DoubleClick Creates Position to Focus on Hispanics

Ad giant DoubleClick on Wednesday said it's created a new post -- the director of US Hispanic sales for DoubleClick Las Americas and tapped Sam Pagan, the former VP and general sales manager at Columbian media network Cadena Caracol, to fill it.

Pagan will be responsible for developing DoubleClick's sales efforts for US Hispanic and Latin American sites. Both markets are expected to boom in the future.

Internet prognosticators Jupiter Communications predicts there will be 38 million Internet users in Latin America by the year 2003. Forrester Research says 43 percent of Hispanic American households will be online this year.

Although DoubleClick has a presence in Latin America, the creation of this new position indicates a new focus on this growing market.

The ad network already has an office in Brazil and has put together Brazilian and Latin American networks. The company says it serves 120 million impressions a month from the Spanish and Portuguese speaking world.

Sites represented by DoubleClick Las Americas include Infoseek Mexico, Disney Brazil, CD Now and Ehola. Advertisers include StarMedia, Dell Latin America, Microsoft Colombia and El Sitio.

"Pagan's background is ideally suited to help further our reach in this rapidly expanding region," says Carter Nicholas, director of international business development. "The Latin American market is a key component in DoubleClick's global expansion."