Though the needs of Hispanic Americans are often marginalized in major brands’ marketing efforts, the demographic is shown to be far more receptive to mobile advertising compared to the general population. And ignoring the needs of Hispanics—particularly Hispanic Millennials—means missing out on an enormous audience (by far the fastest-growing segment of the American population).

Recent reports from the IAB (Internet Advertising Beureau), eMarketer, Univision, and Experian all agree: Hispanic Millennials are embracing mobile advertising more than any other demographic.

Major Brands Target Hispanic Americans

FunMobility’s clients are seeing unprecedented success with campaigns targeted at spanish-speaking demographics. One client—a major North American hardware dealer—saw a month-over-month performance increase of more than 300% with their campaign, simply by changing the English-only mobile display ads into bi-lingual English/Spanish ads.

Other brands are placing more emphasis on Hispanics, as well. Denny’s recently launched its new Spanish-language Facebook page, “Denny’s Latino,” which features original content specifically designed to target the needs and purchasing patterns of Hispanic customers.

“Latinos are a fundamental component to business growth and overall success as they have significant buying power yet their technology and media use do not mirror the general market but have distinct patterns,” said Chris Mellow, director of digital engagement at Grupo Gallegos, an agency that focuses on the Latino market.

Bi-Lingual Is Best

Many Hispanic-targeted mobile advertising campaigns employ Spanish-only content, but this approach fails to align with the preferences of most Hispanics. eMarketer reports that the most-preferred language format amongst hispanics—getting 40% of the vote—is content that uses English and Spanish equally. This is double the popularity of the second highest language preference amongst Hispanics: English only. Spanish-only content was preferred by just 9% of the Hispanic population—the least popular option.

The IAB’s Hispanic Millenials: Portraits of a Mobile-First Generation reports that young hispanics in particular want to consume media that reflects the cultural diversity and bilingual identity that they see within themselves, and actually resent campaigns that cater to them artificially by translating things into spanish.

Hispanics Respond More Strongly To Advertising

Across the board, Hispanic Americans of all ages consume more media on mobile devices compared to the general population, and respond more positively to mobile advertising. HispanicAd.com’s Hispanic Market Overview 2014 reports Hispanics having better receptivity to mobile ads in every respect:

Brand and product recall
Likelihood to lead to purchase events
Willingness to get ad content

Experian Marketing Services report that hispanics consume 15% more video media on mobile devices compared to non-hispanics.

Hispanic Millennials: The Mobile Generation

It should come as no surprise that, of all hispanic mobile consumers, the millennial generation is most comfortable using their mobile devices for commerce. Unlike older shoppers, millennials grew up alongside their smart phones–mobile has always been a natural, integral part of their lives, and their attitudes towards m-commerce reflect this.

Though shoppers of all ages are using smartphones to help them shop, young people are engaging their mobile devices more frequently and on a profoundly deeper level than older generations. A report by Thrive Analytics found that 97% of Millennials rely on their smart phones when shopping in-store