Agency

Consumers have been “unwitting recipients” to what is a growing number of publicly announced food-related issues of safety and health. Headlines of food recalls, from spinach to chicken to peanut butter to green onions to pet food, have unfortunately become more routine and anticipated. In fact, eight in ten adults (79%) are aware of the occurrence of food recalls in the United States.

Moreover, consumers are concerned about the incidence of recalls among manufacturers and suppliers of food and pet food products. More than four in five (86%) mentioned at least some concern with three in ten (29%) indicating that these recalls are a serious concern for them.

Either way, success or failure for new products is tied directly to Insight. An effective new product effort always begins and ends with the consumer.

Marketers and advertisers who are looking for product placement to become a substitute for traditional advertising need to be selective in how they use placements since not all product placements are equal, according to a just-released analysis of BIGresearch’s Simultaneous Media Survey. Over 15,000 consumers participated in the latest bi-annual survey.

I decided to write this as a result of a conversation I had with a client of mine who, like many others I’ve talked to, was growing desperate and impatient with a colleague of hers in Latin America. As most multinational corporations do, her company has offices in just about every Latin American country and dealings between U.S. workers and local, in-country workers is something that happens frequently. These dealings are usually far from smooth. Americans complain that Latin Americans just go around in circles when asked a direct question- “I just get spin from them, no answers” my client said. Conversely, Latin Americans complain that Americans are too succinct, too impersonal, and too impatient.

Chase has introduced Rapid Cash, an easy new way to send money to Mexico for free.

Kellogg Company announced that it is undertaking two major initiatives that further strengthen its commitment to meeting consumers’ health and nutrition needs by adjusting what and how the company markets to children and through new front-of-pack nutrition labeling.

Radio personality Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo will hand deliver over one million letters signed by U.S. citizens and/or legal residents in support of the passage of a fair and just immigration reform bill this year to bi-partisan members of Congress. Piolin’s “Por la Reforma Migratoria con Piolin” campaign marks the first time that a letter writing campaign has generated such a large number of letters in support of immigration reform.

Miami-based Del Cueto Media Group (DMG) has been assigned all strategic media planning and buying responsibilities for all of New York-based Reynardus & Moya Advertising accounts: Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Schering-Plough, Wyeth, ITT Technical Schools, The Hispanic Federation and Prestaciones Universales.

DMG will work closely with Zenith Media on the strategic media planning efforts for Schering-Plough’s Hispanic targeted accounts assigned to Reynardus & Moya.

Sprint Nextel will debut its first TV commercial with celebrated driver Juan Pablo Montoya on June 18. As the premier sponsor of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series, Sprint Nextel brings the sport of NASCAR closer to Hispanic consumers and uses the sport’s intensity to demonstrate the speed of Nextel’s products.

The average age at which children begin using consumer electronic (CE) devices has declined from 8.1 years in 2005 to 6.7 years in 2007, according to The NPD Group’s recently released report, Kids and Consumer Electronics Trends III. The report, which provides insight into the penetration of consumer electronics in kids’ lives today and how this has changed since the earlier 2005 and 2006 studies, measures device usage dynamics and trends.

DirecTV has assigned all US Hispanic media responsibilities to Miami-based Del Cueto Media Group (DMG).

The assignment was being handled by MPG in New York. All planning, negotiations and buying for 3Q 2007 going forward will be handled by DMG.

Wal-Mart Stores has ended perhaps the most storied agency-review process ever by giving its $60 million-plus account for multicultural media planning and buying to Starcom MediaVest Group’s 42 Degrees, New York, consolidating duties that had been with the retailer’s multicultural creative shops, according to people familiar with the matter.
By Jack Neff / Advertising Age.

starMedia, a wholly owned subsidiary of Orange, has unveiled its new online image, featuring a newly redesigned logo and Home page. starMedia has been steadily making enhancements to the portal and developing the relevance of its look and content, by adding new areas and features as well as allowing users more control, through “Web 2.0” elements that facilitate collaboration and sharing between users.