Agency

I love marketing: the ability to develop a story, weave that story through media and watch it resonate with an audience.  The chance to follow that story through to a conclusion, potentially resulting in customers: this is a highly engaging activity for me, and one I thoroughly enjoy.  It’s not unlike watching “Breaking Bad,” to be honest.

A new GfK study shows that, across 12 categories, 37% of US shoppers – and 29% globally – are turning to both online and in-store shopping when making purchases. The extent of this “omni-channel” shopping phenomenon varies by category and country and seems to be tied to the rise in mobile device penetration.

American demand for cause is stronger than ever, especially among multicultural consumers. According to the 2013 Cone Communications Social Impact Study , Hispanics represent one of the most actively-engaged population segments to-date and exhibit stronger inclinations to purchase cause-related products as well as participate in corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts:

Tr3s’s 2012 study, Hispanic Adult Millennials Living the Next Normal: Age of Uncertainty, revealed that for Hispanic Adult Millennials, life is an exercise in risk assessment. They’re cautious with good reason: just as they were entering adulthood, the 2008 economic crisis put a damper on their bright future plans. Jobs became harder to come by – especially dream jobs – and leaving Mom and Dad’s house to live independently turned out to be not that easy. While they still hope to move out of their parents’ houses and get married, those timelines have been pushed back. For now, many are looking inward – sticking close to people they are certain they trust, fulfilling life goals before starting families of their own, and keeping up traditions like speaking Spanish at home.

An in-depth look at Hispanic women’s thoughts towards living a balanced life in a fast paced world.

By Angela A. Rodriguez is a Director of Strategic Insights at Alma.

Hispanics are influenced in many ways by the people they identify with, and these influences directly affect not only the general behavior of the individual but more specifically, his or her consumer behavior. As explained by Faber, O’Guinn & McCarty (1987), all of our behavior is subject to the pressures of cultural norms and expectations. These pressures also include influences exerted by the individual’s reference groups, that is, the persons, groups and institutions that the individual use as point of reference and to look up to for guidance in establishing his/her behaviors (Avery, et. al., 2010).

David Lawenda has joined Facebook as VP, Global Sales, US, reporting to Carolyn Everson within the Global Marketing Solutions team at Facebook. David is now the leader of the US sales team at Facebook, overseeing sales and marketing relationships with the leading brands and agencies in the country.

Danny Trejo knows how to get a point across and now he’s going to put that talent to work to ensure that nothing interferes with Miller Time. Work obligations, time constraints, even mobile phones can sometimes get in the way of Miller Time. Miller Lite has partnered with Trejo, an original Hollywood tough-guy, to protect these sacred good times with friends.

NBCU CEO Steve Burke said that most of the executives working with Zalaznick would instead report to executive VP Cesar Conde, who joined NBCU from Univision earlier this month.

How to cultivate and leverage customer engagement? Customer engagement is important because we live in a Customer Economy.

Several weeks ago, I spoke with Claudia Perlich, Media6Degrees’ chief data scientist, and asked her to define “data scientist.” Her definition spanned four paragraphs, but it boiled down to this: “Data science lives in the intersection of understanding not just the results of the algorithms, but also the subtle caveats of their applicability and the problem that should be solved.”

It’s long been a paradox that, despite the fact that consumers ages 50 and up have the lion’s share of the wealth and income in the U.S, marketers are over-enamored with the 18-49 demographic. The oft-stated justification for aiming at the younger generation is that they are more likely to be open to new products and/or switching brands; and their lives are more centered on consumption and consumerism.  

Digital marketing has driven home the importance of content, as marketers strive to keep customers engaged and drive brand awareness. These were the top two benefits of content marketing, according to an August 2013 survey of marketers in North America from Unisphere Research. And marketers are certainly putting money behind that effort: 48% of respondents reported devoting at least 10% of their budget to content creation, with 19% of marketers allocating 25% or more.

Arbitron is being rebranded Nielsen Audio and will be integrated into Nielsen’s U.S. Watch business segment, which provides information and insights primarily to the media and advertising industries across television, online, mobile and radio.

Dallas-based Hispanic branding agency Richards/Lerma announced that Salma Gottfried has joined the agency as director of brand management.

Tr3s joined forces with Pepsi to amplify the Vive Hoy (Live For Now) program for the US Hispanic audience and offer viewers nationwide the chance to win the ultimate roadie experience and gain an exclusive backstage pass to a 3BALLMTY concert. This partnership underlines the continued efforts of both Tr3s and Pepsi to bring Latino music fans closer to their favorite artists through unique and memorable experiences.

A consortium of leading Internet radio companies has united for the first time to collaborate on a definitive study of Internet radio consumption in the United States. The Streaming Audio Task Force, comprising Pandora, Spotify and TuneIn, engaged Edison Research to survey over 3,000 online respondents ages 12+ to ascertain their media usage and habits, and the results indicated that for the first time in history, Internet radio is used by the majority of online Americans (53%). In addition, the total time spent with audio is clearly expanding as people are now enjoying more audio from more devices in more places.

Whether it’s advertising via old standbys like TV, newspapers and radio or newer media like mobile and online, earning consumer trust is the holy grail of a successful campaign, according to Nielsen’s latest Trust In Advertising report.   The good news for advertisers is that consumers around the globe are more trusting now than they were several years ago. In fact, the study reveals that trust in online advertising is increasing, as is trust in ads on TV, radio and movie screens.

Creative minds share the stage and spill their secrets with Yahoo at sfBIG Breakfast

YouTube is no longer a repository of videos tossed together in a free-for-all manner. The “channelification” of YouTube has been popular with advertisers and a boon for the video platform, too. Jamie Byrne, director of content strategy, spoke with eMarketer’s Paul Verna about how the channels underscore a number of innovations at the company.