Going back to Jesse Garcia’s struggle to obtain a role where he not classified as a sterotyped Latino; Eva Longoria said it best that the only way is to control the source. Slowly marketers are starting to understand the diversity needed to keep up with the changes that capture multi-ethnic, multicultural America today.

“Technology is allowing marketers to reach a finer and finer segmentation of consumers,” said Howard Buford, president and CEO at multicultural agency Prime Access, New York. “In multicultural marketing there’s more demand for culturally specific messaging and more demand for authenticity in speaking to these audiences.” The buying power of the U.S. Hispanic, African American and Asian populations is projected to climb to $3 trillion by 2011, per the Selig Center for Economic Growth, Athens, GA.” - GD USA

Agencies that handle multicultural research are finding that their needed more and more. People in the spot light like Eva Longoria are becoming producers to enable talented Latino’s like Jesse to be able to fill in roles that the American Latino stand for in the US. And Soledad O’Brien is making it known that we’re are all different and the same. So marketers, start digging into what makes a Latino because there are so many niches out there that marketing to 1 kind of Latino will get you nowhere.

As far as television ratings go, 4% of American households are tuning into ESPN. Nielson reports  11.1 million ABC/ Univision and ESPN viewers tuned in to watch 3 US games. That’s a near 50% increase from the 2006 World Cup which brought in 6.6 million.

So what gives? Why is the US suddenly so interested in soccer?  It’s not even the sport of choice to watch right? Wrong.

Although we are 100 years behind England when it comes to interest in soccer, the US is probably the last on the list of countries to embrace soccer as a national sport.  There’s some statistics out there based on surveys that say that soccer may never become as popular as baseball, football (American) or hockey in the US.  What we don’t know about these surveys is who are people they asked? Were they Latin American? European-American? Asian-American? From my experience Latin-American families tend to watch soccer as a family(extended family members included) which could mean an average of 5 to 20 people in front of a television screen.

According to the US Census Bureau, the projected population by race and Hispanic Origin for the US will go up from 16.03%  in 2010 to 17.73% by 2015 to 19.44% by 2020. That nearly a 2% increase every 5 years and that’s just for the Hispanic/ Latin-American identified population. Globally, soccer is the preferred sport to watch, play and cheer for. And with the US soccer team  playing their best this World Cup, the possibility of a World Cup win will certainty skyrocket the interest in futbol (soccer) opening up a large consumer market.

Carlsberg is another ambush marketer ranking 6th on the Nielsen ratings. The Danish brewer was mentioned 3.9% of the time after launching it’s “Legends”  television soccer ad.

FIFA Affiliates:

Let’s remember this is a dog eat dog world and when it comes to marketing, there’s always going to be those that don’t play by the rules but when it’s the law, please abide by it.

The FIFA organization is not happy with a few orange blonds assembling an illegal ambush marketing technique. Read the article for more information.

Flash is and has been an amazing innovation for many years now and a favorite method of viewing rich media across all platforms and browsers. They are also in the process of forming a coalition to provide rich media experience to mobile users. They call it the Open Screen Project.

It’s understandable that flash does take up a lot of space and on mobile devices this can take up a lot of room but what’s with HTML 5? Will it do the same thing that flash provides? Animation and interactive components that attract consumers to business sites. (For specifics on what HTML5 will offer go here.)

Everyone that’s involved in technology understands that technology is constantly transforming to accommodate our fast society. We want the latest and greatest of everything, but where will all the innovation and great new ideas come from if we’re forced to work with a singular form of technology? That’s where Mr. Jobs is wrong. Technology is about incorporating the foreign and unknown and creating something incredible.

To read Steve Jobs’, Thoughts on Flash, go here.

To read Adobe’s response ,We ♥ Choice, go here.

When people add your facebook page or your twitter page as followers or fans, it means they like you. 

They like your brand; they may even love your brand. They are following you because you provide them with something they enjoy using. These are your current customers and the breadth and depth of what makes your brand. 

5 Reasons Your Social Media Will Fail By Michael Brito provides the following advice how to be a smart marketer when it comes to social media and not fall into the trap of just becoming another facebook or twitter company.

Social media is about people and relationships. The tools change every day. What will not change are customers’ expectations of the brands they love. When a company can focus on exceeding customer expectations using the channels currently available to them, they are more likely to succeed long term

Relationship marketing’s purpose is to maintain that close connection with existing customers, while allowing new, potential customers to partake in the enjoyment of current customers interest in your brand.Before exposing your company to a social network, ask yourself how it will help your company? Will your target Market, your loyal customers “follow” you? What will they be seeking from your twitters or postings? How will your social media outlet be managed so as not to harm your brand?With today’s incessant stream of information flowing through social media networks, it could make it hard to maintain Customer Relationship Management.

Under CRM the key driver for marketing success is to treat “good” customers in a way that will increase the probability they will stay “good” customers. This is accomplished in part by ensuring that a customer receives accurate information and has a consistent and satisfying experience every time he/she interacts with a company. – KnowThis.com

Here’s a list of 5 Warning Signs of a Weak Social Media Strategy from Social Media Today.

1. Make it Newsworthy
2. Start Strong
3. Format It Right
4. Make It Fun to Read and Engaging
5. Write a Great Headline
6. Stick to the Facts
7. Answer Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How
8. Include Your Contact Information
9. Add Resources
10. Keep It Short
11. Consider the Timing
12. Check Your Spelling and Grammar
13. Avoid Jargon
14. Use an Active Voice
15. Get Permission
16. Use Mixed Case
17. No HTML

For specifics, please view Zeke Camusio’s blog.

Marketing: Ad Age lists events here.

Market Research: Events

Direct Marketing: Events 

 Retail Marketing: Events

When implementing outdoor marketing to your media mix, you will most likely interested the consumer at the point of transaction. Many may say that outdoor media is not a medium that specifically targets your market, however, that’s debatable. By researching data and compiling and analyzing information about your market, you’ll be able to pinpoint exactly where they’ll likely to spend most of their quality time geographically.

Although research can provide specific information about your target market, there is a lack of measurement in the out-of-home area. Traffic Audit Bureau (TAB) has finally launched (after five years) a metric system that will provide data on audiences that are most likely to see your ad. For more information go here.

Traditional, non-digital out-of-home will start utilizing more technology. It’s unavoidable. If you have not heard or seen a QR code on an out-of-home media like aposter, get ready to see more of these.

According to Chiqui Cartagena in an AdAge article titled, “Fighting the Status Quo in the Hispanic Matrix”,

“…while it is true that some smart marketers and agencies are slowly starting to embrace this newer generation of Latinos and realizing that these Latinos can be effectively reached in English through culturally relevant media options (such as SiTV, MTV3 and Mun2) as well as through new social-media platforms (such as mylatinovoice.com), the sad reality is that far too many marketers and agencies continue to stick to the status quo and continue to define the Hispanic marketing efforts by language and exclusively using the traditional channels of Spanish-language media to get their brand messages out.”

Marketers need to pitch towards this new target market, the market of “New Generation Latinos”. This group embraces both their English speaking roots and Spanish speaking roots. Their communication spans not only the North American region but south of the border too!

The point is that this group is expanding in incredible numbers and they can no longer be targeted as one or the other but both.They are the Spanglish speakers.

For more details visit adobe.