Agency

Hispanic consumers are the fastest growing ethnic group, with over 10 million Hispanic households in the United States today. Companies have recognized the influence of this growing market and Simmons, an Experian Company, is providing a way to understand the unique characteristics of these consumers by announcing the release of its Hispanic Cohorts, the first Hispanic household-based segmentation system available.

Casanova Pendrill announced the launch of a new Microsoft Xbox Hispanic television advertising campaign beginning November 22, 2004. The effort consists of a :30 TV spot “Glider” which emphasizes the value of the Xbox bundle in the spirit of great holiday gift-giving for the entire family.

This week Forbes.com and the advertising agency Euro RSCG Worldwide released a study that found that a lot of C-level executives think the advertising industry has little understanding of the business issues challenging businesses like theirs.

The study also revealed that less than 40 percent of the some 9,000 C-level executives surveyed think “external advertising and marketing services bring a valuable perspective to our advertising and marketing issues.”

The Radiate Group has partnered with Dieste Harmel & Partners, to create SPICE Marketing, a new agency dedicated to creating and executing event marketing promotions solutions for brands entering the growing Hispanic marketplace.

Surging interest in the Hispanic economy is reshaping Hispanic media markets from print and radio to television and the Internet. Fueled by growing advertising dollars and investment, dozens of new players this year have begun ramping up competition across the country.

The nation’s advertisers spent an estimated $3.1 billion to market their products in 2004 to the Hispanic community, up 45 percent in just the past four years. And all but three of Hispanic Business magazine’s Top 25 Hispanic Advertising Agencies increased their billings, bringing the group’s cumulative total to almost $1.9 billion.

New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) found that the percentage of households that have a high definition-capable TV (HDTV) set nearly doubled in the past year, with 7% of households in the United States having an HDTV at the end of the third quarter of 2004. Adoption of HDTV sets continues to be spurred by higher-income consumers.

World AIDS Day – the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, called for an intensified commitment by government, community-based health organizations, and the Hispanic community to HIV/AIDS prevention as new HIV/AIDS cases continue to increase in the Hispanic community, particularly among Latino youth. As with many other health issues affecting the Latino community, new increases in HIV infection rates and the disease’s disproportionate impact when compared to non-Hispanic Whites, can be traced to a lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention information, a high rate of uninsurance, and an overall lack of health-related resources.

Nearly half of the 37.2 million HIV-positive adults ages 15 to 49 worldwide are women, and the number of HIV-positive women in all regions of the world has been increasing over the past two years, according to a report released by UNAIDS and the World Health Organization.

The World AIDS Campaign 2004 seeks to address the way women’s inequality helps fuel the transmission of HIV and increases the impact of AIDS. Campaign posters have been developed to give a voice to women facing the challenges of gender inequality in the face of HIV and AIDS.

The World Health Organization declared the first World AIDS Day in 1988. The day, 1 December, quickly became established as one of the world’s most successful commemorative days and is now recognized and celebrated by a diverse range of constituents every year around the globe.

Toys “R” Us has identified five categories that shoppers are seeking out as they begin their holiday shopping. Early indications from holiday shoppers show several trends emerging for the 2004 holiday season, most notably items in the portable entertainment, interactive learning, updated classics, interactive gameplay and cool vehicles categories.

Most teens seem to understand that credit cards are a big responsibility, and a surprising number claim that responsibility is best left to adults. Although 10% of teens actually own one or more charge cards and another 20% express interest in obtaining one, those numbers pale in comparison to the 38% who believe credit cards should be limited to adult use.

The vast majority of jobs in America’s economically distressed inner cities — 77 percent — are not held by inner city residents, but rather by commuters from surrounding areas, according to the latest installment of an ongoing study released by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City [ICIC].