The Challenge
A leading Spanish-language media network faced a problem familiar to any publisher serving a culturally distinct audience: the national narrative about its readers didn’t align with what it was seeing on the ground.
During a moment of intense public focus on immigration enforcement and economic uncertainty, advertisers were pulling back on Hispanic-targeted media investment, operating on assumptions about how current events were affecting Hispanic consumer behavior, rather than data.
The publisher needed more than a rebuttal. They needed a rigorous, defensible counter-narrative built on real consumer voices – one that could shift advertiser perception and protect and grow their market share for Hispanic ad spend.
The Solution
CivicScience partnered with the network’s growth and strategy team to design a research program that went where standard measurement couldn’t: into the authentic, declared perspectives of Hispanic consumers themselves.
Leveraging CivicScience’s publisher-exclusive access to both custom question capabilities and a vast syndicated data library, the team launched targeted questions on both the network’s own properties and the CivicScience network — fielded in both English and Spanish — capturing how Hispanic consumers 18+ were actually thinking about economic conditions, public life, and spending behavior.
The research was designed to answer a specific research question: was any pullback in Hispanic consumer spending at quick-service restaurants driven by immigration-related concerns, or by something else entirely? CivicScience segmented respondents by concern level, compared Hispanic and non-Hispanic consumer patterns side-by-side, and mapped actual visit behaviors, including timing, frequency, and spending amounts.
Results & Impact
The data told a counter-narrative, and it was compelling. Hispanic consumers’ visit patterns to quick-service restaurants weren’t declining; they were shifting. Visits occurred at different times of day, with higher per-visit spend and different consumption habits than those of non-Hispanic consumers. The pullback in overall spending that advertisers had observed tracked directly to broad economic concerns: heightened anxiety about debt, cost of living, and financial uncertainty — concerns also shared across the broader U.S. consumer base.
The insights extended well beyond a single client presentation or research problem. The publisher’s team used the data as the foundation for an internal strategy presentation, and took the findings to the broader advertising industry in a webinar — helping shape the market conversation around Hispanic consumer spending at a critical moment.
As a result, the publisher was able to approach advertisers with a credible, evidence-backed story that challenged assumptions and made the case for increased investment in Hispanic-targeted media.
This partnership represents a long-standing collaboration dating back to 2018, when CivicScience’s cultural tracking capabilities first enabled the publisher to put quantitative shape to shifting Hispanic audiences in America, rather than solely relying on qualitative research. Today, this relationship continues to give the publisher’s sales team a durable research advantage in a competitive marketplace.
Why CivicScience
CivicScience is an advertising and analytics platform built on the world’s largest database of real-time consumer sentiment and declared intent. Powered by AI-enabled survey technology engaging millions of U.S. respondents every week, we help leading brands and agencies activate and measure high-performing advertising – reaching custom audiences of over 165 million consumer profiles across premium digital, online video, and connected TV environments. Real Voices. Superior Advertising. Thriving Media. Responsible AI.
