The current (July/August) issue of Fast Company features a Fast Talk feature entitled Latin Lovers which Hispanic marketing experts and their some of their successes. It's fascinating and covers brands such as Southwest Airlines, JC Penney, Podsport, Telemundo and L'Oreal.
Cisneros reported overall that in 2010, the American population comprised 50 million Hispanics of which 12 million were between 20-34 years old. By 2050, the figures will rise to 133 million and 30 million respectively. In 2009, one in five Americans born were Hispanic.
Perhaps more interesting though is how today's American Hispanic consumes media. Jackie Hernandez, COO of Telemundo Communications Group, followed Cisneros with an impressive presentation on GYLA (Generation Young Latino Americans) based on research undertaken by NBCU. Statistically, 62% of Hispanics are now born in the US, and one-half of Hispanics in the US are under 25 years old. By 2020, 66% of American teens will be Hispanic.
More importantly though is how they consumer their media. Language is fluid - 70% use "Spanglish"; 74% speak both Spanish and English with very few speaking only one language - 15% only English and 11% only Spanish. GYLAs are a blended generation and consume their media accordingly, with the largest share going to Spanish broadcast (35%) and English cable (31% - with a high density in sports content).
So while I'll be just find sticking to English, I can definitely see the merit in getting back into Spanish from a marketing perspective!