Agency

Despite ongoing market uncertainty, retail chief financial officers are feeling more confident about the state of the consumer. According to a new BDO USA, LLP survey, retail CFOs forecast a 5.1 percent increase in total sales and a 4.8 percent increase in comparable store sales this year, marking a significant increase from the number expressing similar sentiments last year. A majority of CFOs (63 percent) indicate that they include online sales in their comparable sales projections, suggesting that some of this expected growth and optimism may be linked to the exploding popularity of e-commerce.

As brands look for new and innovative ways to meaningfully connect with consumers, entertainment, word-of-mouth marketing, and social media have never been more important. With its registration page now open, AHAA: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing has confirmed that Roberto Rodriguez, award-winning director and maverick in the entertainment business; Jonah Berger, author of best-selling Contagious: Why Things Catch On; and Christian Martinez, head of sales of U.S. Hispanic at Facebook, are joining a powerful roster of marketing elite at AHAA’s 2014 “Thinking Under the Influence” Conference, taking place at the Eden Roc Renaissance Hotel in Miami from April 28-30.

In 1994, Luis Miguel Messianu had the vision to create a multicultural advertising agency that would modernize Hispanic marketing, infusing deep and insightful knowledge of the ever evolving target audience to develop a culture-centric creative model. On February 8, twenty years after first opening its doors, what is now Alma celebrated two decades of accomplishments and evolution that have taken it from a start-up operation to a position as one of the leading multicultural marketing agencies in the United States.

Univision Communications Inc. announced an agreement with Centerstage Brands International, LLC to license an array of consumers products, services and promotions branded with the name and image of Pedro Infante, the late Latin American idol from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.

Nielsen Local Buyer Reach is a solution that connects what viewers watch with what they buy, by linking proprietary Nielsen local television viewing data with actual consumer transactions and auto registrations.

Sabor Latino, a food industry trade show, will showcase products and services from this growing food and beverage sector on May 13 and 14, 2014, at the Pasadena Convention Center in the Los Angeles market.  The trade show and symposium will provide a marketplace for grocers, restaurateurs, schools, hotels, hospitals, foodservice, and food and beverage professionals to engage with suppliers and manufacturers of Latino food products and services.  From what’s trending to the authentic and healthy, the show will feature an exhibit floor, workshops, cooking demonstrations, and a symposium.

One of the contentions my co-author and fellow Online Media Spinner Joseph Jaffe and I are making is that “The Big One” is coming — or, actually, has arrived.

Huddled Masses Media, powered by MediaMath, The Cipher Group and The NorthStar Group announced a private multicultural advertising exchange.

The last year has been filled with talk about the virtues and the issues with the concept of total market advertising. In a recent article I posited that there are essentially three different models for multicultural marketing. Although the terms are being used interchangeably, the result is a great deal of confusion in the multicultural marketing world. This evolving lexicon has made its way into the agency side of the business. More and more Hispanic, African-American and Asian advertising agencies are adopting monikers like “cross-cultural agency” to describe themselves and have gone out of their way to label new ethnic assignments as “total market” AOR assignments.  by Jose Villa / Sensis

The New York Times (article), Fox News, MSNBC and others have made an inter-ethnic family the cause de jour (MSN’s take). Some marketers are continuing to push the envelope on ethnic norm shifts in the U.S. and what that means to their brand.  by Stephen Palacios, Executive Vice President, Added Value US

If you’re like most Americans, listening to the radio is part of your regular weekly schedule. In fact, 92 percent of the people in the U.S. over the age of 12 (242 million people) listen to the radio each week. But what you may not be conscious of is where and when you’re most likely to tune in to hear your favorite music, news, talk or sports programming…because it depends on your employment status.

TV “impressions” are 100% of the screen for 30 seconds.

I promised you 10 words for why TV dollars won’t go online, and there they are.

Disruptive technologies provide an opportunity in 2014 to reshape organizations, change business models and transform industries according to Deloitte’s 5th Annual Tech Trends Report.

According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the Remodeling Market Index (RMI) held steady in the fourth quarter of 2013 and is at its highest reading since the first quarter of 2004.

While you may have crafted the perfect communication platform and a brilliant portfolio of content marketing assets, telling your brand story can’t be done all at once. Effective brand storytelling means using various types of content to craft multi-stage engagement with your consumers. Here are some successful strategies for leveraging episodic content marketing to drive business results.

For better or worse, Millennials are often viewed as a singular group. They are often characterized as a “me-first” generation that would rather spend time “instagraming” their meals than having a meaningful conversation with another human being. Most brands, of course, know this notion is false. Millennials are very much a deep, complicated collection of people whose interests and purchasing patterns are yet to be completely cracked by marketers.

Terra announced that Latin music Superstar Juanes will give the first on-stage performance of his new album “Loco de Amor” (Crazy from Love) in a world-wide digitally streamed concert taking place the day after the album’s release.

This report, based on the Current Population Survey, provides a portrait of academic achievement by demographic characteristics, such as age, sex, average earnings, and Hispanic origin.

DAC Group and Kantar released the results of their latest consumer search behaviour survey. In its fifth year, the comprehensive study uncovers trends and improves the understanding of consumer media usage throughout the United States and Canada. Results in the categories of general consumer search behaviour, mobile, and social search show steady trending in digital adoption.  Slight variances in findings uncover unique needs highlighted in select sectors. Overall insights gleaned reinforce the need for today’s Digital CMO to take a strategic look at online consumer conversion strategy.

Círculo Creativo, in partnership with AHAA: The Voice of Hispanic Marketing, announces that call for entries for the Third Annual U.S.H. Idea Awards are now open through April 1st, 2014. The award, which recognizes the best creativity in U.S. Hispanic advertising, is adding new categories and embracing the broad spectrum of Hispanic marketing to include public relations; branded content and entertainment; and integrated campaigns. The Awards will take place in Miami, FL on Tuesday, April 29th, 2014, as part of the 2014 AHAA “Thinking Under the Influence” Conference.