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.

U.S. Demographics are Changing… Are Your Marketing Plans Ready?

If you live in the U.S., you’re starting to hear more and more about the upcoming census. Even before we get data back from the country-wide headcount, we know that America’s demographic profile is undergoing major changes. By 2050, more than half of the U.S. population will be non-white (African-American, Asian, Hispanic). This dynamic growth represents not only significant cultural shifts, but also one of the more remarkable marketing opportunities in history. By that same 2050 milestone, the economic opportunity for brands in the multicultural CPG space is projected to exceed $500B.

Being able to keep pace with these increasingly diverse and demanding segments will require marketers to have a detailed view of what ethnic households buy as well as how they consumer media across TV, Internet and Mobile. When compared against the general population, minority households tend to over-index on some key shopping and media metrics.

Topline Multicultural Buying Insights

When compared to the general population, on average…

Hispanic Shoppers

• Tend to spend more on categories for babies and children — (Hispanic households represent 11.8% of CPG total spending, but 16.6% of disposable diaper sales.)
• Tend to spend more in traditional mass merchandise and warehouse clubs
• Tend to spend more on food consumed at home

African American Shoppers

• Tend to spend more on health and beauty products, like fragrance (African Americans represent 11.0% of CPG total spending, but 20.3% of dollars spent in beauty supply stores.)
• Tend to spend more in drug and dollar stores
• Tend to spend more on ingredients used to cook from scratch
• Tend to buy fewer items on deals or with coupons
• Tend to spend more on food consumed at home

Asian American Shoppers

• Tend to spend more in club stores (Asian Americans represent 3.0% of CPG total spending, but 5.5% of dollars spent in warehouse clubs.)
• Tend to spend more on categories for babies and children
• Are more likely to eat outside of the home

Topline Multicultural Media Insights

Hispanic Media Consumers

• Strong following of Telenovelas
• On average, watch more broadcast and satellite TV
• Display higher usage of mobile internet

African American Media Consumers

• Have the highest TV usage of any demographic at nearly 80 hours a week per household
• Have a higher percentage of multi-set households
• Display higher usage of mobile internet

Asian American Media Consumers

• More likely to have newer technology (DVD, HD, Digital Cable)
• Tend to watch less TV

While each group has many layers of cultural, economic and social diversity within, these broader trends are worth noting, and planning for, if marketers are to meet the needs of their fastest growing consumer base.

U.S. Demographics are Changing… Are Your Marketing Plans Ready? | Nielsen Wire