The Hispanic Mobile Opportunity.

The ever-increasing sophistication and accessibility of web-ready mobile phones has made using a phone for information and entertainment needs an essential part of everyday life for millions of Americans. However, not everyone is connecting to the mobile web in equal measure. Demographic data on mobile phone usage reveals that U.S. Hispanics, especially younger Hispanics, have been over-indexing in mobile media usage for years.

The continual growth, both in population and spending capacity, of U.S. Hispanics has led to a wealth of research surrounding their media consumption habits. In 2007, M:Metrics released a study that found that 70.9 percent of English-speaking Hispanics consume mobile content in the U.S.-far exceeding the general market average of 47.9 percent. The study also reveals that Hispanics are “among the most active [and] engaged mobile content consumers” and are nearly twice as likely as the general market to use mobile technology such as video, applications, and music. The additional finding that 32% of Hispanics are “interested to highly interested” in receiving mobile offers is great news for marketers.

Similarly, market research firm Experian Simmons recently released data showing that Hispanic mobile phone owners are 63% more likely than the average mobile phone user to be heavy mobile phone users or “Mobirati.” Experian Simmons defines the “Mobirati” as “the first generation to have grown up with mobile phones. Mobile phones are a central part of their daily life, and they cannot imagine life without them.” 32 percent of Hispanic mobile consumers are Mobirati compared to only 18 percent of non-Hispanic consumers.

All of these facts and figures would mean little to marketers if Hispanic-targeted mobile marketing programs weren’t successful. One of the more revealing case studies on the efficacy of U.S Hispanic targeted mobile marketing is a campaign by Continental Airlines that ran last year.

Continental invited consumers to enter a contest by submitting a video for the chance to receive the grand prize of a trip for two to anywhere in the world. Contest participants could enter by texting a keyword to a short code or by clicking on a WAP link within an SMS alert from Univision and other publishers. The ads ran on TV, on-line banners, search engine ads, out-of-home, radio and mobile. At the conclusion of the campaign, Continental was surprised to learn that not only were the interactive ads, both mobile and on-line, more effective than their off-line ads by a large margin, but the mobile ads were five-to-ten times more effective than on-line advertising.

Due in large part to success stories like Continental’s, the demand for mobile media is only expected to grow. Social media guru Brian Solis writes in Engage that mobile devices “bring the rise of new, highly interactive mobile platforms and networks that will increasingly capture our attention and time.” He goes on to write that, “Spending growth over the next five years is compounded at 27 percent, which makes it the second most notable growth factor behind social media with $1,274 in millions expected to fund mobile programs in 2014.”

The fact that Hispanics love their phones and disproportionately consume mobile media, along with the reality that mobile marketing is only growing larger, makes mobile programs an attractive opportunity for marketers who know they need to engage the Hispanic market but haven’t figured out where to start. A mobile marketing campaign can be a great solution for those who want to reach the market without investing in a completely new website or web presence. Mobile campaigns can often be run using a specially designed landing page, social media pages, or even no web element at all, maximizing ROI while reaching Hispanics exactly where they are.

Carla Briceno
Bixal
http://www.bixal.com