Agency

I have been sending my grandmother money every month since I landed my first steady, post college job. On a recent visit, instead of sending the monthly stipend via money order, I brought the cash. My grandmother took the money, went into her room, opened a drawer and piled it on top of what looked like a gangster‚s stash: neatly piled twenties, eight rows across. I almost fell over. Here was this helpless octogenarian with thousands of dollars sitting in her bedroom.

While digital video continues to grab headlines with the growing prominence of streaming and downloading video files among online adults, today’s entertainment enthusiasts remain largely steadfast in their love of traditional viewing options, according to recent findings released by Ipsos Insight from MOTION.

The Hispanic imprint on American culture and business is undeniable. As the largest and fastest-growing minority community in the United States, Hispanics represent 14 percent of the population and one out of every eight employees in the labor force. The community’s language, food, music, art, workforce and businesses contribute significantly to the multicultural fabric of our nation and the growth and health of our economy.

The Bureau of Labor & Statistics (BLS) has long produced statistics about the labor market, such as employment, hours of work, and earnings. To provide a more complete picture of the context of employment, BLS also conducts the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). The ATUS collects data on what activities people do during the day and how much time they spend doing them.

GfK Consumer, a division of GfK Custom Research North America, announced the launch of its Unacculturated Hispanic In-Person Research Program, the first of its kind to gather consumer intelligence from the marketplace, representing 40% of the more than 42 million Hispanics in the U.S.

Miller Brewing Company announced that Houston-based Lopez Negrete won its Hispanic agency of record designation for the Miller Lite brand following a competitive pitch.

Community events score with youth influencers.

A few years back, a market researcher wanted to form a focus group consisting of the most influential kids available. The researcher would ask children, “Who’s the coolest kid you know?” Kids who answered “me” were invited to be in the sample.

Sales over the Internet now make up four percent of all sales or about $1.7 billion in the more than $42 billion dollar beauty industry. Even though it’s only about four percent of sales- it’s one of the fastest growing channels for shopping, according to The NPD Group.

I’ve been LinkedIn-crazy lately. As a CEO of a busy start-up, with all the distracting little details that pull me this way and that, it is good to remind myself that the greatest asset I bring to my company is my personal network of contacts. Managing and maintaining my contacts and network, I find, is the single most important thing I can do with my time. And most of that networking is done through email: one-to-one email marketing at its (hopefully) best.

There’s been a lot of talk about word-of-mouth online. I wrote an article a while ago and many people emailed me afterwards. It spawned quite a bit of conversations among colleagues, clients and friends. The overall feeling is that word of mouth online or offline is one of the most powerful vehicles out there. Do you agree?

The U.S. GOVERNMENT will spend more than $1 billion this year on nutrition education to promote fresh fruits and vegetables as an alternative to unhealthy foods for children to eat and snack on, but most of those promotional funds will be wasted, according to an analysis of 57 such programs conducted by the Associated Press. Could it be because the food marketing industry will spend more than ten times that amount promoting some less-than-healthy culinary choices? Well, we’re about to find out, as some of the nation’s biggest food marketers prepare to unveil a set of new public initiatives designed to fix that paradox and get some federal regulators and public advocacy groups off their backs.