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.