Agency

In the fall of 1621, the religious separatist Pilgrims held a three-day feast to celebrate a bountiful harvest, an event many regard as the nation’s first Thanksgiving. It eventually became a national holiday in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving. Later, President Franklin Roosevelt clarified that Thanksgiving should always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month to encourage earlier holiday shopping, never on the occasional fifth Thursday.

The bargain-hunters will be out early this year.

The Friday after Thanksgiving has always meant a stack of newspaper inserts to promote sales and get shoppers into stores. Now shoppers are also researching Black Friday sites, which publish advanced copies of retail circulars.

When US consumers say they are interested in a company, more than one-half of them are open to getting an interactive follow-up such as a personalized or generic e-mail, or text message, according to Vertis’ “2007 Customer Focus Tech Savvy” study.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) announced the results of its third-annual Mobile Attitude and Usage Study. The study provides insights into overall consumer mobile usage by demographic group, awareness and usage of mobile phone features and services, and interest in and concerns about specific applications.

Xoom.com announced the expansion of their Bank Deposit service to Mexico. Consumers with friends and family in Mexico can send money directly to a beneficiary’s bank account at most major banks, including Banamex, Banorte, BBVA Bancomer, HSBC/Bital, Santander Serfin and Scotiabank Inverlat.

Don Coleman, Chairman and CEO of GlobalHue, announced that Linda De Jesús-Cutler will join its team as the President of GlobalHue Latino.

CELEXPRESS announced its official launch as the first company to provide commercial transactions via mobile and virtual platforms. The company will allow stateside consumers to perform commercial transactions, transfer money abroad, and download applications and digital content at any time from any place through any virtual network or mobile handset.

As social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook make daily national news, it’s clear that this phenomenon is not limited to general market.

Todobebé, which made history in 1999 when it launched the first global parenting website for Spanish speakers worldwide, just launched Mi Todobebé marking and industry first in social networking geared to reaching Hispanic moms and moms-to-be.

Web 2.0 is emphatically here to stay. Social media is a powerful new force. And content owners must come to terms with the implications. Where will revenue growth come from and should organizations embrace online video as an opportunity—or fear it as a threat?

In a survey among nearly 400 Marketing and General Management leaders on new and emerging media, we learned that advertisers plan to move more resources to these areas soon and they need more help from their Agency partners to get there. This summary will share the learning from these respondents.

GlobalHue announced that Laura Marella will join the company as a Vice Chairman. She will oversee and direct the Hispanic marketing services for all of GlobalHue Latino’s clients. In this capacity, she will also lead intra-agency initiatives and cross-discipline integration.

GlobalHue announced the creation of four new agencies to further brand its expertise: GlobalHue Latino, GlobalHue African-American, GlobalHue Asian Pacific Islander and GlobalHue Next.