MarketIntelligence: Quepasa gets $7m In Financing

"Quepasa (QPSA) announced that it has signed financing deal with Mexican and Americans Trading Together, Inc. and Richard L. Scott Investments, LLC, to offer it with $7 million of working capital."

http://www.marketintelligencecenter.com/articles/519027

Portada: Batanga Buying HispanoClick?

Batanga Buying HispanoClick?

"By buying online advertising network HispanoClick, Batanga would become a major force in the Hispanic online advertising space and a serious rival to market leader Univision.com. It will now be able to sell HispanoClick’s networks audience of 5 million U.S. Hispanic monthly unique users to advertisers in addition to the monthly .3.8 million unique users of its own batanga.com website It would also get access to HispanoClick’s relationships with advertisers."

http://www.portada-online.com/HTML/WEBSITE/PAID/2008/JAN28/BATANGA-HISPANOCLLICK-TRANSACTION.ASPX

My comments:
If true, this makes Batanga a powerhouse with which to contend.

AdAge: Sundance and Super Bowl Speak to Latinos

"It has been a long time coming, but Latino talent, both on-screen and off, are finally breaking out of the molds in which they have been consistently cast. For every drug dealer, maid, whore and illegal immigrant, there are finally a significant number of Latino doctors, lawyers, intellectuals and geeks. For every novela-like tale of down-trodden victims on a rags-to-riches journey, there are finally stories that shed a more three-dimensional light on the lives of Latinos, both factual and fictional.Today, Hispanics in Hollywood can be counted on more than one hand.
So can Latino NFL players and Latino NFL fans."

http://adage.com/bigtent/article?article_id=124738

L.A Times: Two well respected Latino leaders say Hispanics will support Hillary

Harry P. Pachon and Rodolfo O. de la Garza:Why Clinton can count on Latinos

"Hillary Clinton is doing extraordinarily well among Latino voters, compared with rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards. According to a Times/CNN/Politico poll Tuesday, she's running 2 to 1 ahead of Obama among California Latinos."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-oe-pachon30jan30,0,869578.story

SRI conference on Latino marketing finally emphasizes digital - in English

Televisa's Plehn added that "People en español"'s website is in English and that the Time Inc. publication translates its Spanish language magazine content to English to satisfy its primarily bilingual and English dominant online audience.

http://www.portada-online.com/HTML/WEBSITE/PAID/2008/JAN28/SRI-HIPANIC-LATAM-CONFERENCE.ASPX

HuffingtonPost: Is Univision biased for Clinton

Nathan Gonzalez: Is Univision Slanted toward Hillary?

"There's nothing wrong with having influence over a powerful media outlet and personally preferring one candidate over another. The problem comes when blatant biases seep into the reporting of political news."

WorldScreen: Latino TV overview

In all, there are now 12.14 million Hispanic TV households in the U.S., according to Doug Darfield, the senior VP of multicultural measurement at The Nielsen Company. In about two-thirds of those homes, “Spanish is spoken as much as or more than English,” he says.

http://www.worldscreen.com/featurescurrent.php?filename=hispanic0108.htm

RobertNovak: Pollster Bendixon blew it

Washington Post Op-ED

How the Clinton campaign deals with Hispanic voters is a sensitive matter, and sensitivity has never been a hallmark of the Clinton style.

Insensitivity was reflected in a recent issue of the New Yorker, when Clinton's veteran Latino political operative Sergio Bendixen was quoted as saying, "The Hispanic voter -- and I want to say this very carefully -- has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates."
....
A prominent Democrat who has not picked a candidate this year told me, "In any campaign I have been involved in, Bendixen would have been gone."
--Robert Novak

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/27/AR2008012701612.html

L.A.Times: Pollster Benidixon spin wrong about Latino voters and black candidates

LA Times's Gregory Rodriguez on "Clinton's Latino spin"

"A few weeks ago, Sergio Bendixen, a Clinton pollster and Latino expert, publicly articulated what campaign officials appear to have been whispering for months. In an interview with Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker, Bendixen explained that "the Hispanic voter -- and I want to say this very carefully -- has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates." .... But was Bendixen's blanket statement true? Far from it, and the evidence is overwhelming enough to make you wonder why in the world the Clinton campaign would want to portray Latino voters as too unrelentingly racist to vote for Barack Obama."

My comments: Maybe Clinton wants Latinos to forget about this:

“WE NEED TO HAVE A PLAN TO GET THEM BACK TO THE COUNTRIES THEY CAME FROM”,
TERRY MCAULIFFE, Clinton campaign manager

Story about the quote: http://nuestravoice.com/?p=531
The Quote Captured in Audio: http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/kpcc/news/shows/airtalk/2007/01/20070130_airtalk1?start=00:26:22&end=00:55:01

PhoenixBizJournal: SiTV's Jeff Valdez chairman of the board

QuePasa names Latino cable pioneer chairman

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/01/21/daily41.html?t=printable

My comments: Joining an on-line and off-line product focused on bilingual English dominants may just have the leverage to pull this off, but QuePasa has been so hamstrung by its attempts to restructure that I don't know what's going to happen. QuePasa started as something similar to StarMedia, all smoke and mirrors, and has continued to limp along without purpose or direction.

SiTV: Latinos Online young and prefer English. Duh!

"The Hispanic population that goes online is young, less than 35 years old, and prefers English content, according to research being cited by Si TV."

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6525070.html

My comments: I've been saying this since 1997!

Also, Azteca America does product placements with Macys.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6513182.html

My comments: There's enough bad TV in Spanish already.

Broadcast & Cable: Telemundo, Televisa settle suit

"Televisa’s suit alleged that Telemundo interfered with Televisa’s contract with actor Mauricio Islas."

Salinas Calinfornian: Hilary gets United Farm Workers Endorsement.

"During the campaign stop at Hartnell, the former first lady also received an endorsement from the United Farm Workers union and promised to approve immigration reform if elected. Members of the union chanted "Si se puede," as Clinton entered the gym, and at one point, she repeated the mantra to great applause."

http://www.californianonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080123/NEWS01/801230301

Bloomberg: Televisa a potential acquistion target?

"Mexico's largest broadcaster has fallen to close to its lowest valuation in three years, making it an attractive purchase, strategist Carlos Ponce of IXE Grupo Financiero wrote in a research note e-mailed Jan. 18."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aZCsiZhBevQU&refer=latin_america

Azteca America continues in LA.

Azteca attempts to hang on to distribution in the USA.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=74666

AdWeek: Saatchi promotes insider to in part oversee Hispanic advertising

"Roberts described (Mary) Baglivo, 50, as a "one-of-a-kind inspirational leader," adding that her new position "recognizes the growing importance of Hispanic consumers to virtually all our clients and will bring the Americas closer together within our network." "

http://www.adweek.com/aw/national/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003699396

Newsday: Spanish-language radio squares off in NYC

"On one side is Luis Jimenez, who hosted the nation's No. 1 Hispanic radio show for more than a decade and even beat out Howard Stern in the New York ratings. He left his Spanish Broadcasting System station in New York last year and returns to the airwaves Thursday in the city on a station owned by archrival Univision."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--spanishradio0116jan16,0,766009.story

McClatchy, ImpreMedia join forces

"Together, the publications and websites of ImpreMedia and Sacramento-based McClatchy reach 20 percent of the Hispanic adult population."

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/379544.html

Motley Fool says nice things about QuePasa!

QuePasa says goooooooooaaaaaaal!
Hispanic portal QuePasa is getting into the game, literally. It is finalizing a partnership with BRC Group to set up a social networking hub for BRC's La Alianza de Futbol Hispano, an organization that promotes soccer to Latino communities in the United States.

With its recently hired CEO, QuePasa is hoping to cash in on the fast-growing market of stateside Hispanics going online for news and communication. Soccer is obviously a sport that the Latino community relishes, given its huge popularity in South America.

http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2008/01/16/4-dot-com-stories-you-arent-hearing-about.aspx

Agency France Presse on Obama, Clinton vote in Nevnada

"While the Latino population of Nevada - which has increased by 400 percent since 1990 to more than 610,000 - is estimated at around 24 percent, the number who are eligible to vote is put at around 12 percent. Of those eligible voters, many belong to the 60,000-strong Culinary Workers Union, an influential grouping that last week announced it had endorsed Democratic candidate Barack Obama."

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=683792

Twitter unaware of Terra Networks plan for Spanish-language twitter

"But Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in San Francisco told Alt1040: ”We do not have a business arrangement with Terra, nor have they contacted us."

http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-el-twitter-in-dark-on-telefonicas-plan-for-spanish-version/

QuePasa partners w/ Futbol organization

Quepasa To Enter Into Agreement With BRC Group [QPSA]

1/15/2008 7:16:20 PM Quepasa Corp. (QPSA) said that it is working towards entering into an agreement with BRC Group to become the official social networking provider for La Alianza de Futbol Hispano.

http://www.rttnews.com/sp/breakingnews.asp?item=158

Newsweek: Latinos back Clinton over Obama?

According to Newsweek, it's a fight for Latinos within the Democratic party.

"Given the sometimes caustic rhetoric by Republicans on the illegal-immigration issue, the Latino vote has become more strongly Democratic in the past few years, according to polls."

"A just-released Los Angeles Times poll (with an admittedly small Latino sample) showed that California Hispanics supported Clinton over Obama by 61 percent to 19 percent."

My comments: A survey said Obama was going to win New Hampshire as well. Supporters of Obama tend to be younger than those of Clinton. Latinos tend to be younger than the population as a whole. I'll wait to see how Latinos actually perform at the polls. Newsweek tops the story with only the L.A. Times study as a point of reference to support the thesis that Latinos favor Clinton - "(with an admittedly small Latino sample)."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/94645

Old Quote from Clinton's campaign manager - TERRY MCAULIFFE: “WE NEED TO HAVE A PLAN TO GET THEM BACK TO THE COUNTRIES THEY CAME FROM”, http://nuestravoice.com/?p=531
http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/kpcc/news/shows/airtalk/2007/01/20070130_airtalk1?start=00:26:22&end=00:55:01

Crain's Chicago Business: Mainstream marketer buys a Latino agency

A suburban marketing firm has launched its Latin marketing division by acquiring a small Chicago agency.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=27749&seenIt=1

Also: DM news:
http://www.dmnews.com/Aspen-adds-Latino-arm/article/104192/
My comments:

We'll be seeing more and more of this. Mainstream agencies have the wrong personnel and wrong leadership to tackle these issues.

Latino Comedy Project undercovers problems at Homeland Security. LOL

Dallas Morning News: Interview with Lionel Sosa

Interview with Lionel Sosa, long-time leader of Hispanic marketing.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-pointofcontact_13edi.ART.State.Edition1.37b09a3.html#

AdAge: Earth to mainstream marketers - no need to reinvent the wheel on Latino marketing

Mainstream Marketers' breaking news - Earth is round and Latinos live on it.
Alberto J. Ferrer of AdAge comments with shock and awe on external main stream agencies basic revelations about Latino marketing in a column titled: "What a Waste of Research Funding."

"Now, to be fair, we need to realize that there is a dearth of knowledge about ethnic consumer marketing at these media agencies and so it is to be expected that they start at the beginning with research that shows what the multicultural marketing industry has been saying for many years already. Baby steps, I suppose. "

http://adage.com/bigtent/article?article_id=123035

NY Daily News: Latino who never watched Univision now hosts a show

Latina becomes host on Univision contestant despite never watching the Spanish language network.

"Alejandra Espinoza isn't afraid to admit not so long ago she wasn't a big viewer of Univision.In fact, she didn't watch at all. "

New Latina contestants have to work on their Spanish.

"All the girls are a little bit more prepared," Alejandra Espinoza said. "Last year, the girls had just heard about it and went to the casting. This year, the girls are doing exercises, and learning Spanish." Speaking Spanish is key, of course, when the winner gets to work on a Spanish-speakin
g network.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2008/01/10/2008-01-10_casting_about_for_beautiful_latinas.html

Baldo: Cartoon by Hector D. Cantu

The cartoonist Hector Cantu and I were cub reporters in San Antonio, Texas back in the day.

Enrique

BizReport: MSN Latino to offer targeted advertising

"Advertisers within the MSN Latino platform will be offered different creative packages as well as analytics which will help in maximizing ROI of campaigns within the network. Second-generation Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group in the US."

http://www.bizreport.com/2008/01/ad_platform_to_target_secondgeneration_hispanics.html

Escondido, Ca. businesses get Latino marketing advice

"... Latino customers
• typically prefer cash to credit cards,
• shop in groups instead of alone and
• become fiercely loyal to companies they trust.
• Latinos typically respond well to Internet marketing because they tend to be younger than the average consumer...
• They also usually respect companies that feature Spanish words in their ads and within their places of business..."

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/01/09/news/inland/3_03_151_8_08.txt

WorldScreen: Televisa speaks on US Latino Market

"We think that investing in a U.S. network is important. We’re looking for available opportunities, since our interest in Univision never came to fruition, but we’re searching for other possibilities Televisa has to better deliver content and to more people."
- Televisa's Emilio Azcárraga Jean

http://www.worldscreen.com/interviewscurrent.php?filename=azcarraga1007.htm

MediaPost: Tips on Latino email marketing

"Beyond language translation, one needs to understand the cultural differences and preferences of the population. According to a study done by CapturaGroup and Idiom, Connecting With the US Hispanic Market Online, the attachment to their native culture is much stronger for U.S. Hispanics than it was for previous waves of immigrants, making us more a tossed salad than a melting pot."

http://blogs.mediapost.com/email_insider/?p=563

AdAge: Latinos go mobile.

"Multicultural marketers are doing more mobile marketing and are more interested in using social networks than their general-market counterparts."

http://adage.com/hispanic/article?article_id=122848

My comments: This approach makes sense.

Bizreport.com: Multicultural marketers embrace social and mobile marketing

"Why? Because research has found multicultural users, in particular Hispanics, more likely to be advanced users of cellphone technology and to more fully utilize the communication technology available."

http://www.bizreport.com/2008/01/multicultural_marketers_embrace_social_and_mobile_marketing.html

My comments: I don't know the veracity of this source, but the story seems plausible.

Este Bud es para it: Anheuser-Busch Cos target Latinos

From the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

"The largest U.S. brewer hopes to build more momentum among Latinos with a big marketing push, primarily backing Budweiser and Bud Light — the St. Louis company's signature beers. Forging tighter alliances with Latinos is a high priority because of their growing number, expanding buying power and evolving tastes."

"This (Latino) market is not a niche anymore — it's a mainstream market," said Ines Rodriguez-Gutzmer, Atlanta-based senior vice president at Ketchum, an international public relations and marketing agency. "There's a lot of crossover. … Do you like Shakira? Do you eat tacos? The influence of Hispanic culture is everywhere."

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/0/1E2C0C2442115E7A862573C600101F54?OpenDocument

My comments: All I know is that Bud Light's bigger than Corona in South Texas.

More from the Latino Comedy Project

To fund a start-up, I'd need to win the loteria.

USAToday: Los Reyes Magos visited the United States

Stores embrace Hispanic tradition of 3 Kings Day
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2008-01-01-three-kings-day_N.htm

Folks in the United States are adopting 3 Kings Day and watching Posadas and folks in Mexico are putting up Christmas trees. What next? Will the president eat Mexican tamales at Christmas?