Agency

The increasing softness in American advertising spending of the past few months has led the usually bullish Bob Coen, Universal McCann’s senior vice president and director of forecasting, to issue a slightly downgraded forecast for total U.S. ad spending this year, revising his previous expectation from December 2004 of 6.4 percent growth–to $280.6 billion–to a projected increase of 5.7 percent, to $278.7 billion.

Bridge Ratings & Research recently concluded the first phase of its study on the media habits of 15-24 year olds and has confirmed initial perceptions that young people are spending less time listening to the radio as a result of using the Internet.

Telecom providers are marketing more aggressively to ethnic groups, reports In-Stat. Examples of this include Qwest’s low-cost long distance calling plans for Mexico, and Sprint’s launch of Movida Communications, both of which target the more than 42 million Hispanics in the US. Many of the current ethnic marketing initiatives tend to focus on the Hispanic market, as this is the largest ethnic population, with over 43 million individuals in 2005.

Leo Burnett Worldwide unveiled the results of a proprietary global study of men’s attitudes and values at the Cannes International Advertising Festival in its seminar, “Metros Versus Retros: Are Marketers Missing Real Men?”

It’s hard to say it any better: “Publicity is the voice of visibility.” That’s from the book, High Visibility. And its lesson to authors is clear—nothing can spotlight your book better, or faster than good publicity.

WingLatino New York announced today that it will handle all U.S. Hispanic marketing efforts for U.S. Bank. The development and execution of a comprehensive marketing communications campaign is scheduled to begin in 2005 as part of an effort by U.S. Bank to further reach the Hispanic consumer segment and support branch sales needs. Components of the campaign will include branding through in-language mass media, direct mail, bilingual collateral material, and grassroots efforts.

Southwest Airlines announced the first travel award program in partnership with The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). Through this new initiative, Dandole Alas a Tu Exito/Giving Flight to Your Success, Southwest Airlines will provide tickets for distribution throughout our 60 cities to students with socio-economic need and who travel away from home to pursue a higher education.

This month Bally Total Fitness, will introduce low-calorie Licuados in its California gyms. Bally’s is betting this popular and long-standing Latin tradition of blending milk, fruit and ice, will shake up the way Californians pack a fitness punch before and after exercise.

Advertising spending is expected to grow a moderate 3.4 percent to $145.3 billion1, according to TNS Media Intelligence (TNS MI), the leading provider of strategic advertising and marketing information. The first half of 2005 is forecasted to grow at a rate of 4.1 percent, and a 2.7 percent growth rate is expected for the second half of the year.

Reynaldo’s Mexican Food Company Inc. announced that Reynaldo’s will enter “The Cage” as the sponsor of Mixed Martial Arts fighter Armando Lopez of East Los Angeles.

The demand for advertising and marketing talent is rising for the second straight year, a new survey shows. Sixty-eight percent of industry executives polled said their firms plan to add personnel in the next 12 months, up 11 percentage points from the 2004 survey and 24 percentage points from the 2003 forecast.

Describing traditional media as being “under siege,” a top Wall Street firm issued a report Wednesday suggesting that major ad agencies have finally reached the point of “neutrality” – meaning they are no longer depending on traditional media like television for their profits and cash flow. The big change, wrote Merrill Lynch analyst Lauren Rich Fine, has been the shift from media commissions to fee-based compensation by major marketers, as well as the rapid acceleration of new media and marketing services.