Agency

You know you have a great product, the price is right, and you’ve spent a bundle on a barrage of slick, witty advertisements. Yet sales are slack, so your ship sinks while your competitors sail away on surging revenues. If this sad tale sounds familiar, you may have neglected the most critical aspect of your marketing plan – targeting.

New research indicates that spending on social media and conversational marketing will outpace that of traditional marketing by 2012, according to a study conducted by TWI Surveys, Inc. on behalf of the Society for New Communications Research and thought leader, Joseph Jaffe. This and many other significant findings are featured in Joseph Jaffe’s new book, Join the Conversation, which became available today, published by John Wiley & Sons.

Emilio Nicolas, Sr. will receive Mexico’s highest honor awarded a Mexican citizen living abroad.

Latin Business Magazine, the bi-monthly trade publication serving the Latino business community in the U.S.A, presented its Latin Spirit Award to Daisy Expósito-Ulla, Chairman/Partner of dexpósito & Partners.

Houston-based López Negrete Communications was selected as Hispanic AOR (includes national and local Hispanic media planning and buying) for NBC Universal Pictures Group after a review process.
López Negrete is handling both the Theatrical Release business as well as the Home Entertainment (DVD) portion of the business.

Coors Brewing Company has unveiled the 2007 Lideres campaign which recognizes and honors the work of Hispanic leaders. The Lideres campaign, launched in 2006, celebrates and supports leadership within the Hispanic community through print advertising that showcases national and local Hispanic leaders.

A new International Herald Tribune/France 24/Harris Interactive survey finds that, overall, in the United States and the five largest European countries, people are mostly satisfied with their jobs. At least two-thirds of each country’s workers say they are satisfied, with Italy having the lowest satisfaction numbers (67%) and Spain having the highest (83%).

The sense of family in the Latino community is so strong academics have coined a term for it: familismo. But for Latinos, family includes the village, the community at large. Dr. Garth Graham, a physician who heads the Office of Minority Health (OMH) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, thinks that the idea of familismo or la familia primero (family first) is a key factor, together with the community, for helping Latinos in their fight against HIV/AIDS.

On October 15th more than one thousand organizations in over 300 cities across the nation, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, came together to promote HIV testing and prevention initiatives in recognition of National Latino AIDS Awareness Day (NLAAD), a nationwide community mobilization campaign seeking to raise the visibility of HIV/AIDS within the Latino communities.

This week I came across a doctoral study examining the nature of the relationship between advertising spend and economic growth that really caught my interest (in case you are wondering, yes, I think it’s sad that I just typed that sentence…). From the conclusion: “Analysis of all of the objective data relating to the developed countries clearly demonstrates that the media and non-traditional media advertising investments carried out by companies stimulate and promote consumption, innovation, competition and the dynamism of specific economic sec¬tors associated with advertising: media service providers, non-traditional media, etc.”

Hyundai Motor America has partnered with one of the nation’s leading experts and advocates for financial empowerment and small business development as well as best-selling author, Louis Barajas. Celebrating his second published book, Small Business, Big Life in May 2007, Hyundai is hosting the book signing tour and financial and entrepreneurial empowerment workshops at the annual conventions of the leading Hispanic advocacy, professional and business organizations as well as higher education associations representing Hispanic-serving institutions in the country.

Suzuki Auto has teamed with the New York International Latino Film Festival (NYILFF) and Cinedulce.com to announce the official call for entries for its first nationwide animation contest, Animate! — La vida Suzuki, which will run from October 15, 2007 through February 29, 2008 and conclude with the winning animation being featured at the 2008 NYILFF in July.