Agency

Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc. announced the additions of Group Planning Director Gustavo Foldvari and Walmart Executive Group Account Director Luis Vargas to their leadership roster.

Switzerland tops the overall rankings in The Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012. Singapore overtakes Sweden for second position. Northern and Western European countries dominate the top 10 with Sweden (3rd), Finland (4th), Germany (6th), the Netherlands (7th), Denmark (8th) and the United Kingdom (10th). Japan remains the second-ranked Asian economy at 9th place, despite falling three places since last year. The United states ranked (36th), Puerto Rico ranked (41 st), Mexico ranked (67th) and the Dominican Republic ranked (110th). DOWNLOAD Report Here.

New results from The CMO Survey indicate that companies continue to spend heavily on social media. All spending numbers are on the rise among the U.S. companies that took part in the August 2011 survey. Executives reported their companies are currently spending 7.1% of their overall marketing budgets on social media. This percentage is expected to increase to 10.1% over the next year and to 17.5% in the next five years. DOWNLOAD REPORT HERE.

Casanova Pendrill (CP) was selected Hispanic AOR for Denny’s Restaurants after a recently completed search. The Agency will handle all creative duties for the chain of restaurants and will provide strategic counsel in all areas of the business.

Are ethnic groups in the US society equally acquiring MP3s and physical CDs, or are there differences in their rate of adoption? That was a question we asked in the FSU’s Multicultural Marketing Study conducted in collaboration with DMS Insights the Spring of 2011. By Felipe Korzenny, Ph.D.

The recent Advertising Age story about search consultants raises a very important issue, although not the one that was most prominently featured. The debate about the ethics of some search consultants “double-dipping” is an old concern and one that is hopefully becoming less prevalent.

Overhead rates are used by many advertisers in the calculation of agency fees. In many cases, the overhead rates of a client’s agencies are compared to “benchmarked overhead rates” as provided by benchmarking consultants. Benchmarking consultants will tell you that there are standard proportions of these costs in the marketplace, and that these proportions (“rates”) should be used to evaluate an agency’s overhead costs. The benchmarkers have the industry data and proof, they say, but their database cannot be revealed for confidentiality reasons. DOWNLOAD Report Here.

Latinos are currently the fastest growing consumer group in the United States, challenging marketers and demographers to take a fresh look at what it means to be—or become—an “American.” The demographic buckets commonly employed in market research do not really reflect the Latino experience, nor are they capable of sorting Hispanics into meaningful, actionable segments. Yet, reaching and engaging Latinos is a critical objective for brands today, and will continue to be so for decades to come. It is a real dilemma for marketers, and one that we have experienced firsthand at Communispace. DOWNLOAD Report Here.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) consumers are more likely to consider buying a product from a company that targets gay people in its ad imagery, according to a survey done by Harris Interactive for consulting firm Witeck-Combs Communications.

San Antonio based MarketVision has teamed up with the National Council of La Raza to produce two English-language public service announcements encouraging young Latinos to take control of their future by choosing college. Called “What if?” the :30 PSAs feature two real-life examples of Latinos who turned their childhood passions into careers by pursuing a college education.

Hispanicize has acquired a significant stake in Being Latino, a Hispanic community and social media platforms and publisher of the online magazine Being Latino.