Multicultural Ad Spending Declines in 2009, but Less than General Market

Spending on Spanish Language and African-American media declined 4.7% and 7.3%, respectively, in 2009, according to figures released today by The Nielsen Company. The declines are consistent with the trend in overall advertising, although the drops aren’t as deep. Last month, Nielsen reported that ad spending fell nine percent in 2009, despite significant increases in Cable TV.

Spanish Language Ad Spending
Nielsen found that Spanish Language advertising was down 4.7% in the U.S. last year. A total of $5.4 billion was spent on all Spanish Language media in 2009, down almost $270 million from the previous year. The slide was paced by significant declines in National Magazine and Local Newspaper advertising, which were down 38% and 25%, respectively.

The decreases in print media were offset by a 32% increase in Spanish Language Cable advertising. Nielsen found that 19 of the top 20 advertisers in the medium increased their ad spends year over year.

Spot TV was the top cash generator for Spanish Language media in 2009 with an estimated $1.4 billion in ad sales, down 10% compared to the previous year.

Spanish Language Media
Media Type	2008-$ (000)	2009-$ (000)	% Change
Local Magazine	988.2	0.0	-100.0%
Local Newspaper	103,144.6	77,059.5	-25.3%
National Magazine	182,096.7	112,558.7	-38.2%
Spanish Language Cable TV	323,065.0	426,959.4	32.2%
Spanish Language Network TV	2,982,158.3	2,866,092.5	-3.9%
Spot Radio	567,233.9	562,481.3	-0.8%
Spot TV	1,559,307.8	1,402,754.4	-10.0%
Total	5,717,994.5	5,447,905.7	-4.7%
Source: The Nielsen Company

Mobile Marketing Popularity Rapidly Grows

Mobile marketing is steadily progressing toward much greater significance, according to [pdf] a new study from marketing technology provider Unica.

One-Third of Marketers are Mobile
When asked if their company currently uses or plans to use mobile marketing tactics, such as mobile messaging, applications and/or websites, 33% said their company currently uses these tactics. Another 24% said their company plans to use mobile tactics within the next 12 months, and 13% said they will use mobile tactics in more than the next 12 months.

Only 20% said their company has no plans to use mobile marketing tactics, and another 10% don’t know. This means the combined percentage of respondents whose companies definitely or possibly will not use mobile marketing tactics (30%) is smaller than the percentages of respondents who currently use them (33%) or will use them within the next 12 months or longer (a combined 37%).

Broken down by region, more European respondents said their company currently uses mobile marketing tactics (37%) than North American respondents (29%), reflecting Europe’s more advanced and entrenched mobile infrastructure.

U.S population shifts to marketing opportunities

According to a new Hispanic marketing trends survey, commissioned by the Hispanic advertising agency Orcí, the 2010 U.S. Census is expected to find that Hispanics number more than 50 million in the United States, and command $1 trillion in buying power. Yet half of U.S. advertisers, says the report, who acknowledge the cultural impact of Latinos, do not include Hispanics in their marketing efforts.


Latinos comprise more than 15% of the U.S. population, and are predicted to rise to 50 million in the 2010 Census, an increase of 42% since the last Census in 2000. In the 2000 report, the Hispanic growth rate of 24.3% was more than three times the growth rate of the total U.S. population, which was 6.1%.
Yet the research showed that 82% of respondents have no plans to begin or increase existing efforts aimed at American Hispanics in the next 12 months. This despite the fact that the great majority of respondents agreed that Latinos will impact U.S. companies' product and service offerings in the next five years, particularly in food tastes, fashion and technology.

Hector Orcí, co-founder and chairman of the agency, says "... for the last 30 years, a minority of companies that have been smart enough to take advantage of engaging Hispanic consumers, have seen their efforts make a difference to their bottomline... "
The survey also found that 78% of respondents do not use social media to engage Latinos despite the fact that Hispanics are the heaviest users of wireless access through mobile phones and laptops than any other ethnic group. In addition, close to 80% of Latinos engage in some kind of online socializing. Among those companies who do use social media to market to Hispanics, Facebook was the site of choice with Twitter a close second.
"Hispanics are tech savvy, young trend setters with incredible spending power..." Orcí said.
Other key results of the survey include:

• 89% believe Latinos will somewhat or significantly impact American taste in foods in the next five years
• 87% believe Latinos will impact fashion and beauty
• 82% expect Hispanics to impact entertainment
• 78% believe Hispanics will impact technology/communications

Hyatt to get companies to hold meetings again

WITH the country in a grim mood about corporate America, Hyatt is adding some humor to its marketing in an effort to get companies to hold meetings again.

In a series of Web videos from the comedy site Funny or Die that begin running Thursday, Hyatt will emphasize what can go wrong when people choose the wrong hotel or meeting planner. (Hint: watch out for rogue mimes.)

During the economic crisis, holding corporate meetings came to be seen as something high-flying and wasteful, like, say, taking private planes or buying naming rights to a stadium.

“Two thousand nine was a tough year economically, and a large part of our business comes from meetings,” said Amy Curtis-McIntyre, senior vice president for marketing at Hyatt.

Tupperware as a Bonding Experience? That’s the Pitch

IN Midtown Manhattan on Thursday, Tupperware will produce a publicity event in which Rick Goings, the kitchenware company’s chief executive, will show Reggie Bush, the New Orleans Saints football player, and Peter Facinelli, the actor who stars in the Showtime series “Nurse Jackie” and in the “Twilight” films, how to prepare a meal using only food, Tupperware products and a microwave oven.

Before the event, called Kitchen Aphrodisiac, press invitations highlighted a recent Harris Survey, which reported that 63 percent of women find it sexy when their partners cook, compared with only 33 percent who found it sexy when the partner paid for dinner.

It would seem that Tupperware is making a typical marketing pitch to men, promising to help them seduce women.

“Not at all,” said Mr. Goings, in an interview last week at the New York City offices of Tupperware’s public relations firm Maloney & Fox, a part of Waggener Edstrom. “Someone said to me years ago, to catch a moose, you have to first catch moose bait. And if you want to target women, the best way is to also go after men.”

The New News Landscape: Rise of the Internet

Summary of Findings

In the digital era, news has become omnipresent. Americans access it in multiple formats on multiple platforms on myriad devices. The days of loyalty to a particular news organization on a particular piece of technology in a particular form are gone. The overwhelming majority of Americans (92%) use multiple platforms to get news on a typical day, including national TV, local TV, the internet, local newspapers, radio and national newspapers. Some 46% of Americans say they get news from four to six media platforms on a typical day. Just 7% get their news from a single media platform on a typical day.

The internet is at the center of the story of how people's relationship to news is changing. Six in ten Americans (59%) get news from a combination of online and offline sources on a typical day, and the internet is now the third most popular news platform, behind local television news and national television news.

The process Americans use to get news is based on foraging and opportunism. They seem to access news when the spirit moves them or they have a chance to check up on headlines. At the same time, gathering the news is not entirely an open-ended exploration for consumers, even online where there are limitless possibilities for exploring news. While online, most people say they use between two and five online news sources and 65% say they do not have a single favorite website for news. Some 21% say they routinely rely on just one site for their news and information.

In this new multi-platform media environment, people's relationship to news is becoming portable, personalized and participatory. These new metrics stand out:

• Portable: 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
• Personalized: 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
• Participatory: 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.

To a great extent, people's experience of news, especially on the internet, is becoming a shared social experience as people swap links in emails, post news stories on their social networking site feeds, highlight news stories in their Tweets and haggle over the meaning of events in discussion threads. For instance, more than 8 in 10 online news consumers get or share links in emails.

Multicultural Ad Spending Declines in 2009, but Less than Overall Ad Market

Spending on Spanish Language and African-American media declined 4.7% and 7.3%, respectively, in 2009, according to figures released today by The Nielsen Company. The declines are consistent with the trend in overall advertising, although the drops aren’t as deep. Last month, Nielsen reported that ad spending fell nine percent in 2009, despite significant increases in Cable TV.

Spanish Language Ad Spending
Nielsen found that Spanish Language advertising was down 4.7% in the U.S. last year. A total of $5.4 billion was spent on all Spanish Language media in 2009, down almost $270 million from the previous year. The slide was paced by significant declines in National Magazine and Local Newspaper advertising, which were down 38% and 25%, respectively.

The decreases in print media were offset by a 32% increase in Spanish Language Cable advertising. Nielsen found that 19 of the top 20 advertisers in the medium increased their ad spends year over year.

Spot TV was the top cash generator for Spanish Language media in 2009 with an estimated $1.4 billion in ad sales, down 10% compared to the previous year.

Spanish Language Media
Media Type	2008-$ (000)	2009-$ (000)	% Change
Local Magazine	988.2	0.0	-100.0%
Local Newspaper	103,144.6	77,059.5	-25.3%
National Magazine	182,096.7	112,558.7	-38.2%
Spanish Language Cable TV	323,065.0	426,959.4	32.2%
Spanish Language Network TV	2,982,158.3	2,866,092.5	-3.9%
Spot Radio	567,233.9	562,481.3	-0.8%
Spot TV	1,559,307.8	1,402,754.4	-10.0%
Total	5,717,994.5	5,447,905.7	-4.7%
Source: The Nielsen Company

African-American Ad Spending
Spending on African-American media saw a similar decline of 7.3% in 2009. The decline was paced by decreased spending in Network TV (-72%) and National Magazines (-33%).

Increased spending on Cable TV helped balance out the losses. Advertisers spent 35% more on African-American Cable in 2009, thanks to added spending by each one of the top 20 advertisers in the category.

Spot Radio earned the most revenue among African-American media in 2009. Advertisers spent $748 million on the medium last year, almost 10% less than in 2008.

African American Media
Media Type	2008 $ (000)	2009 $ (000)	% Change
Cable TV	539,193.6	728,440.8	35.1%
National Magazine	530,766.1	353,806.7	-33.3%
Spot Radio	826,824.5	747,794.7	-9.6%
Network TV	95,524.8	26,626.8	-72.1%
Syndicated TV	110,638.4	92,935.8	-16.0%
Total	2,102,947.5	1,949,604.8	-7.3%
Source: The Nielsen Company

Product Categories
The top spending product category for both Spanish Language and African-American media was Quick Service Restaurants. Advertisers within the category spent $335 million on Spanish Language media and $87 million on African-American media. McDonald’s was the top fast food advertiser in both media segments.

The Automotive category was the next highest spender in both multicultural media. Spending in Spanish Language was down 39% in 2009, paced by double-digit percent losses by each of the top five auto advertisers. Spending by the auto industry in African-American media was down 18% year over year.

The category showing the most growth among the top 10 Spanish Language advertisers was Satellite TV providers. Advertisers in this category upped their ad spends 77% in 2009, as satellite TV companies made the pitch for their services in the run up to the DTV transition in June 2009. According to Nielsen data, a larger percentage of Hispanic households were not ready for the transition than non-Hispanic households at the end of 2008.

Spanish Language Categories
Product Category	2008-$ (000)	2009-$ (000)	% Change
RESTAURANT-QUICK SVC	293,652.9	334,593.0	13.9%
AUTOMOTIVE	528,577.9	323,230.0	-38.8%
TELEPH SVCS-WIRELESS	316,808.3	305,463.7	-3.6%
STORE-DEPT	307,345.4	294,420.8	-4.2%
SATELLITE COMM SVCS	134,658.1	238,744.6	77.3%
DIR RESP PROD	220,632.3	237,227.6	7.5%
BEER	165,045.9	171,677.7	4.0%
LEGAL SVCS	89,684.3	123,847.0	38.1%
MOTION PICTURE	112,015.0	99,846.5	-10.9%
INSURANCE-AUTO	144,305.0	98,084.0	-32.0%
Source: The Nielsen Company

Insurance companies showed the most growth among the top 10 African-American media spenders. General Insurance and Car Insurance categories placed 8^th and 9^th after increases of 29% and 24%, respectively. The Motion Picture category showed similar growth, increasing its spend 24% to $72 million.

African American Categories
Product Category	2008-$ (000)	2009-$ (000)	% Change
RESTAURANT-QUICK SVC	72,909.6	86,906.8	19.2%
AUTOMOTIVE	105,005.7	85,851.1	-18.2%
STORE-DEPT	76,117.9	72,234.3	-5.1%
MOTION PICTURE	58,094.9	71,937.5	23.8%
TELEPH SVCS-WIRELESS	52,610.6	50,602.5	-3.8%
PHARMACEUTICAL	50,542.5	47,556.1	-5.9%
DIR RESP PROD	41,810.4	43,544.9	4.1%
INSURANCE	26,739.2	34,378.2	28.6%
INSURANCE-AUTO	26,285.0	32,521.9	23.7%
CREDIT SVCS	23,052.1	28,204.4	22.4%
Source: The Nielsen Company

Multicultural Ad Spending Declines in 2009, but Less than Overall Ad Market | Nielsen Wire

The Apple Of A Boomer's Eye

The other night while watching CBS's "The Good Wife," I saw Apple's newest iPhone television spot, "First Steps." In the storyline, a young mother is talking about her child's first steps, which she then records and sends to her mother and grandfather. The tagline, "We would never have shared all that without the iPhone," brilliantly signals key multi-generational benefits of the 3GS iPhones: capturing and sharing important family milestones.

That ad got me thinking about Apple's other marketing efforts targeting Boomers. We often think about Apple -- with its emphasis on beautiful design and cutting-edge technology -- as a young person's brand. Certainly, one could draw that conclusion watching iPod commercials -- particularly from a few years ago. But, Apple also seems to have realized the potential of marketing to Boomers long before its technology and lifestyle brand competitors -- who are myopically focused on the youth market.

For example, back in 2006, Apple launched the "Get a Mac" campaign created by TBWA Media Labs. That campaign, which ran through 2009, featured two friends, Mac and PC. When the campaign first broke, many thought that Mac, the jean wearing, laid back hipster was the younger friend to PC, the dweebie, pudgy -- albeit likeable -- middle manager always dressed in a suit.

But, in fact, as we would learn over the course of the campaign, Mac and PC are the same age and their friendship dates back to their childhood (confirmed in the "Flashback" spot). And, in "Broken Promises," when PC revisits Windows operating systems launches -- appropriately garbed in the historically correct sartorial trends -- we learn that Mac and PC are part of the Boomer generation. (What Gen Xer was in a suit at the release of Windows 2?)

What's striking about these two campaigns -- for the Mac and the iPhone -- is that Apple bucks the trend of how many companies market to Boomers. Consider:

• Absence of "senior" visuals: None of these campaigns uses an "older" actor to visually represent a Boomer as so many television and print advertisements do (think: pharma advertisements). Mac and PC are represented as being "middle-aged" -- somewhere between 30 and 40-ish. In iPhone ads, the iPhone is the visual hero; only the actors' voices are present. In "First Steps," only the baby is shown; voices allude to the other actors. Given that many Boomers don't believe that they are "old," this non-senior casting is spot on.

• Absence of "senior" copy: The scripts never allude to age; there are no direct references to "now that we're of a certain age," common in so many advertisements targeting Boomers. Instead, Apple focuses on communicating the rational benefits of owning and using its products -- albeit highlighting Boomers' desire for technology that helps simplify and mange their lives. For example, a Mac is virus-free and easy to use, right out of the box. An iPhone lets you connect easily with what's important in your life -- your family.

• Authentic, clever story-telling: Apple uses story-telling to illuminate how technology helps a Boomer's life in an authentic and often humorous way. There is no staged, corny encounter between couples on the merits of a product over dinner or between spouses before they go to bed. Those conversations don't really happen in real life -- and Apple's creative team gets that.

Of course, it helps that Apple products deliver on the advertised promises. They have won over Boomers with their thoughtful designs, intuitive user interfaces and inclusion of technologies that make Boomers' lives simpler or more rewarding.

Maybe that's why Boomers represent a third of iPhone users, half of Mac users and the leading group that pays $99/year for one-on-one training in Apple's 284 store locations. Given that Boomers control 50% of all discretionary spending in the United States and that they are expected to outspend younger generations by $1 trillion on technology purchases in 2010, it's a smart strategy.

Lexus Touts Hybrids in New Ad Campaign

Lexus is talking about its history in the technology avant-garde in a new brand campaign that supports Lexus' hybrid lineup. The new effort touts the RX 400h, GS 450h, LS 600h and HS 250h. The recently announced Lexus CT 200h -- not featured in this current campaign -- will represent the fifth Lexus hybrid. The campaign, via El Segundo, Calif.-based TeamOne, may also be the first ad push for hybrids that invokes the competition, though not by name.

The new TV spot has Lexus hybrids doing marching-band type formations that make shapes like a computer cursor, a gas nozzle, a landline and finally, the letter "h" -- illustrating how much the world has evolved during the five years that Lexus has had hybrids in its lineup.

The ad will run during prime time on network television and cable, during NCAA March Madness and throughout Major League Baseball programming and in conjunction with Google TV, an auction-based television-buying platform. Additional media programs, currently in development, will launch as the hybrid campaign continues throughout 2010, per the company.

The TV ad touts the distance Lexus hybrid cars have gone since the company introduced such vehicles. Voiceover says: "When we built our first hybrid, YouTube didn't exist and Facebook was still run out of a dorm room. When we built our first hybrid, more people had land lines than cell phones. And now, when other luxury carmakers are building their first hybrids, Lexus hybrids have traveled 5.5 billion miles ... and that's quite a head start."

Lexus will run a national print campaign, online banners and out-of-home advertising in 12 markets. Two print ads titled, "Close Your Eyes" and "Roads" will appear in books like Men's Health, Women's Health, People, Sports Illustrated, Vogue and USA Today.

The hybrid campaign also includes a partnership with Current TV around a viewer-created ad contest that asked participants to demonstrate Lexus' "actions speak louder" ethos through a profile a person or organization. The producers of the four ads, selected by Lexus, get $2,500 each -- and their ads will air on Current TV and Current TV online, as well as social media spaces and Lexus.com.

The automaker sold 6,366 cars last month -- a 4.5% improvement -- and 7,421 light trucks, up 5.8% over last February. While sibling Toyota sold 9,318 hybrids for the month, Lexus Division posted sales of 1,639 hybrids in February.


Lexus Touts Hybrids in New Ad Campaign

Meet the Boomers

As a follow up on a recent Research Brief about Millenials, here's an appropriate analysis of the Boomers, an earlief generation, according to Dr. Bob Deutsch of marketing firm Brain Sells. The Baby Boom generation is classified as people born between 1946 and 1964, meaning the oldest Baby Boomers turn 65 in 2011. Boomers are still vital and evolving even as they approach retirement age, concludes the report.

In the US alone, more than 3.5 million babies were born in 1946. Our conception of Seniors, what Boomers soon will be, is highly stereotyped, says the report. Baby Boomers can be labeled Pragmatic Idealists. As a demographic they are a glass-half-full group. They feel they can make things the way they want them to be, or at least engage with the forces at work to tilt the odds 51% in their favor. Even in our constrained economy, Baby Boomers still seek, and assume, growth, all the while acknowledging new limitations in resources.

Deutsch says understanding the following three basic life structures is critical to capturing the Boomer market:

• The developmental history of Boomers casts them as characters that possess a self-expansive nature primarily devoid of cynicism. The Baby Boom generation embodies a vitality that makes them survivors, even if they can't always be thrivers.
• As Boomers age, home range will become more important, and getting settled in new spaces, such as a smaller, closer-to-town abode or a move to a warmer climate, will require adaptation to new interpersonal and larger social arrangements. In addition, Boomers will develop requirements for new types of mundane services, particularly in the domains of finance, healthcare, and personal care.
• As people age their nostalgic yearnings grow, says Deutsch, making them more receptive to advertisers and marketers use of what researchers call a "longing for positive memories of the past." Moreover, nostalgia can make Boomers feel that not so much time has passed between then and now, making them feel young again. Nostalgia should be considered as one marketing aesthetic to attract Boomers.

According to thereport, In interviews Boomers say things like:

• "We now have more responsibility... "
• "Anger, in the long run, just hurts you."
• "Maybe ‘now' is an opportunity... to re-evaluate who you are and where you are going."

In sharp contrast, Gen-Xer's are losing hope in the ties that bind hard work to success, says Deutsch. They see their future as "closing." This mentality foreshortens their vision of themselves, others, and the world. Their orientation, about almost everything, is defensive:

• "Money makes the world go around. Now I have less money. Now I have less hope." "I feel better when I see someone worse off than me."
• "I gotta fight for everything, and I don't have a lot."
• "What's the point?"

Key Boomer attitudes and perceptions that are important for marketers, says Deutsch:

• Boomers are at a time in life when they really don't want to compromise their authenticity.
• For Boomers, process is at least as important as the end result. They want "the ride"
• Boomers like to inspire others. Help them feel helpful
• Boomers have been around long enough to know there are few absolutes, little is black or white
• Accentuate personal style over rote action or blind ritual
• Boomers are oriented to the human dimension, that's the only real thing. They can see the humor in most situations
• What Boomers really dislike is felling put upon by arbitrary power, feeling trapped, conned, boxed-in, and being thought of as one of the masses
• Boomers are both creative and conservative ("A beautiful garden is wild and tended")
• Boomers go for what gives voice to things they are thinking and feeling, but haven't fully worked out yet
• Boomers respond to what stands out by its presence, not its loudness. What shows them it really listens and, therefore, understands

And, according to trendwatching.com in its recent list of Top 10 Consumer Trends for 2010 reported by Marketing Charts, several general societal trends closely match with Boomer trends. These include a need for companies to be transparent and honest about their efforts to conduct environmentally sustainable business practices and genuinely collaborate with their customers rather than try to dictate to them. In addition, consumers are increasingly using social networks as part of everyday life and respond well to products and services which have a charitable component.

Meet the Boomers