Fox Network Group is expected to announce a new unit, Fox Hispanic Media, as part of its efforts to target this ethnic group with programming and tailored advertising. This push to target Hispanics via television comes as Internet ad platforms have been scrambling in parallel to offer similar opportunities - and grappling with similar issues as they do so, such as changing pricing models and the difficulty of targeting a bilingual group.
Briefly, Fox Hispanic Media, will house three Spanish-language networks, including a new family-oriented cable channel called Nat Geo Mundo, the Wall Street Journal reported. The network is being launched after conversations with advertisers reporting they are increasing budgets by double digits for Hispanic spending, "and they need new television offerings to absorb those increases," Fox International Channels chief Hernan Lopez, says (via the Journal).
As the channel launches, though, these advertisers are finding that the price for ads are in a state of flux, primarily because demand for appropriate vehicles is so high - and so limited. Ad time on a Spanish-language television channel used to cost half to 75% of similar English-language networks, the Journal reports, but that gap is narrowing quickly.
Similar Shifts, Another Problem
Conversely, online advertisers are finding similar shifts in pricing and the supply and demand of available platforms appropriate for Hispanic targeting. Adding to the confusion, it can be surprisingly difficult to capture the number of sales that bilingual Hispanics are generating on English-language websites from Spanish-language offline media campaigns, Response Magazine recently noted. It pointed to statistics that found Hispanics spend an average of 32.1 hrs per week consuming Spanish-language offline media compared with 22.3 hours consuming English-language offline media.
Yet, according to comScore figures, about 70% of U.S. Hispanic online users prefer to surf the web in English. Figuring out how to measure online responses generated from offline Hispanic media campaigns, in short, is still a major challenge, Response concluded.
An Easy to Reach Group
Still, parsing these trends are expected to pay off handsomely for advertisers. Hispanics are the ideal online consumers, willing to engage across multiple digital platforms and more receptive to new technology than non-Hispanics, according to a study conducted by comScore and commissioned by Terra. While non-Hispanics may tend to look at interactive advertising as intrusive, Hispanics seem to be appreciative of the brands that are trying to reach out to them via culturally relevant messaging in English and Spanish.
For example, Hispanics are more responsive to targeted ads with 37% saying they would likely respond to them vs. 30% for non-Hispanics. 35% of Hispanics vs. 27% of non-Hispanics said they are more open to advertising on sites where they read or contribute user generated comments. 37% of Hispanics vs. 25% of non-Hispanics enjoy the interactivity of online video ads, and the ability of obtaining additional information which is unavailable through a traditional TV ad.
