5 Hispanic Marketing Trends to Pay Attention To

Between 2010 and 163% the U.S. is expected to see a 163% increase in Hispanic population making up 30% of the population by July 1, 2050. From 2010 to 2015, Latino buying power rose to $1.5 trillion a 50% increase in just five years. Today, every one from the small business owner to Fortune 100 CMO's are looking to engage this audience.  But if we had a crystal ball, what would we see? We can't assume behavior will stay the same.  Here are 5 Hispanic Marketing Trends our research has indicated we will see moving forward.

Political Advertising is increasingly targeting Hispanics

Donald Trump's very controversial views on Mexicans and illegal immigrants have captured headlines this election season and thus, immigration reform has made Latinos the center of attention on the campaign trail.  The Hispanic vote has become the holy grail for Presidential hopefuls on both sides of the aisle.  While many demographic groups have a historical relationship with one party over the next, the new and growing Hispanic voter does not have those political allegiances.  They often rely on information to make their voting decisions and thus very targeted political advertising, focusing on the issues, not mudslinging, plays an important role.  While in-language Spanish advertising will play and important role, we will continue to see an increase in English political ads targeting Hispanics and the issues they care about. 

English is the new Spanish

In late 60's, roughly 6 million Hispanics immigrated to the U.S. from Latin America.  At the time this accounted for just over 3% of the U.S. population.  Today 1 in 6 Americans is Hispanic.  We are now as many as 4 generations removed from this initial migration. While these decedents still identify with their rich Hispanic roots and culture, most Latino children born in the U.S., grow up speaking English.  Fewer families speak Spanish at home, save small densely concentrated pockets in Urban communities.  While English may be the language of choice for many Hispanics, their music, their food, the culture has not changed at all and still hearkens back to the first immigrants.  Smart marketers know how to weave a story dipped in Latin culture, while written in English.  

Smaller is Better.

I was shocked when I learned that Samsung would be releasing its 7th iteration of its Galaxy mobile devices, this time with free virtual reality goggles with each purchase.  What it made me realize is that we have a thirst for more technology, faster, smarter, more integrated into our everyday lives.  The Hispanic consumer has long been perceived as somewhat elusive because of their reluctance to consume traditional media.  Now this has become the norm.  We live in an on-demand multi-device entertainment world and Hispanics are leading the charge.  This particular Hispanic Marketing Trend is interesting because, such technological shifts have actually lowered the cost of admission for would-be Hispanic media publishers. Gone are the days when giants like Telemundo, Univision and el Diario Diario controlled the market.  Increasingly, we are seeing smaller hyperlocal publishers capitalizing on less expensive digital channels controlling the market.  

Targeting has Evolved

I think we can finally put to bed the antiquated strategy of Hispanic model stereotyping.  While buying behavior is tied to report and we tend to buy from those that look like us, this is a very simplistic view of a very complicated concept. Today's Hispanic consumer is extremely savvy and the digital giants have taken stock.  Facebook, Twitter, Pinterst, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, and a host of others, now offer brands more sophisticated targeting tools enabling them to better target ethnicity based on content consumption patterns. 

The Gap is Closing

In 2014, Google launched a groundbreaking report, Your Next Big Opportunity: The U.S. Hispanic Market.  In it Google's Vice President of Americas Marketing, Lisa Gevelber, looked at the strategies of leading brands and forward-thinking marketers. He explained that while Hispanics lead adoption of new digital devices, were power users of mobile and over-indexed in video they were largely still an untapped audience.  In two short years the market has listened is closing the gap.  This is a Hispanic Marketing Trend we expect be the norm for the next 4 years to 2020 when we expect the Latino consumer to be the most viable demographic.  The analytics bare out that early adopters in this space have increased profitability and planted their flag with brand loyalty. 

Sounds Easy? Well it isn't.  Remember forcasting trends is not an exact science.  However analyzing data is key.  Organizations need to be nimble and able to shift with the changing tide.  What is true today maybe false tomorrow and not only must we plan for it, we must expect it.  Perhaps, that, in fact is the most reliable trend.