Hispanics account for almost half of annual U.S. population growth, largely through U.S. births rather than immigration (25.8% of kids aged 9 and under are Hispanic). Totaling 57.5 million people, Hispanics are 17.8% of the U.S. population and growing.

That's some of the key information in Ad Age's fourteenth-annual Hispanic Fact Pack, distributed with the Aug. 21 issue of the print magazine. It includes data about marketers, ad spending, demographic change and how Hispanics use digital media. Rankings in the 32-page 2017 guide include the top 50 Hispanic advertisers, the 50 largest U.S. Hispanic ad agencies and the 15 biggest Hispanic media agencies. And a creative roundup highlights the most-awarded campaigns of the year.

A further selection: Hispanic major-media spending edged up 1.2% to $9.6 billion in 2016, but the only category that grew significantly was digital, estimated in Ad Age's Hispanic Fact Pack to be up 16.9% to $2 billion. TV spending -- network, spot and cable-- was down slightly to $6 billion in 2016 from $6.2 billion the previous year.

Procter & Gamble Co. is at the top of the ranking of the 50 largest spenders in Hispanic media, at $368.3 million, up from $303.1 million the previous year. Telecom and entertainment companies make up half of the top 10 advertisers, starting with AT&T at No. 3, spending $128.7 million.

Many of those marketers are coming together under the aegis of the Association of National Advertisers to form AIMM, or the Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing, to target multicultural audiences more effectively.

In the ranking of the 50 largest Hispanic agencies, Omnicom Group's Alma rose from No. 4 to capture the top slot, posting double-digit growth in addition to the creative kudos from being the most-awarded Hispanic shop, largely for a digital campaign to promote Netflix's "Narcos" series about drug lord Pablo Escobar. In "Spanish Lessons," the lead actors taught their most-used Spanish expressions, starting with Escobar's own favorite, Coma mierda.

The independent ad agency scene has shifted over the last year. After years of stalking Zubi Advertising, the Hispanic shop for Ford Motor Co., Ford's global holding company WPP finally bought Zubi in February 2017 in a deal done through GTB, the agency network that handles Ford. Longtime Chief Operating Officer Joe Zubi, whose mother Tere founded Zubi in 1976, left the company.

At Publicis Groupe's Lapiz, there are no plans to replace Gustavo Razzetti, the executive VP and managing director who left in April; Andrew Swinand, CEO of Leo Burnett North America, will also lead Lapiz.

Hispanic shops continue to expand their scope of work beyond the Latino market. Lopez Negrete Communications, the biggest independent U.S. Hispanic shop, last month made the cut in a tough review to be one of seven agencies certified to handle local advertising for McDonald's cooperative groups, despite not having worked for McDonald's previously. Client Fiat Chrysler invited the shop to two international pitches this year, and the agency won both, says President-CEO Alex Lopez Negrete. One new campaign, Jeep's "Battlefield," takes advantage of U.S. Hispanic soccer expertise by pairing Jeep's relentlessness with the passion of the Fiat Chrysler-sponsored Italian soccer team Juventus. The spot targets the soccer team's 300 million global fan base.,

Hispanic media buying and planning is dominated by Publicis Media Multicultural's roll-up last year of formerly separate business Tapestry, MV42 and ZO Multicultural, and GroupM Multicultural's brand under the MEC, Mindshare, MediaCom and Maxus names. But various Hispanic agencies, including Publicis's Conill, Interpublic's Casanova//McCann and independent Lopez Negrete, still have their own media departments to plan and buy for clients.

On the media side, Univision Communications' private-equity owners appear no closer to a long-delayed initial public offering, and were reported to have talked with Liberty Media mogul and investor John Malone about taking a stake. Univision created a chief revenue officer post, and in July promoted Steve Mandala to president-advertising sales and marketing, succeeding Keith Turner.

Over at rival NBC Universal Telemundo Enterprises, part of Comcast Corp., Jacqueline Hernandez left in March and wasn't replaced as chief marketing officer.

The digital edition of the Hispanic Fact Pack is available here (Click on Hispanic Fact Pack image, then on Download Here). Order print copies at [email protected] or call 877-320-1721.