The webinar “Spanish SEM Lessons from CNN en Español” was presented by Christopher Crommett, Businesses Consultant and Media Strategist and co-founder of CNN en Español, and Joe Kutchera, author of Latino Link: Building Brands Online with Hispanic Communities and Content.

In this comprehensive one hour webinar, Christopher illustrated how the recent growth in Latino consumer markets impact search engine marketers and where to draw best practices to target this demographic. Christopher also discussed the challenges of engaging the diverse US Hispanic market in each market area. I really enjoyed the webinar because it shows the growing value of online Hispanic content while at the same time how it can be produced and searched. One of the main difficulties that I came across with my research with Hispanic online media is how to produce the right SEO keywords for the Spanish speaking market. Christopher and Joe really did a great job introducing CNN as a case study of overcoming this challenge. Some of the information that I copied is listed below.

• 94% of US Hispanics who watch online video visit YouTube
• 93% of US Hispanics use mobile phones regularly
• 70% of US Hispanics use their mobile phones for online search
• The US is the 6th largest Spanish speaking country
• Univision won the the Saturday night ratings
• CNN en Español received high profit margins during the recession
• If content is king, language is queen
• Quality of execution is relevant
• Don’t just translate English to Spanish, recreate the content from scratch. “trans-adaptation”

I interviewed Joe after the webinar and he was very insightful of the content that was presented:

Do you feel that Mr. Crommett’s SEM strategy for CNN en Español should be the footprint for all businesses to adopt when reaching the online US Hispanic market?

CNN en español set the benchmark for how Spanish-language media companies can appeal to as wide an audience as possible. We all know that the Hispanic market is a complex and diverse one, with many countries of origin and variations of the Spanish language represented. Yet, CNN en español brought the Hispanic community together with many connective threads including Latino pride, heritage, culture, language, faith and family.

Mr. Crommett’s SEM strategy en español presentation outlined how Spanish-language content companies can utilize a “universal Spanish” to appeal to the highly diverse U.S. Hispanic audience and even expand into Latin American. The key to his success as the franchise’s founder was hiring the right people, establishing a team environment, and putting quality systems in place. For example, terms or phrases could be “tested” instantly by an ad hoc advisory board of journalists from a broad cross-section of Latin American countries. Each “country” represented had “veto power” with clarity was paramount. CNN en español created a constantly-evolving online style manual.

Do you think Hispanic online content production is still at a young stage where extensive research needs to be undertaken when compared to English content?

Absolutely. Do a search for nearly any term in Spanish and the results reflect an overall lack of content en español. Many sites from Spain show up in the results because the online advertising investment there is 3x greater than it is in either the U.S. Hispanic market or Mexico. Therefore, U.S. publishers and marketers have an opportunity to build social connections and trust with consumers if they create localized and culturally customized content for the web or mobile devices.

If you want to see the presentation you can still access the Lion Bridge webinar by registering. So what are your thoughts about the changing landscape of Hispanic online media? Do you think information can now be accessed alot more or do you believe that there’s still more content development that needs to be done? If you did see this webinar, what are your own thoughts about Christopher’s presentation? The first to comment about this blog will receive a free copy of Joe Kutchera’s Latino Link.

Related articles

• Latin Influence (adweek.com)
• Employees Sent To Intensive Spanish Lessons (huffingtonpost.com)
• No Diversity On CNN’s New Lineup (huffingtonpost.com)
• Daniel Cubias: How Will Personal-Feedback Loops Affect The Hispanic Population? (huffingtonpost.com)
• The opportunity you’ve been missing (metaversemodsquad.wordpress.com)
• KioskoLatino.com Becomes the First Affiliate E-Commerce Site Dedicated Exclusively to the Hispanic Community (prweb.com)