As U.S. Hispanic broadcast media continues to grow its digital revenue through streaming apps and website traffic, a digital platform born out of a Spanish-language newspaper serving Atlanta has launched an advertising-led revenue initiative it says is designed “to help brands reach digital Latinos that currently don’t fit into standard AdTech industry category boxes.”
What “The MundoNow Project” brings to marketers as Hispanic Heritage Month is upon us yields some intriguing questions about Mundo Hispano Digital and MundoNow‘s ultimate goal — and whether or not radio and TV broadcasters serving Hispanics have learning lessons to gain insight from.
As MundoNow CEO Rene Alegria sees it, the MundoNow Project is designed to bring together Hispanic users across the internet “that reflect today’s Latino identity, better monetize partner sites with digital assets, and bring authentic reach and scale to brands in the process.”
Does this suggest that Spanish-language digital and linear media are doing a poor job of offering content that reflects the Hispanic consumer’s consumption habits, and perhaps does not appeal to the diverse Latino populace across the U.S.?
That’s one of the questions RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson asks Alegria in the latest InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM.
Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Rene Alegra, MundoNow” on Spreaker.
“The evolution of our Latino community is a constant,” Alegria said. “Who we are today is not who we were 10 years ago. It’s time we move to change the AdTech system as we know it, into something that effectively connects brands with real Latinos, acculturated and language-diverse as we are.”
The suggestion that advertisers aren’t reaching “real Latinos” is one that could lead others to express frustration, given the decades of efforts each entity has respectively undertaken to invest in local and national news, bespoke programming and unique content tailored specifically for the U.S. Hispanic market.
Alegria continued, “Whether general Spanish-language news, or important and distinctive, culture-driven content for Afro-Latino English-dominant users, or LGBTQIA+ Spanish-dominant Latino users for example, there are too many instances where brands just can’t connect with us at scale because we must either be ‘all Spanish-language this’ or ‘all general-market that.’”
The MundoNow Project aims to change this, giving marketers an opportunity to dig deep within a segment of the U.S. advertising pie that many believe has not grown as large as it needs to be.
For Alegria, the MundoNow Project employs proprietary “smart technology” that considers “authentic Latino perspectives throughout the media consumption lifecycle, and with publishing partnerships where Latinos frequent, regardless of language,” Alegria said. “With this new perspective, we can deliver an audience at scale where everyone, especially the Latino community, wins.”
MundoNow has enlisted Infinity Partnerships, “the most inclusive expert network for advertising technology,” to help launch and manage The MundoNow Project and actively seek new publisher partnerships and members. “The relationship creates a unified partner movement to help build a better business model for Latino and/or Spanish-language platforms that find it very difficult to effectively monetize their digital businesses, while simultaneously fulfilling growing advertiser demand to align with one of the most complex and important market segments, at scale,” Alegria believes.
Among the launch partners are TV Insider; LovetoKnow Media, which operates properties including Lovetoknow.com; LovetoKnowPets; YourDictionary; GolfLink; and Recurrent Ventures, which operates sites like Bob Vila, Business of Home, Donut, Dwell, Outdoor Life and Field & Stream.
Infinity Partnerships co-founders Amanda Binns and George Mani commented, “We are thrilled to partner with Rene Alegria and MundoNow, along with the many launch publishing partners on this important initiative to empower Latino identities across the entire acculturated spectrum. The Hispanic Consumer is multi-dimensional and The MundoNow Project will accelerate the buy side’s ability to align with this powerful buying group, at scale, in an authentic manner. We are eager to use our combined 35 years of advertising technology expertise and expert network to launch and scale this initiative for Rene and team.”
Listen to “The InFOCUS Podcast: Rene Alegra, MundoNow” on Spreaker.
