Agency

Conill has won the American Association of Advertising Agencies’ 2007 O’Toole Multicultural Award. The honor was presented to Conill EVP, Managing Director Cynthia McFarlane during the 89th annual AAAA management conference, held in Naples, Florida on Friday, April 20.

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies yesterday awarded five talented, young Hispanic advertising professionals the title of Hispanic Media Buying and Planning Rising Star. The organization’s new recognition program launched this week at AHAA’s 22nd semi-annual conference in Chicago, was created in appreciation of the emerging skill and creativity in the Hispanic media buying and planning discipline and to promote the fresh approach young professionals are contributing to the profession.

The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) announced the transition of leadership to new Chairwoman Jackie Bird, president/CEO of winglatino. Jose López-Varela, chief executive officer of ADN Communications assumed the role of chair-elect and Laura Marella, senior vice president/chief growth officer for Casanova Pendrill was elected to the position of vice chair. The AHAA Board of Directors created and approved the new Vice Chair board seat last year to ensure continuity in the association leadership and vision.

Carl Kravetz, chairman/chief strategic officer of cruz/kravetz:IDEAS steps down from his role as AHAA chairman but remains a critical leader on the board of directors responsible for the organization’s research initiatives. AHAA’s new research plans to explore the complexity of Latino identity and benchmark the value that Hispanic advertising agencies provide to advertisers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Gone are the days of simple online advertising – banner ads and Web site sponsorships based on traditional metrics and marketing. Today, U.S. Hispanic advertising professionals at the AHAA 22nd semi-annual conference confirmed social networking, affiliate marketing, and search engine optimization are among the hot new media trends used to connect with Latinos. But are corporate marketers willing to invest more to expand into digital marketing or are dollars being shifted from traditional media spending?

As brands compete for the coveted Latino consumer in the United States, some are just beginning to explore the emerging digital space as a new medium to deliver their messaging. But are U.S. Hispanics really online?

Researchers at the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies 22nd semi-annual conference confirmed that 13.9 million Hispanic adults are indeed online and of those 8.5 million have broadband. But, even more impressive and important to marketers is how Hispanics are interacting online, the frequency and time spent online, and the types of activities Latinos are engaging in while connected.

Over the last few days there’s been a lot of buzz generated (again) by Google deciding to make a move and purchase DoubleClick. Every journalist and pundit has offered his or her take on this action, creating even more hoopla over a company that is already one of the biggest and most profitable companies in the U.S. What I find interesting, however, is that people are focusing their attention on the obvious rather than the repercussions of these various moves on our immediate industry: media planning and buying.

Allianz Life has announced that New York-based marketing services firm Grupo PyR, LLC, has been named as Hispanic Agency of Record effective immediately. The firm will handle marketing strategy, media and public relations and community outreach for the U.S. Hispanic Market.

Is your toddler multitasking?

Multitasking begins as early as age 2, according to the NPD Group’s “Kids’ Leisure Time II” report.

Kids between the ages of 2 and 12 years old spend more than a quarter of their leisure time doing two or more activities at the same time. Favorite pastimes among the sample group included reading, using the computer, spending time with friends, listening to music and watching TV.

By now, I am sure that you are all tired of reading news, analysis and commentaries on Google’s announced intention to buy DoubleClick. Don’t worry. This is not going to be yet another “Insider baseball” analysis of the likely winners and losers in the deal. It is not going to be yet another “Kremlinologist-like” analysis of what the deal will mean to the market dynamics among Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, independent and vertical publishers, “long tail” publishers, ad agencies, brand advertisers and direct marketers. Plenty of that commentary has already been written. Plenty more will be written.

According to the latest Experian-Gallup Personal Credit Index survey, 65 percent of consumers say they save some money regularly, while 31 percent report that it’s hard enough just to make ends meet. The survey also revealed interesting statistics about consumer financial concerns, credit card usage, quality of life and spending habits. In addition, the Personal Credit IndexSM is down 15 points to 90, which is the lowest level since November 2006.

Chicago advertising agency Lápiz has been selected by H&R Block as the agency of record for the U.S. Latino market, responsible for executing targeted communication across television, radio, OOH, web and other related efforts.

According to the latest study by Arbitron and Edison Media Research, The Infinite Dial 2007: Radio’s Digital Platforms, consumers are continuing to explore radio in all its digital platforms—Online Radio, Satellite Radio, HD Radio, and audio podcasting—while maintaining a broad use of AM/FM radio.

Media and entertainment executives see the growing ability and eagerness of individuals to create their own content as one of the biggest threats to their business, according to results of a survey released by Accenture.

In its annual survey of senior executives in the media and entertainment industry, Accenture examined the growth strategies of companies across the landscape of advertising, film, music, publishing, radio, the Internet, videogames and television.

ADnotas, Inc. and ADnotas.com announced that the 2007 Puerto Rico C-Level study that tracked the way executives on the island use technology and how they consume business news has just been finalized.

The findings of the study will be released at a special event to be held on Tuesday, May 1, 2007, at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Isla Verde from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., hosted by PR Newswire, the global leader in news and information distribution services for professional communicators.