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‘La Fea’ Meets ‘Ugly Betty’ In The Month Of May.- A month-long parade of Spanish television stars on ABC’s “Ugly Betty” will culminate with the May 17th appearance of Angélica Vale - none other than the star of Univision’s “La Fea Más Bella.”

Vale’s presence in the season finale of “Ugly Betty” features the actress as Angélica, the assistant to Diane (played by Kristin Chenoweth). Angélica is an orthodontic technician who loves romantic comedies and becomes overly involved in her patients’ lives - including that of Betty (played by América Ferrera).

Other guest stars include telenovela star Cristian de la Fuente, appearing in tomorrow night’s episode.

From AHAA Conference: Google Enters Market and Social Networking Is Hot Topic

By Laurel Wentz

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — The fast-growing audience of online Hispanics — and how to market to them — was the hot topic at the spring conference of the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies last week.

The number of Hispanics using broadband at home grew from 40% of online Hispanics to 61% last year, while their use of social network sites soared by more than 200%, researcher Tamara Barber from Forrester Research told the 500 people who attended the AHAA conference April 26-27.

Minutes online, page views
Last year, the total number of Hispanics online grew by 11% to 16.3 million, while the total number of minutes they spent online per month grew by 34% and total page views by 49%, said another panelist, Jack Flanagan, exec VP of ComScore Media Metrix.

And Google has finally discovered the U.S. Hispanic market. Sarah Carberry, a conference panelist and Google’s senior account executive-consumer packaged goods, now works part time on multicultural efforts and will become the company’s first multicultural manager later this year.

Ms. Carberry, who is Cuban-American, described a campaign supermarket chain Albertson’s did with Google for products for quinceañeras, the party traditionally held for a Hispanic girl when she turns 15. The campaign used keyword targeting and display ads to draw families planning quinceañeras to Albertson’s bakery, paper products and flower departments in heavily-Hispanic areas.

“We test both languages [Spanish and English], and we’re also testing Spanglish,” she said.
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Miller Brewing Company launched Miller Chill in test markets last month to capitalize on the growing cultural trend of “Latinization.” Latinization means the growing popularity of Hispanic cuisine, music, fashion etc. in the cultural mainstream. In many instances, it is reshaping popular culture. Think of the growing popularity of Latin themed items. Also known unofficially to us Latinos as the “browning” of America.

An Associated Press story takes a look at how the trend of Latinization has been influencing what goes on grocery store shelves:

“Companies have found that Latin-inspired foods not only resonate with Hispanics — at 14 percent of the population now the nation’s largest minority — but they also make a splash with non-Hispanic consumers ever on the prowl for new flavors.”
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By CANDICE CHOI
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK — Chipotle Cheddar. Dulce de leche Oreos. Lime-flavored beer.

So much for the days when Hispanic food amounted to dusty taco kits in the grocer’s specialty aisle. Having long ago discovered the nation’s enormous appetite for Latin cuisine, food manufacturers are infusing a growing number of American staples with Hispanic flavors.

That’s because companies have found that Latin-inspired foods not only resonate with Hispanics — at 14 percent of the population now the nation’s largest minority — but also make a splash with mainstream consumers ever on the prowl for new and exciting flavors.
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Since the general market agencies and holding companies (IPG, WPP, Publicis etc.) decided to capitalize on the growing Hispanic market about 10 years ago, we have seen partnering between agencies. But in recent times, we’ve seen an ever increasing amount of independent Hispanic agencies partnering with general market agencies. As advertisers continue to look for integrated approaches in marketing, I think independent Hispanic agencies have woken up to the fact that they have a lot to gain. I think these agencies are seeing the benefits of strategic partnerships rather than battling the general market agencies for a voice.

Overtime, I have noticed that there are many different types of relationships that agencies can have. In my time at Accentmarketing, we partnered with Campbell-Ewald and even serviced accounts together (Chevrolet, U.S., Navy and Kaiser Permanente), but we were all IPG held agencies. We had a contract that said we needed to get along. Zubi never really partners with JWT…in fact; JWT services the regional retail Hispanic business. “Ride it like a Ford” was successful because it worked in English and Spanish…but it worked at the implementation level because it came from one agency. And The Vidal Partnership was forced to work with Zimmerman on the Nissan retail business.
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By Katy Bachman, Mediaweek

Mobile audio has a ways to go before it’s as ubiquitous as terrestrial radio. According to the results of a study by Arbitron and Telephia released Tuesday, only one in 16 mobile phone subscribers (6 percent) report using one or more audio features in the past 30 days.

The most common use of mobile audio is transferring music from another device and using the cell phone like an MP3 player.

The results were based on an online survey of over 2,000 wireless subscribers in February 2007.

Nearly half of wireless subscribers (47 percent) use their mobile phone for more than just a telephone. At the top of the list of activities used by mobile phone users was text-messaging with 36 percent responding they had sent or received a text message in the last 30 days.
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