Hispanics’ online lives demand the attention of manufacturers, retailers and content creators

New York, NY — Aug. 28, 2018 — Today, Nielsen released Descubrimiento Digital: The Online Lives of Latinx Consumers, the second report in the company’s 2018 three-part diverse intelligence series focusing on the adoption and influence of multicultural consumers in the digital landscape. The report highlights how the digital usage of Hispanic consumers has amplified their influence on American culture.

Technology is transforming Latinx consumer behavior, from shopping to communication and media consumption. The report chronicles how these changes are informing society at-large and provides insights about how brands can better reach this important consumer group—the majority of whom were born or grew up in the internet age (60% versus only 40% of non-Hispanic Whites, according to the report). This means today’s Hispanic consumers didn’t transition to the internet; they were raised with it.

“The combination of relative youth, demand for cultural connectivity and accelerated digital fluency has positioned the Latinx community as cultural trendsetters,” remarked Stacie de Armas, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives & Consumer Engagement at Nielsen. “Technology has fundamentally changed the consumer experience for the Latinx community, who are making digital gains and advancements at a faster rate than the total market. This, combined with cultural behaviors, has created important differences in the way today’s Hispanics digitally communicate, inform, shop, consume content and mobilize for social justice.”

Nielsen’s Diverse Intelligence Series, which has become a leading industry resource, is aimed at helping marketers better understand and reach diverse consumers through data-driven insights. Descubrimiento Digital showcases demographics of the Hispanic population, including its relative youth, longer life expectancy, larger multigenerational households and its purchase and media preferences. One preference, for instance, is a favorable regard for socially-conscious brands and social networking.

“Digital spaces create opportunities for brands to authentically engage Hispanic consumers,” said Lillian Rodríguez-López, co-chair of Nielsen’s Hispanic/Latinx Advisory Council, and Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications at CC1 Companies. “Nielsen’s long term commitment to illustrating the market potential of diverse consumers is equally a commitment to the long-term sustainability of their clients’ businesses. Leveraging digital to establish relationships with us today will have a lasting bottom line impact for businesses well into the future.”

Highlights of Descubrimiento Digital: The Online Lives of Latinx Consumers include:

The Hispanic youth phenomenon means connecting with Latinx consumers in culturally relevant ways is imperative for brand survival and growth.

• Hispanics have younger median age (27 vs. 42 for non-Hispanic Whites) and longer life expectancy (82 vs 78.7 for non-Hispanic Whites), meaning they have 18 more years of effective buying power than non-Hispanic Whites.
• 57% of Hispanics agree they are more likely to purchase brands that support a cause they care about (over-indexing non-Hispanic Whites by 9%), and 43% agree they expect the brands they buy to support social causes (over-indexing by 26%).

U.S. Hispanics’ relative youth and digital proclivity make them pacesetters for technology trends.

• 53% of U.S. Hispanics agree they prefer products that offer the latest in new technology, and 36% agree they like to have a lot of gadgets, over-indexing non-Hispanic White consumers by 32%.
• With 27% of Hispanics living in multigenerational households, younger Latinx generations have great influence on older Hispanics. Hispanics 50 and older over-index their non-Hispanic White counterparts by 36% for agreeing they like to have a lot of electronic gadgets.

Given the majority of Hispanics raised in the internet age, the web is their go-to resource for just about everything with social media of particular value.

• Hispanics over-index for the amount of time they spend on social media, with 52% spending at least one hour per day on these sites, compared with 38% of non-Hispanic Whites, and 24% spending three or more hours per day, compared with 13% of non-Hispanic Whites.
•  Hispanics share social media content five times more often than non-Hispanic Whites.

Hispanics are motivated to buy online through deals and word-of-mouth reviews and regard digital advertising favorably. 

• 82% of Hispanics agree that the internet is a great way to gather information on products and services they’re considering purchasing, and 78% agree it is a great way to buy products.
• Hispanics over-index on reading online reviews before purchasing a product, and 38% agree they like to share their opinions about products and services by posting reviews and ratings online (over-indexing non-Hispanic Whites by 46%).

For more details and insights on the report, download Descubrimiento Digital: The Online Lives of Latinx Consumers.

About Nielsen’s Diverse Intelligence Series

In 2011, Nielsen launched the Diverse Intelligence Series, a robust portfolio of comprehensive reports which focuses solely on diverse consumers’ unique consumption and purchasing habits. The series has become an industry resource to help brands better understand and reach ethnic customers. To learn more about Nielsen’s Diverse Intelligence research series, visit www.nielsen.com.

About Nielsen

Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Our approach marries proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand what’s happening now, what’s happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge. For more than 90 years Nielsen has provided data and analytics based on scientific rigor and innovation, continually developing new ways to answer the most important questions facing the media, advertising, retail and fast-moving consumer goods industries. An S&P 500 company, Nielsen has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world’s population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

Contacts

Mia Scott: 646.654.5459; mia.scott@nielsen.comAna Echenique: 786.347.4756; aechenique@republica.net