At 79 Million strong, the millennial generation is bigger than the Boomers. And while millennials (broadly defined as people between the ages of 18-34) are the subject of innumerable articles and studies these days — mainly revolving around their use of technology, their unique impact on the workforce and, of course, their transformative media habits — relatively little has been written about the Hispanic Millennials.
In 2011, Nancy Tellet presented the Tr3s Hispanic Millennial Study at the annual AHAA conference, which kick started the conversation about how Hispanic millennials are different than their mainstream counterparts in their consumer behavior and how the key to understanding this particular subgroup of millennials was culture.
Last week, Ad Age Insights exclusively published a new White Paper, The Cultural Connection, How Hispanic Identity Influences Millennials, that takes the conversation to a whole new level, thanks to research conducted by Univision Consumer Insights and Burke Inc., from January to March of 2012 to explore in-depth the cultural connections of Hispanic Americans and how it influences their consumer behavior.
“Cultural connection is a transcendent and discriminating variable that works across age and gender groups,” says Elizabeth Ellers, EVP, Corporate Research at Univision Communications. “It’s more than just about speaking Spanish.” Published as a free downloadable Trend Report on Ad Age, this study introduces the Cultural Connection Index, what it is and why it has meaning for different generations of Hispanics, especially younger millennial Latinos. (see chart below)
For me the most interesting thing about this study is that it totally debunks the notion that acculturation is a one-way path that inevitably leads to Latinos losing their connection to their culture. I’ve always intuitively known that, but now this research proves once and for all, that even U.S.-born, millennial Hispanics (like my nieces and nephews) want to stay connected to their culture.
The White Paper also includes a separate deck of power point slides, explaining why cultural identity and connection is important when marketing to Hispanic millennials and some pretty cool video testimonials from young Latinos talking about what’s important to them when choosing media and brands. Check it out at Univision.net/millennials_melanie.
My colleague Roberto Ruiz and I will be conducting a webinar on this study on June 7th called MEET HISPANIC MILLENNIALS, YOUR CULTURE DRIVEN CONSUMER that will exclusively reveal new data from our study that was not included in this White Paper.
