Utilize measurement and metrics
Dave Rodriguez, multicultural marketing communications manager at Ford Motor Company, says, "A primary challenge is building the business case. Having analytics in place to measure impact -- beyond CRT -- and conversions is critical. It's important to understand how digital leads to not only awareness, but ultimately its impact on shopping and sales.

He adds, "With an increase in the online options, it is important that proof of performance and guarantees on delivery be established upfront. Also, the bilingual growth requires that markers balance how messages are delivered in Spanish versus English or via both and provide the consumer with the options of opting in through language of choice. Behavioral and geo-targeting are of increasing value for more targeted programs, particularly given the regional concentration of the Hispanic population."

Looking ahead, Rodriguez says, "What is of increasing importance and value is the use of spotlight and floodlight tagging. This is providing the ability to assess how deep Hispanics consumers are going into our sites/shopping process. Plus, the tagging also will provide new opportunities for retargeting as they venture out on the web. This is the means by which we are most excited to maintain exposure and ideally optimize the chance for them to reach back to our sites/brands."

Focus on behavior
According to Ralph Rivera, VP and GM of AOL Latino and Latin America, "With offline media, the market is used to the adjacency model (furniture ads in home magazine) or the reach/frequency model (18-34 males for specific TV show). Offline cannot deliver against behaviors. Online media can because of the interactivity, tracking and targeting that is available. As such, an auto advertiser can reach an auto intender playing online games or reading email.

"Most marketers are realizing that online networks can deliver broad reach against the long tail of sites beyond the top three portals/verticals. What should also be included in these networks is country of origin sites, which are getting significant U.S. audiences."

Maria Lopez-Knowles of MRM Worldwide adds, "One of the key benefits of the internet is that it is a global platform. Visiting sites in other countries, reading content from foreign sources, engaging in dialogue with other individuals, provides marketers with data to serve up hyper-relevant advertising and messaging. Leveraging the knowledge that a consumer is reaching across geographical boundaries greatly informs the advertiser as to who that consumer is, what interests they may have, what languages they discern, what cultures they might be interested in, and so on.

"As more sophisticated tools are available, such as targeting (behavioral, contextual, registration-based, geo) and key word searches, finding these consumers is easier. Marketing to them with greater relevancy becomes more promising because it's based on actual past behavior [a good predictor of future behavior]. Advertisers can serve up relevant ongoing, interactive brand experiences by leveraging tagged cookie data from online searches, web visits/navigational paths, content views and shopping patterns."