Agency

Jackie Bird, CEO of Redbean Society in New York and David Morse, CEO of New American Dimensions in California jointly announced the launch of a new study that will answer many marketers’ questions about the factors that drive shopping behavior among Latina women. The study is the first of its kind to evaluate the cultural and behavioral dynamics that influence shopping in the fastest growing consumer market segment in the U.S. today, the Hispanic market. This market is expected to represent at least $1.3 Trillion in buying power by 2013.

In 2007 and for much of 2008, rising gasoline and commodity prices led to a wave of price increases in the consumer-packed goods industry. For some categories, it was not uncommon to have two to three price increases as ingredient, packaging, energy and transportation prices jumped sharply. During that time, many retailers—particularly those selling food and beverages—experienced a lift in sales and profits. As recessionary pressures intensified at the end of 2008, gasoline and commodity prices started to drop and many retailers began passing on the savings to their shoppers and cutting prices broadly to be more competitive with value retailers.

According to a recent study by Epsilon, more than half of consumers surveyed were unsure of what credit card company they were going to use when opening up a new account. This represents a huge opportunity for credit card marketers to engage these undecided consumers.

Available on HispanicCMO.com

In 1790, when the newborn United States of America took its first official Census, census workers slotted Americans into only a handful of categories, including free males, free females, slaves and “others.”

Today, “others” are America. Roughly a third of the U.S. population is what we generally would describe as a minority, and among youth, that number rises to more than 4 in 10.

By 2050, half of all of us will be what we call a minority today.

Welcome to New America!

By Norma Orci

Available on HispanicCMO.com

Those of us in public relations can all agree that an important issue in our industry is accurate evaluation of the ROI we deliver to clients. One area that has proven challenging for some is measuring the success of radio outreach, placements and listener numbers from the time(s) a story aired. The most reliable tracking and reporting data for radio listeners in the United States comes from Arbitron, the consumer research company. While there may be other important standards like message delivery, positive tone and audience demographics, we all tend to start with the audience numbers. Let’s examine those numbers and which are best to measure public relations outreach. Courtesy of David Henry / TelenoticiasUSA

Available on HispanicPRpro.com

The Visiting Nurse Service of New York has announced the selection of Curtis & Perry, together with multi-cultural agencies d exposito & partners and IW Group, as advertising agencies for VNSNY CHOICE.

The Associated Press and Univision, with the support of The Nielsen Company and Stanford University, interviewed more than 1,500 Latinos from coast to coast. They were questioned in English and Spanish about their attitudes and experiences, on topics from politics to education, religion to economics.

Global consumer confidence cautiously edged up one index point to 93 in the second quarter as confidence increases in booming Asian markets were offset by European consumers’ growing concerns of an escalating debt crisis, which battered confidence levels in Spain, Italy and France, according to the latest edition of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index. Consumer confidence rose two points in the U.S. in Q2 to 87, where the world’s largest economy continued on course for a slow, but steady climb out of the recession. Consumer Confidence Index levels above and below a baseline of 100 indicate degrees of optimism and pessimism.

Global ad spend at rate-card values in the first quarter of 2010 increased 12.5 percent year-on-year totaling USD $110 billion, boosting the hopes of the global advertising industry.

Gerry Czarnecki, a published author and the former CEO of Bank of America, has been pioneering branded entertainment since 1992, working with companies including Wal-Mart, Microsoft and P&G and producing series for U.S. television including The Balancing Act on Lifetime and Designing Spaces on WE. In this paper, Gerry discusses the challenges presented by deferred viewing and time-shifting, and how branded entertainment creates an opportunity to put a human face on a brand and engage the consumer.

Hispanics go online to socialize, research new products and find good deals—more so than many other groups. In 2010, Hispanics will spend $125 billion on consumer packaged goods products, accounting for 11.8% of all CPG spending, according to Nielsen. These factors create a lucrative opportunity for CPG suppliers that want a closer connection with this dynamic demographic.

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies will need to employ different tactics than those used during the recession — divesting non-core brands, conserving cash, and cutting costs – to preserve shareholder value as the economy recovers. To grow revenues in this new climate, companies will have to focus on innovation to encourage household spending, especially for products in mature segments and to offset reduced spending by Baby Boomers who are nearing retirement, according to the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) 2010 Financial Performance Report, titled Forging ahead in the new economy.

In September 1968, Congress authorized President Lyndon B. Johnson to proclaim National Hispanic Heritage Week, which was observed during the week that included Sept. 15 and Sept. 16. The observance was expanded in 1988 by Congress to a monthlong celebration (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15), effective the following year. America celebrates the culture and traditions of those who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

Tr3’s: MTV, Música y Más, which celebrates the bilingual/bicultural music and lifestyle of Latinos in the U.S., and Yahoo! en Español , are launching the Dame un Break contest sponsored by Verizon – giving up-and-coming artists and bands the opportunity to experience the music industry and get a shot at stardom.