Media

Play, work, learning and consumption have converged in the spaces and practices of new social and mobile technologies. Millennials, Gen-Xs and Boomers—seemingly everyone has a Facebook presence. The more adventurous (or geeky) have also taken up Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare or Screener, with over 500 million active users on Facebook1 engaged in gathering an unimaginable number of friends. Smartphones and tablets are nearly ubiquitous. Friends, information, contacts, products and opportunities are but a few keystrokes away. Smart mobile technologies, now pervasive, are quite visible actors in all facets of social life, bringing new practices and experiences to consumers’ shopping, cooking and dining activities. If social media and smart technologies are seemly everywhere, why do companies and marketers so often miss the mark in building successful consumer relationships via these widely adopted tools and practices? DOWNLOAD Report Here.

There is more than one way to monitor and measure social media outreach and online campaigns, and companies must find the right setup for them. Looking at how marketers are using monitoring tools and what benefits come from certain options can give companies insight into what works.

Univision Communications Inc. named Mark Dante executive vice president, Station Group Sales for the Univision Television Group. Based in New York, Dante will assume his new responsibilities on September 6.

Snack Factory’s 6-year-old Pretzel Crisps brand had only a tiny presence on Facebook with just 800 “likes” when Jason Harty, director of field and interactive marketing, came aboard in June 2010. While that number increased to 1,800 nine months later, Harty wanted to experiment with a variety of strategies, including social sampling on Twitter, to help lure new customers to the brand.

Jose Cancela principal of strategic insights company Hispanic USA and industry veteran will be named the new President & General Manager of Telumundo‚s KVEA-TV in Los Angeles.

Mobile phones have become a near-ubiquitous tool for information seeking and communicating–83% of American adults own some kind of cell phone–and these devices have an impact on many aspects of their owners’ daily lives. DOWNLOAD Report Here.

As Hollywood looks to drive waning movie ticket sales, their focus should be on the growing Hispanic population and their use of mobile devices throughout the movie-planning process. DOWNLOAD Report Here.

comScore, Inc. released results of a study on mobile QR and bar code scanning based on data from its comScore MobiLens service. A QR (“Quick Response”) code is a specific matrix bar code (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by smartphones. The study found that in June 2011, 14 million mobile users in the U.S., representing 6.2 percent of the total mobile audience, scanned a QR or bar code on their mobile device. The study found that a mobile user that scanned a QR or bar code during the month was more likely to be male (60.5 percent of code scanning audience), skew toward ages 18-34 (53.4 percent) and have a household income of $100k or above (36.1 percent). The study also analyzed the source and location of QR or bar code scanning, finding that users are most likely to scan codes found in newspapers/magazines and on product packaging and do so while at home or in a store.

Gary Lombardo manages mobile, multichannel and social commerce product marketing for Demandware, an on-demand ecommerce platform. Demandware’s platform enables retailers and brands such as Barneys New York, Kiehl’s, Lifetime Brands, Marks & Spencer, Michaels Stores and Procter & Gamble to deliver customized, multichannel shopping experiences to consumers. Lombardo spoke with eMarketer Writer/Analyst Tobi Elkin about the obstacles and opportunities presented by mobile couponing. By Gary Lombardo / Multichannel & Mobile Product Marketing Lead.

As social media becomes an integral part of companies’ marketing programs, the debate continues about where the staff and resources will come from to handle these initiatives.