Business

In an era of rapid technological change, digital identification provides a significant opportunity for value creation for individuals and institutions.

According to Boston University’s 2018 Menino Survey of Mayors, the affordable housing crisis remains top of mind for America’s municipal leaders, with housing costs being the only issue both Democratic and Republican municipal leaders agree serve as a significant barrier to the social mobility of their city’s residents. Likewise, a majority of mayors across the country view affordable housing as an integral part of their city’s infrastructure, and nearly all believe decisions regarding housing should be made at the municipal level, not state or federal.

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is weathering the digital storm better than several other legacy ad mediums.

Just because everyone’s thinking about 5G doesn’t mean everyone understands what it is or what it might imply for their industries and brands. You might have a better idea if you’d attended CES where it was a hot topic. For those of you not lucky enough to be one of the 180,000 attendees, here’s a quick primer, along with a look at its marketing potential.

Chapter Three:  African Americans: When once asked to define jazz, Louis Armstrong replied: “Man, if you don’t know, don’t mess with it.” The same could be said about race. For earlier generations, race, like religion or politics, was not seen as fair game for polite dinner conversation. At least not among whites. Things have always been different for African Americans, who at least in the company of each other, have always tended to talk freely about race and racism. Blacks have had their group identity forged in the fires of slavery and Jim Crow, a couple of words whites are not sure it’s even okay to mention. Race has been an integral part of the daily lives of most African Americans and its derivative, racism, is experienced in myriad forms: unemployment, incarceration, crime, getting turned down for loans, and missed taxicabs. For blacks, race has always been a subject that demands to be addressed.  By David Morse / New America Dimensions

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

“No privacy has been infringed in the marketing of this product.”

• Do you think consumers would care if a brand pitched its wares under this disclaimer?

As people conduct ever more of their lives as consumers and social animals online, they leave telling and durable traces of their behaviors, values, and inclinations behind them in digital repositories. Marketers have not been slow to recognize the opportunities presented by this information or to capitalize on them.

iProspect released their fourth annual whitepaper, 2019 Future Focus: Searching for Trust, built to help marketers navigate and master the notions of truth and authenticity in the hyper-sensitive global media landscape today. The report predicts that those businesses grounded in credibility, relevance and reliability across all their marketing channels will see trust at the very foundation for their success in the digital economy.  

Last week, more than 188,000 tech enthusiasts descended upon Las Vegas for CES to get a glimpse of the latest and greatest gadgets from around the world. As far as dazzle, the show didn’t disappoint. Hundreds of products were on display, including eye-popping 8K TVs, super-fast computers, dancing robots, self-driving cars and higher-tech drones.

Connected intelligence is leading the way in transforming media, and we asked some of our global experts across Kantar to create 12 lively predictions for 2019. They are intended to be useful and practical, not grand airy-fairy concepts. We want to help marketers and agencies tackle their media and effectiveness challenges head on.

Fortune 500 board representation of women and minorities saw an all-time high at 34 percent (1,929 board seats), compared to 30.8 percent in 2016 (1,677 board seats). Total minority representation increased to 16.1 percent (912 board seats) from 12.8 percent in 2010, the first year Fortune 500 data was captured. Report findings point to the increase being driven by the Fortune 100 companies, which have 25 percent women and 38.6 percent women and minorities.

Deloitte Global forecasts smart speakers will be worth US$7 billion in 2019, becoming the fastest-growing connected device category. This is according to Deloitte’s 18th edition of Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions.

Chapter Two:  Hispanic Americans – There have been Hispanics living in the present-day United States since the Spanish started roaming around Florida looking for the Fountain of Youth. But it was the 1980 Census that led some white Americans to wonder whether the country was “browning.” The Census made headlines when it proclaimed that there were 14.6 million Hispanics living in the U.S., an increase of over 50 percent from 1970. By 1990, the number, largely driven by immigration, had increased to 22.4 million. Headlines were made again, big time, when the 2000 Census showed that there were 35.3 million, meaning that Hispanics had surpassed African Americans as the largest minority in the country. In 2018, that number was more than 60 million, over 18 percent of the U.S. population. The number of Hispanics in the U.S. is expected to grow to 106 million by 2050, at which time Hispanics will make up nearly 30 percent of the population.  By David Morse / New America Dimensions

Consumer confidence among Hispanics in the U.S. improved in the fourth quarter of 2018 as optimism continued to grow about their financial situation as well as the economic outlook for the U.S., according to a new national consumer sentiment index conducted by the Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative (FAU BEPI) in FAU’s College of Business.

It’s CES week, meaning that all that’s happening will stay in Vegas. Yes, you are attending a ton of meetings and presentations, and perhaps even find time to walk the floor and get dazzled with all the latest shiny objects.

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

• If you are a government official vulnerable to blackmail because, say, a foreign power has a “kompromat” in its possession (eg; a salacious video of your naked self canoodling with a sex worker in a hotel room), it is not a privacy issue, it is a matter of integrity.
• “Never do or say anything you wouldn’t do or say in front of your kids.”
• Or in front of your constituents.
• Or your significant other.

Twenty-seven million Americans are starting or running new businesses, based on data reported in the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor United States Report: National Entrepreneurial Assessment for the United States of America released by Babson College.    

No longer a futurist’s daydream, artificial intelligence (AI) is attracting significant investment and growing quickly. According to a December 2018 estimate from tech research firm Tractica, the direct and indirect application of AI software generated $5.4 billion in worldwide revenues in 2017, and is forecast to produce a whopping $105.8 billion by 2025.

The future of real estate will be significantly influenced by women, millennials and Hispanics, according to realtor.com’s analysis of first names on 2018 home sales deeds.

TurboTax, from Intuit Inc, announced that its TurboTax Blog will now be available in both Spanish and English, making it one of the most comprehensive free tax information resources available to U.S. Spanish-speaking audiences.