Internet advertising and marketing firm L90 on Thursday opened the doors on a new
division — L90Latino — that aims to reel in advertisers and publishers
hoping to reach the US Hispanic and Latin American markets.
Lee Vann, who developed business models targeting this market while at
Windamere Venture Partners, will head up the L90 (LNTY) division as vice president. Vann’s international
experience includes a stint in Madrid, Spain, where he lived from 1994 to
1998, working as country manager for a biotech company.
Josef Vann, who was most recently vice president of multicultural media at
Western International Media, joins the division as vice president of
business development and sales. Alex Fino, who has served as senior media
and strategic analyst for Western and Ad Americas, takes the job of
director of business development and sales for L90Latino.
“L90Latino gives us the ability to leverage L90’s proven business model in
the growing Latino online marketplace,” said John Bohan, president and
chief executive officer of L90.
“L90Latino offers advertisers a strategic, targeted and results-oriented
way of placing and delivering online advertising. Additionally, by
aggregating advertising opportunities, L90Latino provides Web site
publishers access to advertisers who might ordinarily be inaccessible to them.”
In recent months, a large number of players have sprung up that target the
US Hispanic and Latin American markets, and L90 is joining that wave.
Publishers include StarMedia, Eritmo.com, and El Sitio. Others in the advertising and
marketing space include HispanAmerica and Adsmart, the CMGI company which has been operating the
Hispanic-oriented ad network NetFuerza for more than a year.
All of these players are trying to take advantage of the growth of the
Internet in Latin America, as well as the increase in the Hispanic
population in the United States. According to Forrester Research, online advertising
in Latin America alone is projected to grow from $51 million in 1999 to
more than $1.5 billion in 2004.
