ZenithOptimedia Launches Multicultural Unit

ZENITHOPTIMEDIA USA IS THE LATEST media agency to launch a dedicated multicultural unit, ZO Multicultural (pronounced "Zee-oh").

Ilia Leon, most recently VP and managing director of WPP's MosaicaMD, will lead the new division as Director, Multicultural Media. While at MosaicaMD, Leon oversaw Hispanic media planning and buying for all clients, including Citibank, Payless, Pfizer and Unilever.

“Seismic growth in the Hispanic market is profoundly impacting American society, culture, politics and business," said Tim Jones, CEO of ZenithOptimedia, to whom Leon will report. "Our multicultural business has doubled in the last year. Ilia's experience and reputation within the multicultural media landscape will help us deliver a best in class service in this area."

TV viewership hits record high: report

American television viewing remains on the rise despite the distractions of alternative media platforms, according to new data from Nielsen Media Research.

Average daily allotments to household and individual viewing increased slightly from the previous year to reach all-time highs during the 2005-06 season, which ended September 17. The increases were actually highest in the younger demographics flocking to iPods, cell phones and video games.

READ THE ARTICLE ONLINE AT YAHOO.COM

Average home has more TVs than people

NEW YORK - The average American home now has more television sets than people. That threshold was crossed within the past two years, according to Nielsen Media Research. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people, the researchers said.

With televisions now on buses, elevators and in airport lobbies, that development may have as much to do with TV's ubiquity as an appliance as it does conspicuous consumption. The popularity of flat-screen TVs now make it easy to put sets where they haven't been before.

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Video views at MITCH TV now over 1500

Mitch Drew
Vancouver

MITCH TV was created as a tool to help me communicate with customers and prospects. Since launching the BLOG in 2006, I've had many people provide positive feedback on the site and have helped others create blogs of thier own.

Since adding links to RICH content and moving the BLOG to a VLOG (video log)...it's been interesting to see what kind of viewing has happened. Approximately 50 video clips comprising mainly of TV commercials we've produced for my clients at Channel M have been posted on an ancillary site www.vimeo.com and yesterday the total views reached 1500! Now these are NOT a hits, these are actual downloads and complete views! The site can get has had as few as 3 views per day and as many as 37.

Yahoo, Current Launch Vlog Network

YAHOO WILL START A NEW video-sharing site through a partnership with Current TV, the cable network founded by former Vice President Al Gore.

The Yahoo Current Network encompasses both professional and amateur videos aimed at 18- to-24-year-olds, and will debut with four channels on Yahoo Video. Current Buzz will feature segments highlighting popular Web stories, and will be produced by Madeleine Smithberg, co-creator and former executive producer of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

The other three channels will focus on sports, autos and travel, respectively. A total of eight channels are expected to be offered by the end of 2007. Each channel will carry one studio-produced segment and 8 to 10 user-created pieces each day.

User-contributed videos will be filtered to screen out offensive material and edited to ensure a high level of editorial and technical quality, according to Jason Zajac, general manager for social media at Yahoo. He said the screening process should allay marketer concerns about advertising alongside user-created programming.

Paid Product Placement Outpaces Traditional Advertising

According to the PQ Media Global Product Placement Forecast 2006, global paid product placement spending surged 42.2% to $2.21 billion in 2005 with double-digit growth expected to continue in 2006 and beyond. Product placement spending in TV, film and other media is expected to climb another 38.8% to $3.07 billion in 2006, driven by the continued shift toward a paid placement structure from a barter and added-value model.

Patrick Quinn, president of PQ Media, said "Product placement has evolved from a novel marketing tactic to a key marketing strategy on a global scale. This trend is significant in that there is a new media order emerging worldwide in which fear of ad-skipping technology, doubts about traditional advertising's effectiveness, and declining government media subsidies have fueled a dramatic increase in the value of seamless brand integration."

The US is by far the world's largest paid product placement market at $1.50 billion in 2005, up 48.7%. Additionally, in 2005:

Brazil ranks second with paid placement spending at $285.3 million
Australia at $104.3 million
France ranks fourth
Japan, fifth

The majority of spending in the US and abroad is derived from five key product categories: transportation & parts, apparel & accessories, food & beverage, travel & leisure, and media & entertainment.

PQ Media forecasts that global paid product placement spending will grow at a compound annual rate of 27.9% in the 2005-2010 period to $7.55 billion, as product placement growth continues to significantly outpace that of traditional advertising and marketing.

US Ethnic Markets Account for One-Third of Spending on Teleco

Hispanics and Other Ethnic Markets Account for One-Third of Consumer Spending on Telecommunications, Says Insight Research


BOONTON, N.J., Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/

In 2006, US ethnic communities account for one-third of every dollar spent on consumer telecommunications services, according to a new market research study from The Insight Research Corporation. The largest minority group, Hispanics, representing
nearly 44 percent of the US minority population, spend the most. The ability to tap into the increased spending power of the Hispanic-American,African-American, and Asian-American communities will be crucial to the survival of telecommunications providers over the next five years.

Insight Research's market analysis study, "US Hispanic Use of Telecommunication Services 2006-2011," takes a close look at the purchasing habits and telecom usage patterns of the Hispanic segment of the US population. The study emphasizes that the US Latino market is not one homogenous market; rather, it is made up of many markets. The study found that 68.3 percent of the overall US population owns cell phones, with White Non-Hispanics having the highest ownership rate at 71.9 percent, followed by Asians at 71.3 percent, African Americans at 68.2 percent, and Hispanics
at 60.6 percent. When sub-segmenting the Hispanic market, however, Insight found that English-oriented Hispanics nearly approach the overall market penetration rate at 67.5 percent.

"The purchasing power that the Hispanic-American, African-American, and Asian-American communities exert in the telecommunications industry is not being ignored," says Robert Rosenberg, Insight Research. "Yet the cell phone companies that now spend millions of dollars on undifferentiated Spanish-speaking advertising campaigns that blanket the Latino community have missed the boat. The Hispanic community must be addressed with nuanced messaging appropriate to its internal diversity or those cell phone carriers simply won't survive," Rosenberg concluded.

"US Hispanic Use of Telecommunication Services 2006-2011" examines spending and usage patterns of US Hispanics for wireline, cellular, and pre-paid cellular services, and compares these spending patterns to those of the general population as well as other minority segments, including Asian Americans and African Americans.

CLICK HERE FOR EXCERPTS FROM THE REPORT

Chevy to Students: Create Our Super Bowl Ad

Chevrolet, in a move similar to that announced last week by Frito Lay, is soliciting creative ideas from consumers, at least for a single TV spot, and plans to air the result during the 2007 Super Bowl.

Chevy is giving students a chance to compete for the opportunity to have their idea for a Chevy ad produced for the 2007 Super Bowl. Unlike Frito Lay's initiative, which will also be aired during the Super Bowl, the winning student team for Chevy will not produce the final ad, though they will be involved in the ad production process.

The students will submit their ad ideas in a professional layout to be judged later this fall. The five finalist teams will be given all-expense paid trips to Detroit to present their concepts in person to Chevrolet and ad agency executives.

Chevrolet is contacting advertising, marketing, design and film programs at about 340 colleges and universities across the country. They are also reaching out to hundreds of other schools, including community colleges, to give as many students as possible the chance to enter the contest. The Chevy Super Bowl College Ad Challenge is open to all full-time U.S. college students, who will compete in teams of up to three people.

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The Super Bowl Of Marketer-Consumer Co-Creation

Super Bowl XLI will be a milestone. Not for the game or programming, but for commercials sponsored by advertisers, produced by agencies and fueled by consumer participation.

By Max Kalehoff

Without even lifting a finger, some advertisers during the last Super Bowl saw their ads jump virally onto the Web and, in many cases, achieve greater active involvement with consumers. Add to that the recent social storm of consumer video uploading, sharing and syndication through services like YouTube and Revver, where consumer-generated multimedia (CGM2) manifests on big portals as well as micro-communities and blogs. Finally, add the fact that advertisers are struggling to alleviate and justify the higher costs and eroding returns of paid, disruptive television media impressions.

And that's a recipe for what we're already seeing in full force five months before the Feb. 4 extravaganza. For example, Brandweek reported this week that GM's Chevrolet is courting fledgling college talent to develop a spot to be broadcast during Super Bowl XLI. Within days of that announcement, USA Today reported that Frito-Lay will invite consumers to enter their own 30-second ads for Doritos in an online competition, with the winner broadcast during the game. I guarantee you more programs will be announced shortly, and consumer-generated tie-ins will be big.

Hispanic Media Leads Ad Spend Growth

Spanish-language media grew 20.5 percent in the first six months of 2006 to $2.4 billion, boosted mainly by media buys during this summer's World Cup soccer tournament, according to data released Wednesday by TNS Media Intelligence.

TNS includes expenditures from Hispanic network and cable TV, Hispanic spot TV, 35 Hispanic magazines and 54 Hispanic newspapers.

12 Ad Mistakes to Avoid

Spending all your money on advertising but getting no results? Find out whether you're guilty of committing one of these 12 huge blunders.

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