Reaching out to Latinos? Digital Video Paves your Way in

On January 27, Google announced its strategy to tap into the U.S. Hispanic market (as they call it). Since then, you can still feel the shockwaves of their efforts across the blogosphere. For more details, you can read ClickZ’s Giovanny Rodriguez recap or Chiqui Cartagena’s coverage of what when down in the event. I was also lucky to be among the attendees. However, of all the panelists, TV Azteca’s Director of Innovation Juan Manuel Rowland did the most striking presentation of the afternoon.

As Cartagena explains, “The TV Azteca presentation blew me away — although it mainly focused on what the company is doing in Mexico, I believe the next big thing in the Hispanic market is video online. And I don’t mean putting TV clips online; I mean creating original content for the online audience.” This is exactly the point that I want to highlight in this blog post.

TV Azteca’s project is called IrreverenTV. They basically identified the most talented YouTube video bloggers across Mexico, put them together under one roof and gave them all the resources to create quality content for YouTube. Do you think this idea could be a risky bet with no tangible results? Look for a chair before you keep reading, you’re going to need it.

First, TV Azteca made an alliance with Google, who owns YouTube. That was an excellent way to start. Since December 2006, according to their YouTube page profile, they have harnessed jaw-dropping results. Check them out:

TV Azteca on YouTube:

• They upload 70 percent of the content they produce daily.
• They have more than 30 active channels today.
• 650 million streams to date. (The presentation was done January 27, 2011)
• Over 2 million stream per date.
• From all their traffic, 15 percent belong to viewers in the United States.
• AzAmerica is the number one channel in Latin America by streams and revenue. Yes, I said revenue (although, we don’t know how much but they seemed pretty satisfied about it at the event).
• It is also the number one Spanish-language YouTube channel in the United States.

(Source: Google US Hispanic marketing Forum Event Sizzle Reel video)

But what does all this mean for the emerging video bloggers, small business owners and even big companies that have not cracked the code on how to connect with Latinos? For all of you, go rescue your digital camera from the bottom drawer and charge the batteries. Digital video will definitely help you break some old barriers you have with your audience and build new bridges. If you are not exited about the power of YouTube, check Mashable’s “10 YouTube facts that may surprise you.”

In my next blog post, I will discuss how companies must move away from the language paradigm when marketing to Latinos. It is all about the culture baby!

This article was originally published on Being Latino Online Magazine.