Think Multicultural

I had a very interesting conversation with the CEO of a prominent Hispanic Web publisher yesterday. We were discussing the challenges facing the Hispanic online advertising market, vis-a-vis the latest AdAge Hispanic Fact Pack that showed online received a paltry 4.6% of all Hispanic advertising expenditures vs. the 63%+ that went to broadcast and local TV.

He shared an interesting question that he posed to the Media Director at a prominent Hispanic ad agency - what is Univision’s unduplicated reach? The Media Director had no idea. So this very smart CEO asked a few other Media Directors at big Hispanic shops, and got the same glazed look. No one could answer the question.

This publisher, and countless others, subscribe to comScore to provide their unique monthly traffic, by which they live and die. If you look at the latest comScore Hispanic panel data, the top Hispanic focused Web sites have between 0.5-3 million monthly unique visitors per month. If you expand that list to all Web sites, regardless of content focus, the top 10 sites get between 4 and 15 million monthly unique Hispanics.

While we all know that comScore is flawed, most every publisher will tell you that comScore numbers are overly conservative and skew their unique visitor numbers down (significantly in some cases). Therefore, it would not be a theoretical leap to say that comScore data provides a low-end approximation of the unique, unduplicated reach of these Web sites.

Back to the question of Univision’s unduplicated reach? Any ideas? I have heard some guesstimates in the low 2 million range for their most popular prime time telenovelas. That is about the same as the number of unique monthly Hispanic visitors that Yahoo Telemundo pulls (according to comScore), who is charging in the mid-to-upper teen CPMs and probably getting about 1/3 of that 3.7% reported by the AdAge Hispanic Fact Pack.

Is it me, or does the market seem completely out-of-whack?

I’d love to hear some opinions and feedback on both sides.

I’ve been talking a lot lately about a pilot mobile program our agency developed for the U.S. Army.

Mobile Marketer just ran this story on the program.

Without sounding too self-serving here, I think this was a very interesting program for 2 reasons:

1. It was a dedicated Hispanic mobile program (which you don’t see a lot of yet) and,
2. It has started out slowly, but we’re gathering some very valuable data and learnings

To the first point - I hope that the publicity that this mobile program has garnered will convince Hispanic agencies and their clients that it’s OK to get off the sidelines and try mobile in the Hispanic market. The important point here is to position a first-time mobile program as a pilot, equally focused on results and learnings.

This leads to the second point - like any other marketing discipline, you can’t expect to have success with a program when you don’t have any experience working in the medium. Moreover, you need to take baby-steps before you start running. An SMS program is a great way to take those first baby steps. Trust me, it’s only a matter of time before data comes out about Apple iPhone 3G penetration in the Hispanic market. Are you going to be ready to start pushing out iPhone applications to the Hispanic market?

A few months ago I posted some interesting data on the commercial potential of the disabled market in the U.S. I think the next 2-3 years will bring a lot of change and attention to this market and the broader importance of other related segments as 3 major trends come together:

1. Section 508 and Universal Design initiatives expand beyond the Federal government
2. Increasing numbers of aging Baby Boomers going online
3. The 2010 Census

Since 2005, pretty much every Federal agency and all of their departments have made their Web sites Section 508 compliant. In case you’re not up on Section 508 compliance, it basically means that a Web site is built in such a way that it can be used just as easily by someone who is disabled (and their assistance technology like screen readers for the blind) as someone who is not. However, more and more non-Federal entities are embracing the basic tenets of universal design embodied in Section 508 requirements. The ITTATC defines universal design as the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. I know we are seeing more and more clients request accessibility as a requirement during Web site redesign projects.

Another big trend that is increasing the market for accessible Web sites is the increase in the aging Baby Boomer population that is going online. In 2006, the leading edge of the Baby Boom generation turns 60. Moreover, 60 million U.S. baby boomers that will use the Internet this year (eMarketer “Baby Boomers and Silver Surfers: Two Generations Online,” Dec 2007) In fact, the over-60 online population will be a large and growing segment , going from 17.7 million Internet users in 2006 to 25.3 million in 2011. Considering that the 2000 U.S. Census found that 41.9% of adults 65 years and older identified themselves as having a disability, there is a growing mass market for accessible Web communications.

Finally, the 2010 Census will undoubtedly bring to the forefront fresh new data on both the disabled and aging populations, as well as their technology usage. What is now a niche area of communications and technology strategy will undoubtedly become a front-page story, with a mass of government and commercial organizations rushing to service this new “demographic” online.

These trends all point to need for organizations to take an integrated approach to their accessibility strategy now, that includes the disabled, the aging market, novice technology users and even non-English speaking audiences. Those organizations that start thinking and planning for this coming “wave” of information supporting the importance of universal design will be positioning to reap the benefits and expand their reach and/or customer-base.

To find out more about universal design and Section 508 compliance, check out a free Webinar by my agency making Web sites Accessible – http://webinar.sensisagency.com