Interactive

Major advertisers expect to spend $132 million in online advertising targeted to U.S. Hispanics this year, up 32 percent from last year according to the 2006 media markets report in the December issue of Hispanic Business magazine. The trend of increased online advertising has been driven mainly by tech-savvy Hispanic youths who are increasingly turning to the Internet as a platform to meet friends, listen to music, and catch up on sports.

GOOGLE certainly raised a few eyebrows with its recent acquisition of YouTube, especially since the site is barely a year old, has huge infrastructure costs, and significant copyright issues with which it has to contend. Throw in the fact that YouTube is just beginning to solidify a revenue model that has historically caused other online community sites to burn out, and you might wonder what Google is thinking, what they plan on doing with it, and how the acquisition should impact your own marketing efforts.

…but keep one foot on the ground.

If you have any lingering doubt that online advertising in the form of video is seeing explosive growth, consider this: Spending on online video advertising will reach $410 million this year, 82% more than was spent in 2005. By 2010, Internet video advertising will be a $3 billion business, according to eMarketer’s latest projections.

Google’s acquisition of YouTube was just the beginning.

The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A) saw it coming. In December 2005, when 4A members were asked which form of “new media” would show the greatest growth in 2006, half replied Internet video.