The network actually launched digitally on February 5, 2012. They will have various programming covering many different subjects and interests. As someone who fits this demographic I look to forward to learning more about this network and seeing it for myself sometime next year.

Mayor Joe Maturo

According to the 2010 Census data for Connecticut, the state is now home to a population of 3,574,097, and 13% of those residents are of Hispanic or Latino origin. Connnecticut has had a bumpy road in dealing with its growing Hispanic population, as seen by some recent events.

The FBI recently conducted an investigation resulting in the arrest of four East Haven, CT police officers on charges that they conspired to deprive some residents, particularly Latinos, of their constitutional rights. The charges include multiple counts of excessive force, false arrest, obstruction and conspiracy. When Mayor Joseph Maturo was asked by a local TV reporter, “What are you doing for the Latino community today?”, he replied on camera “I might have tacos when I go home. I’m not quite sure yet.” The Mayor is now facing a backlash to his comments.

After the FBI has arrested local law enforcement for harassing an ethnic minority in your small town, a flippant response that shows little investment in the issue at hand is not appropriate. Secondly, the Mayor referred to tacos, a Mexican food, although according to Census statistics most Latinos in Connecticut are Puerto Rican, a group that does not typically eat tacos. The mayor’s second mistake then was to conflate one group with another.  This served to further illustrate his lack of understanding of some of the residents of his own town. As Latinos spread out to virtually every corner of the United States, from Idaho, Kansas, and yes, Connecticut, local governments and law enforcement need to do a better job reaching out to their new neighbors. This story out of East Haven, Connecticut illustrates that.

With the new concept “mobile-assisted shopping,” the client scans each product that is put in the cart and does their shopping without having to pass through the traditional checkout. For this, Toshiba offers a solution which includes the StoreMate Mobile software Shopping Experience (MSE) of the japanese company and the color mobile barcode reading devices by Moterola.

Personal Shopping Assistant

Toshiba’s application converts Motorola’s hardware into a personal shopping assistant. This scans the products, and figures out the bill in real time, offers shopping suggestions, special offers, and allows practically any promotional message to arrive to the buyers, in full process of making shopping decisions. At the end of shopping, the client, without having to wait in lines nor empty their cart, pays at the checkout using this system, finalizing the shopping process. This solution is also applicable for the elimination of lines, in the checkout isle, in key moments by means of store-personal intervention.

The commodity of the system, the bill control in real time, better promotion information, and the access to special offers allow the rapid growth of the average price of each purchase. Like this, the fidelity of the client supports the promoters of this inactive.

Tony Romo

If you thought that Hispanics only watch futbol (soccer), you are wrong. According to an article in La Prensa San Diego more than 33 million Hispanics have watched professional football so far this season, making it the most-watched NFL season among Latinos.  We’ve previously written about Hispanic viewership of the Super Bowl. As a Latino in the Unites States, I used to just watch soccer and not pay so much attention to American football. However, a couple years ago I started watching the Super Bowl due to the fact that some of my friends (also Hispanic) were already into football.

I believe one of the reasons I like soccer so much is because I was raised with a family that watches and loves soccer, and now as a grown up I have met and hang out with many people who like other sports.  With that said, the next Hispanic generations should be more influenced with American sports like NFL Football.   In an article, a sociologist at Florida State University who specializes in Hispanic assimilation, Hernan Ramirez,  states that Hispanic kids eventually will become the parents of fully Americanized descendants whose only link to their cultural heritage will be a surname, religious practice or holidays.

In my opinion, this is not totally accurate, as there will be more things that will link young Hispanics to their cultural heritage, things like family, food, language, skin color etc. Nevertheless, yes, the next Hispanic generations will be a little more Americanized and will watch a lot more football than the previous generations. More football and less fútbol.

MundoFox Logo

If you thought that in the United States we already had too many Spanish-language television networks catering to the U.S Hispanic market, you’re wrong.  The latest news is that Fox International Channels (FIC) and the RCN Television Group will join powers and will launch a new Spanish-language network called MUNDOFOX LINK.  The network is scheduled to launch in the 2012 Fall season.

This will be great for Latino/Hispanic viewers in the United States because this will be new content in Spanish targeting a niche of viewers who are probably tired of the same old telenovelas, movies (which are poorly translated) and sports.  With the combination of Fox’s and RCN’s content, advertisers will also now be able to cater their ads to this new segment of Spanish-speaking viewers.

I am personally excited to see and compare the content of MUNDOFOX with what Univision and Telemundo already have. I think it will be great to have more choices, plus competition is what makes us all successful.

Becoming a citizen

The 2010 U.S. Census revealed unique data on the Hispanic population, and one thing it revealed was that, for the first time, growth in the Hispanic population came not from immigration, but from births. This has hopefully made many realize that a large part of the Hispanic community is bilingual and bicultural. Professor Dowell Myers of USC wrote in the New York Times of The Next Immigration Challenge, which is not to seal off the border, but to assimilate immigrants who are already in the U.S. As he aptly puts it, Show me your papers should be replaced with Welcome to English class.

Professor Myers’ essay has a focus on public policy, in particular the importance of not slashing the budgets for immigration integration programs, but there is an important overall focus of the argument. In moving away from keeping foreigners out and moving towards integrating them into American society, Americans focus less on the harm that immigrants bring and more on the benefits of having them in the country. It is important to realize that most immigrants are here and not going anywhere, and thus it is in the best interest of the public and private sector to make sure that they are fully able to contribute to American society. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently launched a campaign to promote citizenship among green card holder ; this is a step in the right direction.

As recently as 2006, more Florida Hispanics were registered as Republicans. However, by 2008 the majority shifted to the Democratic party, with the current voter group being the most ever in favor of Democrats.  Here is the breakdown of Florida’s voters in comparison to the entire U.S. Electorate from 2010 put together by Pew Research Center.

from Pew Hispanic”]

Table 2 Population and Electorate in the United States and Florida, 2010

Other than Mitt Romney having relatives in Mexico, in general none of the candidates have actively embraced the Hispanic community.  While it has been noted in some reports that the Latino community is not necessarily in favor of some of Obama’s policies, the challenge for both parties will be to earn the vote from this important segment of the population.

There is a lot at stake for everyone, so in order to assist both parties the Pew Hispanic Center will continue to offer good insight into the Latino voter, such as this Table listing the Characteristics of Eligible Voters in Florida, by Race and Ethnicity, 2010

Characteristics of Eligible Voters in Florida, by Race and Ethnicity, 2010 from Pew Hispanic Center

Once #McDstories was introduced the hashtag took on a life of its own. Twitter users began to share some horrific stories that they associated with McDonald’s. That prompted McDonald’s to immediately end the campaign.

i’m sure that McDonald’s went into this with great expectations, but many people know McDonald’s for serving unhealthy food that is both cheap and of dubious quality. It’s hard to imagine that the response to this kind of campaign would have been 100% positive.  For many, fast food is a guilty pleasure and for others it is a staple of their diet. McDonald’s should have taken this into account before launching this campaign. It is another social media marketing lesson learned.

Daily Deal Sites

The discount sales market on the internet has reached a global level. It was started by the U.S. and has since spread throughout America, Europe, and Asia. There are tickets to performances, dinners, beauty salon coupons, travel getaways, and a host of services to tempt thousands of consumers to buy with discounts of up to 80% off! According to some experts, the Latin American market has rapidly adopted this type of sale, helped by a growing online population and enough businesses that understand the system and its benefits. According to certain statistics, 34.5% of Latin Americans are online, much higher than the 29% figure worldwide. Discount coupons on the internet have existed since punto.com, but they didn’t last because there was no confidence in online transactions. Now it has been reborn with new strength, thanks to the impact of social networks.

There are various reasons for the boom 1) it is a simple concept: more people go with the lowest price 2) products and services that are difficult to find anywhere else are offered, and 3) it permits access to places of business close to where one lives. The businesses that offer these benefits obtain a new way of marketing and promoting their business by means of a free public campaign, which allows them a volume of clients that they would not reach otherwise. The system consists of three pillars: consumers, businesses, and the brokers, or websites, that offer the platform and obtain a commission for the transactions, which can often be up to 20%.

The average user of these sites in Latin America is between 25 and 45 years old, is middle to high class, and has a credit card and bandwidth access. However, there are some myths and obstacles that must be overcome, like the lack of of credit or debit cards and the fear that many Latin Americans have of using them online. Also, some doubts remain about how the system works and how refunds are issued. The challenge of the business is to know how to gauge the impact of a coupon’s launch and to adjust the system to attend to this demand. One disadvantage of this model is the erosion of prices; that is, the customers get used to buying only when there is an offer.

Many more daily deal sites are emerging to provide some competition. What really creates doubt is the question of how long this boom will last, since some predict a depreciation of the industry. The trick is to know which which sites will not last, which ones are the successful businesses today, and the up-and-comers of tomorrow. It would seem that it is easy to get in and compete, which facilitates the proliferation of options. However, it seems that everything that is all the rage on the internet will eventually end up in just a few hands. Let’s see how the daily deal market evolves.

The rapid growth is due to the increasing comfort level of advertisers looking to reach their targets through digital media.  “Advertisers’ comfort level with integrated marketing is greater than ever, and this is helping more advertisers—and more large brands—put a greater share of dollars online,” said David Hallerman, eMarketer principal analyst.

Double digit growth will be seen, according to eMarketer, through 2014, and by 2016 projections expect the digital spend to be above $60 billion.  Print is not the only medium to see digital on its heels.  In the same projected time period TV spends will stagnate, and by 2016 the gap between digital and TV will be considerably diminished.

This is good news for digital media professionals and companies alike as the internet continues to prove its worth to advertisers in a tough economic climate.