Advertising to the US Hispanic market was up 4.3% in 2007, but Spanish-language advertising was down in the toy and consumer-electronics categories and is disproportionately small when compared with the overall US Latino population, according to a study released last month by the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA).
The AHAA Right Spend Study, conducted in partnership with the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) using data from The Nielsen Company, reveals that though advertising by marketers in general was down nearly three percent in 2007,? Spanish-language advertising increased by 5.6% overall.
Topping AHAA’s list of the 500 leading Spanish-language advertisers are Procter & Gamble Co., AT&T, Inc., General Motors Corp., McDonald’s Corp., Toyota Motor Co., Verizon Communications, Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, which collectively invested nearly one half billion dollars in the Latino market.
At the other end of the spectrum, the study found that toy manufacturers are allocating on average of just 1.1% of their total advertising budgets to target Latinos. Similarly, consumer electronics companies such as Microsoft Corp., Dell, Inc., and Bose Corp., allocated just more than $32 million of their $2.7 billion total advertising budgets to Spanish-language advertising, while Apple, Inc., in 2007 invested less than only one percent of its total ad budget to target Hispanics.
According to AHAA, these investments are disproportionately small when compared with America’s Hispanic population and represent missed opportunities to reach the 46 million US Hispanics with more than $900 billion to spend. The Latino population, said AHAA, comprises a large percentage of early technology adopters and heavy users of consumer electronics.
“Latinos are engaging with new media and new devices more rapidly and more frequently than their non-Hispanic counterparts and in fact, spend more time and money on the web for things like travel, pet supplies, automotive parts, baby supplies, and consumer electronics than non-Hispanics,” said said Jos? L?pez-Varela, chairman of the AAHA. The investments just don’t match up to the potential of the Latino market.”
Although there are numerous factors that impact purchase decisions, based on population and buying power alone AHAA recommends advertisers should be investing slightly more than eight percent of their total advertising budgets to Latinos.
About the study: The AHAA Right Spend Study is based on Nielsen’s data collection of spending on Spanish-language network and cable television, spot television purchases, local newspapers, national magazines, and local radio in major markets. AHAA’s top 500 advertisers ranked by total spending for 2007 can be viewed here (pdf), and AHAA’s top 500 advertisers ranked by total Hispanic spending for 2007 can be viewed here (pdf).
