What Search Can Tell Us About Latinos Online
Search is one of the most powerful tools used to reach an audience. Let’s take this great example of a creative looking for a job in New York City. He created five ads using AdWords and included the names of five top creative directors so that every time they searched their own names in Google (as most of us do) they would get his ad asking them for a job. Simple, yet effective. He got four interviews, two offers, and finally landed a job. You can see the video at the end of this column or search for “Google Job Experiment.”
Latinos Are Googling, Really?
When it comes to Latinos, search is playing a big role, yet it seems to be an under-used marketing weapon. Search is among the top five activities Latinos perform online, looking for everything on the web, images, and videos in that order. Ninety-three percent of Hispanics use Google for search. What happens with Twitter? The use of Twitter has been growing too, taking a more important role in searching for (trending) topics.
Content Sparks Curiosity
Content is the key driver. Especially when it comes to Latinos and entertainment. A good TV strategy should always be supported by a strong search strategy and the other way around. Seventy-eight percent of Hispanics have used a search engine to find more information about something they saw on TV.
When Reina del Sur, the telenovela that helped to break Telemundo’s rating record, was launched in late February, Google searches spiked immediately, as you can see below.
The same happened with the Oscars, or Oscar shall I say? Interesting that if you checked how searches for “Oscars” were trending the same day that the Academy Awards were aired, you didn’t see that many searches in Spanish. But if you checked for “Oscar” (no “s”) instead, the story is completely different as you can see in the graph below. So content drives search, but you need to make sure that you understand the way Latinos are searching for certain topics or brands.
The Language of Search
In my previous column, I discussed the key role that Latinos are playing in movie attendance. Here’s a great example. If you look at all the searches in the U.S. around “Toy Story 3,” most of them were done in Spanish. Pretty telling, right?
Actually, 10 percent of overall U.S. searches are in Spanish and not just for Spanish media. Another important factor is the growing importance of bilingual Hispanics: 80 percent of Spanish keywords queries come from the English interface of Google.
Latinos Are Mobile, Mobile Is Search
Seventy percent of Hispanics use their smartphones to do search. No surprise there. But when you dig into the frequency, according to comScore, Hispanics are 29 percent more prone to be heavy searchers (22 to 70 searches a month) via their mobile phones than the general market. We discussed in previous articles that mobile is the fastest-growing and most effective way for Latinos to browse the Internet, to connect to social media networks, etc. The same goes for search. Forty percent of Hispanics compare prices and find retailers via smartphones, making it a great tool to affect the purchase behavior.
Search Can Help Understand Consumer Mood
Search can also be a very effective tool to understand the mind and mood of our consumer and how it is affecting our target audience. Back in 2009, as part of a study on value and how the economy was impacting price consciousness among Latinos, we ran a couple of exercises on search. One of them showed that while the word “grátis” (free) was trending at the same rates as Latino relevant words as fútbol (soccer), música (music), the story changed in late 2008 and mid 2009: “grátis” began to spike, showing the growing interest/concern with the economy among U.S. Hispanics.
The fact that Latinos are using search is no surprise. The question is why marketers are so behind in leveraging search to target Latinos. Search can be a powerful tool to reach online Latinos, to maximize broadcast and online media campaigns, but also to learn more about the interests and behavior of this dynamic target.
Census Numbers Don’t Lie: Latinos Are Changing the Face of America
The 2010 census count has confirmed what many policymakers and businesses already know: Latinos, the fastest growing population in America with a 43 percent growth in the last decade, are making their presence known in American society. The Latino population is now estimated at 50.5 million people representing 16.3 percent of the total U.S. population.
According to data from the Pew Hispanic Center, traditional Hispanic states such as California — where the NBA Los Angeles Lakers occasionally don game jerseys that read, “Los Lakers” — Texas, Florida and New York, continue to lead in the total number of Hispanics. But states such as South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky saw ten-year growth rates of well over 100 percent indicating that Latinos are very much a part of the national landscape. Much closer to home here in New York, the Latino population rose 8 percent and now makes up 29 percent of the total.
The fast pace of Latino population growth shows we are no longer another minority group, but rather, a “major minority,” which has created a defining imprint on popular culture, politics and the economy. In New York, Latino influences are everywhere: in the food, in the music and in politics.
The Census numbers will be used to draw congressional districts and allocate state funding formulas in the request for federal dollars. In the private sector, this data will be used to make strategic decisions about business development, investment strategies, hiring plans and location of facilities. Hispanic marketers, eager to reach the crucial 18-35 consumer demographic, should take heed that the number of Latinos less than 35 years of age has grown a remarkable 51.5% since 1990.
In the same vein, when it comes to politics, education and other key areas, careful attention should be paid to how Latinos are engaged. How well will campaigns and candidates engage this eager young voting bloc as we head into the 2012 election? How many opportunities for more Latino office holders will arise after congressional districts are realigned due to the Census? How will the growth of Latino students, Latino teachers and professors impact the development of educational curriculum or how history and other topics are taught? And as the data continues to point to an ever growing Latino consumer base, how will businesses communicate and relate to this economically powerful, multi-cultural community? Last, and most importantly, WHO are the people behind these numbers?
The Latino community is not a homogenous group and for policy makers and businesses alike, this has profound implications. Businesses and politicians understand that the numbers don’t lie: The Latino community is a force to be reckoned with and it will be responsive to those leaders and those businesses who embrace the diversity we have to offer.
Previously appeared in El Diario.
Style Network Courts Latina Moms
Style Network announced a slew of new programming and development on Tuesday morning in Gotham, including “Big Rich Texas,” a reality series that focuses on mother-daughter pairs among the Texas gentry. The 10-episode hourlong series is slated to start in July.
Also upcoming on the net: “How Do I Look?: The Search for the Worst Dressed in America,” a multi-part event set for September.
Net topper Salaam Coleman Smith also said that the company would be joining Lauren Zalaznick’s Hispanics@NBCU initiative, with an intensified outreach to Latina mothers.
Programming on the development slate specifically targeted that demo, notably “Single With 7,” an unscripted show about a 29-year-old Hispanic woman who steps up to take care of her seven nieces and nephews when her sister goes to prison.
Style is new to the NBCU family as of the merger with Comcast, but Zalaznick said she wanted to emphasize the net’s importance to her division. “In the sea of 66 other upfronts, it was important to us to introduce Style in this very intimate way,” Zalaznick told journos at the breakfast presser at the Hudson Hotel.
Other shows on the development slate include “Birth Moms,” a new show about mothers who give their children up for adoption; “Are You Dressed?” a trivia show; and “Miss Fit,” an exercise-focused skein hosted by no-nonsense personal trainer and former beauty queen Katie Boyd.
Stereotypes and Myths of Latina Sexuality
As an undergrad and graduate student at the University of Maryland (UM) there were often talks about creating a Latino Studies program. It was not until I left UM in 2006 that such conversations were leading to action. Today there is an undergraduate Latino Studies program at UM thanks to the activism of key faculty and students.
Last year graduate students working in Latino Studies created Semana de la Latina (Week of the Latina or Latina Week) at the end of March. This year, I was asked to be a part of Semana de la Latina and return to my alma mater and present on Latina sexualities.
I was incredibly honored, excited and anxious to accept such an invitation. It has been a very long time since I was back on campus and my leaving wasn’t under the greatest circumstances. However, knowing that students were leading and creating the events for the week and they reached out to me made me all the more sure I had to do it and do it well!
We had two hours to discuss Latina sexualities, and although that may not sound like a lot of time, I like to think we got a lot covered! I’ve included my powerpoint presentation below for folks to check out as I won’t be providing a slide by slide discussion of what I presented; instead I’ll touch upon key themes and conversations we had during the presentation.
The first slide I provided gave a definition of sexuality to introduce my presentation. I shared what many of us sexuality educator’s use and were trained to understand the complexity of sexuality: the circles of sexuality. I shared what each component means as many of us in the field understand them: sensuality, intimacy, identity, health and reproduction, and sexualization. I then shared with the 20+ people present that as I was learning these things about sexuality education, I wondered where race, class, ethnicity, ability, and citizenship status fit in. I asked those present where they would put each of these identities in these circles of sexuality. My decision a decade ago was that each of these identities fit into each of the circles of sexuality, so why don’t we ever talk about them when creating curriculums for youth and adults? Are we really doing “comprehensive” sexuality education when we omit these parts of our identities?
And that is where I began my presentation.
The main topics/themes I focused on included discussing and deconstructing the virgin/whore dichotomy; Latinas, abortion and contraceptive access; the Welfare Queen; criminalization of Latina sexualities; Trans Latinas how they are erased and/or attempts at inclusion; and media making and mentorship. For each of these topics I included artwork, films, data, and historical analysis for many of the topics presented in attempts to make this a multi-media, engaging, and interdisciplinary conversation.
The conversations we had about the virgin/whore dichotomy are not too far from what I have shared before about deconstructing ideas of Marianismo. An additional component to ideas of sex-positivity connected to Latinas in the US was how these ideologies come from an assimilationist space/framework. Recognizing that sex-positivity may exist in multiple experiences is important and often I’ve found that when discussing sex-positivity among Latinas and women of Color, folks argue that the more assimilated we become to US society the more sex-positive we become as well. I find this troubling (and plan to write more in depth about it soon) for multiple reasons, mainly because it ignores how ethnocentric and elitist such ideas are while ignoring lived experiences of people abroad. It creates a “us versus them” space where the “us” is the US and thus better and more liberating. “Them” continues to be seen as “other” and ideas of being “traditional” (which is code for so many things) becomes undesirable and a sign of oppression when it comes to sexuality.
Using the artwork of two unknown artists and Isis Rodriguez, I explored the idea of the Virgin and the Whore from Latina artists. The first two images are of La Vigen, one called “The Liberation of Mary” where she is showing her vulva to the viewer and the other an image of a fat Virgin Mary. I spoke about how body shape and size is important to deconstruct in these images, that often we imagine and see images of a slender Virgin Mary whereas she was a pregnant woman but we don’t see her in such a way. Also, why do we think the body parts of the woman who some believed to have birth a prophet off limits to discuss? What does this do to our ideas of our bodies?
A film I used to discuss our ideas of young Latinas (and some older ones) connected to the virgin/whore dichotomy was Raising Victor Vargas (yes I do use this film often when I can because there is so much to connect to various topics). You may find the clip to this film on YouTube. We discussed how Judy is present in the film and her decision to remain a virgin is one that challenges our ideas of what young women are expected to do/act/say upon making that choice. One participate noted that Judy is not naïve as is assumed of young women or women who are virgins, that instead she is astute, smart, remains desirable, and negotiates her own safety without giving up any power.
To finish the conversation on virgin/whore dichotomy I presented Isis Rodriguez’s artwork No More!, which I’ve connected to in many ways, and Dr. Juana María Rodríguez’s ideas of “cyber-slut.” This led into the second them of Latinas, abortion and contraception. I shared my own experiences of attempting to obtain an IUD, responses to my sharing of choosing to use the withdrawal method, and sharing my perspective on the birth control pill’s 50th anniversary (and responses to it). Then I included a discussion of sterilization, the history of it in the US among Latinas and differently able people, and how it remains one of the main contraceptive options for many Latinas in the US. I referenced Dr. Iris Ofelia Lopez’s longitudinal study she shared in her text Matters of Choice, which followed three generations of Puerto Rican women who have been sterilized (the first generation being ones who were forcibly sterilized and how that history impacted the choices of the women in their family: daughters and granddaughters). Dr. López’s idea of “agency within constraints” is one that is very useful to discussing and working with Latina populations.
A conversation about Latinas choosing abortion and what the rates are, as well as a focus on Rosie Jimenez was provided. It’s not often that I get choked up during presentations, but this time I teared up and my voice cracked as I talked about Rosie Jimenez, what her death represents still today, what her daughter has lost, and what we do when we easily for get the legacy she has given us. Discussing Rosie Jimenez’s inability to obtain and afford a legal abortion was a good transition to discussions of the Welfare Queen.
Prior to discussing ideas about the Welfare Queen as it is applied to Latinas, I shared a common belief that the people in the US who are seen to be socially acceptable recipients of Medicaid are veterans and people with visible disabilities. A good friend of mine, KB, shared this research with me, especially how it applied to veterans of Color. We explored how ideas of “invisible disabilities” especially mental illness have been applied to Latinas. For example, I’ve heard many people say to me and around me that Latinas are “crazy,” “unpredictable” and these are usually connected to ideas of mental illness, yet in such situations Latinas are seen as desirable, fetishized because of their “unpredicatablity” connected to disability. Thus, how are Latinas with different abilities seen as asexual while others are fetishized and what connections can we make to Isis Rodriguez’s artwork No More!?
As part of our conversation around the Welfare Queen, I shared artist, author and media maker Erika Lopez’s ideas of the Welfare Queen. She’s created a one-woman show discussing her experiences attempting to get books published, obtain Medicare and find health care. Part of her presentation is that when she was at the “welfare line” she did not see people with several children from multiple men, nor did she see people who did not take pride in their appearance. Instead, she saw beautiful and strong people who were experiencing hard times. They took pride in themselves and remained sexual people without shame or fear even if they found themselves in a space where their privacy was eliminated. Her two images of the Welfare Queen represent these ideas. The color image was her first and original image and the black and white one was a more recent representation that has aged the Welfare Queen, because older people also experience hard times.
The criminalization of Latina sexuality is one that I’ve thought about for several years. I’ve had the great fortune to examine this theme in multiple ways and the topics included were sex work, immigration and detention, violence, and gender identity and expression. Again, I used images from Isis Rodriguez and her series “My Life As A Comic Stripper” to highlight and discuss sex work in the US. As a group we discussed what we saw in her images and what messages she may be providing and sharing with viewers.
Conversations about violence I connected to reggeaton artist Ivy Queen, one of the only, if not THE only, woman in the male-dominated genre (who has been around for over two decades). One of her songs I used to discuss violence is “La Abusadora.” The song is in Spanish and I asked folks who do not understand or speak Spanish to listen to the production of the song, what they heard besides lyrics. The Spanish-speaking folks in the audience shared some of the terms they heard her mention in her lyrics. We had an important conversation around what it means when a Latina claims a certain level of violence. How is power connected to that violence, and what does it mean when that is the only form of power and agency some Latinas feel they possess?
I tied into this conversation to Lorena Gallo (formally Lorena Bobbitt), an Ecuadorian who still lives in Virginia (and for those of you familiar with the MD/VA/DC area you know how close those three areas are to one another. Gallo made national headlines when she cut part of her partner’s penis off after years of experiencing spousal rape (which he was not found guilty of but remains with a history of violence). Gallo was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a mental health facility. Again the idea of mental illness and connections to Latina sexualities, disability, and violence intersect. I completed this section by discussing the Texas rape case and how the virgin/whore dichotomy becomes something we don’t discuss in such situations. Who are we to call a 11 year-old girl whose experiences of rape and abuse mean she is a “whore”? How is virginity and promiscuity connected to choice?
As part of the conversation around gender expression and identity and the connections to criminalization, I discussed the ways Latinas who represent/embrace/identify/perform masculinity are targeted. Again, the ideas of assimilation were present in that Latinas whose gender expression may be what some may consider masculine, this is seen as an outcome of living in the US, something either celebrated as liberating or seen as problematic because they are foreign. I have to thank Dr. Ziegler for pushing me towards including this topic in more depth for this presentation.
Using singer, author, and model Rita Indiana as an example, we discussed how gender expression is tied into this conversation. Rita Indiana and Los Misterios released an album last year that was very well received in the US and abroad. Indiana identifies as a Dominican lesbian and in the interview shares how folks are embracing her and sharing that they are happy she is true to herself and not hiding. Other interviews with Indiana demonstrate how much her gender expression, which many may see as masculine, is a topic of conversation when she does interviews. She has spoken of her androgynous appearance and her height of over 6 foot 2 inches has been a focus for many Latino interviewers.
The next theme discussed was how trans people are included, excluded and erased in conversations about Latina sexualities. I shared data from the UK organization Transgender Europe, which shared data on the murders of Trans people all over the world. Transgender Europe released data in the summer of 2010 that showed Central and South America as one of the most unsafe places for a trans person to live. Reports of murders for the first 6 months of 2010 were already exceeding the number of reported murders from 2009, and those only include the reported murders. Making it clear to participants that these murders are INTRAcultural and INTRAracial was important for me because often we assume “other” people are murdering members of our communities instead of holding our own communities responsible.
I encouraged Latino activists present to not ignore the Transgender Day of Remembrance, to remember this data, and that if we do nothing and are complacent with our community being murdered we are supporting the murders and allowing for them to continue in our communities. Also included in this section was the erasure of Latinas who identify as trans, how we have a rich history and legacy of activism that we choose to ignore which is an injustice for us all.
The final part of the presentation with a shameless plug for mentoring and media making by highlighting Sofia Quintero’s HomeGirl.TV. This is a project that author, activist, and media maker Sofia Quintero created and implemented as a social network and space for people to provide guidance, support, and advice on various topics many of us encounter. The first webisode of the first season answers the question: Should I put my boyfriend of 3 months of my cell phone plan? Part of this being a shameless plug is that I am one of the HomeGirls Sofia reached out to and included in the webisodes. HomeGirl.TV launched March 31, and if you’d like to see all of the webisodes, new ones are uploaded every Thursday, please join HomeGirl.TV. It is not just for people who identify as women, it is for everyone. Sofia wishes to begin a dialogue and is looking for HomeGirls for season 2!
I ended the presentation with an advertisement that embodied many if not all of the themes and conversations we had that day: And Then There Was Salsa.
Many thanks to the Latino Studies program, Ana, Maria and Pamela did an amazing job, and coordinated two more events: an art exhibit and a film screening which received media attention. Thank you to the participants and to my two mentors who were present to support me: Dr. Ana Patricia Rodriguez and Anne Anderson-Sawyer.
Teen pregnancy way down, but not for everyone – HealthPop – CBS News
Teen pregnancy is way down, but there are still 400,000 births to teen moms in America each year.
(Credit:
istockphoto)(CBS) Teen pregnancy is down, way down in America, but teens in this country are still getting pregnant at rates that dwarf the rest of the developed world.
That’s according to a new Centers for Disease Control report, which found teen birth rates dropped 37 percent over the last two decades and are now at a record low. But the agency says it’s still not nearly good enough. Teen birth rates in America are up to nine times higher than many other developed countries. We find ourselves nestled between Bulgaria and Romania on the issue.
What’s the big deal? Education for one. Only 50 percent of teen moms get a high school diploma by the age of 22, according to the CDC. That’s compared with 90 percent of teen girls that don’t give birth. Money is also a factor. The agency estimates that teen births cost taxpayers $9 billion each year.
There were around 400,000 teen births in 2009, the last year for which the agency has released data. Hispanic and black teens were two to three times as likely to be teen moms as whites. Geography also played a role.
Northeastern states had the lowest teen pregnancy rates, while some southern states still struggle. See our slide show for the rundown on which states have the highest rates of teen moms.
For parents worried about the issue, the CDC has a few tips.
- Talk to your teens about delaying sex, avoiding pregnancy, birth control, having respectful relationships, and being aware of dating violence.
- Get to know the parents of your teen’s friends and be involved with what’s going on in their lives.
- Talk to community leaders about the need for effective programs that prevent teen pregnancy and address overall sexual and reproductive health.
RN-T.com – Executive sees promise in Hispanic market
Fifty percent of Coca-Cola’s future growth in America will come from the Hispanic population, said Frank Ros, assistant vice president of the Latin Affairs Division for the company.
And that is a target market for the soft drink giant, Ros told a group of industry leaders, Berry College faculty and students during the college’s spring Executive Round Table held on Tuesday night in the Ford Dining Hall.
Ros has served on several national state and community boards and was chairman of the Georgia Commission on Hispanic Affairs after his appointment by former Gov. Roy Barnes.
“If we are going to continue to grow, we have to capture the ‘stomach share’ of the Hispanic consumers,” Ros told the group of about 100 people.
Coca-Cola is also looking at products outside of the country to reach the market.
For example, Mexican Coca-Cola does very well in Mexico, where it is sweetened with sugar cane. The company has begun importing that product into the states.
Ros also answered questions from the students about succeeding in their future careers. He pointed out in a slide presentation, that the top 10 jobs in demand in 2010 did not even exist in 2004.
He advised the students that a sales job may be the best position they could take after graduation.
“You have to learn to accept adversity,” Ros said. “If you have determination, you can overcome those things that are not fun. Determination and hard work will neutralize any type of deficiency you have.”
Ros shared stories from early in his career, which he said did not go as he had planned.
He advised the students to take several important steps in the future.
“Stay focused on what you are doing,” Ros said. “And keep your eyes open for opportunities or things you would like to do. Always network. It can always open doors for you.”
Before the dinner, students networked with industry leaders.
The dinner is a tradition for the college, allowing students to learn networking and etiquette skills through the interaction with industry leaders and staff, said Nancy Mercer, assistant dean and director of M.B.A Marketing and Admissions of the Campbell School of Business.
