HispanicBusiness

Drawing a composite Hispanic consumer based on how money is spent in the marketplace suggests that advertisers see a chatty person who hopes to improve his English, and doesn't mind tipping a few back while enjoying a Big Mac.

That sums up a quick look at the Top 10 brands advertised on Hispanic media, where two wireless firms – Verizon and Cingular – dropped just shy of $100 million between them to reach Hispanics specifically in the 12 months ending in June, according to TNS Media Intelligence. The data covers money spent on Hispanic television – both network and independents – along with Hispanic newspapers and magazines. Not included is radio.

The top brand advertised was Ingles Sin Barreras, the teach-yourself-English-at-home video series. The folks behind those ads are Lexicon Marketing Corp., which is also the company spending the most on advertising on Hispanic media, according to TNS. Lexicon has long topped the advertising list with its ubiquitous spots on Spanish-language stations, although TNS data finds the $162 million Lexicon spent in the latest reporting period was down about $19 million from the previous period.

No. 2 on the list, consumer products giant Procter & Gamble, was roughly equivalent at $154 million (vs. $158 million the year earlier). While No. 3 for the last two years, Univision, scaled down its reported spending substantially, to $100 million compared to $136 million the period before. For the Top 50 total spending was down to $2.1 billion compared to the earlier period's $2.2 billion.