Facebook Courts Multicultural TV Advertisers

Back in October, I had the pleasure of attending Facebook’s first-ever multicultural learning session in New York. The event was attended by 200+ of the who’s who of U.S. Hispanic and multicultural marketing, publishing, and media, and in my mind marked a pivotal turning point in the U.S. Hispanic and multicultural media landscape.

New Facebook / Ipsos Multicultural Study

During the learning session, Facebook provided a sneak peek into a new study that digs into the digital lives of self-identified Hispanic and multicultural consumers in the U.S. The study was released last month and provides rich insights to help marketers connect with multicultural consumers online. Much of the data supports what we already know: Hispanics are highly active social media and mobile users and are more likely to follow brands online. Facebook shared some new data on Hispanic Facebook behavior that is eye opening. Each month on Facebook, U.S. Hispanics:

• Generate 8.49 billion likes, 1.7x index vs. general market
• Write 1.52 billion comments, 1.7x Index
• Upload 450 million photos, 1.6x Index
• Create 159 million status updates, 1.8x Index
• Upload 7.1 million videos, 3.0 Index

Yes, the qualitative data is compelling, but I found the qualitative findings around why multicultural consumers gravitate to social media most interesting. For Hispanics, social media not only connects them to family and friends, but also helps define who they are. Hispanics identify themselves as fun, joyful and social — attributes that marketers can leverage to connect with this audience in a meaningful way that drives growth.

A Viable Alternative to Hispanic TV Advertising

With 26 million Hispanic monthly average users, Facebook has similar reach of Univision (32.7 million) and Telemundo (27.9 million).

In addition to mass reach with Hispanics, Facebook also highlighted some impressive advances in its video product. These advances, coupled with the high propensity of Hispanics to engage with video, make the Facebook platform a viable option for dollars otherwise slated for broadcast and cable.

Facebook might be behind Univision and Telemundo on big screens, but clearly leads on the small screen. Each day, Hispanics spend an average of 35 minutes on Facebook and an average of 11 minutes on Instagram on their mobile devices. This represents a whopping 21% of total Hispanic mobile time spent in a given day. Compare this to 0.70 minutes that Hispanics spend on their mobiles on Univision properties.

In the past, when marketers thought of Hispanic media, it was always the big two: Univision and Telemundo. From what I saw at the first Facebook multicultural learning session, we should now think of the big three.