• by Lee Vann , Columnist, March 13, 2014

Imagine being able to receive real-time data about the type of content an online ad is being displayed next to. Or learning within seconds key demographic information on who is viewing and engaging with it. Then having the ability to use those metrics to make immediate adjustments in order to optimize a campaign.

Imagination will soon become reality, thanks to the recently announced partnership between Google and comScore. The Internet giant is integrating comScore’s validated Campaign Essentials (vCE) into its DoubleClick digital advertising platform.

Through this partnership, online advertising data will be collected and mined in much the same way Nielsen collects information about broadcast ads. This data will give marketers deep insights into the performance of digital campaigns and has the potential to shift the $300 billion spent worldwide on broadcast advertising to digital.

It will also help marketers better target and optimize their online messages to specific audiences. Think the fastest-growing demographic group in the U.S.: Latinos. This partnership will allow marketers to better reach all Hispanics including the elusive, but desirable, Hispanic Millennial segment that tends to consume most of its media in English.

Kudos to Batanga Media, which has agreed to enhance the Google / comScore partnership by providing its propriety ethnicity data, which, in turn, will allow advertisers to better target Hispanics online.

Hispanics have moved online but advertising dollars have not

Consider this: According to the 2013 Ad Age Hispanic Fact Pack, $8 billion was spent on advertising that targeted U.S. Hispanics, of that 95% was invested in traditional Spanish language media while only 5% was invested in digital media, this despite the fact that Hispanics spend a vast majority of their time consuming digital media in both languages.

U.S. Hispanic Media Consumption (hours per day)

Television: 3.54 

Internet on home computer: 3.00

Listening to music online: 2.22 

Watching videos online: 1.92 

Reading e-Books: 1.87 

Playing computer games: 1.84 

Using Internet on tablet: 1.72

Using Internet on cellphone: 1.72

Clearly, something has to give. Although U.S. Hispanic digital advertising has been growing, it clearly has not been growing fast enough. The Google / comScore partnership might just be the catalyst that will align U.S. Hispanic media expenditures with media consumption. Marketers will shift U.S. Hispanic media dollars from traditional to digital channels if they can accurately target all Hispanic segments and measure and optimize the impact of their campaigns. 

If the Google / comScore partnership can deliver on this, it has the potential to fundamentally change Hispanic marketing.