• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 17, 2014

It’s not news that Hispanic millennials born in the U.S. are more likely to consume English-language media than their foreign-born counterparts -- but what may be surprising is that U.S.-born Hispanic millennials also appear to consume Spanish-language media more than older Hispanics born in the U.S.

That’s according to data from the Hispanic Millennial Project, a collaboration between Sensis and ThinkNow Research.
 
Among Hispanic millennials born in the U.S., 19% said they consume only English-language media, with another 22% consuming “mostly” English-language media, Sensis and ThinkNow found. Some 40% said they consume English- and Spanish-language media equally, 10% said they consume mostly Spanish-language media, and 9% said they consume only Spanish-language media. By comparison, among foreign-born Hispanic millennials, 31% said they consume “mostly” Spanish-language media, and just 7% said they consume only English-language media.
 
These findings are generally in line with the standard acculturation model, but interestingly, U.S.-born Hispanic millennials were also more likely to say they consume both English- and Spanish-language media than their older U.S.-born counterparts: among Hispanics ages 35-64 who were born in the U.S., 32% said they consume English- and Spanish-language media equally, compared to 40% for Hispanic millennials.
 
The difference could be the result of a number of factors, including a greater desire to embrace Hispanic identity among younger U.S.-born Hispanics and their parents (versus previous generations’ desire to “blend in”), and growing availability of Spanish-language media over time.
 
Media companies and research outfits are grappling with the complexity of this rapidly growing market.

In May, Pulpo Media, a cross-platform digital media network targeting Hispanic audiences, unveiled a new acculturation model that combines online and offline data to create more targeted segments within the overall U.S. Hispanic market. The model combines data from the U.S. Census with proprietary first- and third-party data, including country of birth, parent’s country of birth, age of immigration, number of years spent in the U.S., language preference at home and English proficiency, and analyzes the data to create segments that can be targeted down to the ZIP code level .