Dan Wieden Makes Impassioned Diversity Pitch at 4A's

Speaking plainly, directly and at times profanely, Wieden + Kennedy's Dan Wieden used the platform of the American Association of Advertising Agencies to urge agencies to finally address the relative lack of diversity in the industry.
I was not at the conference but from what I read, he seems to be genuinely sincere.
He mentioned in his speech that the issue of diversity "continues to gnaw at me because, like it or not, in this business I essentially hire a bunch of white, middle-class kids, pay them enormous, enormous sums of money to do what? To create messages to the inner-city kids who create the culture the white kids are trying like hell to emulate. But if you go into the inner city, odds are these kids aren't even going to see advertising as a possibility, as an opportunity for them. Now that's fucked up," he said.
Wieden added: "Don't get me wrong. I'm not bringing this up today because I think Wieden + Kennedy is doing this phenomenal goddam job at rectifying the situation. I think we've made some progress. But we've got miles and miles to go before we sleep."
Wieden concluded by saying that "there are many, many undiscovered voices out there -- voices that against all odds can rise up and enrich this culture and perhaps one day change the very nature of the marketplace for the better."
Wieden's address on diversity was unexpected -- the conference agenda said he would talk about the "new realities of global brands" -- but far from the only perspective aired on the topic during the two-day general session. On Tuesday, 4A's CEO Nancy Hill and chairman Tom Carroll spoke about the importance of addressing the relative paucity of minorities at agencies.
I really admire Mr. Wieden's speech. Just hope the others in the industry can finally act on it.
When I mentioned diversity to the General Manager of the media company that I previously worked in , the only answer he gave me was "I always hire the best people," and apparantely, they all look alike ... "white, middle class kids" ... just like Mr. Wieden said.

The Results Are In: The 2008 Electorate, Most Diverse in U.S. History

According to a new analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Research Center. The nation's three biggest minority groups--Blacks, Hispanics and Asians--each accounted for unprecedented shares of the presidential vote in 2008.

The unprecedented diversity of the electorate last year was driven by increases both in the number and in the turnout rates of minority eligible voters.
The levels of participation by Black, Hispanic and Asian eligible voters all increased from 2004 to 2008, reducing the voter participation gap between themselves and white eligible voters. This was particularly true for Black eligible voters. Their voter turnout rate increased 4.9 percentage points, from 60.3% in 2004 to 65.2% in 2008, nearly matching the voter turnout rate of white eligible voters (66.1%). For Hispanics, participation levels also increased, with the voter turnout rate rising 2.7 percentage points, from 47.2% in 2004 to 49.9% in 2008. Among Asians, voter participation rates increased from 44.6% in 2004 to 47.0% in 2008. Meanwhile, among white eligible voters, the voter turnout rate fell slightly, from 67.2% in 2004 to 66.1% in 2008.

The increased diversity of the electorate was also driven by population growth, especially among Latinos. Between 2004 and 2008, the number of Latino eligible voters rose from 16.1 million in 2004 to 19.5 million in 2008, or 21.4%. In comparison, among the general population, the total number of eligible voters increased by just 4.6%.

This is a great case study for marketers. If you win over the vote for the multicultural markets, chances are, you will have a better chance to survive through this economic downturn and come out bigger and stronger.

An Interesting Article from Sports Business Journal

I came across this insightful article "Success begins with understanding Latino the demo" by Tom Cordova and was particularly impressed by his closing paragraph.
"In the final analysis, the secrets to Latino marketing may not be secrets at all. They may be cultural nuances that need to be discovered. When one spends the time, money and effort to do so, the rewards can be immense. Think about it as if you were a competitive archer. How the heck can you hit your target market with accuracy, much less precision, if you don’t even know what your target is?"

Dos Equis Launches Cinco de Mayo 'Expedition'

Mexican beer Dos Equis this week launched Expedition Cinco, a mobile marketing tour featuring branded off-road vehicles and unique sampling teams. Inspired by the escapades of the brand’s “The Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign, for two weeks leading up to Cinco de Mayo, the tour will engage consumers in 14 local markets via sampling, promotions and on-premise activations.

Expedition Cinco Teams, which consist of an Indiana Jones-like leader and Dos Equis ambassadors dressed as exotic tribal princesses, will travel in branded Dos Equis six-wheeled adventure vehicles to various accounts in the targeted market. The brand ambassadors will distribute such items as rigging carabineers and compasses, and provide on-premise sampling opportunities. Consumers can additionally have their pictures taken with the “tribal princesses” in accounts and in front of the adventure vehicles. Consumers can access their photos online at http://www.expeditioncinco.com/dosequis

Personally, I would like to see more "mobile" portion of the campaign then just the event itself.

Twitter: Everybody's Craze - What's The Tally?

If media attention is any indication, Twitter has exploded into an all-out phenomenon. Celebrities, politicians, entrepreneurs, business leaders and everyday users are flocking to the service en masse, generating a frenzy of activity and attention.
Everybody is talking about Twitter, but what do the numbers say?
eMarketer estimates there were roughly 6 million Twitter users in the US in 2008, or 3.8% of Internet users.

eMarketer projects that the number of Twitter users will jump to 18.1 million in 2010, representing 10.8% of Internet users.
By all measures, Twitter is growing, and quickly.
comScore reported that Twitter.com drew 4 million unique visitors from home, work and college/university locations in February 2009, up from 340,000 a year earlier—a 1,086% increase.

Nielsen Online reported 7 million unique visitors to Twitter.com during the month, up even higher—1,381%—from 475,000 the prior year.

What’s driving this phenomenal growth?
“Twitter lets people know what’s going on about things they care about instantly, as it happens,” Evan Williams, Twitter’s CEO, told The New York Times. “In the best cases, Twitter makes people smarter and faster and more efficient.”
A survey of Twitter users from MarketingProfs backs Mr. Williams’ views. On a scale from 1 to 5 (with 1 for strongly disagree and 5 and for strongly agree), the phrase “I find it exciting to learn new things from people” averaged a score of 4.65 and “I value getting information in a timely manner” averaged 4.58.
“Above all, people on Twitter are truly motivated by learning new things and getting information real-time, as it’s developing,” said Ann Handley of MarketingProfs.

Note: I would like to see a breakdown by ethnicity and age ... wonder when all these big research companies are going to be really inclusive and pay attention to the multicultural opportunities

Facebook Skyrockets Past Email

Internet users visit social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, more than they use their email, with such online activity growing 5% from the previous year, according to a recent study done by media research group Nielsen.
Facebook alone has seen a nearly 600 % increase in user minutes from December 2007 to December 2008. Although it initially began as a site for university students, Facebook has now become a nexus point for people of all ages, seeing their most significant growth in users from ages of 35-49. Surprisingly, the social networking site saw a larger increase (13.6 million) in the amount of users from ages 50-64 than in those under the age of 18 (7.3 million). Facebook also trumps Bebo--a site that attempts to centralize all users' networking profiles in one place--on the amount of monthly unique visitors, 12.5 million to Bebo's comparatively meager 4.7 million. Nielsen attributes the success of Facebook over other Internet sites such as Bebo or Myspace to its simple design and minimal use of advertisements.
Yet the latter has caused it to gross less than a third of MySpace's ad revenue--$1 billion to $300 million. Still, Facebook is the world's most popular social networking site, with 108 million new users in 2008, beating MySpace by a cool 25-plus million newbies.

Latinas Are Technically Savvy, Brand-Loyal 'Chief Household Officers'

According to a new "What Latinas Wants" survey conducted by OTX Research, commissed by Meredith Hispanic Ventures and NBC Universal's Spanish-language network Telemundo Group, Latinas with household income $50,000 are the most technologically savvy. They are slightly more likely than the non-Hispanic respondents to take pictures with a digital camera (45% compared to 42%) and download music to an iPod (28% compared to 22%).
Other findings include:
- 81% of respondents said they are either the main decision-maker or make decisions with their spouse.
- The key factors determining their success in life were education, being fluent in English as well in Spanish, and often owning a business.
- Latinas are optimistic and self-confident, with 66% describing themselves as "someone who can do it all," compared with 53% of non-Hispanic women.
- Latina respondents said their greatest financial concerns were rising taxes (75%), saving for retirement (71%) and paying bills each month (70%). Not including home mortgages, 44% said they have less than $10,000 in debt.
- 40% of Latinas described themselves as fashion-forward, 37% said they keep up with beauty trends and 37% prefer to use the latest products, compared to a somewhat smaller number of non-Hispanic women who said they are fashion-forward (31%), keep up with beauty trends (30%) and prefer the latest products (32%).

African-American and Hispanic Internet Users Are Especially Receptive

Internet users were more likely to take action the younger they were, and African-Americans and Hispanics were more likely to take action than whites.

U.S. Hispanic Internet Audience Growth Outpaces Total U.S. Online Population By 50%.

comScore, Inc. released a report on the U.S. Hispanic Internet market, finding that the Hispanic online population reached a record 20.3 million visitors in February 2009, representing 11 percent of the total U.S. online market, an increase of 6 percent from the previous year.

Hispanic Internet users also exhibited a surge in online engagement, including strong increases in time spent and pages consumed. The total amount of time spent online by Hispanics increased 6.9 percent in 2009 (3.9 times faster than the total U.S. online population), while total pages consumed grew 6 percent (3.6 times faster than the total U.S. population).

To understand where Hispanics are most likely to consume content online, the study looked at the site categories where they spent an above average share of their online time. The top ranked category was Community - Teens, where U.S. Hispanics accounted for 18 percent of total time spent in the category, followed by Gaming Information at 13 percent. Other entertainment- and leisure-related categories were heavily represented on the list, including Radio (13 percent), Multimedia (12 percent), Discussion/Chat, Instant Messengers (11 percent) and Music (11 percent).

Ad Age's Five New Rules For Marketing

The flat-earth, digitized world described by Unilever CMO Simon Clift is one in which the marketing norms have changed. I don't think anybody will argue about that.
Here are Ad Age's "New Rules" which definitely apply to the multicultural market:
1. Listening to consumers is more important than talking at them. As Mr. Clift said, "We may be ahead of our competitors, but we're most definitely behind consumers." The consumer is not a moron, she's the person defining your brand.
2. You can't hide the corporation behind the brand anymore -- or even fully separate the two. Even this editor's creaking computer only took 0.13 seconds to show that Philip Morris is owned by Altria Group. Welcome to radical transparency, where bad corporate behavior will damage your brands, and vice versa.
3. PR is a primary concern for every CMO and brand manager. If "marketing" and "PR" are not the same department, tear down the wall. Spend time deciding whether PR is underleveraged in your organization.
4. Cause marketing isn't about philanthropy, it's about "enlightened self-interest," as Mr. Clift puts it. That doesn't mean it doesn't count. Don't be ashamed of your profit motive, because great branding and doing good are increasingly one and the same.
5. Social media is not a strategy. You need to understand it, and you'll need to deploy it as a tactic. But remember that the social graph just makes it even more important that you have a good product. Put another way: The volume and quality of your earned media will be directly proportional to the impact and quality of your product and ideas.
I will add one more point:
6. Your consumers are no longer homogeneous. They are a rainbow of colors, with different ethnicity, background, culture, expectations, behavior, language etc. When you listen or talk to them, do it sincerely. Yes, even though they may not be same as you, they are not morons.

Google Multicultural Workforce

According to a recent article on New York Times, Google employees at the Mountain View, Calif., headquarters are extremely diverse. Many foreign workers are recruited to work at Google. Of Google's 20, 000 employees, 2,000 are working on temporary visas and many more are foreign born. Half of the engineers working in Silicon Valley were born overseas.

Check out the slideshow at New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/04/12/us/20090412GOOGLE_index.html

The Dwindling Digital Divide

The African-American online population is growing, in more ways than one.
The “digital divide,” a phrase describing the gulf between Internet “haves” and “have nots,” is still evident, but shrinking.eMarketer estimates that nearly one-half of the African-American population—over 19 million people—uses the Internet at least once a month, and in four years, 56% will be online.
Trends in African-American Internet usage generally mirror those of the US Internet population as a whole. “Younger black Internet users are most comfortable with all forms of digital communication: visiting social networks, downloading and streaming music and videos, blogging and playing games,” says Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, African-Americans Online.” “Black boomers are online in high numbers, but mostly for e-mail and news. Black seniors ages 61 and older are least likely to go online and are more likely to read magazines and newspapers, as well as watch news on television.”

When They Go Online Hispanics Download

More US Hispanics are going online than ever before, and most are using broadband.
According to Scarborough Research, 54% of Hispanics were online in 2008. While that is up slightly over the previous year, it still trails the 69% penetration rate of total US users.
The adoption of broadband by Hispanic consumers, however, was nearly identical to that of the country overall.
And what did Hispanics download on their high-speed connections? Music, video, audio and movies, in that order, were the most popular types of content.
Most amazingly, even though they are slightly less likely to have broadband than the average US adult Internet user, online Hispanics were 211% more likely to download digital content.
Hispanic Internet users were most likely to subscribe to broadband if they resided in major population hubs such as Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Five cities in Texas were also represented as broadband centers.
57% of Hispanic adult Internet users were between the ages of 18 and 34. One-half had household incomes over $50,000 per year, 77% were employed either full- or part-time and 55% were homeowners.

Why Social Media Is the 'Fabric' of Hispanics Online

65%of Hispanics online are now using social media, according to Manny Miravete, VP, Sales and Strategy, MySpace and MySpace Latino. “You bring what you do in your daily life online and social media is enabling that. You can run a simple banner or create a brand profile,” he said. “You can put your brand in that social arena. Social media has mass reach. It’s the fabric of Hispanics online.” Miravate argued that the difference between MySpace and Facebook is that MySpace is a social portal where users can customize their experience and choose to interact with content. Facebook, he said, is more of a social utility.
Consumers are really savvy and know if they are being advertised to, so marketers should create an ambassador for their brands, Miravate said, pointing out that marketers should also develop the experience and content around passion points.
Most successful campaigns have pushed or pulled from traditional media to the Web. Miravate offered the following advice: “Understand the key driving points for the brand. Connect what your brand can offer and what users want. Pharma has been slow to come to the medium; others like wireless have jumped right in. You need to bring very tangible value to users.”
In Miravate’s view, social media is a great way to use direct response. Some agencies use it just to drive sales and reach 10 million U.S. Hispanic users. It’s low cost and delivers high returns, he said. Branded initiatives are helping to launch new products and drive use and purchase behavior.
He encouraged agencies to come up with ideas and then use social media outlets as a vetting process—what’s possible and practical. “We love to brainstorm the new and coolest ways to connect,” Miravate said. “Keep it simple. Build the digital capabilities within your agencies so you’re able to deliver a broader based communication experience for clients—they are asking for it.”

Multicultural Consumers Attitude

The Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University announces the release of an attitudinal report in its Multicultural Marketing Equation series.
The results indicate that Hispanics who answered the online questionnaire in Spanish are more likely than anyone else to be Network Oriented, and interestingly, that Non Hispanic Whites are least likely to be Network Oriented. Hispanics who answered the questionnaire in English and Asians are most likely to be Gay Favorable, while Hispanics who answered in Spanish were most negative. Also Hispanics who answered in English and Asians are the most Sports Oriented, while Non-Hispanic Whites are least sports involved. A Brand Lifestyle is more prevalent among African Americans African Americans and least among Hispanics who Answered in Spanish. The most Socio Culturally Sensitive are Hispanics who answered in Spanish, while the least are Non-Hispanic Whites. Asians are the most Marriage Oriented while Hispanics who answered in Spanish and African Americans are the least.
These findings highlight the importance of considering attitudinal orientations when positioning products and services in these diverse cultural communities. The results make it evident that not all members of the different major cultures in the US can be reached with homogeneous messages and ideas.

Immigration Awareness Month

Supposingly, April is the Immigration Awareness Month and Diversity Inc. has put together a fact sheet for easy reference:

http://www.diversityinc.com/public/5633.cfm

Interesting thing is that most people may have the perception that immigrants are less educated but it's totally opposite. Not only are they younger, there are higher percentage of immigrants with a master's degree than the general population.

Another Example Why Diversity And Inclusion Is Still A Far-Reaching Goal

U.S. Rep. Betty Brown of Texas thought she was being helpful by suggesting that Asian Americans to change their names so that it will be "easier for Americans to deal with."
All of this happened when Ramsey Ko of the Organization of Chinese American, a national civil-rights and advocacy organization, testified before the House Elections Committee saying that people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent (among others) often have difficulty voting because their legal forms of identification often carry their transliterated name as well as a commonly used English name.
Congresswoman Brown went on to say that it would be too difficult to learn a foreign language such as Chinese so it would "behoove [Ko] and [Asian-American] citizens to adopt a name that [poll workers] could deal with more readily here."
Now imagine for a moment if this congresswoman asked Latinos in America to change their names for the convenience of other Americans. Or if we told President Barack Obama that his name was too difficult to pronounce so he should consider changing it to Barry O'Brien.
I wonder what Congresswoman Brown will say if she has to to go to China, India or even Germany for an international diplmatic convention.
This only shows how shallow some of us can be. And you will be surprised to find out how many Congresswoman Brown there are in this country.