Marketing

Hispanic voters are poised to play a potentially pivotal role as to whether the Democrats or the Republicans control the US Congress after the midterm elections. Hispanic voters have grown as a percentage of the electorate, largely as a result of young Hispanic-Americans attaining voting age.

One of the reasons why culture is underestimated in marketing is because it is too complex and dynamic. They are different components that make up culture for individuals: music, tradition, religion, customs, language and furthermore. Culture is always morphing in meaning and changing over time.  By Regina Sanquintin - Florida State University

Who would want to be at an agency these days?  Pitch after pitch after pitch, controversy after controversy, new vendors every time you turn around, competition from (comparatively) new entrants.  It's no life for someone after a quiet life, that's for sure.  And now along comes a new threat: clients taking parts of the media agency role in-house, reducing their reliance on their partners and threatening agency revenue.  By Brian Jacobs

Marketers are drowning in information. And they often scrap excess data rather than sift through and make sense of it.

Effective brand marketing increases the probability of consumers either picking a brand or paying more for a brand when it is time to buy.  But what data and analytic approaches help us to understand the influence of brand marketing on sales?  By Bill Pink / Kantar Millward Brown- Head of Brand Guidance Analytics in North America

When Unilever CMO Keith Weed announced at June's Cannes Lions festival that the leading CPG company would no longer partner with influencers who buy followers, it was a wake-up call to the industry about the rise of fraud in the practice of influencer marketing. Defined by eMarketer as marketing that "identifies and activates individuals who can sway the brand preferences, buying decisions, and loyalty of the broader population," in practical terms the tactic also refers to how companies compensate celebrities, social media "stars," or industry experts to create content on behalf of brands and endorse products — typically paying them based on their follower count.

The latest headlines, based on the Association of National Advertisers research, notes that three out of four marketers have in-house capabilities. The same research also acknowledges that 90% of ANA members still have a relationship with an agency, proving that agencies endure as we undergo the most massive transformation the industry has ever experienced. It’s also worth pointing out that some of these respondents may work at in-house agencies-the industry should be wary of reports where respondents are rating themselves.