Pew Hispanic Center — NGLs Have Their OWN Digital Story (and it’s a good one)

     By David Chitel / New Generation Latino Media, Marketing & Entertainment Conference

After reading the press release that went out yesterday from the Pew Hispanic Center citing statistics about “Hispanics being less likely than Whites” across the board in their use of Internet, Broadband and Cell Phones, I felt it was important to write this response.  I’ve seen the article and subsequent numbers circulated wide and far, and it is with that in mind that I’m asking you to PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS RESPONSE as well.

I’m a big fan of the Pew Hispanic Center and have quoted their data often.  Most recently, in a speech I did at the MPG Collaborative a few months ago.  However, in 2011 (a critical Census year), it’s very important that generalizations are not made about the U.S. Hispanic market as was done in yesterday’s press release.  For those who looked at their numbers broken out by nativity and language stratification, it tells a very different story than the press release indicated.  U.S-born, English-dominant and bilingual Latinos’ usage of Internet, Broadband and Cell Phones is largely in line with that of Whites.  With respect to Internet, the numbers are Native Borns 81% vs. Whites 77%.  For Broadband, it’s Native Borns at 60% and Whites at 65%, and for Cell Phones it’s Native Borns at 86% and Whites at 85%. Seeing as Native Borns represent the MAJORITY of U.S. Hispanics living in this country today, it’s critical that generalizations aren’t made about our market as a whole putting everyone in the same bucket.  In truth, U.S-borns are OVER-indexing vs. Whites in many cases.  As cited elsewhere, this has also been the case in terms of creating content for the Web, usage of Social Media, blogging and beyond.

In a time when key decisions are being made about the U.S. Hispanic market and where to spend advertising dollars, I felt it was the NGLC’s responsibility to point out these numbers.  There are roughly 30MM U.S. Hispanics online today.  The wide majority of them are NGLs.   The amount being spent against this segment in no way mirrors the opportunity it represents.  We as an industry need to move forward and encourage those investing in our market to look at the fastest growing segments that are driving much of the growth.  In this case, there is no question that NGLs are the ones leading the U.S. Hispanic charge on the Internet, Broadband and Cell Phone fronts.  Here are charts from the Pew Hispanic Center’s study to further elaborate on this point:

In closing, I’m asking that you please FORWARD THIS to help those who put a lot of emphasis on numbers make informed decisions about the U.S. Hispanic market opportunity.  We’ll be talking a lot more about this subject at the NGLC Media, Marketing & Entertainment conference on Monday, April 11th in NYC.