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As publisher of AOL's Spanish language service AOL Latino, Mark López oversees the interactive marketing sales team that is responsible for building new advertising partnerships for clients looking to reach the burgeoning U.S. Hispanic consumer. Most recently, López was Director of Sales Development, Multicultural for AOL Media Networks, where he developed and executed creative multicultural sales and marketing solutions for clients as well as coordinated programs and product teams to drive revenue goals.

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Reaching Hispanics Online, Part II: AOL Latino Publisher Mark Lopez Takes an Inside Peek at the Exploding Marketplace

Written on
October 6th 2006
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by Mark Lopez  |
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From these survey results, it’s clear that tapping the bilingual segment is critical. But also understanding diversity, Hispanic online social behavior, Hispanic language needs, and their unique shared passions may help engage this expanding market segment.

Online communications among Hispanics goes well beyond email. Hispanics meet electronically with others in unusually high numbers. They visit chat rooms, send instant messages, read blogs and post to online message boards at far greater numbers than their online general population counterparts. They are looking to be entertained — everything from music and entertainment to sports and news. Hispanics use the Internet to its full capacity. They view the Web as an educational tool that helps them improve themselves, whether it’s to buy a car, learn English or get a handle on their finances.

Additionally, a recurring dominant theme among Hispanics getting online is self-improvement. Hispanics want to successfully master financial websites. They want to learn about how to motivate themselves to start businesses and generally become more successful in this country.

As an example, In July 2006, AOL Latino and Ford Motor Company relaunched the Mi Negocio site, the first-ever Spanish language online business community hub designed to help Hispanic entrepreneurs start or grow a business. The hub not only continued to offer translated key articles from leading English language business publications but also began offering advice from leading industry players in the Hispanic market like Lionel Sosa, Louis Barajas and Mayrah Rocafort-Mercado.

Registered users could also submit a business profile. These profiles were used to create one of the largest small business directories of Hispanic-owned companies. The continuous success of this initiative clearly shows how a creative and smartly crafted empowerment message works well with this community.

Based on our research, we also see that online Hispanics enjoy social networking online: 68% use instant messaging; 63% share photos online; 52% read or post blogs; 43% visit social networking sites; and 40% talk on a phone using the Internet. Additionally, this community prefers websites that focus on news, as well as websites that provide mapping capabilities, music, weather, health and travel information.

In conclusion, as marketers look for new ways to reach the largest minority group in the country, my suggestion is to develop a creative online campaign that will complement and strengthen any marketing strategy. Through AOL Latino’s recent research, we have learned that nearly half of online Hispanics watch TV and go online at the same. Reaching this audience through online advertising, when developed creatively and strategically with language considerations and empowerment messages, can be just what any brand marketer is looking to achieve. There is still a growing Hispanic online audience that’s waiting and ready to be tapped.

*According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s August 2006 report, 42,687,224 Hispanics live in the U.S.



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