Leverage Hispanic Media Insights for Brand Impact

Multicultural Americans spend an enormous amount of time and attention in the digital media space. Hispanic Americans especially are super users: they spend their time across many platforms, social media and otherwise, especially those that support Hispanics and allow them to stay connected to family and friends.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

January 31, 2024
Victor Paredes – Executive Director of Multicultural Strategy

In partnership with the Hispanic Marketing Council, we unveiled insights that shared how you can leverage media insights for brand impact and growth among Hispanic consumers. Learn how to understand, support, and engage the Hispanic segment through culturally sound insights on usage and preferences across channels, and how to best optimize your campaigns for these platforms via our blog and special video replay.

Fill out the form to watch a special video replay and to download a sample of the insights from our presentation.

Leverage Hispanic Media Insights - presentation example

Cross-platform marketing and advertising is the standard for 2024, and Hispanic Americans are an imperative consumer segment for growth targeting. This segment is projected to nearly double in size over the next 40 years, and they have a substantial purchasing power of $1.9 trillion, an 88% increase from 2010 to 2020.

To understand media usage and insights, marketers must first understand the terminology that makes up the Latin-American diaspora. Getting language and labels right is a key component of authentically engaging across America’s diverse consumer segments. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to know which terminology to use to speak to the Hispanic segments’ rich cultural identity and change-orientation.

Two Key Findings and Action Steps for Understanding Multicultural Terminology:

1.) Hispanic Americans are most positive towards Hispanic and Latino/Latina to refer to the segment as a whole. This holds true across generation and country of origin.

Use either of these terms when you need to refer to Hispanic Americans in general. If your target is Latin Americans living in the US (including those that do not speak Spanish), defer to Latino/Latina.

2.) Latinx continues to be a polarizing term, though younger Hispanics are more likely to feel positive towards it.

Use Latinx if you wish to signal support for the efforts the term was introduced to address but recognize you may fail to connect and even experience backlash as a result.

Beyond terminology, do you know how to engage Hispanic identity to build campaigns?

    • Know this: Hispanics primarily identify with their ethnicity, and a quarter note their country of origin. In recent years, intersectional identities have also become increasingly essential parts of their identity.
    • Do this: In advertising, seek out casting that showcases the complexity and intersections within Hispanic identities.
    • Know this: Many Hispanics have experienced an increase in discrimination in recent years and only half are satisfied with their portrayals in advertising.
    • Do this: Boost internal hiring of Hispanic professionals to improve authentic representation and inclusion within the segment.

Building on an understanding of complex Hispanic identities, marketers should activate on Group Traits to deepen connection.

What exactly are Group Traits?

Group Traits are 75 focused culturally significant agreement scale questions are fielded to targeted sample survey (~4,000 consumers). This data is analyzed based on agreement, rank, and differentiation for a target consumer group versus the appropriate comparison group. 

In short, these are uniquely resonant cultural statements are grouped based on data and contextual importance.

One important Group Trait to focus on: Cultural Duality

Although Hispanic Americans firmly believe in maintaining their cultural heritage, they are still patriotic and proud of their achievements in the United States. They feel responsible for acting as cultural stewards by preserving their ancestors’ cultural traditions while participating in American culture, seamlessly navigating both worlds with cultural fluidity.

Hispanic identity is an intersection of Hispanic culture, traditions, and pride

With 48% of Hispanic American consumers noting that they feel a strong personal connection to a country and/or countries outside of the United States, compare to just 30% of non-Hispanic consumers, it’s important to balance the connection of international patriotism and traveling to places that are meaningful to the segment with the feeling of strong connection to the United States and deep patriotism.

With a base knowledge of terminology in hand, a strategy of how to engage through identification, and an understanding of Cultural Duality and how it affects the segment, let’s visit top-level insights for one of the most important forms of 21st century media: social media.

Hispanic consumers are social media super users and inclusion is a key priority for younger users.

Know This:

Hispanic high social media usage is sustained and thriving even among older Hispanics given their general disposition towards technology adoption and cord cutting.

Do This:

    • Don’t assume social strategy should be exclusively youth focused. Be representative of the the broader age range, and intersectional opportunities for greater nuance.
    • Don’t be afraid to venture past the biggest social media platforms. Tap into apps with unique usage and loyalty by segment
    • Partner with platforms that create safe spaces for Hispanics and build trust. As challenges continue at X, consider building messaging strategies around trusted platforms like WhatsApp. Keep an eye on emerging platforms like Spill, BlueSky, and Threads for ongoing opportunities to drive relevance, engagement and advocacy.

High use of What’sApp in Latin America drives the apps’ popularity and trustworthiness with Hispanic consumers – this aligns to the Group Trait of Cultural Duality, and the desire to stay connected to the family’s country of origin!

This study, and the insights shared above, is just a sample of the insights needed to impact and grow your brand. Unlock your brand’s full potential with the deep, cultural insights used by over 300 leading brands across 12 industries. Contact us today for additional information on how we can help you win Hispanic consumers via media-focused campaigns and more. 

We look forward to your partnership.

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Victor Paredes

Victor Paredes

Victor leverages his expertise in inclusive marketing and advertising in combination with Collage’s proprietary data and insights, to support clients. He is a successful marketing and advertising executive with proven experience in building practices that drive brand equity, sales, traffic, and qualified leads. His marketing experience spans sectors such as entertainment, hospitality, healthcare, consumer packaged goods, retail, and direct to consumer services.

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