Hispanic Population up 31% in Washington state

According to The Carsey Institute, between 2000 and 2006 the Hispanic population in Washington grew by 31.4%, about four times faster than the 8.5% population growth of the state. The study also highlights the move from urban to rural communities especially in the northwest, with about 80,000 living in Washington's rural towns.

The states with the largest number of Hispanics living in rural areas include Texas, New Mexico, North Carolina, Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Arizona with more than 100,000 living outside of cities. The study shows that northern states are quickly gaining on the South, with Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Illinois and Georgia all having more than 50,000 living in rural areas. Hispanic media is also taking notice with a Univision station in Seattle and an Azteca America station in Redmond.

Hispanics represented on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice

In the Celebrity version of NBC's The Apprentice there is adequate Hispanic representation on both the men's and ladies' teams. Hispanic TV Executive Nely Galan and Tito Ortiz of Ultimate Fighting Challenge Fame add a Hispanic taste to the show.
The women's team actually picked a Spanish word for their team name, Empresario, which means businessperson. I had not seen the Apprentice in a while, but Gene Simmons attracted me to the celebrity version of the show. We'll keep tabs on the Hispanics and when they get fired!

Three Kings Day Gets More Play

Retailers are taking note of the Hispanic Holiday of Three King's Day celebrated on January 6th as a way of extending the holiday season and reaching out to Latinos. This holiday commemorates the Ephiphany or the visit of Jesus by the Three Wise Men.

The holiday is celebrated in Puerto Rico, Spain, Mexico and many Latin American countries. I remember when I handled the Marshall's account in the mid nineties, we had marketing activities scheduled around Three King's Day but only for the stores in Puerto Rico. On the island it is a big deal and supported by practically all retailers. The main story today is the holiday coming to the mainland United States. Wal-Mart began promoting the tradition in a big way last year and is expanding this year. K-mart is also planning activities around the holiday. With retailers like Wal-Mart jumping in, I am sure we will see others joining the fray. After all an extension of the holiday season by two weeks will be welcomed by any retailers.

Hispanic voters to increase 23% from 2004

According to a new study by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, Hispanic voters will increase by 1.7 million or 23% from 2004. According to the study 9.3 million Hispanic voters will go to the polls in the 2008 presidential elections.

“As the U.S. Latino population surges, we are seeing increases in registration/voter turnout due to increased naturalization numbers by Latino immigrants beginning in the 1990s and Latino youth coming of voting age” said Harry Pachon, Ph.D., President of TRPI.

Obviously, the states with the largest Hispanic populations will be impacted the most by this increase. In California, for example, it takes a mere 3.1% of Hispanic voters to cause a 1% shift in election results. In Florida it takes 4.5% to cause the same 1% shift. Get more here.

New Orleans gets even more Hispanic

Last year we blogged about the Latino Baby Boom in New Orleans and now they get their own full-power Spanish television station. The Telemundo station launched last Friday on Channel 42, underscoring the boom in the Latino population since Hurricane Katrina. It is estimated that about 58,000 Hispanic lived in New Orleans prior to the storm and that has since doubled. The station will carry Telemundo's programming as well as daily newscasts beginning in February.

Hispanics love technology and they could love it even more

Here is a blogpost from the San Francisco Chronicle's "The Tech Chronicles." It highlights something the Hispanic agency industry has been saying for years. Technology companies have largely ignored the Hispanic segment especially the Spanish Dominant segment.

The post speaks about how Hispanic over-index the general market in the ownership of handheld video game devices and portable mp3 players according to a study from Forrester. The same article then lists Hispanic ownership of mobile phones and computers, where they lag the general market. However, when we take a closer look at the numbers with language preference, we see that the English Dominant and Bilinguals are much closer to the general market and it is the Spanish Dominant that really lag behind. Why, you ask?

Very simple, the Consumer Electronics companies are not targeting these consumers and missing out on the opportunity to grow their sales, up their market share and increase shareholder value. Technology was one sector identified as a laggard in spending against Hispanics in 2003 and unfortunately little has changed. See the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) Right Spend II Study here.

Disclosure: ADN Communucations is a proud member of AHAA and I serve on the Board of Directors as Chairman-Elect.

Keeping up with the Joneses

The Census Bureau released their list of the most common surnames and Smith remains number 1. However, two Hispanic names showed up in the Top 10, Garcia and Rodriguez and Martinez almost made the list but remained at 11th behind Wilson.

Garcia moved from 18th to 8th, Rodriguez from 22nd to 9th, and the number of Hispanic surnames on the Top 25 doubled to 6. Keep in mind this is all based on 2000 Census data, how different will be this be in 2010. Where do you fall on the list? Lopez is 21st, get the Top 1000 here.