• by Lee Vann , Columnist, April 14, 2016

Last month, Facebook announced that on April 12, they will be “opening up the Instant Articles program to all publishers—of any size, anywhere in the world.” Yes, this means that brands can now leverage Facebook Instant Articles to engage with consumers.

Facebook created Instant Articles to optimize the experience for users who click from Facebook to a third-party publisher’s website on their mobile devices. For brands, Instant Articles not only optimize page load times, but can be leveraged to create more immersive experiences that are integrated with the all-important Facebook news feed. Combine this with Facebook’s advertising platform, and brands have a new way to engage with a critical mass of the right consumers using branded content, at the right time.

A recent Nielsen study found that branded content is effective at driving purchase intent, especially on mobile. Study respondents were 21% more likely to purchase the brands to which they were exposed (through branded content) with 24% of mobile users more likely to purchase vs. 19% of desktop users.

As a result, brands will be eager to adopt the Instant Articles format, and if they are smart, they will explore using Instant Articles to target Hispanics. Consider the following:

1. Hispanics are the Largest Minority: According to Pew and Nielsen, there are 55.4 million Hispanics in the United States who control over $1.5 trillion in buying power.

2. Hispanics are Mostly Mobile: Nielsen found that U.S. Hispanics are the “most avid smartphone users around” using 658 minutes per month on their mobile plan vs. 510 for all consumers.

3. Hispanics are Social Super Users: EMarketer estimates that “76.6% of US Hispanic internet users will access social networks at least monthly vs. 69.4% of all US internet users.” There are a total of 31 million U.S. Hispanics on Facebook—that’s 16% of all U.S. Facebook users.

4. The Hispanic Content Gap: Relative to the U.S. general market, there is less digital content out there for U.S. Hispanics. Nielsen reports that 62% of Hispanic women wish for more content written for “Latinas like me” and 56% wish there was more online content in Spanish.

5. Hispanics are More Receptive to Brands on Social: The 2015 Ad Age Hispanic Fact Pack found that 25% of Hispanics agree that social media is a way for them to inform people about products they like vs. 22.5% of non-Hispanics. In addition, 22.6% of Hispanics agree that they like to follow their favorite brands vs. 21.9% of non-Hispanics.

I’ll be watching my news feed in the upcoming months for branded Instant Articles and hope to see some that target U.S. Hispanics.