HMO In Focus: Hispanics Largely Prefer English-language Media

Hispanic Market Overview 2014, presented by Lopez Negrete Communications, is now available via download at no charge to all via HispanicAd.com. We thank the more than 3,000 industry professionals who downloaded this year’s report within the first 24 hours of its release.

Due to the size of the PDF file, iPad and iPhone users have been unable to view the document. Therefore, AdamRJacobson.com will be offering select excepts from this year’s report in the coming weeks as a benefit to industry professionals.

We continue our series of excepts with new data from Experian Marketing Services that shows English-language media to be the top choice among all Hispanics. However, the data suggest Spanish-language media remains vitally important to a large segment of Latinos–and, therefore, marketers.

 

HISPANICS LARGELY PREFER ENGLISH-LANGUAGE MEDIA

According to Experian Marketing Services, roughly 1 in 4 (26%) Hispanic adults mostly speak Spanish, while close to 1 in 5 (19%) Hispanic adults only speak Spanish. But when it comes to their preferred language when reading or when consuming all kinds of media, it’s all about English. One in five Hispanic adults exclusively consume Spanish-language radio. Additionally, one in five Hispanic adults only read in Spanish. At the same time, just 13% of Hispanic adults only watch Spanish-language television. Only 13% of Hispanic adults exclusively use the internet in Spanish.

However, marketers should take into consideration the percentage of Hispanics who mostly watch Spanish-language television (21%) and mostly listen to Spanish-language radio (20%). By doing so, the continued importance for marketers to include Hispanic television and radio in their media mix becomes crystal clear: Of Hispanic adults who consider themselves to be Spanish dominant, 1 in 3 (34%) prefer to watch Spanish-language television. Some 40% of Hispanic adults prefer to listen to Spanish-language radio.

A positive spin is a bit more difficult for Spanish-language digital media. “The number of respondents who didn’t provide a language preference for online was quite high, most likely because there is still a sizable portion of the adult population that doesn’t go online,” Experian Marketing Services’ John Fetto notes. “As such, I rebased the language preference options to those who answered the question.” The result: Hispanics are most comfortable in English when using the internet, despite the availability of Spanish-language content online. Some 73% of Hispanic adults said they prefer to visit English-language websites, compared to 26% of Hispanic adults who prefer to visit Spanish-language websites.

 

How Hispanics are most likely consuming television is perhaps of key concern to marketers and advertisers, given the large percentage of advertising dollars to Hispanic television networks. According to Experian, English-language television is preferred over Spanish-language television —even among Spanish dominants.

Among Spanish-dominant respondents, just 30% watch only Spanish-language television programming. Yet, of English-dominant Hispanic adults, some 28% consume some kind of Spanish-language television content.

This suggests that as Hispanics become more acculturated and increase their use of English, Spanish remains important in the home—and their viewership of at least some Spanish-language television is vital to retaining their use of Spanish en casa. For marketers seeking to gain traction with Hispanics, the incorporation of Spanish-language television into a client’s media buying and planning strategies becomes an essential component to fully capturing this important consumer segment.

To download your copy of Hispanic Market Overview 2014, please visit www.hispanicad.com

 

Hispanic Market Overview 2014, presented by Lopez Negrete Communications

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