Hispanic Radio Looks for its Turnaround Year - January 6, 2011

Radio 2011: While the general market returned to revenue growth last year, many Spanish-language media companies lagged. The national advertising dollars that helped general market stations recover were scarcer, making Hispanic stations dependent on local ad sales to come out of the recession. "This will be a recovery year on the Hispanic side," Adelante Media Group CEO Jay Meyers says. "National was really tough for Hispanic groups in 2010 - advertisers went back to shoring up what they knew, which is the general market."

Davidson Media Group president Felix Perez agrees, saying the declines were especially steep in the automotive category - which is just beginning to post increases at Spanish-language radio. "There is still a lag in terms of national advertisers, but it's catching up," Perez says. Entravision Radio president Jeffery Liberman says the final months of 2010 brought the sector's best growth of the year. "All of the media companies that cater to the Hispanic population of the United States have seen a slower recovery, six months behind, than our general market counterparts," he says. "Local car dealerships are now telling us that 2011 will be a recovery year for their auto business." Liberman expects Entravision to see revenue grow by mid-single digits this year, even when compared to the bounce they received in 2010 from the World Cup and political.

Perez is even more optimistic. He thinks the Hispanic sector could double the general market's growth rate, forecasting Spanish radio could see gains of 6% to 10% this year. "Simply because 2010 was a down year, we're going to have a lot of advertisers who suddenly 'discover' the importance of the Hispanic market to their products," Perez explains. Like the general market, Liberman says there's also a focus on bringing back local retailers to more traditional spending levels. Rather than simply push call-to-action spots that scream prices, he says Main Street advertisers need to "get more strategic and begin investing more consistently for the sake of brand-building and share-of-voice as sales and cash flow become more predictable." With early indicators that that has begun, Entravision has begun hiring more local sellers.


Census data could give Spanish radio an added boost. Ask anyone in Hispanic media or advertising about the forthcoming release of the 2010 Census data and they'll no doubt have a hard time containing their excitement. If previous patterns hold true, an expected rise in the U.S. Hispanic population will translate into hundreds of millions of dollars of additional media spending. Some impact could be seen at radio as soon as this year. "I have felt it already," Davidson Media Group president Felix Perez says. "With all of the news that we're getting in terms of the Census, I hear a good buzz." The Census Bureau will begin releasing demographic data next month. "With the results of the 2010 Census expected to show explosive growth in Hispanic consumers, we expect to see more and more businesses targeting this growth market and reach out to them," Entravision Radio president Jeffery Liberman says.

Converting marketers into advertisers is an old habit for Hispanic operators, who have been educating as much as selling for decades. "Hispanic media outlets often are not the first choice for many businesses, especially those which got active again in 2010. However, we're seeing more of those clients now adding Spanish-language radio back into their advertising mix," Liberman says. "We are also seeing an increased number of businesses coming into Spanish-language media for the first time." Adelante Media Group CEO Jay Meyers thinks the Census data will help Hispanic radio keep pace with English-language radio's revenue growth this year,  "and get back to exceeding general market growth again in 2012 for the same reason that it did in the early part of the last decade." While welcoming the new data showing a bigger audience target, Meyers thinks Spanish-language media should no longer be considered a niche in the minds of broadcasters and advertisers alike. He says, "The population and formats have grown to the point where we have to stop thinking of it as an ethnic format and start thinking of it as part of the general market."