Danay’s Musings about Marketing to Hispanics Worldwide, Life and other stuff.

I used to be fond of cookies. In fact, when I was in elementary school, I would trade an entire lunch for someone’s cookie, confident that I had just duped them into taking my icky meatloaf in exchange for a little piece of heaven. That would explain the onslaught of dental visits before I was even 10.

Fast forward a couple, maybe 3 decades, and here I am loathing the little suckers. What cruel joke made someone give such an endearing name to the most annoying technical issue I deal with on a daily basis? By definition, a cookie is a small text file of information that certain web sites save onto a user’s computer while the user is browsing the Web site. A Cookie can contain information such as user ID, user preferences, archive shopping cart information, etc. …

Now the cookie really isn’t what I hate the most, but it is guilty by association, because I need it to work with pixels, my real nemesis!

What is a pixel? It is a small piece of HTML code which is placed in the advertiser’s confirmation page. This causes a clear, single pixel GIF image (1X1) to be loaded by our servers and count the action if a corresponding tracking cookie exists on the visitors computer. In other words, pixels and cookies, together, allow us to record actions like sales, leads and clicks that need to record to establish online campaign metrics.

For the past 7 years or so there hasn’t been one day that has gone by that I haven’t been asked things like:

Did they place the pixel right?
or
Send me the pixel.
or
The pixel didn’t fire, where is the source code?
or
Will your pixel fire mine?

The list goes on, and those of you who know what I am talking about get it. It is the most loathed part of my day, because, in reality, anyone can troubleshoot it and there are only so many things that can affect it, usually something ridiculously easy that was overseen by the very same people who deal with them daily, including myself.

Nuff said. I also love them, because without them, my business would be VERY different.

My point is, I miss cookies that are soft, moist and have lot’s of chocolate morsels. There really was no need to associate them with technology.

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DirectoryM, one of the fastest-growing local advertising platforms on the Web, today announced new services targeted squarely at the fast-growing, U.S. Hispanic and Latin American markets. With this initiative DirectoryM now offers content partners and advertisers a vehicle to engage with more diverse and local online audiences in Spanish and Portuguese speaking markets in the U.S. and Latin America.

In the United States alone, the Latino population presents a huge marketing opportunity for local advertisers. With an estimated purchasing power of more than $680 billion, according to Kalorama Information, Latinos are the most rapidly-expanding market in the United States. However, even as the market for local online advertising expands, the Hispanic/Latino market remains vastly underserved. According to Hispanic Business, 48 percent of Hispanic American Internet users prefer Spanish language destinations.

“We’ve achieved tremendous success in testing our solutions with different languages, priming us for a strong entry and leadership position within the Spanish speaking market. In some instances, we’ve seen 30 percent week over week growth.” said Hans Orejuela, VP of content, DirectoryM. “With three of our company founders being of Latin descent, this was a natural progression for our business.”

DirectoryM currently reaches visitors at more than 200 regional media sites and garners more than 2 million unique visitors each month. With this expansion, DirectoryM can now offer content publishers and advertisers the benefits of wide distribution and a more diverse audience.

“This is an opportune time to pursue the local advertising market in Latin America, starting with Mexico and expanding to Brazil and Argentina,” said William Pasos, VP of expansion, DirectoryM. “As the first to penetrate these markets, we believe in the power and strengths of these economies.”

About DirectoryM

Based in Cambridge, Mass., DirectoryM provides one of the fastest-growing local advertising platforms on the Web. The DirectoryM network is the first technology solution for online publishers to monetize their traffic and their content. Publishers on the DirectoryM network provide their readers with a highly-integrated directory that marries hyper-local advertisements with unbiased content from trusted sources such as PC World and NHIOndemand (Natural Health Information).

Founded in 2002, the company was purchased by its employees and relaunched in January, 2008. More information can be found at www.DirectoryM.com.

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