Hispanic digital media spend will surpass print and radio, as in the general market. Digital media spend in the Hispanic market will continue to remain far behind TV, radio and print (approximately 5% in 2011). With all the talk about increased spending on Hispanic digital by agencies and marketers alike, we will look back on 2012 and see digital spend stayed well below double digit territory and is nowhere near surpassing radio or print (as we saw in the general market in 2011).

Hispanic ad spend will stay flat in 2012. If there is one prediction you can take to the bank, it’s this one – Hispanic media ad spend will grow in 2012 (compared to 2011). While there is still concern over a double-dip recession in 2012 (particularly as things unravel in Europe), the 2012 elections and the juggernaut that is Univision will assure growth in the market. Portada recently released a report projecting 4-5% media growth in the Hispanic market based on a survey of Hispanic marketing professionals. I think this is conservative.

Marketers will increase their budget allocations to the Hispanic market. Although the previous prediction would logically lead most to believe that marketers will increase their Hispanic budget allocations (the percentage of their overall marketing budgets directed at the U.S. Hispanic market), the sad reality is that things will remain status quo when it comes to the approach most marketers take to allocating budgets to the Hispanic market. Most of the growth in Hispanic ad spend in 2012 will be driven by new entrants into the space – led by political advertising (not just candidates – but the also super PACs – all of whom are finally paying attention to Hispanic voters). Existing Hispanic advertisers will continue to maintain their Hispanic spend in the same range as in 2010.

Mainstream digital publishers will stop launching English-language “Latino” Websites. The last 2 years have seen major media companies jump into the Hispanic digital space – targeting the oft discussed bicultural and English dominant Latino, including FoxNewsLatino.com. NBCLatino.com, and The Huffington Post Latino Voices. Some might assume the space is now crowded, or that competing with media powerhouses like News Corp, AOL and NBC Universal is futile. Well, I see more of these “Latino” extensions coming in 2012. Why? The barrier to entry is so low. With digital, unlike the offline world of broadcast or print, there is very little capital costs (if any) associated with launching a new publication. Sure, a good Website infrastructure is not cheap, and producing quality content is not easy (or inexpensive), but compared to the printing and infrastructure costs of launching a new Spanish-language daily or the licensing fees associated with launching a new Spanish-language radio station, the costs are marginal and worth the risk. One interesting ramification of this new media growth will be that there will be many more options to reach English-speaking Latinos than ever before.

Mobile will finally become a key part of the Hispanic marketing mix for most advertisers. “2012 will be the year of Hispanic mobile marketing.” I’m sure you’ve heard or read this somewhere. With all the data on Hispanics’ heavy use of mobile and major growth in general market mobile marketing, it stands to reason that Hispanic mobile will come of age in 2012. Unfortunately, this is a major case of all bark and no bite. I see a couple of problems with these naïve predictions. # 1: Where will the money come from? With most mobile media programs funded out of digital media buckets, and Hispanic digital media spending in the 5-6% range, mobile marketing programs will be hard pressed to find funding in an already dry well. #2 With so much of the growth in mobile activity being driven by mobile Web browsing and tablet use, I do not anticipate significant investment on the part of marketers into Hispanic mobile- and tablet-optimized sites (when most hardly keep up their browser-based Hispanic Web and microsites) #3 Hispanic mobile and social media are inextricably intertwined, and Hispanic social media is still in its infancy (see below).

Clients will continue moving their Hispanic advertising to general market shops. As the economy slowly starts improving in 2012 (I’m an optimist), I expect there will be less pressure on marketers to consolidate their general market and Hispanic advertising programs in one ad shop. Equally important, many veteran Hispanic marketers who consolidated will likely miss the attention to detail and specialized resources they got from Hispanic ad agencies compared to the Hispanic divisions of general market shops. Finally, I think general market shops are less excited about investing in Hispanic capabilities and divisions after experiencing how little budget is actually allocated to these programs. 5% of a client’s marketing budget is not too exciting when you already have 95% of it.

Hispanic social media will become a major force in the industry. Again – lots of buzz, but very little substance to back it up. While 2010 and 2011 have seen a lot attention placed on engaging Hispanics in social media, with the establishment of two rival Hispanic social media organizations and countless blog networks touting thousands of influential Hispanic bloggers, the space is still in its infancy and will take a while to catch up to the general market in scale and sophistication. While I applaud the efforts of organizations like LATISM, Hispanicize, and Latina Bloggers Connect among others, large reach and national marketer scale is still missing from the space. Specifically, as more and more Latinos start blogging and building large networks on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, there is a key missing ingredient –an audience of millions of Latinos consuming their content. Until that happens, Hispanic social media will be a niche within a niche.

We won’t see any new Hispanic advertising agencies open their doors in 2012. No matter how challenging or competitive the Hispanic ad industry gets, it always amazes me that new Hispanic ad agencies, PR shops, and other marketing agencies are launched every year. I don’t have an official count, but I know of at least a dozen or so shops launched between 2009 and 2011 (in arguably the most challenging 3 years the industry has faced). It’s quite a testament to the resilience and constant innovation within the industry that optimistic entrepreneurs see opportunities to make a better mousetrap in our business.

I think 2012 will be a good year for our industry – filled it’s fair share of challenges, but more importantly, opportunities to grow and prosper, as Hispanics become a bigger and more integral element of the American corporate and cultural life.

(an edited version of this article originally ran on MediaPost’s Engage Hispanic blog on January 5, 2012)

If you haven’t read it, give it a once over (it’s re-posted at the end of this blog)

As we near the end of 2011 (isn’t that crazy?), it seems like as good a time as any to reflect on whether any of my predictions panned out.

I could make a pretty strong case that predictions #1-#4 were on point. Not seeing much movement on prediction #5 though.

What do you think?

—————————————–

I made the bold prediction almost a year ago today that Hispanic marketing was in for big changes in 2011. I have to admit I think I will be proven wrong.

I think 2011 will result in even more changes than I boldly forecast last year. In fact, I think by the time 2012 rolls around, we’re barely going to recognize the Hispanic marketing space that has seen tremendous growth (more people, more media companies, and more agencies) but changed very little since 2000. Here are my revised, emboldened predictions for Hispanic marketing in 2011:

Prediction #1 – The death of the Hispanic advertising agency
2010 was most definitely the year of the full-on assault on Hispanic advertising agencies (starting with the Home Depot controversy in April, Crispin Porter’s absorption of Burger King Hispanic in August, and the ANA Multicultural Conference controversy in September). 2011 will no doubt see a continued push by general market agencies into the Hispanic market. Not only will they continue this push by staffing up on Hispanic advertising talent, but also through acquisitions (I have firsthand knowledge of at least a few such acquisitions plans from some big ad agency players). Moreover, marketers, particularly those in “minority-majority” markets such as Los Angeles, will begin to follow El Pollo Loco’s lead and consolidate their Hispanic and General Market advertising accounts. Add in the fact that Hispanic ad agencies have been painfully slow in building digital capabilities (they’ve made a valiant “too little, too late” effort during the last 12-18 months), and the writing is on the wall – the start of a slow death for the Hispanic advertising agency model as we now know it.

Prediction #2 – Hispanic PR officially becomes Hispanic Social Media
2010 was also the year that Hispanic PR agencies took the plunge and fully embraced social media as the future of their industry. The success of the inaugural Hispanic PR & Social Media Conference and the LATISM Latino2 tour highlighted the coming of age of Hispanic social media. Hispanic bloggers and social media influencers are establishing themselves as the key centers of influence in the Hispanic community. This was coupled with the continued decline in Spanish print media (magazines and newspapers), which has started to feel the decline in readership resulting from consumer’s shift online and the recession. Looking ahead at 2011, I see a continued decline in Hispanic print coupled with an equally sharp rise in niche and “long-tail” Hispanic digital publishers (whether they are bloggers, Facebook influencers, or small Websites) – with what were formerly “Hispanic PR” agencies and professionals positioning themselves as the expert guides of this growing and increasingly prominent Hispanic social media space.

Prediction #3 – Digital leap-frogs “Hispanic”
During the boom years of Hispanic digital (2005-2008), the Hispanic digital media market looked a lot like the Hispanic traditional media landscape – a handful of prominent Spanish-language portals / mega-publishers that owned the market (e.g. Batanga.com, Univision.com, Terra.com, and Starmedia.com), surrounded by a lots of smaller upstart ad networks (e.g. Gorilla Nation, HispanoClick, Consorte Media) and a handful of general market publisher extensions into the Hispanic market (e.g. ESPNDeportes.com, CNNEspanol.com, etc.) that got the scraps. During the last 12-18 months, the Hispanic digital media market has fragmented, led by technology such as behavioral targeting, demand side platforms (DSPs) and ad networks with immense scale and reach. While the Univision.com’s and Terra.com’s of the Hispanic digital media market will not be going away anytime soon, their days as “market makers” are numbered. Looking ahead, as Hispanic digital media consumption becomes more social (Facebook) and personal (mobile), and mirrored Spanish Websites /microsites become a relic of the past (recent AOL research and Best Buy’s well chronicled experience shows that Hispanic consumers have come to view Spanish sites as inherently inferior to “main” English language sites), the Hispanic digital marketing space will be unlike anything veteran Hispanic marketers have grown accustomed to seeing in their analog Hispanic world.

Prediction #4 – The multicultural mainstream becomes a reality
Multicultural consumers already make up 35% of the entire U.S. population. Guess what will happen to that percentage when the 2010 Census numbers come out this spring? Welcome to the new “multicultural mainstream” – a new America where close to 40% of the overall population is multicultural (Hispanic, Black, Asian and multi-racial). DMA’s like Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, and Washington, DC are already “minority majority” markets (Hispanics, Blacks and Asians combined make up more than 50% of the total population) – expect cities like New York and Chicago to join the list in 2011. This will only put more pressure on advertisers, particularly regional ones, to re-assess how they allocate marketing resources to ethnic groups like Hispanics. My theory is more of the “El Pollo Loco” phenomenon from Prediction #1 – as advertisers consolidate their Hispanic (and other multicultural marketing efforts) with their general market ad agencies.

Prediction #5 – The birth of the Hispanic Youth Market
The last few years have seen a steady increase in dialogue, events and attention among marketers about the Hispanic youth market (Hispanics under the age of 24). The statistics are already mind-boggling:
• In 13 years, 50% of Americans under 18 will be minorities (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)
• 80% are US-born (Source: University of California, San Francisco)

I predict that the 2010 Census figures regarding Hispanic Youth will be the most unexpected… and growing. Yet the Hispanic youth market represents a conundrum for Hispanic marketers – a growing market that increasingly identifies and shows pride in its Hispanic heritage but consumes very little Spanish-language media and sees the world through color-blind lenses. This will be the toughest nut to crack for marketers and advertising professionals of all stripes – general market, Hispanic, digital, direct response, social media and everything in between. Yet I see Hispanic youth as the biggest marketing opportunity to come out of 2011.

Think of 2011 as the year of creative destruction in Hispanic marketing – some things will die, a lot will change, and brand new opportunities will sprout from the ashes.

The 2000 Census was particularly impactful, with tons of media attention from the cover of Time magazine to lead stories throughout most of the American media. In fact, since the 2000 Census figures ushered in this new level of attention to the Hispanic market, there have been at least:
• 45 new Hispanic ad agencies launched
• 38 new Spanish-language newspapers put into circulation
• 1,250 new Spanish-language and Hispanic-targeted television networks on air
• 100+ new Hispanic-targeted Websites

Most importantly, there was a significant expansion in resources dedicated to the Hispanic market by Corporate America, primarily in the form new marketing hires, new departments and groups focused on the Hispanic market, numerous acquisitions, and countless new product launches.

Naturally, there was a lot of excitement and anticipation in our industry leading towards the unveiling of the 2010 Census results. I think it’s fair to say that most in our industry were expecting the 2010 Hispanic population data to spur at least as much new activity as the 2000 and 1990 Census results did. Many, I would argue, expected even more attention and business activity to have been spurred by the 2010 Census in the year following the unveiling of the results.

Well, it’s been almost 6 months since the 2010 Census results were released, and everyone now knows the Hispanic market has topped 50 million.

And tell me if I’m wrong, but there really hasn’t been that big of a boom in the Hispanic market?

Talking to industry colleagues in the last few months, they corroborate my theory. No Time magazine cover stories. No new Hispanic agency reviews by companies that have yet to jump into the Hispanic market. There have been very few, if any, new Hispanic ad agencies or Hispanic media companies?

A lot of this lack of activity can surely be attributed to the ongoing economic issues facing the country and the fact that a lot of companies are hesitate to invest in new markets and programs.

But I think there is more going on here than just the economy. Here are my theories, in order of magnitude of impact:

1. Most of the low hanging fruit has been picked – Most major marketers in the U.S. are already involved at some level in Hispanic advertising. There really weren’t that many companies left on the sidelines as of April 2011.

2. The Census numbers revealed two Hispanic markets – According to the latest Census figures, a whopping 63% of U.S. Hispanics were born in the U.S. That one statistic has underlined a profound debate in the industry about whether Hispanics, particularly English-speaking more acculturated Hispanics, are still a distinct segment, with distinct media consumption habits that Hispanic-specific marketing programs should or even could effectively reach.

3. The power of expectations – One can argue that 2010 was the first Census when everyone had big expectations regarding the growth of the Hispanic population. I think a lot of people were expecting big numbers, north of 50 million. Bottom line, no one was surprised by the eventual figure, and so it did not lead to new activity, since everyone had already planned for it. Put another way, the effects of the anticipated Census results were already baked into most company’s plans.

4. The trend towards general market consolidation is impacting the industry – Anyone who has ever read my past blogs knows that there has been an undeniable trend towards marketers consolidating their Hispanic marketing and advertising programs with general market agencies. That, in my opinion, has reduced the prominence, role and budgets of many Hispanic marketing initiatives.

5. More Hispanics doesn’t mean more spending – As the economy has struggled, minority groups like Hispanics and African-Americans have borne a bigger negative impact, as revealed by the unemployment figures in the Hispanic market, which are much higher than the overall national averages. So although the population has increased, many marketers are seeing a Hispanic consumer with less disposable income, and therefore a potentially less attractive market than in past years.

Have the 2010 Census figures been as big of a let-down for you as well? Is it too early to call? I’d love to hear your thoughts…

(an edited version of this article originally ran on MediaPost’s Engage Hispanic blog on 9/1/2011)

However, anyone who has been paying attention to the Hispanic advertising industry in the last 3 years knows that things have started to change, as two forces have emerged:

1) So called “general market” agencies have created Hispanic advertising teams or departments within their agencies to pursue this specialty advertising work

2) Some clients have begun to consolidate their general market and Hispanic assignments with a single agency – usually with general market agencies (but with ethnic shops in a few rare occasions)

The trends are obviously not positive for Hispanic ad agencies, as they see big agencies “crowding” into their space and their role increasingly diminished.

The trends playing out in the Hispanic advertising industry appear similar to those that have taken place more generally in the ad agency business as new disciplines have emerged over the last few decades. Every couple of years, a new discipline has emerged – whether it was direct response in the late 70s / early 80s or digital in the late 90s – that has had a significant impact on the ad business. With the emergence of each new discipline, another cycle has taken place: as the new disciplines emerged, specialist agencies initially arose to address them. However, over time, these new disciplines were “integrated” into larger agency offerings, and the specialist agencies disappeared or were absorbed into larger agencies.

Yet every once in a while, major tectonic shifts have occurred that represented much more than the addition of a new discipline to the ad agency repertoire. The emergence of TV in the 1950’s marked the first big tectonic shift of the modern ad agency age, ushering in the “Mad men” era that focused advertising on the “big idea,” based on emotional advertising broadcast to the masses using network TV. I would argue that the second wave of digital media (the first one came in the late 90′s with the initial “dot com” boom), ushered in by social media in the early 2000’s marked the latest tectonic shift in the ad business – forcing ad agencies to fundamentally change their focus towards two-way, pull-focused marketing, leveraging connected consumers as critical agents in their ad programs.

So is Hispanic advertising, and multicultural advertising more generally, simply a new discipline, like direct response, that larger agencies will simply “bolt-on” to their service offering?

Or is Hispanic and multicultural advertising a tectonic shift that will force agencies to significantly change their approach to advertising?

I would argue the latter.

As the demographics of the U.S. rapidly change (as the Census data clearly show), the model of an ad agency that focuses on some amorphous, non-ethnic “general market” will have to evolve… and rapidly.

And I don’t think “bolting on” a Hispanic team or a multicultural department to a large agency will cut it. That’s a lot like a creating a digital group within a traditional ad agency.

What do you think?

(an edited version of this article originally ran on MediaPost’s Engage Hispanic blog on 8/4/2011)

Obviously this is a philosophy I have embraced for years, so it’s nice to hear a smart colleague join the growing chorus of voices calling for a sea change in how Hispanic advertising is executed.

While I support David’s thesis, implementing it in practice opens up a whole can of worms that need to be thought through. Among them are:
– If Hispanic advertising moves beyond language, how does that further complicate the dynamic between Hispanic ad agencies and their increasingly antagonistic general market pals?
– Even if agencies started pushing this philosophy (as we have at Sensis), it doesn’t mean that clients are going to buy-in (as we have experienced)
– If Spanish language advertising is wrong, how do we reconcile that with the huge ratings of the Spanish-language broadcast and radio?

One interesting question I’ve thought a lot about is whether this type of philosophy, if implemented, would evolve Hispanic advertising to look a lot more like African American advertising?

Lot’s to think about and much change to come…

Remember Generación ñ?

It seems like every year a new term hits the industry to describe U.S.-born, acculturated Hispanic youth. While I don’t have a personal preference, I think all these terms are starting to get confusing, especially to marketing executives that are the ultimate audience for such terminology. We need, as an industry, to get marketers to start thinking differently about the Hispanic market precisely because the change that these younger, 2nd and 3rd generation Latinos represent.

Unfortunately, the message gets lost if we’re all talking in a different language. Not the mention the irony that most of us are in the brand building business – and we’re breaking one of our cardinal rules.

Maybe someone can launch a massive online poll and we can all agree.

What do you think?

Doesn’t it seem like all the articles, conference presentations, and news around the Hispanic market focus on tactics and the status quo these days (and for that matter the last 5 years)?

It seems like the 2010 Census figures have only added to this trend, with an unending stream of articles and webinars rehashing variations of the “wow, Hispanics now total 50 million – that’s a lot… pay attention” script. No in-depth analysis – no critical interpretation of what companies should be doing.

I’m very disappointed, because when I first got into this business 13 years ago, the industry was vibrant and the dialogue was thought-provoking.

I know there are a lot of very smart people still working in Hispanic marketing. I am even more confident that there is a new generation of professionals working in Hispanic advertising that have great ideas and are more than ready to question the status quo.

Let’s elevate the discussion. Let’s question paradigms. Let’s look at the Hispanic market with a fresh perspective and throw out all the assumptions. Let’s imagine the possibilities that technology and population growth can create for a new Hispanic market – one that possibly looks nothing like the one we’ve seen the last 20 years.

And may I suggest if you’re reading this and have big ideas – start a blog. Let me know (so I can link to you) and let’s upend this industry in a good way!

According to the 2010 Pew Hispanic Center data, 62% of all Hispanics in the United States in 2009 were born in the U.S.

That is huge, and I anticipate that number going up when the Census publishes updated figures in the coming month. This figure represents a seismic shift in the way most people — particularly marketers — think about Hispanics.

Why is 62 more important than 50 million? It definitively changes how we view Hispanics in this country from a large and growing population of immigrants to a large and growing ethnic group. Think about all the implications of a population that is U.S.-born vs. one that is foreign born — language, acculturation, education, income. That is every demographic variable we in the marketing industry depend on to define the Hispanic market.

Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the numbers and that’s when a real life example helps bring a point home. During the most recent Memorial Day weekend, I took my family to the Los Angeles Zoo. I think it’s safe to say that the Saturday during Memorial Day weekend is probably one of the busiest single days at the L.A. Zoo, and probably one of the best bargains in town for a young family. The long lines (it took an hour just to buy a ticket) and large number of families that packed the zoo definitely support this thesis. As a marketing professional and obsessive people-watcher, I couldn’t help but evaluate the hundreds of people I saw during my five-hour visit.

First off, about seven out of 10 families were Hispanic. Interestingly, no more than two out of 10 were speaking Spanish. I heard lots of Spanish accents, but most of the conversations, especially among the kids (easily 50% of the crowd), were in English. Ironically, my kids were the few speaking Spanish.

Now why the zoo observations? I know it’s anecdotal, and not a statistically significant sample of the population of Los Angeles. However, you would be hard-pressed to find a better cross-section of Angelinos on a given day in a given location. I think my experience at the L.A. Zoo supports what the 2010 Census and Pew Hispanic figures are really telling us — the U.S. Hispanic population is in for some significant changes in the next 10 years. The same Pew Hispanic Center report provides support for my anecdotal observations:

The majority, or “bulge,” of young Hispanics (14 or younger) are native-born. In 10 years, just in time for the 2020 Census figures, most of the Hispanic children I observed at the zoo and represented at the bottom of the right-hand distribution graph will be in the coveted 18-24 demographic that drives most advertising. Think about that a second.

So what will happen to Hispanic advertising in 10 years? Will it still be primarily Spanish-language ads running on Spanish-language media? If so, will it be relegated to a smaller niche than today, focused on a shrinking 30-something percent of foreign-born Hispanics? Or will it evolve with the Hispanic population and look like the more acculturated, nuanced market that will encapsulate the entire Hispanic market in 10 years?

Conversely, how will the Hispanic market change mainstream marketing? In 10 years, when Hispanics make up 26% or more of 18-24 year olds — based on 2009 Census Population Projections — what will beer commercials on the Super Bowl look like and who will be creating them?

Moreover, my colleagues and I at Sensis have published a primary research effort we’re calling the “Hispanic Persona Project” – aimed at creating personas representing the entire U.S. Hispanic Internet population. I encourage you to download the free report at www.HispanicPersonaProject.com.

However, in this last installment of a 3-part discussion on Hispanics, social media and personas, I want to take the final results of the Hispanic Persona Project and apply them in the real world of online Hispanics. A “how-to” guide to using Hispanic personas specifically and personas more generally.

Establishing a Primary Persona

The first step in using personas is to identify your primary persona. We developed 4 personas as part of Hispanic Persona Project, and generally speaking, organizations create 2-4 personas. But personas are not meant to be weighted equally – they are most effective when a primary persona is identified that will take preference and priority over the others. There are different ways to identify a primary persona, but a good rule of thumb is to select the persona whose needs most overlap with the other personas.

Now the fun part –using personas to plan marketing programs. Let’s apply Hispanic Personas across three dimensions: 1) Paid Media, 2) Planning interaction and 3) Planning experiences.

Planning Paid Media

Paid media planning is a good place to start using personas. Starting with targeting, we can utilize context. For an example, let’s look at the Carlos, the “Nostalgic Newbie.” We know from his persona that connecting with his home country is a key element of his behavior. U.S. geo-targeted digital media buys on Latin American Websites and ad networks will be highly effective. However digital media offers even more advanced targeting capabilities, such as behavioral targeting, that can help us plan paid media programs. Using Ivan, the “Tech-fluential” as an example, it would be very difficult to “target” him based on his media consumption in a scalable way simply by buying the handful of Websites he visits that are different from his general market counterparts. However, behavioral-based media buys, where you target him on mainstream sites based on his “long-tail” behavior visiting smaller Hispanic sites and blogs can be powerful. Finally, recent research from Yahoo! shows that factoring in mindsets can have a big impact on the effectiveness of paid advertising – advertising has to be contextually relevant when people are engaging in online passions, while users connecting with friends or consuming entertainment will be much more amenable to “unexpected” offers and ads.

Planning Experiences (Owned Media)

Personas also provide useful texture to identify and optimize owned digital experiences, such as Websites, mobile pages, and social media platforms (Facebook pages, YouTube channels and Twitter skins, etc.). Looking at Sandra the “Social Techie,” it’s clear that we need to establish consistent, yet customized experiences available across multiple devices – such as browser-based Websites, mobile Websites, and potentially destinations accessible via new devices such as tablets. We can also use personas to prioritize features and functionality. Whereas an electronics company might provide Ivan the “Tech-fluential” with links to online retailers where he can buy their product, they would emphasize price comparison information and product specifications with Armando the “Utilitarian Explorer.”

Planning Interaction (Earned Media)

Personas arguably provide the most value (vis-à-vis other planning tools) when we begin to plan digital interaction that generates the type of earned media that is the holy grail of social media marketing programs. How do we get someone to “like” a brand page on Facebook? How do we motivate a small percentage of Hispanics to share content with their online network? What motivates someone to create content that is favorable to your product or service? Looking at the 4 Hispanic personas we created, it’s clear that two of the personas represent the majority of the opportunity – the “Tech-fluential” and the “Social Techie.” In this sense, if your campaign is emphasizing social interaction, you will probably want to prioritize and focus on one of these personas. Digging deeper, you can establish your social media campaign objectives based on their behavioral profiles. If your target is Sandra the “Social Technie”, then you can realistically expect sharing of content and establish KPIs around that kind of interaction. However, if Armando is your target, you should manage expectations to focus on impressions and “time spent” metrics.

Where the rubber really meets the road with personas is in their ability to help organization understand what motivates users. In social media this is critical, as motivation will drive online behavior and interaction. With Ivan, the “Tech-influential,” that motivation is influence – this persona places a high value on being “in the know,” so offering him social functionality, like the ability to retweet content or influencing the opinion of a prominent blogger he follows will be highly valuable. With Sandra, the Social Techie, the motivation is popularity, staying in touch, and being heard. She will be highly influenced by the behavior of her peers and giving her the ability to easily share portable content will pay big dividends.

Takeaways

While this article was a hypothetical application of broad personas, the value they provide only amplifies when you create your own personas (Hispanic or not) and focus your application on a specific industry, product category or segment. Moreover, personas are dynamic planning tools that are meant to be “enhanced’ with additional data points. After going to market, you should regularly optimize your personas with Web analytics data, digital media tracking results, and social media monitoring outputs from past campaigns.

(an edited version of this article originally ran on MediaPost’s Engage Hispanic blog on 5/5/2011)

I know everybody and their mother is putting out their analysis of the U.S. Census figures these days, particularly as they relate to the Hispanic population. However this article is definitely worth your time, as it tackles some pretty big issues and implications, both in the near-term and in the future (a few generations out).

In full disclosure, I was interviewed for the article (my take on the implications for business and marketing is included) and Wharton is my alma mater.