Asian American Market – ‘The Time Is Now’ Conference.

On Friday, February 22, 2002 the Asian American Advertising Federation (3AF) will host their first major event of the year, “Asian American Market: The Time Is Now,” a full-day Conference featuring the leading experts in Asian American advertising, marketing and communications as well as prominent corporate representatives highly active in the Asian American market. The Conference will be held at Hotel Nikko in the heart San Francisco’s famous Union Square. The day after the event, Conference participants will be able to take part in the annual Chinese New Year Extravaganza by visiting the booths at the street festival during the day and viewing the evening parade. The hotel location provides on-point access to the Parade and other festivities.

“For this Conference we wanted to focus on deconstructing the myths that makes targeting Asian American consumers seem difficult,” said Conference Chairperson and 3AF Board Member Jon Yasuda, President of KSCI-TV Los Angeles. “Asian Americans are an attractive and highly accessible consumer market. They are brand loyal and tech savvy, with the highest average household incomes compared to other consumer groups. Backed by high Census numbers, it’s a business case marketers can’t afford to ignore,” he said.

The first part of the Conference will feature three panels of industry experts that will tackle and dispel the top Asian American Market Myths, including:

· “The Asian American market isn’t important or valuable enough for special marketing attention now.”
· “Asian Americans are already being reached from our general marketing efforts.”
· “There aren’t any promotional or marketing vehicles in Asian American communities.”
· “I keep receiving conflicting research numbers on the demographics of the Asian American consumer.”

Confirmed panelists include: Mark Dubas, International Channel; Julia Huang, interTrend Communications; John Fox, interTrend Communications; Greg Macabenta, Minority Media Services; Hari Srinivas, B4U USA; Jack Soo Hoo, KPST-TV; Shelley Yamane, Muse Cordero Chen & Partners.

The second part of the Conference will feature testimonials from marketing executives representing Washington Mutual and State Farm, reports from 3AF Committee Chairs and a showcase of television spots from Asian American ad agencies. A networking reception directly follows the Conference, giving participants the opportunity to unwind, see old friends and meet potential clients.

For more information at http://www.3af.org