Hispanic Online Portals Unite To Promote Their Industry & Impact On Consumers.

For the first time ever, the world’s largest online Hispanic media companies, including AOL Latino, MSN Latino, Terra Networks, Univision.com, Yahoo! en Espanol, and others, have united to launch a marketing campaign targeted at industry leaders in the Hispanic advertising community. The objective of this campaign is to raise awareness of Interactive as a vital medium for reaching this dominant, mainstream audience. The companies, all members of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Hispanic Committee, have selected Tapestry, Starcom IP, and Lapiz, all part of the Publicis Groupe, as Agency of Record.

“Competing online media companies banding together to launch a targeted campaign, especially in a market as competitive as the Hispanic sector, is truly unprecedented,” said Greg Stuart, president and CEO, IAB. “This historic initiative is just another example of the online industry’s focused commitment to growing the industry above all else.”

“This project demanded an agency that deeply understands the online marketplace, the nuances of trade marketing and the Hispanic audience,” said Liz Sarachek, Chair of the IAB Hispanic Committee’s Marketing Sub-Committee and Executive Director, Sales, Yahoo! en Espanol. “We are confident the agencies from Publicis Groupe will do an excellent job in developing and executing a campaign that speaks to all of this and we also expect this to be a strong complement to individual member company efforts in this area.”

Tapestry and Starcom IP will lead the Hispanic online efforts providing strategic and tactical contact direction, while Lapiz will provide creative services. The agencies are working on a pro-bono basis and were selected after a formal agency review process. The campaign is expected to focus on positioning interactive as a vital medium for marketers to reach the Hispanic consumers. Work on the campaign will commence immediately and is expected to launch with online, print, and direct response media in the second half of 2005.

“The Hispanic community is a major force in our economy and culture and we are seeing this strength carry-over into the online world. We are very excited for the opportunity to help Hispanic marketers identify the online space as an innovative and powerful tool in connecting with their ever-demanding consumer” commented Monica Gadsby, CEO of Tapestry, named as one of “the savviest shops for Hispanic online” (Adage.com 2/4/05) by Marketers and Hispanic website executives.

This is a critical growth period for the online Hispanic market. According to comScore Media Metrix, in January 2005, there were 13.8 million active US Hispanics online with 24 year-old and younger consumers accounting for 49% of the total online audience; this compared to 30% within the general online population. Hispanics in the US view 19% more pages per usage day and spend 13% more time per usage day online than the general US market.

“The Hispanic online market is really starting to pick up speed and we are very excited to help take it to the next step via this groundbreaking campaign. Our agencies are perfectly positioned to tap into the appropriate themes and messaging that will resonate with Hispanic marketers in order to help them learn how they can fully utilize all the opportunities afforded by online advertising,” said Manuel Garcia, Director, New Business Development, Lapiz Integrated Hispanic Marketing.

“We are extremely grateful to Lapiz, Starcom IP and Tapestry for their commitment to support our industry and look forward to working with them,” concluded Greg Stuart.

The Hispanic Committee is chaired by Peter Blacker, Vice President of International and U.S. Hispanic Interactive Marketing, AOL Latino. The current members of the IAB Hispanic Committee are: 24/7 Real Media, 360i, Advertising.com, AOL Latino, comScore Networks, Edmunds.com, ESPN Deportes, Eyeblaster, EyeWonder,Inc., InsightExpress, Knight Ridder Digital, Modem Media, MSN Latino, Nielsen//NetRatings, Overture, StarMedia, Terra Networks, United Virtualities, Univision.com, Viewpoint, and Yahoo! en Espanol.