Diversity

Days after announcing a partnership with ABC that will target Hispanic viewers with an English language 24-hour news station and other media, Univision has announced the launch of UVideos Digital Network, a video platform with Univision content. Videos will be accessible across a variety of gadgets and available to both English- and Spanish-speaking audiences.

This announcement was accompanied by a few others: new Webnovelas that build on the success of two previous shows, “Vidas Cruzadas” and “No Me Hallo”; broadband partnerships; and partnerships with companies like YouTube and Dish to increase distribution.

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Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

A Nielsen study, “State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative” shows that Hispanic viewers spend six hours and 29 minutes per week watching online video, and four hours and 20 minutes watching video on mobile phones, far out-watching non-Hispanic white viewers on both counts.

Historically, fewer Hispanics have had at-home Internet connections (62 percent vs. 76 percent for the larger population). However, home broadband use rose 14 percent during the past year in the Hispanic community, but only six percent in the general population.

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Hispanicize 2012 is getting started today in Miami with sessions like “Blogging 101 (en español)” and “Is Your Brand Ready to Engage Latinos Online?” on tap. Besides all the social media business talk, there are also a few fun happenings, like the closing night screening of Scarface on Friday. The screening is part of the National Latino Film Showcase that Hispanicize introduced this year.

Influenced by SXSW, Manny Ruiz, the chairman of the event along with the co-founder of Latina Mom Bloggers and Hispanic PR Blog, told NBCLatino that there are three times the number of brands involved this year versus last year. And the event is attracting a who’s who of influential Latinos in the social media space.

“We plan to kick this event to another level and make it a place to catapult careers,” said Ruiz. NBCLatino is a sponsor of the event.

There’s also news coming out of Hispanicize 2012: Critical Mention has announced that it has added a number of new Spanish-language stations to its platform.

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In your efforts to reach moms across the Hispanic community, Piera Jolly, CEO and co-founder of Latina Mom Bloggers, would, of course, recommend outreach to Latina mom bloggers.

“Latina moms are online all the time,” Jolly told us during a recent phone call. “We want to hear from people who are like us. Latina mom bloggers are able to provide a culturally relevant voice that’s authentic and honest.”

And how important is language when targeting Hispanic mom bloggers? Very, says Jolly. But which language is dependent on the blogger.

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Adding to the list of Jeremy Lin gaffes is a Boston Ben & Jerry’s shop, which created a special “Taste the Lin-Sanity” flavor that included lychee honey swirls and… wait for it… fortune cookie pieces. Groan.

Note the past tenses in that first sentence. News of this misguided flavor combination came out on Friday (we tweeted about it) and since then, the shop has issued an apology and replaced the offending cookie with waffle cone.

The flavor was introduced after the Asian American Journalists Association very clearly laid out a list of references that are considered unacceptable and offensive. Number four on the list: “FOOD: Is there a compelling reason to draw a connection between Lin and fortune cookies, takeout boxes or similar imagery? In the majority of news coverage, the answer will be no.”

Perhaps the folks at this Ben & Jerry’s shop were high on “Magic Brownies” when they came up with this flavor. Or maybe they thought the rules for journalism didn’t apply to ice cream makers. Alas, they were wrong.

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Today on Essence.com, there’s a “Street Style” photo gallery from the “Celebrate Black HERstory” event.

On Clutch, they pose this question: “Do we still need Black leaders?”

On The Root, they’re talking about Bobby and Whitney.

And on HuffPost Black Voices, there’s a story about an organization, the Black and Missing Foundation that’s focused on locating “missing people of color.”

As Michelle Flowers Welch, CEO and founder of Flowers Communications Group said in our Women Leaders profile yesterday, there’s been a dramatic increase in outreach to multicultural audiences, including African-American consumers. The examples above show the wide variety of issues that outlets targeting African Americans are tackling. We talked with a few experts to find out about some of the other trends and hot topics that are of interest.

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Women are a big part of the PR industry workforce (though, last we checked, they still struggle to earn the same as men). During an interview with IPG SVP Judith Harrison over the summer, she expressed her belief that “there’s only going to be more and more women coming up in the ranks of the business.”

This week, the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) published a list of suggestions in Working Mother to help women advance in the workplace. Among the recommendations are mentoring and leadership training programs, initiatives that we’ve heard others across public relations suggest for advancement in the industry as well.

The list accompanies the ”2012 NAFE Top 50 Companies for Executive Women” on which only one PR agency appears.

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February is also American Heart Month and Discovery Familia is spreading the word about heart health with a campaign — “Escucha tu Corazón” (“Listen to Your Heart”) — that includes a series of PSAs, programming, and event participation targeting the Hispanic community.

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To kick off Black History Month, President Barack Obama and his presidential reelection team has launched African American for Obama, a campaign that will go grassroots to build support for the President and, more importantly, encourage black voters to head to the voting booths in November.

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In preparation for the January 20 opening of his movie Red Tails, filmmaker George Lucas made an appearance on The Daily Show this week where he talked about the 20-plus-year process of getting the movie made, including the lack of enthusiasm for black movies in Hollywood.

Red Tails is about the Tuskegee Airmen, the group of black pilots who fought in World War II. One Tuskegee Airman, Col. Charles McGee, says the movie gets it right, down to the details. Others have said the same.

But even with that level of authenticity and the George Lucas name behind it (the man made Star Wars, for pete’s sake), he told Jon Stewart that the film couldn’t find backers.

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