Business

Telemundo announced it will unveil the new www.telemundo.com on January 1, 2009. As part of the network’s digital evolution, the re-vamped site will serve as the online home for all things Telemundo, providing an enhanced entertainment experience for its audience and offering its advertisers and partners unique sponsorship opportunities.

Telemundo also announced a new deal with MSN, which will include distribution of the new Telemundo.com through MSN Latino and other International MSN portals, as well as use of MSN video technology and ad serving.

As I attend this year’s ANA Multicultural Marketing Conference I can’t help but feel like companies and brands are being tested like they have never been before, especially on the ethnic consumer front. I can’t help but wonder how corporate America will deal with the unprecedented intersection–a perfect storm–of an economic tsunami and a burgeoning multicultural marketplace. I am intrigued with the prospect of seeing earth-shattering economic and market shifts leaving certain consumer behaviors and market shares frozen in time. Published by Manny Gonzalez – abece. To read El Blog CLICK above.

The Home Depot announced the launch of its improved Spanish-language Web site. The new URL, espanol.homedepot.com, marks the first home improvement e-commerce site where Hispanics can access, browse and purchase products in-language from start to finish.

A new survey of members of the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) indicates that multicultural marketing (MCM) continues to grow as a strategic platform for driving brand and business performance. As the marketplace becomes more diverse, multicultural initiatives have become increasingly crucial for all categories of business. A substantial majority of survey participants (77 percent) have multicultural marketing initiatives, while 66 percent indicate that their company’s efforts have increased over the past few years.

The ongoing financial and economic stress has highlighted the crucial role that prudent bank lending practices play in promoting the nation’s economic welfare. The recent policy actions are designed to help support responsible lending activities of banking organizations, enhance their ability to fund such lending, and enable banking organizations to better meet the credit needs of households and business. At this critical time, it is imperative that all banking organizations and their regulators work together to ensure that the needs of creditworthy borrowers are met. As discussed below, to support this objective, consistent with safety and soundness principles and existing supervisory standards, each individual banking organization needs to ensure the adequacy of its capital base, engage in appropriate loss mitigation strategies and foreclosure prevention, and reassess the incentive implications of its compensation policies.

According to Inside Radio, Katz Media Group has stuck a deal to pay $3.64 million to Interep to gain access to approach the bankrupt rep firm’s clients. The agreement does not give Katz any portion of Interep, as reported earlier. Under the terms of the deal, stations will have the option of staying with Katz or jumping to a new rep.

This includes Spanish Broadcasting System radio stations and Mega TV, along with the Spanish language television representation division that represents Azteca America TV stations and other independents.

The industry saw it coming, but in 2006-2008, it actually happened: Newspapers, radio and magazines entered into declines that have grown steeper with every passing quarter.

As the ever poignant Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts put it best in his Wednesday Nov. 5th article, ‘We’ are finally part of `We the People’.

And we, communications and marketing people, have quite the road ahead of us. I was so overwhelmed, proud, exonerated and excited while I watched the English-language, “mainstream” news coverage on Election night. From ABC News top political correspondents Cokie Roberts and George Stephanopoulos to CNN’s Soledad O’Brien and others, the talk, buzz, clamor was all about Hispanics and their overarching impact on not only this nation’s political landscape, but how we view issues in general. I mean, Cokie Roberts focused on the Hispanic vote and referred to Hispanics as “an emerging majority” LIVE on a number of occasions. For her part, Soledad O’Brien on CNN quoted directly from the Census Update announcement that was broadly reported in mid August saying “all Americans will be minorities in a few decades.”

Published by Cristy Clavijo-Kish