February 2014

[Commentary] Univision Communications recently partnered with GfK Consumer Trends to compare Hispanic and non-Hispanic generation-mates and identify where Hispanics are leading total market trends.

The research initiative, titled “Decoding Y: Millennials Revealed,” clearly makes the case for a total market strategy -- or better said, a total millennial strategy. For any marketer looking to reach millennials, Hispanics must be integral to your plans from the outset of research and planning and throughout the entire marketing funnel. You can’t expect to apply a one-size-fits-all strategy and effectively reach Hispanics. Instead, our research indicates there is room for core cultural values, such as traditions, which can be leveraged in synergy with the common values derived from being part of the same generation.

Here are a few key highlights of the study:

• Traditional Values Matter. At 21% of millennials, Hispanics mirror their peers in many top values. However, we found traditional values like respecting ancestors, cultural purity and faith to be more important to Hispanics than their general market peers.
• Family Trumps Materialism. Hispanic millennials were substantially more likely to say they’d use the money to buy a house for their parents, or save for their children’s education, whereas non-Hispanic millennials were more interested in traveling the world with their friends.
• Traditional Family Roles and Definitions. Hispanic millennials are at the tip of the spear in a shift to a more collaborative approach at home where many domestic activities such as child care, grocery shopping and household cleaning are viewed as shared responsibilities, probably because they count as social and family time. We also find that the consumer mindset towards gay and lesbian marriages and families is changing very rapidly, and Hispanics, though from a more traditional background, are on par with their total market peers in being more open-minded.
• Sphere of Influence. For all millennials, the No. 1 source of influence in seeking opinions before buying a product is “asking family or friends” (82%).

[Ruiz is senior VP, Strategy and Insights, Univision]

US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker made her first trip as Secretary to Silicon Valley to advance the Obama Administration’s efforts to encourage innovation.

Secretary Pritzker visited the Plug and Play Tech Center, a business accelerator for tech startups. After touring Plug and Play, Secretary Pritzker delivered remarks at an event hosted by the Churchill Club, highlighting the Administration’s commitment to spurring US economic growth, innovation, and competitiveness. She described the Commerce Department’s work to invest in digital infrastructure, strengthen intellectual property protections, and support advanced manufacturing, among other initiatives. Secretary Pritzker also announced two new Commerce efforts to unleash more federal data for entrepreneurs and businesses, which are being spearheaded by the Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Census Bureau.

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) said he is "pursuing legislative solutions" to block the Federal Communications Commission's Critical Information Needs (CIN) study.

Chairman Walden said Chairman Wheeler has not adequately responded to a letter from House Republicans about the study, and Walden plans to hold a hearing and introduce legislation to stop it. Such legislation is unlikely to pass a divided Congress, but the hearing could be an opportunity to grill FCC commissioners on the issue if they agreed to testify. “The very existence of this CIN study is an affront to the First Amendment and should have never been proposed in the first place," said Chairman Walden. "As someone with a journalism degree, I was alarmed from the moment I saw it, which is why we wrote to Chairman Wheeler in December to urge him to stop the study. To date, Chairman Wheeler has insisted upon only making small tweaks, and what he has proposed to do isn’t enough. The study should be eradicated completely.”

Comcast is announcing two new prosocial partnerships that benefit the disability community and promote broadband adoption to low-income communities.

Those are both issues near and dear to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Wheeler and come as Comcast prepares to offer up voluntary conditions on a proposed Time Warner Cable merger. Comcast is partnering with Arc, which advocates for disability community rights, on a new national effort to expand digital opportunities. Comcast and NBCU have made a three-year, $3.7 million commitment to the project in cash and in-kind support, including airing Arc public service announcements. The Comcast Foundation is also providing $400,000 to support digital training and technology access and services via up to 12 Comcast Digital Literacy Learning Labs in major cities.