Agency

The ANA Media Advisory Board has been meeting with CMOs, agency partners, media sellers, and independent consultants. Our focus has been broadly on media transformation and reform. More specifically, we have gathered to discuss the television upfront.

Dealing with the coronavirus crisis and its aftermath could be the imperative of our times. Indeed, we have argued that it augurs the “imminent restructuring of the global economic order.”

It’s Asian American Pacific Heritage Month, and despite the current crisis, Asian Americans have much to celebrate. For years, this fast-growing, highly diverse multicultural group has been largely ignored by marketers, for reasons varying from “too many diverse subcultures” to “too many different languages” to “the general market advertising will reach them.” We’re seeing that now, more than ever before, Asian Americans are a galvanized group (the fastest-growing multicultural group in the U.S. with a buying power of $1.2 trillion), presenting more opportunities for brands to build trust and an emotional connection with them.

The latest insights from Comscore show that while certain retail categories saw significant decreases in visitation and consumer spending, overall spending and visitation to online retail increased across desktop and mobile in March 2020 compared to March 2019.

Music videos began airing first on cable TV in 1981, eventually becoming a driving force in popular culture and delivering some of the larger cable audiences. With the help of music videos’ popularity, multichannel pay-TV services driven by cable would go on to demonstrate tremendous power for marketers trying to reach meaningful audiences and build brands through the first decade of the 21st century. They became a natural complement to broadcast TV and would eventually become a foundational component of media plans. Music videos were important to the growth of cable and pay-TV.

In response to alarming evidence of the continued disparate, negative impact of COVID-19, PepsiCo, Inc. and its philanthropic arm, The PepsiCo Foundation, launched an initiative to provide increased medical and economic aid to communities of color across the country where the company has long worked. The $7 million initiative is a comprehensive project to support immediate relief and long-term recovery.

Women In Film LA, ReFrame and IMDbPro announced the CURBSIDE SHORTS Two-Minute Film Challenge, inviting female and non-binary filmmakers from North America to create and submit for free a short film inspired by life while sheltering in place. What have you discovered about yourself, home, or neighborhood? How do you envision the future coming out of this pandemic? Have you imagined a new character or superhero? Or perhaps been inspired by a real life hero working on the front lines? The contest launches Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at NOON PDT at https://audpop.com/womeninfilm/curbsideshortsfilmchallenge and all submissions must be received by Tuesday, May 26, 2020 at NOON PDT.

COVID-19 has completely disrupted our sense of normalcy. Collectively, we’ve hung our hopes on our ability to create a “new normal” post-COVID with some semblance of life before the outbreak. But, life during this pandemic is not normal, nor will it be in the months ahead. From industries to schools and everything in between, routines have been fractured, lives altered, and jobs lost. As a market researcher working in an industry that thrives on consumer interaction, I can speak best to what I’ve seen while navigating this space and how I think the market research industry will respond to the looming uncertainties ahead.

Data science firm Civis Analytics today released new findings from its COVID-19 Impact Research, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This ongoing survey research studies the social, economic, and educational impacts of COVID-19 in America. Since April 2, 2020, the team has run ongoing national surveys, with deep dives into Washington, Florida, Texas, and New York. The latest round of research highlights the disparity of the impact on communities of color and lower-income households.

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to alter consumer behaviors permanently and cause lasting structural changes to the consumer goods and retail industries, according to findings of an Accenture survey of more than 3,000 consumers in 15 countries across five continents.

What’s next? That is the question everyone is asking. The future is not what we thought it would be only a few short months ago.

What trends and best practices should shared services and functional leaders be considering as they think about the evolution of their operating model? What role might global business services constructs play in enabling digital transformation across the enterprise?

Marketers are pretty intimate with content marketing metrics, data, and analytics these days—and if you’re not, you’d best get learning.  By Lauren McMenemy

With the recent demand fluctuations caused by the Great Lockdown many brands have focused on driving short-term volume but to grow market share in the longer-term, brands must gain more than their fair share of category entrants. The latter growth mechanism is facilitated by making sure new category entrants are predisposed to choose your brand, and do not just do so because it is easily available.  by Nigel Hollis

Spring is here in DC.  Still some cool days, but progressively it is looking and feeling like summer.  People are anxious—they are increasingly going out, but still are fearful of the external COVID-19 world.  And America is, well, America—completely disorganized and decentralized politically.

How does the Puerto Rican consumer feel about buying right now? What can brands do to encourage consumption? We asked 200 Puerto Ricans and here’s what they said…

SBS Entertainment will celebrate Father’s Day throughout the month of June with a special edition of its ‘Mi Casa Es Tu Casa Live Music Series.’ Alejandro Fernandez, Banda MS, Gerardo Ortiz and Christian Nodal will headline the exclusive live audio stream performance series across some of SBS’s leading radio stations and the LaMusica app.

Unprecedented times like these bring massive challenges. Yet even during a crisis like the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, businesses need to consider strategic plans and continue to invest in their brands. While sales may be down, it’s important to maintain—or increase—your share of the market. Continuing to invest in advertising will help set your company up for success when life eventually settles into a new normal.

In 2017, we worked with Nielsen to develop the Secrets of Spanish Language TV ROI report, which was critical in highlighting the key variables that optimize ROI with Spanish-language media campaigns.  By Roberto Ruiz, EVP – Research, Insights and Analytics at Univision

There are several ways to employ Cultural Insights to help brands gain the right amount of Cultural Intelligence to solve for larger questions. When the right cultural insights methods are utilized, marketers are able to create solutions for today, and also plan for how their category will likely be shaped in the near future.  By Whitney Dunlap-Fowler