HispanicTrending

Hyland's, Inc. Launches First Hispanic Website for New Moms Focused on Natural Family Care

July 8, 2009
Via BUSINESS WIRE

Hyland’s, Inc., a leading provider of natural over-the-counter medicines, announced today that it has launched ComienzosSaludables.com (Comienzos Saludables), a unique social networking, education-based website for Latina mothers. Comienzos Saludables continues Hyland’s strategy to improve the availability of, and accessibility to, important healthcare resources for this growing population. The new site offers Hispanic mothers a fully bilingual Spanish/English community to assist with information on pregnancy, infant care, raising a family, healthy lifestyle, and treating your family’s health issues with natural medicines.

Comienzo Saludables marks Hyland’s latest initiative to reach out to the Hispanic consumer. Already, the company has made packaging on 22 products Spanish/English bilingual, developed a baby development calendar in Spanish and sponsored a community health worker, Promotoras, program called Salud con Hyland’s. Now, with usage of social networking sites by Hispanics up 200% in 2006 (Forrester’s Hispanic Technographics Series Research), Hyland’s delivers this new resource for Latina mothers.

“Hyland’s has a longstanding commitment to providing accessible healthcare,” said J.P. Borneman, PhD, chairman and CEO of Hyland’s, Inc. “With 25% of U.S. moms of Hispanic origin, that access, in this case, comes in the form of a website full of culturally relevant, in-language educational material for Hispanic families. Our goal is to empower pre- and post-natal Hispanic mothers with information and a community of support as they strive to give their babies the very healthiest start in life.”

Studies show that a growing number of Hispanics are online and seeking information in their own language. Specifically, according to eMarketer, 23 million U.S. Hispanics were online in 2008 and that number is expected to surpass 29 million by 2012. Also, according to AOL/Roper Public Affairs Hispanic Cyberstudy 2005, Spanish language content is important to 75% of Hispanic web users.

Comienzos Saludables brings health information and social media, in a fully bilingual format, together to address this growing demographic. With 70% of Latina mothers under the age of 30, and with an increasing number of Hispanics shown to have a natural affinity for online social networking, Hyland’s expects tremendous response from Latina mothers to its new site. Free membership to Comienzos Saludables, or Healthy Beginnings, provides access to interactive community tools, including community forums, photo galleries, blogs, personal profile pages, over 400 articles on family health and lifestyle topics, and monthly newsletters. The site is divided into the following sections: Healthy Pregnancy; Your Baby; Parent’s Corner; Home Remedies and Homeopathy; Healthy and Natural Lifestyle; and Community.

Comienzos Saludables features the latest in web 2.0 technologies and provides a secure, friendly online environment for Latinas to stay in touch with their friends and family, as well as make new connections by sharing tips, advice and experiences of motherhood with others.

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Will MySpace Kill MySpace Latino?

July 2, 2009
By Jennifer Martinez

As MySpace struggles to regain ground it’s lost to Facebook and sort out its revenue woes, executive departures from MySpace Latino, a combination Spanish-English site targeted at U.S.-based Latinos that launched a little over a year ago, indicate it may be on the chopping block. MySpace Latino’s VP of Hispanic sales and strategy, Manny Miravete, has left the company, and the site’s managing director, Victor Kong, has reportedly left as well. The site itself hasn’t been refreshed in over a week amid a wave of layoffs at MySpace’s U.S. and international offices.

When asked if it planned to shut down MySpace Latino, the company sent us this statement (bolded emphasis ours) via email:

    “The MySpace Latino community will remain live and not shut down. We are restructuring and evaluating how Latin will be featured on our site as we know the importance of the genre. Before the launch of MySpace Latino, we frequently featured Latin artists, promotions, and events on MySpace Music and will continue to do so.”

The News Corp-owned social networking site created MySpace Latino to target its growing population of U.S.-based Latino users and make it easier for big-name corporations such as McDonald’s and Toyota to advertise to them. Nearly 14 percent of MySpace’s U.S. users are Latino, compared to just 5 percent of Facebook’s, according to Quantcast.

Source: Salon.com

Unilever Expands Multi-Brand Initiative, ViveMejor® to serve as an all-encompassing lifestyle resource for Latinas

July 1, 2009
Press Release

Unilever’s ViveMejor® (Live Better) multi-brand initiative is back in its third year with an unprecedented and unique approach. ViveMejor speaks directly to the personal care and cooking needs of Hispanic women by offering an array of resources via expert advice and valuable coupons from quality brands they trust.

Beauty expert and hair stylist to top Latino celebrities, Leonardo Rocco, is back with the latest trends from the world of beauty and fashion, eager to help Latinas look and feel good using trusted brands like Caress®, Degree®, Dove®, Pond’s® and Suave®. To champion Unilever’s food solutions, this year ViveMejor welcomes renowned chef and author of “Fresh Mexico”, Marcela Valladolid. New to the program, Marcela is thrilled to share her delicious recipes and useful cooking tips to help ease the lives of busy Latinas, featuring trusted brands like Hellmann’s® and Best Foods®, Knorr®, Lipton® and Ragú®.

“Unilever continues to look for innovative ways to deliver on the promise of our vitality mission to help our consumers look good, feel good, and get more out of life,” explained March Shaw, Integrated Marketing Director, Unilever U.S. “Our 2009 ViveMejor campaign is a testament of our commitment to offer Latinas practical solutions that will help them simplify their daily routine so they can do the things that matter to them the most.”

The landmark ViveMejor program combines Unilever’s award-winning beauty and food campaigns Pasa La Belleza (Spread the Beauty) and Desafío del Sabor (The Flavor Challenge). This year’s program features new talent and an array of consumer touch points including national television integrations on popular Univision morning and evening shows, public relations outreach, print advertorials in favorite Hispanic magazines, direct mail as well as engaging retail events in the top Hispanic cities across the country.

Furthermore, as part of Unilever’s pledge to sustainability, all content from the ViveMejor magazine is now housed online at ViveMejor.com. The newly revamped website has been designed to enhance the consumer’s online experience through a fresh easy-to-use layout that allows quick access to delicious recipes, cooking video demonstrations, the latest beauty tips, as well as high value coupons. Best of all, Latinas can view the calendar of events scheduled across the U.S. where they will have the opportunity to receive free in-person beauty consultations and cooking tips from Rocco and Valladolid.

Through ViveMejor Hispanic women will have, within easy reach, a suite of offerings that speak to their family’s food and their personal care needs. The expanded holistic program will engage Latinas with relevant tips, trusted advice and valuable coupons offered during their shopping experience, through creative television integrations and content delivered in their preferred media. For more information, please visit www.vivemejor.com.

Social Media Solves Latino Assimilation Problem

June 27, 2009
By Louis Pagan

This is something I've addressed again and again over the years:  keeping one's traditions vs. assimilation.  With most 'hot buttons' this topic follows suit and lines up the ranks either for or against.  While I never understood why the lines had to be so trenched in the ground, it seems to me that both sides are skewed and serve to only slide it's proponents into a hole instead of maintaining a plateau.  Thankfully, there is now proof to support why Latinos should embrace US culture.

In a recent study, we see what does work is a revolving acceptance of the former and new, namely keeping one's Latino culture while embracing US culture.  This not-so-common, common sense method maximizes the benefits of both cultures and let's one successfully apply themselves in the real world - a world of diversity.

These same thoughts can be found at the heart of social media.  To limit oneself in social media to their own natural tendencies, one would have to put up many safe guards, namely locking their account from general public view and filtering content to select friends.  This is not what social media is and works against the social media movement.

How can one possibly restrict themselves to their limited sphere of influence and not expect to understand and grow with the world around them?  Social media breaks down real and perceived barriers.  It gives people the chance to softly engage other cultures and pursue new connections.  It is through social media that one gets exposed to the fast track of what being social is all about, and have the ability to connect to one's peers, both upwardly and laterally.  For Latinos, who are culturally social, I have hopes that social media can help bridge the gap between the traditional and the new without losing the essence of either.

Source: LatinoPundit

Looking at Hispanic Behavior Online - eMarketer Interviews Dr. Korzenny

JUNE 26, 2009
via eMarketer

eMarketer: What are best practices for sites and marketers that want to reach the Hispanic audience?

Dr. Felipe Korzenny: Spanish, as long as you don’t make it too regional or too colloquial, is pretty much understandable to everybody. US Hispanics have formed a new sense of kinship with people from other Latin American countries. It’s almost like a reaction to the way that the census has classified us and the way that they’ve talked about us over the past 30 years or so.

Even though we might not use the label “Hispanic” because we find it annoying, we have a commonality with people from Latin America. We share 400 years of dominance from Spain that has left a huge amount of cultural heritage in Latin America, regardless of the country.

“I don’t think it works to say, ‘This is a site for Hispanics and this is a site for others.’”

Hispanics have a lot of commonalities, and it’s OK to talk about a group that has these sorts of common roots and interests. It doesn’t work well to try to segregate people. I don’t think it works to say, “This is a site for Hispanics and this is a site for others.”

A lot of what has to happen is contextual cultural customization—a little bit like what Google does with ads. That means when I’m on MySpace in my customized site, the intelligence of the tool should include cultural cues to make me feel more at home along with the language and types of conversations. Of course, it might be mixed between Spanish and English.

The integration of networks is really the value. The growth in social networks is going to come from integrated sites, not necessarily from those who are trying to segregate because of where we are in this country. You don’t just have one group of friends.

That is the reason why MySpace has both—I mean having people having two sites, one in Spanish and one in English—but that doesn’t mean that the Spanish-language site is for Hispanics only, or that the English-language site is for non-Hispanics only. There’s a lot of overlap.

eMarketer: Would you say that Hispanics are more responsive to online ads?

Dr. Korzenny: That’s hard to generalize.

Talking about Hispanics as a whole group is difficult. The less acculturated are more likely to be more responsive to advertising than the more acculturated. The more acculturated Hispanics are a little bit more cynical and less attentive to advertising.

Even in traditional media, Hispanics will be more responsive to ads because of the fact that they were in many ways just beginning to learn about their new consumer environment. But Hispanics online might be more responsive to cultural cues, like if I’m on Google and see an ad for a CD by María Dolores Pradera. It’s more based on how these different new tools and sites understand people’s tastes and preferences than whether Hispanics in general are more receptive.

eMarketer: What misconceptions do marketers have about Hispanics?

“There’s a lot of ignorance about the market.”

Dr. Korzenny: There’s a lot of ignorance about the market. Hispanics have more blogs and personal Websites than anybody else. Marketers need to start paying attention to this.

Emerging minorities are the ones making the biggest difference in the online world and in the adoption and use of technology. It’s bringing them to a set of values that they have for social networking and connectivity.

Older non-Hispanic whites, who are still being targeted by marketers, have been disconnected for a longer period of time. They don’t have as strong a need for that personal connection, and also they are less technology-oriented.

Marketers need to start paying attention to the opinion leaders, the people driving innovation. They’re young and Hispanic.

Hispanics Online: No Más E-Barrios

JUNE 26, 2009
Source: eMarketer

Buy lingual?

The US Hispanic Internet population is growing—in numbers, broadband connections and time spent online.

eMarketer estimates that this year there will be nearly 23 million Hispanics online, over 50% of the US Hispanic population.

Hispanics make up 12.3% of the total US Internet population in 2009, and that number will increase to 13.9% in 2013.

“The US Hispanic population has been touted for years as the fastest-growing minority in America,” says Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Hispanics Online: Young, Mobile and Bilingual. “However, the recession has affected the pace of immigration, and growth in the Hispanic population has slowed.”

On the Internet, however, Hispanic growth is outpacing that of all other demographic groups.

“eMarketer estimates the number of Hispanic Internet users will increase 7.5% in 2009, as more Hispanic adults, ages 45 and older, come online and even more children and teens join in,” says Ms. Phillips.

Like the general population, Hispanics make most of their purchases offline, in brick-and-mortar retail outlets.

However, according to a survey from DoubleClick and Performics, two product categories—financial services and travel—were more likely to be purchased online than offline by Hispanics in 2008.

But no online retailer should ignore Hispanic shoppers.

By 2013, Hispanic “buying power”—defined by the Selig Center for Economic Growth as disposable personal income—is expected to pass the trillion-dollar mark and hit $1.39 trillion.

Only whites are expected to have greater economic clout.

English or Spanish? Yes and Sí.

“The majority of the US Hispanic population is bilingual, and they decide where and when to speak English and Spanish,” says Ms. Phillips.

“Marketers should execute campaigns and offerings in both languages,” explains Ms. Phillips. “The efforts will not go unnoticed, as English-dominant speakers will still see and appreciate messages targeted to them in Spanish, and Spanish-dominant speakers will know the advertiser is serious about addressing them.”

What is Next for MySpace Spanish Language Versions in the U.S. and Latin America?

June 24, 2009
Source: Portada Online

As part of its reorganization and layoff plan, MySpace yesterday decided to close its Miami panregional sales offices. The Miami office had three employees including Tatiana Lopez, PanRegional Sales and Strategic Partnerships Executive. In addition, MySpace offices in Brazil, Argentina (16 employees) and Mexico (13 employees) were closed.

MySpace laid off around 300 of its 450 international employees, and close at least four of its 15 international offices.

What is next for the localized Spanish-language versions of MySpace?
As of November 2008, MySpace had 6.8 million users (although MySpace has stated that it has 9 million users only in Mexico) in Latin America (vs. 71 million unique users in the U.S. in April 2009 according to COM Score).

Portada has been told that the closing of the Mexican office means that the Secret Show and other tools specifically designed for the Mexican market have been canceled.

In the U,S. Hispanic market, Manny Miravete, VP US Hispanic Sales Strategy at Fox Interactive Media, where he spearheaded the MySpace Latino unit, was let go last week.

In a memo obtained by TechCrunch: MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta said: ‘We are focusing on London, Berlin, and Sydney for two very simple reasons: (1) these are markets where we have a lot of MySpace users as well as the resources to allow us to compete effectively and (2) these are major international commerce centers where a robust MySpace presence can help our company develop new and innovative business partnerships.’

Latinos and Twitter

June 23, 2009
By Maribel Ferrer

Latinos were doing social networking online long before the term was coined.  For our culture, online technologies just broadened opportunities to stay connected to family and friends, and as connectivity became more affordable, more Latinos where doing more online. But this is old news, as it is too well known that we easily navigate English and Spanish content, on our mobiles or computers, very frequently.

In the marketing space, a lot of our colleagues have been on board with Twitter for a while. (Hello Dieste, Latinworks, Juan Tornoe, LatinaLista and many others.) But for those who argue whether Latino consumers are catching on, like they say in Spanish, para muestra un boton.

While catching up on Despierta America yesterday morning, it was great to hear that Twitter came up during a gossip segment with Piolin related to Paulina Rubio.  Turns out the singer has been tweeting during the promo tour for her new CD, including a tweet on a burglary at her Miami home and about her appearance on the Piolin show—the leading radio show in L.A. and the U.S. Also interesting is the mix of Twittters she follows and who follow her as it provides a glimpse into her interests and circle of influence.

Ana Maria Canseco, one of Despierta America’s anchors, also is on Twitter and has more than 200 people following her… in Spanish. She talks about events she attends, musings and comments about daily events, and even brands she’s working with.  Many more Latino celebs are also on, some more active than others: Ricardo Arjona, Juanes, etc.  Among them, acts like Wisin y Yandel with a younger following, have a larger number of followers (4,000 plus), and Shakira, whose audience reaches far beyond Latinos, has more than 25,000. Univision and Telemundo also are on Twitter… and I am sure this list grows every day.

Ivette and others on our team are avid users…As for me, I do have an account but I use it to follow and learn about others, instead of tweeting about me ;) Are you on?  Drop me a line and you may just get a new follower.

Source: FH Hispania Plaza

LiveSTRONG Launches Campaign for Hispanic Cancer Survivors

June 15, 2009

The Lance Armstrong Foundation today launched a massive 1 month multimedia Spanish campaign reaching out Spanish-Dominant Hispanic cancer survivors, their families and those who take care of them. They are using both traditional and new media to reach all generations and all walks of life. Check out LiveSTRONG’s recently updated Spanish language site @ www.LIVESTRONG.org/espanol

It is an important initiative from my fellow Austinites @ “LAF” as well as a much needed resource for Spanish-speaking Latinos who are fighting this disease. Please help spread the word to everyone you know who might benefit from it. Here is their official press release, “En Español” so you can easily pass it around; print it, email it, facebook it… whatever it takes for them to get it. It’s critical beyond doubt.

LIVESTRONG Lanza Campaña para Hispanos Sobrevivientes al Cáncer

WASHINGTON, DC (15 de junio de 2009) /PRNewswire/ — La Fundación Lance Armstrong, LAF por sus siglas en inglés, lanzó una campaña multimedia en español sin precedentes para apoyar a los sobrevivientes, familiares y a las personas encargadas del cuidado de los afectados por el cáncer entre la comunidad hispana de Estados Unidos, a través de la divulgación y promoción de recursos informativos y de orientación de alcance masivo del 15 al 31 de junio de 2009.

La campaña del programa LIVESTRONG SurvivorCare y LIVESTRONG.org/Español pone en las manos de los hispanos, la minoría más grande de Estados Unidos y la de mayor crecimiento en los últimos años, las herramientas necesarias y la información práctica para apoyar a las personas afectadas por el cáncer y también a aquellas a su alrededor, en momentos en los que la comunidad padece uno de los niveles más bajos de acceso a seguro médico de los Estados Unidos.

"Es un orgullo para mi poder servir de apoyo a la comunidad hispana de Estados Unidos, porque en la lucha contra el cáncer la unión hace la fuerza. Y estoy convencido de que juntos podemos ganar esta batalla", dijo Doug Ulman, CEO de la Fundación Lance Armstrong.

El esfuerzo inédito de LAF hacia los hispano-parlantes de Estados Unidos está apuntalado en una campaña multimedia masiva que incorpora medios tradicionales como la radio y un uso intensivo de nuevas tecnologías y redes sociales de Internet, a fin de alcanzar a hispanos de todas las generaciones, toda vez que el cáncer no discrimina.

Campaña Multimedia

A lo largo de la campaña se difundirán Anuncios de Servicio Público (PSA's) que brindarán información sobre el apoyo disponible a través de la Fundación Lance Armstrong y su programa LIVESTRONG SurvivorCare, con guías para visitar la nueva página del programa, que ha sido rediseñada para ayudar con más eficacia a la comunidad hispana, y donde sobrevivientes, familiares y personas interesadas pueden hacer consultas personalizadas.

A partir del 22 de junio, la campaña incorpora cinco programas de radio "En Vivo" en un número similar de los mercados más importantes para la comunidad hispana de Estados Unidos: Chicago (IL), San Francisco (CA), Phoenix (AZ), Denver (CO) y Washington (DC), donde especialistas en cáncer responderán de manera directa a las preguntas del público.

"Es importante recalcar, que todo aquel que requiera de nuestro apoyo, ya sea sobreviviente, familiar o persona que cuida al sobreviviente de cáncer, tiene a su alcance atención individualizada a través de LIVESTRONG SurvivorCare" agregó Ulman.

La campaña multimedia incluye además un conjunto de mensajes que por primera vez forman parte de un paquete informativo y de orientación de su clase dirigido expresamente hacia la comunidad hispana. Sus principales componentes son:

    * Una mini serie de videos en línea (webisodes) de corte testimonial que presenta algunos casos de los más usuales de sobrevivientes del cáncer y el tipo de ayuda que LAF pone a su alcance.
    * Una serie de cápsulas de audio (podcasts) que se pueden escuchar de manera instantánea o descargar a aparatos de audio portátiles a través del formato MP3 para tenerlos a disposición en cualquier momento.
    * Un dispositivo de ícono interactivo (widget) disponible para descargas al escritorio de computadoras personales para uso frecuente o para compartir con amigos en algunos de los sitios más populares de Internet como Facebook o MySpace, entre otros. El ícono tendrá información actualizada semanalmente y datos para contactar a la Fundación.
    * Un uso intensivo de las redes sociales de Internet como Twitter o YouTube para multiplicar los mensajes, a través de enlaces o páginas dedicadas para recordar a la comunidad que la ayuda está siempre al alcance de la mano con LAF.

"La comunidad hispana podrá, con todos esos recursos, conocer de primera mano información sobre el apoyo emocional y médico que requieren quienes han sido afectados por el cáncer", dijo Ulman, agregando que "estas personas recibirán el soporte para afrontar la vida después del cáncer, información sobre sus derechos como sobrevivientes, recursos para buscar tratamiento si carecen de seguro médico y asesoría sobre grupos comunitarios de apoyo para sobrevivientes".

Acerca de LAF

A través de su programa LIVESTRONG SurvivorCare www.LIVESTRONG.org/Espanol (teléfono 1866-927-7205) la Fundación ofrece consejería y referencias de programas locales, ayuda en temas financieros y de seguros, información actualizada de estudios clínicos sobre nuevos tratamientos para los diferentes tipos de cáncer, recomendaciones para hablar con los seres queridos, además de un amplio abanico de recursos para los sobrevivientes, familiares y quienes cuidan a los afectados por el cáncer.

Para más información o para obtener materiales relacionados con la campaña, comunicarse con Duly Fernandez al 202-360-4052 o duly.fernandez@hcnmedia.com

Hispanic Trending on NPR: A Latino Walmart?

I had the honor to share my thoughts on Hispanic Marketing on NPR's Tell Me More, with Jennifer Ludden. You can listen to it on NPR's site.