Business

The top 500 U.S. marketers are allocating about 8.4 percent of their overall ad spend to Hispanic dedicated efforts, this is up from 5.5 percent in 2010, according to a new report from AHAA: the voice of Hispanic marketing. Over the past five years, the top 500 advertisers boosted their spending in Hispanic targeted media by 63 percent or $2.7 billion from $4.3 billion in 2010 to $7.1 billion. The top 500 advertisers boosted their average spending from $9 million in Hispanic targeted media in 2010 to $14 million now.

Imagine a grocery store where you can receive personal recommendations and offers the moment you step in the store, where checkout takes seconds and you can pay for groceries without ever taking out your wallet. Sound far-fetched? It’s closer than you think.

Sprint announced the appointment of Roger Solé in a dual role: senior vice president for the Hispanic market and senior vice president of Innovation.

By Gonzalo López Martí  –  LMMIAMI.COM

• If you don’t like bawdy analogies & explicit turns of phrase or if you have a distaste for all things Kardashian-ralated , you might want to stop reading here.
• Unfortunately, I could not find a sanitized way to describe some of the thinking below.
• Let’s see.
• Foreseeing the social media scenario coming our way a few years ago, Jon Bond, founder & partner of legendary 90s agency Kirshenbaum & Bond coined this phrase: “In the future, marketing will be like sex: only losers will have to pay for it.”

Digital advertising revenues in the U.S. rose to an all-time high of $49.5 billion in 2014, according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for the full-year, released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and prepared by PwC US. This figure represents a 16 percent increase over 2013’s record-setting total of $42.8 billion – and marks the fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth for the industry. The report additionally shows that 2014’s fourth quarter numbers reached $14.2 billion, a 17 percent uptick from $12.1 billion in the final quarter of 2014.

There’s no stopping the music industry’s digital transformation, based on recent research. According to data from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), digital music revenues worldwide rose nearly 7% last year to hit $6.85 billion, tying physical sales in share for the first time, at 46% each. The remaining 8% was from performance rights and synchronization.

First it was 8-track tapes, then cassettes, then compact discs and now, it’s digital. And for a long time, it looked like digital auditory advancements would ultimately kill off vinyl–perhaps the most potent, transcendent and game-changing form of music content discovery to date.

For those of you who may have been buried under a rock the last week or so, the Internet saw the premieres of “Daredevil” on Netflix, the “Game Of Thrones”’ season opener and trailers for “Batman vs. Superman,” “Fantastic Four,” “Ant-Man” and the most amazing, awe-inspiring trailer of them all: “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”  I have never watched so much online video and then read about what I’d just watched in forums and blogs as I did last week!

By Gonzalo López Martí   –  LMMIAMI.COM

• According to The Brookings Institution, Cuba is clearly trying to lure foreign investment.
• It might be yet another political maneuver by the Communist Party to buy time.
• However, this time it’s different.
• The party is over.
• The octogenarians will go soon.
• Duh.
• The conference “Oportunidades en Cuba” held recently in New York City and organized, among others, by the Wharton Business School attracted the presence of 240 business people.

The U.S. Hispanic population is growing exponentially compared to non-Hispanics, and the group’s overall restaurant visits outpaced population growth, reports The NPD Group. Last year Hispanics’ per capita visits to restaurants and other foodservice outlets increased by 4 percent compared to a 1 percent decline in visits by non-Hispanics, according to NPD’s CREST Hispanic foodservice market research.

I’m starting to see more companies invest in closed-loop campaigns that are optimized on traditional branding goals like brand favorability, brand awareness or intent to purchase.

Nielsen announced that Trina M. Fresco will now be serving as the vice president of U.S. Community Alliances, Events and Engagement.

ZGS Communications announced that Carmen Moras has been named General Manager of holaciudad.com. 

Univision Communications Inc. (UCI) has announced the appointment of Mark Lopez to the position of executive vice president and general manager, Univision Digital, effective May 1st, 2015. He will be based in Miami and report to Isaac Lee, president of News and Digital for UCI and CEO of Fusion.

Through the course of 2015, domain options will grow exponentially. More than 1,300 new domains are being phased in. Big brands, tech titans, venture capitalists, major cities and entire industry verticals are all playing a part in this attempt to usher in a new era of the internet with the next few billion users in mind, according to a new eMarketer report, “The Domain Name Explosion: Hundreds of New Choices Beyond .com Mean New Marketing Considerations.”

The roles of the CMO and CIO are changing, and those organizations with the most mature collaborations tend to be the most successful in driving the performance of their teams and the growth of customer-focused initiatives, according to Deloitte Digital’s “CMO Quarterly Study: The CMO-CIO Relationship.”

The television’s popularity as the go-to entertainment device may be ending, according to “Digital Video and the Connected Consumer,” a new research report from Accenture. The television was the only product category to see uniform, double-digit usage declines across different types of media worldwide among viewers of nearly all ages. It is rapidly being replaced as consumers turn to a combination of laptops, desktops, tablets and smartphones to view video content.

It’s spring, the time to clean and start anew. Perhaps you have been contemplating a new direction for your career, or perhaps you have been looking for an excuse to engage with that headhunter who called you the other day. But you’re probably lacking that last little push to take that step.
So let me offer you some help by sharing three things you could do that will absolutely get you fired, forcing you to make that change. And none of them involve excessive use of alcohol, drugs or displays of public nudity — so there should be no lasting after-effects.

By Gonzalo López Martí   –  LMMIAMI.COM

• Some 10 years ago I was employed by a major multinational advertising conglomerate.
• Under the wing of said conglomerate, I was part of a small team of opportunists –I mean, professionals- with the task of opening an ad agency in Miami to cater to the US Hispanic & Latin American markets.
• New York City had been initially considered but ultimately Miami was selected as the best location.
• It just so happens that one of the head honchos of said conglomerate at the time confided in my then boss that he and other head honchos sensed new winds blowing in Cuba.

Cisneros Media announced the appointment of Wilma Maciel as Vice President, Content Management & Acquisitions for Cisneros Media Distribution (CMD), effective immediately.