An industry response: There is a better way to target the US Hispanic television audience

Abstract

This paper is a response to a number of questions the media and marketing community in the USA has raised after the publication of ‘Paradigm shift: the effect of nativity and years-in-country on television programme viewing across three Hispanic generational levels’ in the inaugural issue of JCMS. In summary, the study found that nativity and yearsin- country had a significant impact on television viewing by US Hispanics, suggesting that these variables could be more effective and efficient for targeting the US Hispanic television audience than the industry-accepted metric of language. This paper aims to answer two central questions: first, to what degree did our initial study, based on ‘reported’ data, reflect ‘actual’ (Nielsen-based) consumer media behaviour? Secondly, what happens to the relationship between Hispanic television viewing and nativity, if daypart (time of day), quarter (time of year) and age are considered? These are critically important questions in order for the findings to be useful for marketers. Using 2015 Nielsen data, the present study supports the findings of our initial study, and publishes new data based on these three variables. We discuss the implications of our study, and suggest that there is a more effective and efficient planning and buying television model for the changing US Hispanic audience in the 21st century.