Business

CBS and Viacom, two of the world’s leading entertainment companies, announced they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine in an all-stock merger, creating a combined company with more than $28 billion in revenue.

By Gonzalo López Martí ? Creative director, etc. – LMMiami.com

• The brand of creativity we sell at Madison Avenue is increasingly stale, flat footed, devoid of reflexes.
• Clients are culprits of this reality too but, hey, a large chunk of our job description involves taking the fall for our clients’ mistakes.
• The proverbial scapegoat.
• We get paid for that too.

Multicultural consumers comprise almost 40 percent of the total U.S. population, yet multicultural media investments make up only 5.2 percent of total advertising and marketing spending, according to a new study.

The legal distribution of marijuana at the state level has prompted many blue-chip companies to explore cannabis-based products.

During this inaugural celebration, PRSA-LA will be joined by distinguished honorees including CBS Entertainments Tiffany Smith-Anoa’i, IW Group’s Bill Imada, Gilbert Dávila of Dávila Multicultural Insights, and Alan Acosta with the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

Before it became involved in the media industry, procurement worked effectively in manufacturing and distribution, ferreting out non-value-added costs, improving processes, closing factories, investing in suppliers, and eliminating complexity. The result: improved quality and lower costs. Exactly the opposite has occurred in the media industry.

Entravision Communications Corporation announced that it has realigned its local sales organization and promoted Eddie Melendez to President of Local Media Sales.

Companies have long struggled to break down silos and boost cross-functional collaboration—but the challenge is getting more acute. The speed of market change requires a more rapid adaptation of products and services, while customers increasingly expect an organization to present them with a single face.

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc. / LMMiami.com

• Scalability is the ability and proclivity for expansion and growth of a concept, process or platform.
• Not to be confused with “excess capacity”.
• “Bandwidth” can be used as synonym in certain cases though.
• In the business world, it is the ability to streamline and systematize a process with the least possible friction.

Over the last month Univision investors lead by CEO Vince Sandusky have quietly put the company for sale hoping to receive an offer that would entice the investor group to sell the whole company.  This effort seems to have not produced any positive results or a sale.  According to the New York Post and Inside Radio, the company is using the resources of Morgan Stanley, Moelis & Co. and LionTree bank to float an auction of Univision radio, television and internet assets.

The direct brand economy has created an unprecedented opportunity for women to start companies and to do what they could only have previously dreamed of doing before. More women are becoming entrepreneurs, more women are building companies and more women are becoming successful with their own direct brands.

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have settled their turf war and initiated an antitrust review into companies in e-commerce, online retail and search.  The purpose of the probe is to examine whether or not companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook or Google’s parent, Alphabet, have unfairly stifled competition and innovation and, therefore, negatively impacted consumers.

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc. / LMMiami.com

• When the Winkelvoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, sued their ex Harvard chum Mark Zuckerberg under the accusation that he had stolen their idea for a social media platform, Mark’s answer was a smart one: social networks already existed.
• MySpace, Friendster and other now defunct companies were launched several years before Facebook.
• All Zucks did was improve something that’d already shown potential.

A new nationwide survey on race and the future of work commissioned by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies finds a significant majority of Americans support free college or training, with African Americans ranking highest (85 percent) of any racial group.

What’s ahead for telecom providers in 2019? Fifth generation (5G) wireless technologies will be gaining ground quickly, unleashing the full potential of augmented and virtual reality, Smart Cities, and IoT. Mic Locker, managing director in Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) industry practice, shares her thoughts on opportunities for growth in our new telecom industry overview.

Perion Network Ltd. announced that Undertone, a cross-platform Synchronized Digital Branding for the world’s most prominent brands, and Alphonso, a TV data company that is relied on by marketers, agencies and broadcasters for mission-critical metrics, are partnering to bring together Undertone’s digital creative capabilities and premium reach with Alphonso’s large-scale TV viewership data.

Growth in political ad spending is expected to slow dramatically during the 2019-2020 election cycle, according to Kantar Media, which predicts political campaigns for US federal office will spend $6 billion on paid media placements this year. But a greater share than ever will be directed toward digital channels.

When I read “Managing In-House Agency Creative Content and Legal Concerns,” the Association of National Advertisers’ new study with Boston Consulting Group and Reed Smith, one thought kept crossing my mind: Partnership is key.  by Marla Kaplowitz – president and CEO of the 4A’s

Tajín International Corporation announced they have joined forces with well-known national food brands, partnering with the Tyson® and Hillshire Farm® brands. Adding to a roster of strategic partners including Century Snacks – the makers of Snak Club® Trail Mixes and Snack Nuts and Truco Enterprises the maker of On The Border Chips and Dips.

By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc  / LMMiami.com

• Last week I laid out the following theory: younger generations and, hence, fresh talent, simply don’t want to work in advertising anymore.
• If you are young and bright these days, Silicon Valley’s gravitational pull is way stronger than Madison Avenue’s.