Agency

Univision Communications Inc. and Experian Simmons unveiled the latest data revealing consumers’ reaction to today’s economic climate from a total market and Hispanic consumer perspective. With custom week-by-week data from Experian Simmons, marketers for the first time are able to take an in-depth look at real time information that allows for a better understanding of the impact on consumers.

Alex Isidoro, the Mexican-American up and coming director, recently finished filming his first TV commercial for the general market of the US, which is scheduled to launch nationally on ABC.

Over the years, a strong, stable economy has attracted a large number of Hispanics to migrate to the United States. With the economy in recession, some hypothesized that Hispanics would grow frustrated and return home. Despite the downturn, Hispanics are not leaving the U.S.; it is clear they are in the United States for more than economic reasons and have found ways to weather the storm and see the economy recover.

Leading high-technology companies need employee diversity to remain globally competitive and innovative, but new research indicates that underrepresented minorities are a very small proportion of high technology workforces, especially at the senior level. According to Obstacles and Solutions for Underrepresented Minorities in Technology, 6.1% of technical men and 8.2% of technical women in Silicon Valley high-tech companies are underrepresented minorities. Representation at the highest levels of the technical ladder is especially poor for women of color.

For an entire period within digital, there has been a serious move to organize around and get smart on multicultural marketing. On the agency side and internally within brand organizations — we organized for it, designated directors of it — and certainly started to buy and sell media with multicultural audiences in mind. New businesses emerged: media ad and publisher networks, creative production enterprises, niche agencies. Larger agencies feeling the gap acquired boutique specialists and deemed them multicultural divisions. Thought leadership and programming reflected the focus on understanding diverse markets — panels, roundtables, workshops and speakers everywhere took on the topic of “multicultural marketing.

Perhaps a bit strong to use the S word, but it seems to be in everyone’s vocabulary these days. Just ask anyone in most areas of our business. If you are on the media sales side and you work the local or network beat, business sucks. If you are on the spot side, business really sucks. If you are on the agency side of the business, you are having to do much more with less headcount; of course late hours were already part of your life, now they are the norm, and of course that sucks. If you are on the client side of the business and you work at or on an automotive acct, well, that’s almost as bad as being in spot sales, and we all know that really sucks.

By Jose Cancela / Hispanic USA. To read El Blog CLICK above.

As the economy declines and consumer spending habits undergo a vast reevaluation, there is nowhere left to hide. The media industry, in other words, must adapt or die.

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council announced it will launch a new research project and think tank dedicated to driving best practices in marketing supply chain management in the $1.5 trillion marketing services sector. This initiative will assess the effectiveness of spend, procurement processes, agency resource utilization, the sourcing and delivery of marketing consumables, carbon footprint reductions, workflow management, overall supply chain performance and the reduction of waste and cost.

We don’t need the headlines to tell us that ad spending is down. Most of us are uncertain about how the economic downturn will affect our client relationships and, of course, our revenue.

One thing is certain: The call for accountability on all ad spending is clear. Measurability and proof of ROI are no longer expected just of online advertising. Agencies that specialize in traditional TV, radio and print also must prove that what they’re doing is working to keep the ad dollars flowing.

Where there used to be a wall between ads that build brand and those that drive response, today there is an edict to prove return on investment for every ad dollar spent. While perhaps precipitated by a troubled economy, this shift to an ROI-positive advertising approach is exactly what the ad industry needs.

Tracy Decker Executive VP Media Director for Global Hue will depart the agency early next week.Industry insider speculate that Ms. Decker will be joining Siboney USA in New York as VP Media Director to replace outgoing Media Director Marcelo Salup that joined the agency last year. Ms. Decker’s departure comes on the heels of the highly publicized departure of Global Hue Latino President Linda de Jesus-Cutler.

Marketers are also planning for renewed activities when the recession ends and the recovery begins. Media budgets will be increased (68 percent) along with social networking/word-of-mouth (41 percent) and budgets for innovation and testing/learning (40 percent). Seventy-three percent of respondents said they would ideally implement these increased marketing activities three to six months before the recession ends, and an additional 16 percent as soon as it ends.

The Pew Hispanic Center released a report that finds that Hispanics now make up more than one-in-five of all children in the United States – up from 9% in 1980 — and as their numbers have grown, their demographic profile has changed.

Consumer confidence in the overall economy moved up sharply in May, according to figures released by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). The CEA-CNET Indexes also show that consumers continue to feel more confident about future spending on technology and consumer electronics (CE).