Hispanics a Young, Diverse Audience Built for Mobile Advertising"

M:Metrics reports that with nearly 71 percent of English-speaking Hispanics consuming mobile content in the United States, they are among the most active, engaged mobile content consumers. The measurement firm finds that the percentage of English-speaking Hispanics who consume media and information far surpasses the market average of 47.9 percent.

"This youthful, extremely engaged, interactive group is a gold mine for advertisers, something companies like McDonald's, Coca Cola, Ikea, Univision and Comedy Central have already discovered," observed Evan Neufeld, vice president, consulting and senior analyst. "Hispanics combine a willingness to download and purchase content with a clear propensity to make purchases via their mobiles based on offline media ads. This has created a perfect storm for marketers: purchase-driven consumers who are responsive to targeted, contextually relevant advertising."

Youthfulness is a key characteristic of this demographic. Overall the Hispanic cell phone users skew much younger than the average user, particularly among the coveted 18-34 age group which comprises more than 51.5 percent of the total Hispanic mobile population. In comparison, the 18-34 age group only accounts for 31 percent of the entire U.S. mobile population.

English-speaking Hispanics are highly engaged with mobile multimedia applications. In fact, the percentages of Hispanic mobile subscribers who watched mobile video or listened to music side loaded from their PC are more than double the industry average. They are also similarly more inclined to access news and information via mobile browser, at 18.8 percent compared to 9.6 percent of all subscribers.

Not surprisingly, this group also displays a higher propensity than average to play games, with 35 percent playing mobile games in March, compared to 21 percent of the market on average. This pattern of above average, active, engaged usage of mobile content is present in almost all activities, from ringtone purchases, photo messaging and trading video to frequently using mobile phones to access a wide array of news and information services.

Source: M:Metrics. Survey of U.S. mobile subscribers. Data based on three-month moving average for period ending 31 March, 2007, n= 33,000. *The M:Metrics sample was not weighted to adjust for the proportion of Hispanics in the US population. All surveys were conducted in English.

"There is a strong correlation between age and mobile content consumption of all types," said Neufeld. "The fact that so many young, English-speaking Hispanics are an active part of the mobile community makes mobile the ideal medium to reach this desirable consumer demographic, and the time to reach out to them is now."

M:Metrics applies trusted media measurement methodologies to assess the audience for mobile content and applications. As the world's most authoritative mobile market measurement firm, M:Metrics delivers the most accurate mobile market metrics through the world's largest monthly survey of mobile subscribers as well as automated data collection methodologies. Below are the findings of its March Benchmark Survey."

Posted to the site on 14th May 2007