FAIRFAX, Va., June 18, 2015 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — According to a new report from AHAA: the Voice of Hispanic Marketing, the Hispanic advertising share in the restaurant industry has soared to 11.4 percent from 2010 to 2014, while the Hispanic share of overall ad spend among the top 500 advertisers increased to 8.5 percent. This explosive growth indicates restaurant marketers understand the revenue that can be generated by the Latino consumer – in fact, this category has boosted their aggregate Hispanic advertising spend by 68 percent to $559 million in 2014.

The average Hispanic advertising investment per Restaurant Company also made a leap of 30 percent from $16.6 million in 2010 to $21.5 million in 2014. Furthermore, the restaurant category has moved ahead of their top 500 U.S. advertiser peers by allocating 11.4 percent to Hispanic dedicated media. This means that this category has evolved from being a “Follower” in 2010, defined as companies who assign 3.6 to 6.3 percent of their marketing budget to Hispanic dedicated efforts, to becoming a “Leader,” defined as investments between 6.4 and 14.2 percent. McDonald’s, Yum Brands and Wendy’s lead in Hispanic ad dollars, while Whataburger, Denny’s and AFC Enterprises lead in Hispanic share of overall ad spend with allocations above 20 percent.

Over the past five years, the top 500 advertisers boosted their spending in Hispanic targeted media by 61 percent or $2.7 billion from $4.4 billion in 2010 to $7.1 billion. The top 500 marketers boosted their average spending from $9 million in Hispanic targeted media in 2010 to $14 million now below the restaurant category new average of $21.5 million.

Methodology – Data was collected from Nielsen Monitor Plus which tracked over 340K companies’ advertising expenditures in English and Spanish.  This data was analyzed by Santiago Solutions Group for AHAA.  SSG divided companies into 5 Tiers according to the percent allocation to Spanish/Bilingual media: Best-in-Class (more than 14.2%), Leaders (6.4%-14.2%), Followers (3.6%-6.3%), Laggards (1.0%-3.5%), and On the Sidelines (Less than 1%).

SSG also segmented the Top 500 Overall Spending (English + Spanish) Companies for years 2010-2014, thus permitting the analysis of trends in the marketplace. Ad Spend Includes spending in Network TV, Spot TV, Cable TV, Radio, Magazines, Newspaper & FSI. It excludes B2B, Display, Outdoor and Cinema.

About AHAA: Founded in 1996, AHAA: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing is the national trade organization of all marketing, communications and media firms with trusted Hispanic expertise.