Atlanta is the Hottest Hispanic Market in The Nation, and Here's Why

The Southeast and Atlanta are exhibiting growth when it comes to the nation's largest consumer market segment, the Hispanic market.

While Hispanics only represent about 12 percent of Atlanta's population (compared to 17 percent of the total U.S. population), "Hotlanta" has been deemed the hottest Hispanic market in the nation.

An "epicenter of trend" and perhaps the new home-plate for Hispanic marketing and Hispanic millennial growth, Atlanta was flagged for its emerging Hispanic market years ago, along with the budding markets in Nashville, Raleigh and Indianapolis, as well as Minneapolis/St. Paul, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Baltimore and Boston.

Atlanta has undergone an influx of population as new non-traditional markets are on the rise outside of the usual Hispanic immigrant hubs, such as Miami, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Between 2000 and 2013, Atlanta's population increased by 127 percent (topping 750,000), and those number will only continue to mount, likely to meet 1 million within the next five years.

Like many other southeastern markets, Atlanta has seen an increase in Hispanic Millennials that's outpacing Hispanic "Mega Markets," such as Los Angeles and Miami. In three years' time, the population of Hispanic Millennials is forecasted to increase by 24 percent in Atlanta alone.

But, why Atlanta?

Atlanta's Hispanic population growth is driven by Hispanic immigrants who are younger and largely Spanish-dominate. And this is very different from cities such as Dallas and New York, whose growth is due to an increase in U.S.-born Hispanic Millennials. Atlanta's market is emblematic of a "new minority," immigrant-driven Hispanic gateways, where multiculturalism and ethnic-specific tactics to Hispanic marketing prove to be the most fruitful.

Nonetheless, electronics, pharmaceuticals, financial services industries and health insurance marketers are still lagging when it comes to putting funds toward Hispanic marketing, despite the fact that Hispanic-targeted marketing programs are the best way to motivate incremental profits from the underserved Hispanic consumer. Being that the market in Atlanta is driven by foreign-born Hispanic Millennials, it benefits marketers to target defined ethnic groups, via a "separate and distinct," ethnic-specific Hispanic market approach, where Spanish language is key.

Laggard and newer marketers would do well to understand Atlanta is the perfect pilot market because of geographic location and affordable advertising media. The city is good test market as it isolates variables, particularly exposure to advertising. That's in contrast to LA and New York, which are large, expensive markets that simply can't compete with the cost effectiveness of Spanish-language media in Atlanta. Also, those cities have a far more diverse and abundant Hispanic market to address.