Global by Design

I’m not sure if this is a first for Warner Brothers but it is the first time I’ve seen it. The movie studio is running a Spanish-language ad for the new Tim Burton flic Corpse Bride in Spanish for the US market. Here’s what the ad looks like…

Naturally, when I saw this ad I got all excited thinking there was a Spanish-language Web site behind it. But when I clicked through I found that the Corpse Bride Web site is still in English…

This is not a huge surprise given the economics of Web localization. Creating a Spanish-language Web ad costs a few bucks; creating a Spanish-language Web site (particularly one in Flash) may cost upwards of $50,000.

Will Hollywood eventually launch full-scale Spanish-language Web sites for the US market as a matter of practice? Given that the US Hispanic online population is larger than the online populations of most Latin American countries, I think they will.

• Spanish Speakers and the Internet
• Univision & Google Partner on Spanish Search
• There is No Such Thing as “Rest of World”
• Reebok en Español para Estados Unidos
• More Reasons to Localize for the US Hispanic Market…