Spain’s national telecoms company, Telefonica, has definitely understood that the estimated 5.2 million immigrant population living in the country is an important new revenue channel and customer group.

Considering that in 2009 in the US 1/3 of all spending on residential telephony comes from ethnic customers according to Insight Resource Corporation, the situation is most likely the same in Spain.

When visiting telefonica.es one of the primary links you’ll find is “Soy Nuevo Residente En España” meaning “I’m a New Resident in Spain”.
Clicking on the link will get you to a second page with 4 promotions:

1. Tarifa Mini Internacional (Mini Rate Internacional)
2. Línea Básica (Basic Line)
3. Línea + Duo 6MB ADSL (Line + Duo 6MB ADSL)
4. Línea Internacional (International Line)

It doesn’t take a genius to see that Telefonica wants the new residents in Spain to sign up for international calling subscriptions but at the same time offer basic packages as well (phone line and/or ADLS internet connection). Smart move and it would be interesting to see the results of this.

For full enclosure, Ad Sheik is not affiliated with Telefonica neither as supplier nor partner.

Source: Telefonica.es

eMarketer has interviewed Dr. Felipe Korzenny, Director of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication, Florida State University on Hispanic online behavior. See a summary of the  interview here.

Some of the interesting points to take away from the interview are:

Spanish is the recommended language to reach the broader audience online.

The integration of networks is key – Hispanics want contextual sites adapted to their ability to move in and out of different cultures and languages.

Here’s an insightful comment: “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.”

Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007150

One of the Hispanic agencies that are in the forefront of hispanic marketing is Dallas-based Dieste. Executive director Alvaro Cabrera shares insight on characteristics regarding the US Hispanics worth knowing if you’re marketing towards this group (which you probably should do already not to miss out on opportunities). Some of the more interesting ones were:

1. Hispanics are connecting twice as fast as the general market (14% growth vs. 7%) adding over a million users per year. In 2008, 23 million Hispanics online, about 52% of the Hispanic population. In 2012, more than 29 million will be online, increasing Internet penetration to 58.6%.

2. The growing Hispanic middle class is super connected: 88% of Hispanics with a household income of $50,000 + are online.

3. Hispanics are early adopters of mobile technology: 31 million have a mobile phone. By the age of 15, penetration of wireless services is 64%, by 17, it rises to 78%. Hispanics have the highest proportion of cord-cutters among all segments.

4. Roughly half of the Hispanics online prefer Spanish, and for 66% it’s important to be recognized as Hispanic through culturally relevant content.

5. An online collective life: 77% engage in some kind of online socializing and network.

6. Hispanic online landscape is less crowded: Interactive Advertising Media Investment represented 4.6% in 2007, while in the general market, it is around 7%.

Grab the rest of the insights at MediaPost.

Source: MediaPost

How do Hispanics in the U.S. feel about their lifestyles today – and how do their views differ from non-Hispanics? New findings by Knowledge Networks provide some valuable answers for anyone who needs to understand the multifaceted Hispanic marketplace.

Knowledge Networks conducted 22,565 nationally representative online interviews from October to December 2008 and 12,550 from January to April 2009 – including 2,657 and 1,316 in each of the two periods with Hispanics – and analyzed results from period to period.Here’s a summary of the findings:

1. 53% of Hispanics agree that they “love to shop” – a level unchanged from 2008 to 2009 and 18 points higher than their non-Hispanic counterparts. Yet 72% of Hispanics say, “I just don’t have enough money to live the life I would like to live” — a level seven points higher than non-Hispanics.

2. Shifts in how Hispanics are keeping in touch — driven perhaps by changes in technology availability more than anything. Hispanics were pretty much on par with the general population in reporting use of cell phones — but their use has dropped, from 74% to 69%, whereas it rose slightly among non-Hispanics, from 75% to 77%. Hispanics reporting email use also declined, from 40% to 36%; the non-Hispanic level remains much higher (67%) and statistically unchanged since 2008.

3. Hispanic use of online communities for communications grew with 8% reporting use in 2009 versus 5% last year; this may be due to the availability of more relevant community options. The level of online community use also rose, as well, among non-Hispanics, but less so — from 5% to 6%.

4. 47% of Hispanics in each year agree that “so much of my time is spent working that I have very little time left for myself” but the proportion among non-Hispanics is 33% — statistically lower than the 35% seen in 2008. This gets to a core element of quality of life, where the need to make money intersects with the wish for more time alone or with family and friends.
5. Accompanying the shift in Hispanics’ view of loss of personal time, there’s a narrowing of their cross-ethnic social circle; in 2009, 57% report top-two-box agreement that “most of my friends are from the same racial or ethnic group as me,” up five percentage points from last year. This puts Hispanics — below the level for non-Hispanics, which has stayed at about 60% agreement.

6. In 2009, 43% of Hispanics strongly or somewhat agree with the statement, “Life is so busy that I find I have less time to spend with family and friends” — up 6 points from 2008. This pace likely contributes to 50% of Hispanics saying, “I feel stressed most of the time” in 2009 — up 5 points from 2008 and at a level 11 points higher than that for non-Hispanics.

My view on this is that the perception of not having enough time for the family is mostly due to the collectivistic nature of the Hispanic tradition where family matters a lot and this feeling of not having enough time for them is more pressuring than with non-Hispanic groups.

Source: MediaPost