Agency

MediaCom USA announced that Jose Bello has joined the agency as Managing Partner, Head of Multicultural.

The latest Consensus Ad Forecast from Warc, the marketing intelligence service, indicates that global advertising expenditure will increase by 3.4% in 2013, a downgrade of -0.6pp from the previous forecast in January 2013. Adspend is expected to pick up next year with growth of 5.4%.

Results from a new study reveal that American adults of all ages – Millennials, GenXers and Baby Boomers – feel that their own generation is the healthiest. Nearly half the people surveyed (45 percent) named their own generation as the healthiest, followed by their parents’ generation (32 percent) and the younger generation (23 percent).

With July 4th approaching, more than 60 percent of Americans say the nation is more divided as a country now than it was 10 years ago, with even higher percentages saying America is at least as fragmented now as it was during the Great Depression, Vietnam, and Watergate. And perhaps most strikingly, one in five Americans doubts that America will remain united as one country.

Prospects for the broader U.S. economy appear tepid. But among private enterprises, opportunity seemingly abounds. Our survey of 473 private company executives found that 58% say their companies are poised for revenue growth of 6% or greater in the year ahead. In fact, 15% say growth will range from 11% to 20%—and one out of 10 executives believes growth will run greater than 20%.

While your phone book might be collecting dust, consumers still have a need for the type of information it contains. But in today’s digital world, they’re more inclined to look for it on the Web. According to a study conducted by Nielsen, a whopping 85 percent of consumers find local business information online, where reviews, store hours, deals and maps are just a click away.

   Over the last couple of years, we have been critical of an industry event called AdColor that was once associated with the ANA Multicultural Conference.  Lately they have had the need to go solo on their event, since they seem to be more and more African American Ad Industry focused and definitively represent the lack of inclusion in the ad industry. ADColor has taken advantage of the Extreme Guilt that Madison Avenue and the US Mainstream Ad Industry have in not hiring more minorities to work in advertising.

Elisa Torres has resigned her position as VP of the Hispanic Division at Cumulus Media en Espanol and has joined Miami based Spanish Broadcasting System as VP Radio Affiliation.

This Fall nearly 22 million college students will head back to campus to kick off the 2013-2014 school year. This is the largest assembly of college students ever to arrive on campuses, and they’ll do so boasting immense buying power, wielding a vast arsenal of gadgets and relying on mom and dad more than ever.

Luis Miguel Messianu, President/Chief Creative Officer at Miami-based ad agency Alma, announced a search has been underway to find new creative leadership to join its award-winning team, Diego Yurkievich and Hernan Cerdeiro have left to pursue other interests.

Los Angeles based Sensis has hired Ken Deutsch to lead its media department.

With consumers becoming increasingly cynical towards overt marketing messages, storytelling is more important than ever before. Everyone responds to a great story. But brands don’t tell stories that are going to be read curled up on a sofa – they have to do something far more sophisticated. They have to translate their emotional core in mere seconds, in just a few pictures and images. And these stories have to be distinct and powerful enough to live and breathe across a wealth of different media.

There’s a theme in marketing today that can be summarized very succinctly: marketers can finally use “what they know” to power “what they do.”

Marketing procurement organizations remain focused on cost as a key success metric. However, many are beginning to embrace the value of non-cost-centric metrics, and especially ROI measures, according to a new ANA (Association of National Advertisers) white paper.

Based on comScore’s permission-based panel of one million U.S. online persons and survey data from 139 pharmaceutical studies, these benchmarks show that online direct to consumer (DTC) marketing is more effective than ever in increasing conversion among patients and prospects. The study also introduces new insights into conversion lift rates across various medication categories.

For Hispanic Adult Millennials, it’s cool to be pragmatic. Being smart with their money may be borne of necessity, but they find it fun to be thrifty. Their practicality does have an enemy, however – and that’s convenience. Because they’re often very busy, sometimes they just go with whatever is easiest. By Insight Tr3s