The Latino market is hot. This is evidenced by not one but two conferences on how to market to Latinos in the United States. Portada, a leading source of news and analysis on the Latin marketing and media space, held their 9th Annual Hispanic Advertising and Media Conference while MediaPost, prominent in the coverage of the media, marketing and advertising landscape, hosted their conference Engage: Hispanics.

Both conferences essentially focused on reaching not just Latinos as a general population but about reaching the all-important Latino millennials -- an advertiser's Holy Grail.

The conference brought together agency heads, creative marketing officers, and market research analysts over two days to discuss and uncover the best strategies for understanding and effectively reaching this very important demographic. Latinos are currently 17.4% or 55.4 million of the US population according to the 2014 US Census. The generation that is driving this explosive growth are Latino Millennials, 18-34. Every 30 seconds, two non-Hispanics hit retirement age and one Hispanic turns 18 years old, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the Terry School of Business at the University of Georgia. It is this kind of information that makes every marketer perk their ears to hear the best formula for establishing a relationship with this consumer now rather than later.

"Any marketer who wants to be successful in multicultural America, needs to know how to market to a multiculrual audience," said Marcos Baer, Publisher, Portada.

[Listen to a clip of Steven Smith, Editorial Director, Live Events, MediaPost talk about why the importance of the Latino market and on Latino Millennials]

As debated and talked about, Latino millennials are a tough nut to crack. "They are beholden to no one brand, " according to Susan Nuñez, vice president for Advertiser Services, GfK MRI.

At Portada, a panel discussion titled "Zeroing in on the Hispanic Millennial" brought fresh insights for marketers who want to know how to engage this ever-shifting demographic. One of the ways to do this is to -- "go mobile." Recent data shows that Latino millennials are more "at home" with mobile engagement according to market research from GfK MRI and presented at the conference.

According to ComScore, among Hispanics, 21 percent of digital media users are mobile-only, compared to just 9 percent among Non-Hispanics. The numbers are even greater among young Hispanic Millennials--,40 percent are mobile-only internet users.

Millennials also love their social media. Both conferences had panel discussions on social media and the Latino Millennial. Engage:Hispanics presented case study titled "Harnessing the Power of Facebook," given by Dr. Jake Beniflah, executive director for Center for Multicultural Science, and David Shanker, CEO of Lightspeed GMI North America.

The study, according to Beniflah, is the first to examine quantitatively the differences between
Hispanic brand fans across three leading brands on Facebook. The goal, the presenters said, is to effectively formulate "authentic and culturally relevant content strategies through social media data, revealing key consumer insights around the unique tastes and preferences of this fast-growing, hyper-social population." Findings included: marketing in three languages; English, Spanish and Spanglish; cultural resonance and being a social media heavy. The findings were very revealing about the true likes and dislikes of this audience that sometimes ran counter to preconceived concepts about what this audience liked and disliked.

Key takeaways from both conferences: Latino millennials may be bilingual, bicultural, and acculturated but they do not want to be categorized in any one particular way. The manner in which marketers engage with this audience is crucial to the success of any ad campaign. An advertiser's awareness of cultural touch points that will resonate across the board among Latinos is paramount. The old approach of 'language first' as the only way to reach Latinos is now quickly eroding as Latino Millennials now dictate that the new mandate is cultural relevancy.