Luminar, a Big Data analytics and modeling service that specializes in U.S. Latino consumer behavior, announced its launch August 8, says company president Franklin Rios.
“We found a very real need,” says Rios in regards to targeting Hispanic consumers. “This is an evolutionary step.”
A subsidiary of the Spanish-language media company Entravision Communications, Luminar intends to focus on U.S. Latinos at the designated market area (DMA) level to account for a rapidly evolving demographic, Rios says. At this time, he does not anticipate analyzing other cultural groups in the near future.
“Today, we have 50 million Latinos in the U.S.,” says Rios, adding that the Latino community represents the fourth largest growing market in the U.S.
Rios says the company accumulates its data from more than 2,000 sources, including service systems, loyalty systems, and its own proprietary data. The data is then scrutinized by Luminar’s team comprised of more than 20 Latino data scientists and mathematicians.
“We will see clients sharing their own data with us so we can put it into our cloud environment,” Rios says. “We can have a living, breathing ecosystem going.”
While Rios claims Luminar has already engaged with several agencies, some of which seek to provide insights into the Latino political scene, he ultimately hopes Luminar will serve companies that are “dedicated to the Latino ad space,” such as Verizon and Procter & Gamble.
“We’re hoping to achieve more and more insights as clients engage with us,” Rios says.
Although Luminar does not currently have competitors, Rios believes that steering away from traditional sample data and focusing on empirical data will continue to distinguish the company.
“You have empirical scientific data that tells you what is happening down to the individual household level,” he says.
Rios acknowledges that understanding the analytics and dealing with large quantities of data may serve as an initial barrier towards the company’s growth, but he believes that this hindrance will be overcome with time.
“The love starts through the eyes,” Rios says. “The professional presentation of the insights and pinpointing the highlights of the insights of the analytics and the models are the first things the clients are going to get used to.”
While television has been the traditional way of reaching Latinos, Rios says that employing Luminar’s Big Data strategy will help marketers access that community through other marketing channels.
