Think Multicultural

Portada today goes into the way-back machine to highlight some of the information in the Pew Report regarding Hispanics who are not online.

According to the Pew study, 54% of Hispanic adults are not online. Despite the shrinking digital divide, half of offline Hispanics simply do not have access. As Portada points out though, the more interesting statistic is that 18% of offline Hispanics are not interested in going online.

The Portada author decides that this lack of interest is due to a lack of relevant and compelling content. This would go a long way to backing up the thought that the Hispanic Web is still in the early stages of its development and that the content is coming.

However, 30% of white adults are not online, and 31% of those white non-users are not interested in using it, and there’s plenty of English-language content. I’m not going to do the math right now,* but as more Hispanics have access and the use/non-use numbers approach the general market, the proportion of non-users who aren’t interested will probably get very close to that 31% number, indicating that it is actually an access issue and not a relevancy issue.

[*OK, I went back and did the math. Basically the numbers say that 9.3% of all white adults are not interested in being online, and 9.72% of Hispanic adults are not interested. That’s not a content issue. Hispanics just need access.]

[Let me begin by saying that this is not a paid plug. I just read the rest of this post and it sounds like I may work for Media Economics Group. I don’t know these guys and have never even met them. I just like what I’ve seen of the service so far.]

I’m so busy (isn’t everybody?) and I get so much email (doesn’t everybody?) that I usually skim and delete email newsletters as fast as I get them. But today I got the Hispanic Online newsletter from Media Economics Group. This thing is terrific. I had completely forgotten I had even signed up for it, and suddenly I have a list of new Hispanic online campaigns and, for some of them, links to examples of the creative. It’s just great.

My only complaint is that it doesn’t say what agency did the creative (or whether it was done in-house), but otherwise I just can’t say enough.

And on another level, this is an example of good email marketing. They’re giving away enough of the product to show how they provide value, and creating interest in what more there is if you pay for it. Needless to say I’m looking in to what you get when you pay for it. I’ve signed up for a free trial and will follow up after I’ve had a chance to check it out.

This just in, when it comes to online advertising more and flashier is better than less and boring.