Agency

Dove Body Wash, a Unilever brand, is launching a new national campaign today aimed towards Latina consumers with an innovative partnership between Univision Networks and well-known Latina celebrity, Giselle Blondet.

Many professionals aspire to top-level executive positions, but unfortunately the majority may not be prepared for the obstacles that stand in the way of success.

Today Human Resources departments are undergoing more and more critical strategic initiatives and changes. According to a study conducted by benchmarking leader Best Practices, LLC, 60% of surveyed companies are currently undergoing HR transformation or plan to begin transformation by the end of this year. The study reveals the approaches taken by global companies to ensure their HR function, its priorities, service delivery channels and capabilities support the company’s overall human capital strategy and achieve measurable business results.

The Federal Trade Commission issued a report entitled “Gasoline Price Changes: The Dynamic of Supply, Demand, and Competition.” The Report analyzes the many factors that influence fluctuations in the prices that U.S. consumers pay for gasoline at their local gas station. It examines a wide range of gasoline price factors – including the cost of crude oil, increasing national and international demand, and federal, state, and local regulations – all of which influence the prices consumers pay at the pump. One of the Report’s conclusions is that over the past 20 years, changes in the price of crude oil have led to 85 percent of the changes in the retail price of gasoline in the U.S., while other important factors have included increasing demand, supply restrictions, and federal, state, and local regulations such as “clean fuel” requirements and taxes.

The American public overall does not appear to be a strong proponent for increased foreign aid to poorer countries for public health initiatives and to help with the prevention of disease including HIV/AIDS.

In what is likely the most radical development in TV audience measurement since the introduction of people meters, Nielsen and a small industry steering committee have decided to change the way Nielsen prompts people to register their viewing, abandoning the concept of channel tuning and moving to a time-based prompt that would interrupt TV viewers every 42-minutes. The move has the potential to impact ratings for TV shows and networks, as well as how Nielsen households watch the medium of television itself.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported 32 cities and 22 states/territories posted double-digit growth in visitation in 2004. Among the top 20 cities visited, New York City , Washington , Las Vegas and Chicago posted the strongest growth for 2004. Among the top 20 states/territories visited, Virginia , New York , Arizona and Utah posted the largest growth rates when comparing annual 2004 to 2003 visitation growth estimates.

The goal of every organization is to grow, but with growth comes the challenge of controlling your brand image. Companies that have worked at building a positive, lasting image may see their work lost when they expand in the U.S. and abroad. The communications experts at Drizen-Dohs Corporate Communications say that with a strong global branding strategy in place, however, sending the right message to the marketplace is within reach.

U.S. Cellular introduced SpeedTalk, a service that enables cell phones to function as “walkie-talkies” between groups of two or up to 20 people simultaneously. SpeedTalk is U.S. Cellular’s first “press-to-talk” product and operates over the company’s highly regarded digital network.

An increasingly large and young Hispanic population will have a huge impact on food consumption. According to the Food Institute’s just released Demographics of Consumer Food Spending, there are several reasons. First, Hispanic families spend more on food than the overall population – $5,717 versus the average $5,340 for all households. Second, the new study clearly shows that the under-25 group spends a greater proportion of its income on food than any other age bracket. Third, U.S. Hispanic shoppers make an average of 26 grocery trips per month – three times greater than the typical shopper; their $686 billion purchasing power in 2004 is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2010.

Walt Disney is getting into the cellphone business, teaming with Sprint on a Disney-branded wireless service.

What do you think of “unbundling”?

I’m obviously just a little grunt among the many industry pundits who think that local targeting is probably the coolest thing about the future of our industry. But, as much as I write about it, the many technological barriers that exist may yet conspire to make it the next big thing for years to come.

In what is shaping up to be an especially vicious campaign to dislodge Nielsen’s TV ratings monopoly, upstart erinMedia Wednesday published an analysis of Nielsen’s own data, which suggests its research methods are “systematically flawed.” The analysis follows an antitrust suit erinMedia filed against Nielsen on June 16, which alleges that Nielsen’s business practices have been anticompetitive and have stymied the development of better methods of TV audience measurement. Nielsen called the analysis a publicity stunt and said the suit is “meritless,” but erinMedia’s actions threaten to drag out some of Nielsen’s dirtiest laundry.

The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) announced that Latinos are no longer limited to the 10 largest metropolitan areas in the country including Los Angeles and Miami. They are demonstrating new patterns of dispersal, moving from large cities into suburbs and new areas such as the mid-South.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and Runyon Saltzman & Einhorn, Inc. (RS&E) recently kicked off their “Reach for the Stars” campaign to increase awareness of energy efficiency products and cost-saving programs among rural utility customers throughout the state.

Until July 25th 2005 the VIII edition of the Award and International Festival El Ojo de Iberoamérica 2005 is open for entries.