust and is well on its way to gaining more ground not only in increased audience size but ad dollars as well shifted from traditional media. We are looking forward to service the dynamic Hispanic market with best in class content; services and editorial coverage in 2008…stay tuned!

1.) comScore Media Metrix. Target Trend Report. US Hispanic Service. Analysis performed by Terra Networks.

2.) Synovate. US Diversity Markets Report. 2006

3.) comScore Media Metrix. Demographic Report. Dec 2007

4.) comScore Media Metrix, Plan Metrix Consumer Target Profile Report. English Speaking Hispanics Age 18+. Summer 2007 (statements in brackets)

5.) Synovate. US Diversity Markets Report. 2006

6.) comScore Media Metrix, Plan Metrix Consumer Target Profile Report. English Speaking Hispanics Age 18+. Summer 2007 (statements in brackets)

7.) comScore Media Metrix. Target Trend Report. US Hispanic Service. Analysis performed by Terra Networks.

To learn more about how you can reach Terra.com's quality audience with your marketing message, call us at 212-354-2700. Visit http://www.terraknows.com.

By Natasha Funk Published January 29, 2008. If you missed past issues of Terra’s Smart Marketer Series and would like to obtain them, please send an email to: smartmarketer@terra.com.