Men currently outnumber women (52% versus 48%, respectively) in the 45 million strong Hispanic population. 1 Both genders skew very, very young; Hispanic females and males under 18 years old comprise 34% of the Hispanic population. Yet, Hispanic female online usage outpaces their male counterparts in key metrics. This brief inquiry showcases the US Hispanic (USH) female as a quality target audience.

Chart 1:

According to comScore Media Metrix, during January, 2007 USH female surpassed male usage by 19% in unique visitors. This increased base audience certainly helped to boost additional key metrics, as females surpassed males by 20% in average daily visitors, 24% in total minutes, 28% in total pages viewed, and 23% in total visits. Even adjusting for their higher base, USH females surpassed the usage and time spent metrics above across the board.

This finding is contrary to concerns that women may be reluctant to adopt high tech into their lives, as Latinas are definitely online and, at least during the January 2007 snapshot above, at a higher rate than men.

As noted in our previous issue, USH females and USH males grew in online audience by the same rate of 13% from Dec 2006 versus Dec 2005. 2 Yet, a drill down of category audience growth among USH females reveals where their online interests have turned.

Chart 2:

Verticals of interest to marketers, above, have had a healthy increase in USH female audience growth across the board.

Services

Terra.com’s blog 3 and fotolog 4 (blog with photo) services are well positioned to enjoy USH female audience growth within the blog category of 23% 5. The offline trend supporting fotolog usage is that Hispanics outpace the rest in regards to cell phone/camera ownership. 35% of Hispanics own a cell phone/camera, versus 30% of African-Americans and 26% General Market (GM). Additionally, 6% of Hispanics have a blog versus 5% of African Americans and 4% GM. Among Hispanic bloggers, it is the Hispanic female, 18-24 years old segment that is most likely to keep a blog (12%). 6

Business/Finance

It is very important to note that USH buying power growth is outpacing GM, reaching over $1 trillion by 2010 as noted below by eMarketer.

Chart 3:

USH women, in particular, are making their mark in the world of high finance and business.

Consider these statistics 7:

* Nearly half (47.3%) of employed Hispanics are women,

* On average, Hispanic women are more educated than men, comprising 60% of the bachelors degrees awarded to Hispanics in 2000,

* 21% of Hispanic women have managerial/professional careers compared to 14% of Hispanic men,

* By 2004, Latina owned firms grew to 553,618 firms, employing 320,000 people, generating $44.4 billion.

Latinas’ penchant for business helps to explain the 30% recent increase in USH-Female visitors to comScore’s Career Services and Development Category, according to Chart #2.

USH Female Characteristics

In summary, a driving reason why USH females have a strong point of view in the areas mentioned above is because Hispanics, overall, tend to live in larger households than GM. USH average household size is 3.6 versus 2.6 for GM. 8 A larger home is needed for their family (Real Estate category increased 31% in Chart #2). Larger households represent larger consumption, overall, for online and offline products.

Additionally, Hispanic women, in particular, are the decision makers when it comes to purchases for their family. For example, 77% of visitors to Terra’s Mujer (Woman) channel claim that the woman/mother in the household is responsible for gathering medical/health information; while 74% of this audience seeks medical/health information on the Internet. 9

Note to marketers, although Hispanic females and obviously Hispanics overall represent a desirable audience target, 73% of Hispanics were born outside of the USA, and the average length of residency is a low 17.5 years. 10 These characteristics may indicate a need to have more of a branding/awareness building campaign as perhaps many Hispanic newcomers to the US are not familiar with the product or service. Now is the time to capture these consumers and imprint your brand on them.

Be a Smart Marketer. Consider targeting US Hispanic females, who are both high tech adopters and business leaders. To target women, specifically, consider contextual targeting in Terra’s Mujer channel (http://www.terra.com/mujer/) and other Terra channels where there is a high female skew, as well as Behavioral Targeting for our Female Audience Segment. 11

1. 2006 U.S. Diversity Markets Report. Synovate. 2006

2. http://www.terra.com/terrainthenews/pdf/emarketer.pdf

3. http://blog.terra.com/

4. http://fotolog.terra.com/

5. comScore Media Metrix, US Hispanic Service, Key Measures Report. Jan. 2007. Analysis performed by Terra Networks.

6. 2006 U.S. Diversity Markets Report. Synovate. 2006

7. Tornoe. Juan. Mujer Power. 9/1/2006. <hispanictrending.com>

8. 2006 U.S. Diversity Markets Report . Synovate. 2006

9. Dynamic Logic Channel Study. Mujer Channel. Dec 2006

10. 2006 U.S. Diversity Markets Report . Synovate. 2006

11. http://www.terra.com/terrainthenews/pdf/REVSCIjul6FINAL.pdf

Watch for even more exciting Terra initiatives in 2007! 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.terra.com/advertise/ and http://www.terra.com/terrainthenews/.

By Natasha Funk Published February 27, 2007. 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.