Business

CONTOBOX has hired Multicultural Media veteran, Felix Perez as VP of Multicultural Solutions.

Compared with the rest of the world, Americans are feeling pretty good about their finances. While many consumers in other countries are living paycheck to paycheck and worrying about becoming unemployed, American consumers are comparatively unconcerned about their household’s financial future. This isn’t to say that US consumers are exuding confidence: financial-market volatility and the political uncertainty surrounding the upcoming presidential election are stoking fears of another downturn.  By Max Magni, Anne Martinez, and Rukhshana Motiwala

Marketing becomes an information problem as computers augment humans in the execution of online marketing. It was bound to happen, but it leaves CMOs with a question about exactly how to incorporate information skills into their organizations.

Clarity Media Group designated New York-based communications strategists David Puente and Juliana Silva to head the global expansion of the company’s media training, presentation coaching and message development services

Previously, I’ve argued that consumer confidence is almost always determined by national economic conditions, rather than by global events, or events in one or more other countries. The one exception to that rule in recent memory was the 2009 financial crisis that originated in the U.S.  Because the U.S. makes up one-quarter of global GDP, the effects on confidence were felt worldwide.  By Louise Keely, president, Demand Institute, and SVP, Nielsen

The Latin American economy has seen better days. Over the past few years, Latin American countries have experienced slowdowns in both GDP and private-consumption growth, a rise in inflation rates, and devaluations in currency. In this difficult environment, consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) manufacturers must make careful choices and deliberately weigh trade-offs.  By Bruno Furtado, Felipe Ize, Antonio Rocha, and Miguel Suadi

BabyCenter has appointed Clarisse Cespedes to Executive Editor of BabyCenter en Español.

The region needs to build a more diversified and sustainable economic base, focusing on consumers as the pivotal driver of growth both globally and at home.  By Andres Cadena, Patricia Ellen, Jaime Morales, and Jaana Remes

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / LMMIAMI.COM

• What is it with your average creative that he -or she- whines, kicks, screams and throws tantrums yet he -or she- rarely has the rocks to start his or her own agency?
• How many agencies in America were founded by creatives?
• How many agencies in the US Hispanic market were founded by creatives?

Eight years after the Great Recession sent the U.S. newspaper industry into a tailspin, the pressures facing America’s newsrooms have intensified to nothing less than a reorganization of the industry itself, one that impacts the experiences of even those news consumers unaware of the tectonic shifts taking place.

This year’s events (US elections, UEFA Euro 2016 , Summer Olympics in Brazil, and Copa America in the US) will generate incremental advertising spending and thus boost media owner advertising revenues compared to 2015 (when no such events took place.) Neutralizing the impact of those cyclical events in 2015, 2016 and 2017, the global advertising market would grow by approximately +4% in both 2015 and 2016, which suggests no significant acceleration in the underlying ad demand beyond the cyclical drivers, as the economic environment remains uncertain.

It’s been about a week since the ANA’s report into transparency hit the best seller lists. Lest we forget (and judging from some of the less temperate comments flying around some seem to have forgotten) the report was titled “An Independent Study of Media Transparency in the U.S. Advertising Industry.” It was not titled “Why Advertisers Hate the Holding Companies” nor “We Name the Guilty Parties.”  By Brian Jacobs The Cog Blog

Thirteen percent of advertising and marketing executives surveyed plan to expand their teams in the second half of 2016, according to new research from staffing firm The Creative Group. This is up from 11 percent in the first half of the y

Hispanicize Media Group, LLC, the holding company of the annual Hispanicize event and DiMe Media, announced it has acquired a majority, controlling stake in leading U.S. Latino digital food media company, Hispanic Kitchen.

Can Multicultural Agencies Be The Best ‘Relationship Shops’?  By Adam R Jacobson

reVolver Podcasts adds five new shows to its multicultural, bilingual, on-demand, audio network line-up.

Entravision Communications Corporation announced the appointments of Angela Navarrete to Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing Solutions (SVP-IMS), McAllen, Texas and Rene Morales to Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing Solutions (SVP-IMS), Las Vegas, Nevada, effective immediately.

The first of two ANA reports has landed, containing the results of 150 interviews conducted by the investigators K2 with ‘marketers, media suppliers, ad tech vendors, current and former advertising and media agency professionals, trade association executives, industry consultants, attorneys, barter company employees, and post-production professionals’.  By Brian Jacobs / Brian Jacobs & Associates

The whole issue of agency kickbacks from media companies now comes right in the middle of the TV upfront market negotiations.

A data-driven look at the link between the strategic moves of new CEOs and the performance of their companies highlights the importance of quick action and of adopting an outsider’s perspective.  By Michael Birshan, Thomas Meakin, and Kurt Strovink