Bridget Carey: The Digital Dish

Does your business have an ugly website? Enter to win a makeover.

Small Business owners, is your website ugly? Well, if it is divided up into frames with animated .gif buttons, chances are it is. But no worries. 2 Fish Group, a Delaware-based marketing studio is on the hunt for the ugliest small business websites in the nation. Twelve winners will receive $5,000 web makeovers.

Survey: U.S. Hispanics are more dependent on mobile phones than non-Hispanics

Mobile marketing was a big focus at the Ad:Tech Miami conference today in Miami Beach, and it will continue to be discussed at tomorrow's panels. I learned of some interesting stats about how Hispanics use mobile phones differently than other groups.

Jeff Hasen, chief marketing officer of HipCricket, was telling me that Hispanics are more receptive to mobile marketing messages, such as opt-in text messages about products. I didn't have room to include it in my story running tomorrow about Ad:Tech, but here are a few figures he shared with me from a 2007 Mobile Marketing Association Study:

• 76 percent of all U.S. Hispanic households own more than two cellphones. Whites ranked at 74 percent, and blacks followed at 60 percent
• 32 percent of U.S. Hispanics surveyed said they would be receptive to mobile marketing messages, but more blacks -- 35 percent -- said they would be receptive to the messages. Only 23 percent of whites said they would want the messages.
• The amount of Hispanics responding to mobile marketing messages has increased 20 percent in the past year
• 55 percent of Hispanics said they couldn't live without their mobile phones, 46 percent of whites and 45 percent of blacks answered the same

Of course the increase of affordable data plans is a big help to companies like HipCricket that are in the mobile marketing business. Hasen shared data that said 25 percent of consumers have an unlimited data plan with their carrier, which is a 100 percent increase from last year.

Ad:Tech Miami kicks off Tuesday, focusing on online advertising and Hispanics

Just a heads up that I'll be covering Ad:Tech Miami tomorrow at the Miami Beach Convention Center, so stay tuned tomorrow to hear more about it. The event will address the challenges faced by marketers, executives and businesses when trying to communicate with domestic Hispanic and Latin American audiences. It's the second year of the conference, and it is the only the only digital marketing conference focused on the Hispanic community. Last year, more than 1,800 people gathered to talk about how to get a piece of the rapid growth of Latin Americans online.

Conference Schedule: http://www.ad-tech.com/miami/adtech_miami_schedule.asp

Exhibitors: http://www.ad-tech.com/miami/adtech_miami_exhibitors.aspx

Speakers: http://www.ad-tech.com/miami/adtech_miami_speakers.aspx

Sponsors: http://www.ad-tech.com/miami/adtech_miami_sponsors.aspx

Happy Webmaster's Day!

Happy Made-Up-By-GoDaddy.com Webmaster's Day! The domain name registration, hosting and web site design company has declared April 29th to be Webmaster's Day, to honor those people that make the World Wide Web a better place.

You can send free e-cards to the webmasters in your life at GoDaddy.com/WebmastersDay.

Aside from the fact that is is a marketing stunt by GoDaddy.com, I support having a day to appreciate the hard work of webmasters and webmistresses. And if you don't want to send an e-card, take a few minutes to send a random thanks for their work. I'm sure they'll remember your appreciation the next time you call them at 2 a.m. to fix something on the site.

G33K B33R for the geeks looking for love

For you energy-drink obsessed video gamers, Miami soda company BAWLS has released the first-ever high-energy root beer drink. It's called G33K B33R (that's Geek Beer for those of you unfamiliar with "leet speak") and it launched last week.

But if you want to get a taste of the g33k, Tate's Comics in Lauderhill is having a Geek Singles Night on Friday, hosted by dating site Sweet on Geeks, and there'll be plenty of G33K B33R to go around. Starts at 7 p.m. and you can RSVP to geekmail@sweetongeeks.com.

Mobile marketing network aimed at Hispanics

HipCricket, a 4-year-old mobile marketing company based in Washington, has announced the launch of a Hispanic-focused mobile marketing network. HipCricket will work with several Hispanic media companies and brands to send out interactive messages to targeted mobile devices.

Hispanic media companies Bustos Media and Lotus Radio are among the first to join HipCricket's Hispanic marketing network. HipCricket announced the news as part of its visit to the Voz Latina Hispanic Marketing Conference on Thursday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood.

"Brands want a one-stop shop and an ability to tap into a network of opted-in audience or consumers," said Ivan Braiker, chief executive of HipCricket.

HipCricket has done more than 17,000 mobile marketing campaigns, and each time customers have to agree to receive the texts. The company reports that Hispanics have been among the most responsive to mobile marketing campaigns, with 32 percent saying they are interested or very interested in mobile marketing messages.

A recent M:Metrics study reports that Hispanics are among the most active mobile consumers and are more inclined to access news or information from a mobile browser than the average subscriber.

Users typically opt-in to a mobile marketing program by texting a code to a short string of five or six digits so they can receive information via text messages. Braiker said users can opt out of any mobile marketing program at any time by texting a word
such as stop or out.

"Overall I think they are going to see their experience is going to be a pleasant one. Our opt-out rate overall is just slightly over 1 percent,'' Braiker said.

ad:tech Miami

It's almost time for the first-ever ad:tech Miami conference, held during June 26 and 27 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. This conference examines content of the digital advertising market and will focus on Hispanics and Latin America. The theme: "Speaking the Right Language: Engaging with Hispanic and Latin Audiences."

I recently sat down with ad:tech Chair Andrew Ianni, who told me that he plans for the Miami stop to target the Hispanic community. Although this is the first time it's in Florida, ad:tech has been around for 11 years, and there are 10 ad:tech conferences around the world. Ianni said adding Miami as a stop was a "no brainer" since he U.S. Hispanic market is a constantly growing consumer market.

"What's happening with search in Brazil is vastly different than what's happening with search in Mexico," Ianni said. And it's not just a place to learn what's happening with search, but also with all sorts of technology mediums, such as mobile advertising in the U.S. Hispanic market and in Latin America.

The conference will feature more than 120 speakers from the U.S., Brazil and Latin America. Media company executives speaking include MTV Networks, General Motors, Telemundo, MSN, Grupo Televisa and Google, to name a few.

There are about 75 exhibitors signed up, to see them all go here.

Stay tuned in June for more coverage of the conference from yours truly.