Business

Honestly, I cringe every time I read something that essentially equates good marketing with TV, whether you’re talking about English-language or Spanish-language TV. So when I recently read about Nielsen’s “fusion metrics” I thought I had traveled back in time. Why is it that in our infinite desire to get marketers to take Hispanic consumers seriously we resort to a TV-centric mode?

In its first advertising expenditure forecasts of 2008, ZenithOptimedia downgrades its combined growth forecasts for North America and Western Europe this year from 4.4% to 3.8%, as the credit crunch drains consumer and business confidence. However, growth continues to strengthen elsewhere – we have increased our 2008 forecasts for the rest of the world from 10.9% to 11.1%.

The Nielsen Company reported that advertising spending for the full year 2007 rose 0.6% compared to full year 2006, with Internet continuing to demonstrate the strongest performance (+18.9%) of any media category.

The state of the American news media in 2008 is more troubled than a year ago.

And the problems, increasingly, appear to be different than many experts have predicted.

Critics have tended to see technology democratizing the media and traditional journalism in decline. Audiences, they say, are fragmenting across new information sources, breaking the grip of media elites. Some people even advocate the notion of “The Long Tail,” the idea that, with the Web’s infinite potential for depth, millions of niche markets could be bigger than the old mass market dominated by large companies and producers.

The continuing shift from print to online media is requiring journalists to reassess their day-to-day responsibilities and the manner in which they report the news. This, and other findings uncovered in the “2008 PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey,” indicate that media professionals are being tasked with more responsibility, are facing changing job requirements, and are more aware of the commercial side of the business than ever before.

Javier Saralegui – President of Univision Online has left his post at the company. Cesar Conde Executive VP Chief Strategy Office of Univision Communications will handle interim responsibilities until a successor is found for the online portal targeting US Hispanic.

Interep, an independent advertising sales and marketing company specializing in radio, the Internet, television and complementary media, announced that it has entered into a consensual balance sheet restructuring to be implemented through a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.

The National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau has advised Wal-Mart that it should discontinue the use of the implied $2,500 annual saving consumers can enjoy in their advertising.

So you’re a “traditional” media company. You watched as attention shifted toward a more fragmented new-media landscape. The attention shift on its own is not nearly as big a deal as an outsider might think, because you knew a little secret: As long as brand dollars stayed with those media outlets where it felt safe, Google and its algorithm-based ilk could have the direct marketing budgets of the long tail, and you would be just fine.

Paperless statements, paperless pitches.

US banks and credit issuers spent $13.4 billion in 2007 on direct marketing advertising, generating $178.8 billion in sales, according to the recently-issued Direct Marketing Association (DMA)’s “Direct Marketing Facts and Figures in the Financial Services Industry” report.

The advertising market continued to sputter at the end of 2007 and finished the year with measured spending of $148.99 billion, up 0.2 percent compared to 2006, according to data released by TNS media intelligence. Total expenditures during the fourth quarter of 2007 fell by 0.1 percent versus a year ago.

Much has been said and written over the last few days about SBS and Raul. Headlines predicting the demise of SBS are written by those who do not know him, or his management style. There have always been rumblings, but last week an equity firm out of Chicago, decided to call Raul out publicly. Discovery Group thinks they know what Raul needs to make SBS create more shareholder value. Before they speak out again, they should take a closer look at what Raul is building. By Jose Cancela is Principal of Hispanic USA.