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Hispanics, Health Insurance and Health Care Access

Six-in-ten Hispanic adults living in the United States who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents lack health insurance, according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of a survey it conducted in 2007.1The nationwide survey offers a detailed look at the health insurance and health care access of an immigrant subgroup that has become a focus of attention in the current debate over health care reform.

Hispanics, Health Insurance and Health Care Access

Hispanics, Health Insurance and Health Care Access

The share of uninsured among this group (60%) is much higher than the share of uninsured among Latino adults who are legal permanent residents or citizens (28%), or among the adult population of the United States (17%).

Hispanic adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents tend to be younger and healthier than the adult U.S. population and are less likely than other groups to have a regular health care provider. Just 57% say there is a place they usually go when they are sick or need advice about their health, compared with 76% of Latino adults who are citizens or legal permanent residents and 83% of the adult U.S. population.

Overall, four-in-ten (41%) non-citizen, non-legal permanent resident Hispanics state that their usual provider is a community clinic or health center. These centers are designed primarily as “safety nets” for vulnerable populations and are funded by a variety of sources, including the federal government, state governments and private foundations, as well as reimbursements from patients, based upon a sliding scale (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008).

Some 15% of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents report that they use private doctors, hospital outpatient facilities or health maintenance organizations when they are sick or need advice about their health. Traditionally, patients in these settings are required to pay for their care, either via insurance or out of pocket.

An additional 6% of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents report that they usually go to an emergency room when they are sick or need advice about their health. Most emergency rooms are required by law to provide care to all patients. Patients are responsible for payment for emergency room services, but in some instances the Federal government partially reimburses hospitals for expenses the patients cannot afford.
Some 37% of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents have no usual health care provider. More than one-fourth (28%) of the people in this group indicate that financial limitations prevent them from having a usual provider — 17% report that their lack of insurance is the primary reason, while 12% cite high medical costs in general. However, a majority (56%) say they do not have a usual provider because they simply do not need one. An additional 5% state that difficulty in navigating the U.S. health care system prevents them from having a usual provider.

Undocumented immigrants and their children comprise 17% of the estimated 46 million Americans who lack health insurance.(2) According to Pew Hispanic Center estimates, 11.9 million undocumented immigrants were living in the U.S. in 2008. Three-quarters (76%) of these undocumented immigrants were Latinos.

Overall, about one-quarter of all adult Latinos are undocumented. Pew Hispanic Center analyses of Current Population Survey data indicate that approximately 98% of Hispanic immigrants who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents are undocumented. So, while the survey classification used in this report does not line up exactly with the Latino undocumented population, the two groups are nearly identical.

Health Status

The Latino population in the U.S. is relatively young, and Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents are younger still. Some 43% of adult Latinos who are not citizens or legal permanent residents are younger than age 30, compared with 27% of Hispanic adults who are citizens or legal permanent residents and 22% of the adult U.S. population. The youthfulness of this population contributes to its relative healthiness. Among adult Latinos who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents, about one-third (34%) report that they either missed work, or spent at least half a day in bed over the past year, because of illness or injury. The rate rises to 42% among adult Latinos who are citizens or legal permanent residents and to 52% among the U.S. adult population.

Experiences in the Health Care System

Three-fourths (76%) of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents report that the quality of medical care they received in the past year was excellent or good. This is similar to the proportion of adult Latino citizens and legal permanent residents (78%) who express satisfaction with their recent health care.

However, when asked a separate question — whether they had received any poor medical treatment in the past five years — adult Latinos who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents are less likely (16%) to report any problems than are Latinos who are citizens or legal permanent residents (24%).

Among those Latinos who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents who report receiving poor medical treatment in the past five years, a plurality (46%) state that they believed their accent or the way they spoke English contributed to that poor care. A similar share (43%) believed that their inability to pay for care contributed to their poor treatment. More than one-third (37%) felt that their race or ethnicity played a part in their poor care, and one-fourth (25%) attributed the unsatisfactory treatment to something in their medical history.
When asked about their most recent medical appointment, three-fourths (76%) of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents report that they felt comforted or relieved by the visit, and 69% report feeling reassured. Much smaller proportions left their most recent medical visit feeling frustrated (31%) or confused (27%).

1. Except where noted, results are based on the 2007 Pew Hispanic Center/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Latino Health Survey, in which a nationally representative sample of 4,013 Latinos were surveyed from July 16 to Sept. 23, 2007 (see Livingston, Minushkin and Cohn, 2008).
2. March 2009 Current Population Survey data show that 15% of American adults and children lack health insurance.
By Gretchen Livingston, Senior Researcher, Pew Hispanic Center

New Unified Digital Audience Measurement Service

New, Unified Audience Measurement Capabilities to Provide Publishers a Deeper Understanding of Audience Reach and Advertisers the Intelligence Needed for More Effective Media Planning

Omniture and comScore to Deliver Unified Digital Audience Measurement Service

Omniture, Inc., a leading provider of online business optimization software, and comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced a strategic partner relationship to deliver a unified digital audience measurement system. Specifically designed to meet the unique demands of the digital advertising world, the offering will combine the power of Omniture’s Web analytics with comScore’s new Media Metrix 360 hybrid audience measurement to help provide publishers and advertisers with a unified and comprehensive view of online audiences.

Two of the keys to implementing a successful digital marketing initiative are the ability to measure and analyze online marketing performance and to capture accurate views of audience reach across multiple information sources. To date, publishers and advertisers use two primary sources for measuring the impact of digital advertising – Web analytics and panel-based audience measurement. Because the two measurement methodologies have disparate objectives and employ different data collection technologies, the resulting dissimilar metrics can cause confusion and uncertainty among publishers and advertisers. This strategic partner relationship blends these two methodologies in a highly automated way to create a unified approach for audience measurement designed to enable publishers to represent themselves in a more comprehensive manner to advertisers, and for advertisers to better optimize their media planning with the benefit of more extensive media reach data.

This relationship between Omniture and comScore will enable organizations to unify their online and panel-based audience measurement information, providing more consistent and more comprehensive standard metrics. With the combined offering, publishers and advertisers will be able to automate data integration and reconciliation, eliminate the need for publishers to implement time consuming multiple data collection methods and reduce the labor-intensive steps needed to deliver unified audience measurement.

“We are excited to join forces with Omniture, a leader in quality and innovation in the Web analytics industry, to bring this solution to the marketplace,” said Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore President & CEO. “As leading providers of Internet audience measurement and Web analytics, comScore and Omniture are working to provide the marketplace a much-needed solution for consistent Web-wide measurement. This relationship will deliver to our customers the solution that they have been seeking, thus helping to promote and accelerate the usage of digital marketing intelligence for delivering actionable business results and competitive advantage. We believe it will also help the industry overcome concerns of inconsistent measurement of digital audiences and promote further adoption of digital media advertising.”

“Since the rise of digital advertising, advertisers and publishers alike have sought ways to reconcile their Web analytics and panel-based measurement data to establish a unified measure of online audiences,” said Josh James, Omniture CEO and co-founder. “With this relationship, Omniture and comScore will enable publishers who have rich, highly targeted audience segments to reliably demonstrate their value to advertisers and also help advertisers find these attractive consumer segments. The combined offering will provide advertisers and publishers with a common currency to measure the value of online audiences across an ever-increasing number of digital channels.”

Tangible Customer BenefitsToday and in the Future

The strategic partner relationship is intended to allow joint Omniture and comScore customers to use Omniture tags to collect and share information with Media Metrix 360 using Omniture Genesis integration technology, quickly bypassing the normal implementation process for Media Metrix 360.

The relationship also opens up the possibility of joint product initiatives that will leverage the granularity of the Omniture site-specific data with the Web-wide view of Internet user behavior provided by comScore.

Availability of Unified Digital Audience Measurement Service

comScore and Omniture customers interested in the new service should contact their respective account managers.

Industry Support

“The partnership between Omniture and comScore represents a significant step forward for the digital media measurement community,” said David McBride, director of Business Intelligence at Comcast Interactive Media. “To have these two leaders forge an alliance and provide the industry with an integrated solution for server and audience measurement will help us better understand and improve upon our digital performance.”

“Despite digital being the most measurable medium, it has unique dynamics that make measurement significantly more challenging than simply counting clicks,” said Larry Gelfand, senior vice president, digital sales and business development, National Hockey League. “Both census-level web analytics and person-based audience measurement services are essential to evaluating digital media performance, and to finally see these two measurement technologies brought into alignment is an extraordinarily positive step for those invested in the digital medium.”

“Publishers have always relied on both site analytics and audience measurement data for understanding the performance of our web properties,” said Tomer Strolight, president, Torstar Digital. “Even though the two measurement platforms are used for different purposes, the disparities between the two have been somewhat disconcerting. This effort to harmonize the two data sets and understand the source of the disparities will give everyone in the industry a better understanding of their data and give us more confidence in the decisions we make based on these metrics.”

“The partnership between comScore and Omniture has the potential to move the measurement of online media several steps forward,” said Scott McDonald, SVP Research, Conde Nast Publications. “For more than a decade, we have fretted about – and sometimes quarreled about — the discrepancies between the audience estimates derived from third-party panels like comScore’s and those derived from web site analytics systems like Omniture’s. This collaboration represents the most significant effort to date to harmonize the two approaches and give the industry, at last, a common and convergent set of numbers.”

“It is terrific to see these two industry giants collaborate on a solution to this longstanding problem of reconciling panel and server data,” said Patrick Lauzon, executive vice president, SUN Media (Quebecor Media Co.). “This is yet another example of comScore and Omniture being leaders in the field and providing the mission critical solutions the industry has been calling for.”

“The digital industry has grappled with the differences between panel and server information for many years,” said Graham Mosey, SVP and General Manager, CanWest Digital. “We were one of the first comScore clients to support the Media Metrix 360 project because we saw the obvious benefits. The comScore-Omniture partnership eliminates the implementation burden and will expedite the expansion of this new form of measurement. Having as many publishers as possible involved can only be good for the industry. This is a groundbreaking development which is extremely exciting.”

Source: comScore

Snacking differences between Hispanics, general population

Snacking Differences: Hispanic Parents More Likely to Reward Kids with Snacks

Study highlights snacking differences between Hispanics, general population

Study highlights snacking differences between Hispanics, general population

Dipped, topped or eaten plain, America loves snacks. But new research from Mintel shows that not all Americans snack the same. Hispanics, the fastest growing population in the US, differ significantly in their snacking habits.
Hispanic adults are twice as likely as non-Hispanics to reward their children’s good behavior with salty snacks (41% versus 19%). But salty snack consumption among Hispanic adults is low, possibly due to traditional food preferences. Of five snacks-potato chips, pretzels, popcorn, nuts and corn/tortilla chips/cheese snacks-only 65% of Hispanics report eating three or more regularly (versus 80% of the general population).

Other key snacking differences findings

  • Hispanics emphasize mealtime, with snacks often perceived as appetite-spoilers. Mintel found Hispanics more interested in packages with ’small portions’ than the general population
  • Frozen snack usage is extremely low among less acculturated Hispanics, but more acculturated Hispanics eat them at the same rate as other Americans
  • Hispanic children show higher preference for healthy snacks like yogurt, cheese, raw veggies and nuts than non-Hispanic children

’Manufacturers need to understand that Hispanic’s eating habits are not the same as the general population’s,’ explains Leylha Ahuile, multicultural expert at Mintel. ’Even among Hispanics, we see huge variety in snacking, eating and drinking tendencies.’ Ahuile emphasizes the importance of not viewing Hispanics as one homogenous group. ’Understanding acculturation and how Hispanics differ from one another is key for companies hoping to tap into this rapidly growing market.’

Source: http://www.mintel.com

Characteristics of Hispanic Millennials

Characteristics of Hispanic Millennials

Characteristics of Hispanic Millennials

In terms of population size, Millennials are already reshaping the ethnic makeup of the Unites States. According to recent figures from the 2008 Current Population Survey, 44 percent of those born since the beginning of the 80’s belong to some racial or ethnic category other than “non-Hispanic white”. Millennials are revealing themselves to be the demographic precursor to Census Bureau projections showing whites as a minority by 2050: only 56 percent of Millennials are white (non-Hispanic) and only 28 percent of current Baby Boomers who are non-white. Therefore we can say that the younger the group, the higher the proportion of “ethnic” populations.

Characteristics of the Hispanic Millennials

Hispanics are at the forefront of this Millennial diversity:

  • – over 20 percent of Millennials are Hispanics
  • – approximately 86 percent of Hispanics under the age of 18 are born in the U.S. (95 percent of Millennials are U.S. born)
  • – many Hispanic Millennials are the offspring of immigrants
  • – unlike their immigrant parents, this group strongly exhibits a preference for English as their primary mode of communication – this poses an interesting challenge when targeting this group because of the importance of family opinions
  • – 88 percent of second generation Hispanics and 94 percent of third generation Hispanics are highly English fluent (speak “very well”). Many second generation Hispanics tend to be bilingual, but English dominates by the third generation. (Source: Pew Hispanic Center)
    A distinguishing characteristic of multi-ethnic Millennials is their heavily “second generation” orientation (nearly 30 percent are children of immigrants). Since they are more likely children of immigrants than immigrants themselves, the proportion of foreign born Millennials is relatively small when compared to Generation Xers and Baby Boomers. Foreign-born persons comprise 13 percent of all Millennials (includes all those born since the 80s), but they make up 22 percent of the Generation X cohort (born between 1965 to 1979) and 16 percent of Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964).

Hispanics born in the U.S. can be grouped into two distinct marketing segments

a- the young “millennial” Latinos, children, teens, and young adults born to immigrant parents

b- “traditional Latinos” or those born to Latino families that have been U.S. citizens for two or more generations

The first ones know how to live in both cultures and enjoy doing so. For the second segment, and depending on the market, the levels of value orientation and acculturation vary drastically.  They may be far removed from the Latino culture or their identity as Hispanics can be much more traditional and stronger than expected.

Perhaps more astounding is the casual mix-and-match cultural sensibilities of Millennials. Not content to cleave to any single ethnic or cultural influence, they are free to engage in the variety with no restrictions. One example is “Mashups”—entire compositions reconfigured from samples drawn from disparate musical genres—so popular on mp3 players. Millennial choices in popular culture are drawn from a broad pool of influences, and anything can be customized and suited to one’s personal preferences—just as easily as an iPod playlist. Likewise, the aesthetics of Millennial fashion, movies, and video games increasingly reflect a broad range of influences—from Japanese anime to East L.A. graffiti art.
Today’s young consumer shun direct overtures aimed at appealing to their ethnic background and they tend to discard traditional cultural labels in favor of their own self-created monikers like “Mexipino”, “Blaxican”, “China Latina”.

As a market segment, Millennials are shaking the foundations of advertising and media. Enabled by technology, their lifestyle is characterized by instant text messaging, mobile media, and virtual social networking. Millennials Hispanics are 211% more likely to download content from the Internet than the general population. Over 60% of Hispanic Millennials are online.
Downloads just might be the manner in which Hispanics are attaining and interacting with certain brands for the first time. For example, downloading may be a preferred method to receive media content including local and national news. This is exemplary of a larger phenomena occurring across the youth culture, as people in younger age brackets go online for content typically associated with more ‘traditional’ media, such as movies or television.  Media content providers and marketers have an opportunity to leverage downloading habits and create content that engages Hispanic Millennials and other Hispanics online.

by Claudia “Havi” Goffan

Accessing of social networking sites or blogs also saw significant growth, increasing 2.6 percentage points to 20.8 percent of mobile subscribers.
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Social Media Network Dashboard Sets New Benchmark for Collections
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Study highlights snacking differences between Hispanics, general population

Hispanics, Health Insurance and Health Care Access

Six-in-ten Hispanic adults living in the United States who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents lack health insurance, according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of a survey it conducted in 2007.1The nationwide survey offers a detailed look at the health insurance and health care access of an immigrant subgroup that has become a focus of attention in the current debate over health care reform.

Hispanics, Health Insurance and Health Care Access

Hispanics, Health Insurance and Health Care Access

The share of uninsured among this group (60%) is much higher than the share of uninsured among Latino adults who are legal permanent residents or citizens (28%), or among the adult population of the United States (17%).

Hispanic adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents tend to be younger and healthier than the adult U.S. population and are less likely than other groups to have a regular health care provider. Just 57% say there is a place they usually go when they are sick or need advice about their health, compared with 76% of Latino adults who are citizens or legal permanent residents and 83% of the adult U.S. population.

Overall, four-in-ten (41%) non-citizen, non-legal permanent resident Hispanics state that their usual provider is a community clinic or health center. These centers are designed primarily as “safety nets” for vulnerable populations and are funded by a variety of sources, including the federal government, state governments and private foundations, as well as reimbursements from patients, based upon a sliding scale (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008).

Some 15% of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents report that they use private doctors, hospital outpatient facilities or health maintenance organizations when they are sick or need advice about their health. Traditionally, patients in these settings are required to pay for their care, either via insurance or out of pocket.

An additional 6% of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents report that they usually go to an emergency room when they are sick or need advice about their health. Most emergency rooms are required by law to provide care to all patients. Patients are responsible for payment for emergency room services, but in some instances the Federal government partially reimburses hospitals for expenses the patients cannot afford.
Some 37% of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents have no usual health care provider. More than one-fourth (28%) of the people in this group indicate that financial limitations prevent them from having a usual provider — 17% report that their lack of insurance is the primary reason, while 12% cite high medical costs in general. However, a majority (56%) say they do not have a usual provider because they simply do not need one. An additional 5% state that difficulty in navigating the U.S. health care system prevents them from having a usual provider.

Undocumented immigrants and their children comprise 17% of the estimated 46 million Americans who lack health insurance.(2) According to Pew Hispanic Center estimates, 11.9 million undocumented immigrants were living in the U.S. in 2008. Three-quarters (76%) of these undocumented immigrants were Latinos.

Overall, about one-quarter of all adult Latinos are undocumented. Pew Hispanic Center analyses of Current Population Survey data indicate that approximately 98% of Hispanic immigrants who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents are undocumented. So, while the survey classification used in this report does not line up exactly with the Latino undocumented population, the two groups are nearly identical.

Health Status

The Latino population in the U.S. is relatively young, and Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents are younger still. Some 43% of adult Latinos who are not citizens or legal permanent residents are younger than age 30, compared with 27% of Hispanic adults who are citizens or legal permanent residents and 22% of the adult U.S. population. The youthfulness of this population contributes to its relative healthiness. Among adult Latinos who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents, about one-third (34%) report that they either missed work, or spent at least half a day in bed over the past year, because of illness or injury. The rate rises to 42% among adult Latinos who are citizens or legal permanent residents and to 52% among the U.S. adult population.

Experiences in the Health Care System

Three-fourths (76%) of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents report that the quality of medical care they received in the past year was excellent or good. This is similar to the proportion of adult Latino citizens and legal permanent residents (78%) who express satisfaction with their recent health care.

However, when asked a separate question — whether they had received any poor medical treatment in the past five years — adult Latinos who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents are less likely (16%) to report any problems than are Latinos who are citizens or legal permanent residents (24%).

Among those Latinos who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents who report receiving poor medical treatment in the past five years, a plurality (46%) state that they believed their accent or the way they spoke English contributed to that poor care. A similar share (43%) believed that their inability to pay for care contributed to their poor treatment. More than one-third (37%) felt that their race or ethnicity played a part in their poor care, and one-fourth (25%) attributed the unsatisfactory treatment to something in their medical history.
When asked about their most recent medical appointment, three-fourths (76%) of Latino adults who are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents report that they felt comforted or relieved by the visit, and 69% report feeling reassured. Much smaller proportions left their most recent medical visit feeling frustrated (31%) or confused (27%).

1. Except where noted, results are based on the 2007 Pew Hispanic Center/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Latino Health Survey, in which a nationally representative sample of 4,013 Latinos were surveyed from July 16 to Sept. 23, 2007 (see Livingston, Minushkin and Cohn, 2008).
2. March 2009 Current Population Survey data show that 15% of American adults and children lack health insurance.
By Gretchen Livingston, Senior Researcher, Pew Hispanic Center

New Unified Digital Audience Measurement Service

New, Unified Audience Measurement Capabilities to Provide Publishers a Deeper Understanding of Audience Reach and Advertisers the Intelligence Needed for More Effective Media Planning

Omniture and comScore to Deliver Unified Digital Audience Measurement Service

Omniture, Inc., a leading provider of online business optimization software, and comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced a strategic partner relationship to deliver a unified digital audience measurement system. Specifically designed to meet the unique demands of the digital advertising world, the offering will combine the power of Omniture’s Web analytics with comScore’s new Media Metrix 360 hybrid audience measurement to help provide publishers and advertisers with a unified and comprehensive view of online audiences.

Two of the keys to implementing a successful digital marketing initiative are the ability to measure and analyze online marketing performance and to capture accurate views of audience reach across multiple information sources. To date, publishers and advertisers use two primary sources for measuring the impact of digital advertising – Web analytics and panel-based audience measurement. Because the two measurement methodologies have disparate objectives and employ different data collection technologies, the resulting dissimilar metrics can cause confusion and uncertainty among publishers and advertisers. This strategic partner relationship blends these two methodologies in a highly automated way to create a unified approach for audience measurement designed to enable publishers to represent themselves in a more comprehensive manner to advertisers, and for advertisers to better optimize their media planning with the benefit of more extensive media reach data.

This relationship between Omniture and comScore will enable organizations to unify their online and panel-based audience measurement information, providing more consistent and more comprehensive standard metrics. With the combined offering, publishers and advertisers will be able to automate data integration and reconciliation, eliminate the need for publishers to implement time consuming multiple data collection methods and reduce the labor-intensive steps needed to deliver unified audience measurement.

“We are excited to join forces with Omniture, a leader in quality and innovation in the Web analytics industry, to bring this solution to the marketplace,” said Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore President & CEO. “As leading providers of Internet audience measurement and Web analytics, comScore and Omniture are working to provide the marketplace a much-needed solution for consistent Web-wide measurement. This relationship will deliver to our customers the solution that they have been seeking, thus helping to promote and accelerate the usage of digital marketing intelligence for delivering actionable business results and competitive advantage. We believe it will also help the industry overcome concerns of inconsistent measurement of digital audiences and promote further adoption of digital media advertising.”

“Since the rise of digital advertising, advertisers and publishers alike have sought ways to reconcile their Web analytics and panel-based measurement data to establish a unified measure of online audiences,” said Josh James, Omniture CEO and co-founder. “With this relationship, Omniture and comScore will enable publishers who have rich, highly targeted audience segments to reliably demonstrate their value to advertisers and also help advertisers find these attractive consumer segments. The combined offering will provide advertisers and publishers with a common currency to measure the value of online audiences across an ever-increasing number of digital channels.”

Tangible Customer BenefitsToday and in the Future

The strategic partner relationship is intended to allow joint Omniture and comScore customers to use Omniture tags to collect and share information with Media Metrix 360 using Omniture Genesis integration technology, quickly bypassing the normal implementation process for Media Metrix 360.

The relationship also opens up the possibility of joint product initiatives that will leverage the granularity of the Omniture site-specific data with the Web-wide view of Internet user behavior provided by comScore.

Availability of Unified Digital Audience Measurement Service

comScore and Omniture customers interested in the new service should contact their respective account managers.

Industry Support

“The partnership between Omniture and comScore represents a significant step forward for the digital media measurement community,” said David McBride, director of Business Intelligence at Comcast Interactive Media. “To have these two leaders forge an alliance and provide the industry with an integrated solution for server and audience measurement will help us better understand and improve upon our digital performance.”

“Despite digital being the most measurable medium, it has unique dynamics that make measurement significantly more challenging than simply counting clicks,” said Larry Gelfand, senior vice president, digital sales and business development, National Hockey League. “Both census-level web analytics and person-based audience measurement services are essential to evaluating digital media performance, and to finally see these two measurement technologies brought into alignment is an extraordinarily positive step for those invested in the digital medium.”

“Publishers have always relied on both site analytics and audience measurement data for understanding the performance of our web properties,” said Tomer Strolight, president, Torstar Digital. “Even though the two measurement platforms are used for different purposes, the disparities between the two have been somewhat disconcerting. This effort to harmonize the two data sets and understand the source of the disparities will give everyone in the industry a better understanding of their data and give us more confidence in the decisions we make based on these metrics.”

“The partnership between comScore and Omniture has the potential to move the measurement of online media several steps forward,” said Scott McDonald, SVP Research, Conde Nast Publications. “For more than a decade, we have fretted about – and sometimes quarreled about — the discrepancies between the audience estimates derived from third-party panels like comScore’s and those derived from web site analytics systems like Omniture’s. This collaboration represents the most significant effort to date to harmonize the two approaches and give the industry, at last, a common and convergent set of numbers.”

“It is terrific to see these two industry giants collaborate on a solution to this longstanding problem of reconciling panel and server data,” said Patrick Lauzon, executive vice president, SUN Media (Quebecor Media Co.). “This is yet another example of comScore and Omniture being leaders in the field and providing the mission critical solutions the industry has been calling for.”

“The digital industry has grappled with the differences between panel and server information for many years,” said Graham Mosey, SVP and General Manager, CanWest Digital. “We were one of the first comScore clients to support the Media Metrix 360 project because we saw the obvious benefits. The comScore-Omniture partnership eliminates the implementation burden and will expedite the expansion of this new form of measurement. Having as many publishers as possible involved can only be good for the industry. This is a groundbreaking development which is extremely exciting.”

Source: comScore

Snacking differences between Hispanics, general population

Snacking Differences: Hispanic Parents More Likely to Reward Kids with Snacks

Study highlights snacking differences between Hispanics, general population

Study highlights snacking differences between Hispanics, general population

Dipped, topped or eaten plain, America loves snacks. But new research from Mintel shows that not all Americans snack the same. Hispanics, the fastest growing population in the US, differ significantly in their snacking habits.
Hispanic adults are twice as likely as non-Hispanics to reward their children’s good behavior with salty snacks (41% versus 19%). But salty snack consumption among Hispanic adults is low, possibly due to traditional food preferences. Of five snacks-potato chips, pretzels, popcorn, nuts and corn/tortilla chips/cheese snacks-only 65% of Hispanics report eating three or more regularly (versus 80% of the general population).

Other key snacking differences findings

  • Hispanics emphasize mealtime, with snacks often perceived as appetite-spoilers. Mintel found Hispanics more interested in packages with ’small portions’ than the general population
  • Frozen snack usage is extremely low among less acculturated Hispanics, but more acculturated Hispanics eat them at the same rate as other Americans
  • Hispanic children show higher preference for healthy snacks like yogurt, cheese, raw veggies and nuts than non-Hispanic children

’Manufacturers need to understand that Hispanic’s eating habits are not the same as the general population’s,’ explains Leylha Ahuile, multicultural expert at Mintel. ’Even among Hispanics, we see huge variety in snacking, eating and drinking tendencies.’ Ahuile emphasizes the importance of not viewing Hispanics as one homogenous group. ’Understanding acculturation and how Hispanics differ from one another is key for companies hoping to tap into this rapidly growing market.’

Source: http://www.mintel.com

Characteristics of Hispanic Millennials

Characteristics of Hispanic Millennials

Characteristics of Hispanic Millennials

In terms of population size, Millennials are already reshaping the ethnic makeup of the Unites States. According to recent figures from the 2008 Current Population Survey, 44 percent of those born since the beginning of the 80’s belong to some racial or ethnic category other than “non-Hispanic white”. Millennials are revealing themselves to be the demographic precursor to Census Bureau projections showing whites as a minority by 2050: only 56 percent of Millennials are white (non-Hispanic) and only 28 percent of current Baby Boomers who are non-white. Therefore we can say that the younger the group, the higher the proportion of “ethnic” populations.

Characteristics of the Hispanic Millennials

Hispanics are at the forefront of this Millennial diversity:

  • – over 20 percent of Millennials are Hispanics
  • – approximately 86 percent of Hispanics under the age of 18 are born in the U.S. (95 percent of Millennials are U.S. born)
  • – many Hispanic Millennials are the offspring of immigrants
  • – unlike their immigrant parents, this group strongly exhibits a preference for English as their primary mode of communication – this poses an interesting challenge when targeting this group because of the importance of family opinions
  • – 88 percent of second generation Hispanics and 94 percent of third generation Hispanics are highly English fluent (speak “very well”). Many second generation Hispanics tend to be bilingual, but English dominates by the third generation. (Source: Pew Hispanic Center)
    A distinguishing characteristic of multi-ethnic Millennials is their heavily “second generation” orientation (nearly 30 percent are children of immigrants). Since they are more likely children of immigrants than immigrants themselves, the proportion of foreign born Millennials is relatively small when compared to Generation Xers and Baby Boomers. Foreign-born persons comprise 13 percent of all Millennials (includes all those born since the 80s), but they make up 22 percent of the Generation X cohort (born between 1965 to 1979) and 16 percent of Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964).

Hispanics born in the U.S. can be grouped into two distinct marketing segments

a- the young “millennial” Latinos, children, teens, and young adults born to immigrant parents

b- “traditional Latinos” or those born to Latino families that have been U.S. citizens for two or more generations

The first ones know how to live in both cultures and enjoy doing so. For the second segment, and depending on the market, the levels of value orientation and acculturation vary drastically.  They may be far removed from the Latino culture or their identity as Hispanics can be much more traditional and stronger than expected.

Perhaps more astounding is the casual mix-and-match cultural sensibilities of Millennials. Not content to cleave to any single ethnic or cultural influence, they are free to engage in the variety with no restrictions. One example is “Mashups”—entire compositions reconfigured from samples drawn from disparate musical genres—so popular on mp3 players. Millennial choices in popular culture are drawn from a broad pool of influences, and anything can be customized and suited to one’s personal preferences—just as easily as an iPod playlist. Likewise, the aesthetics of Millennial fashion, movies, and video games increasingly reflect a broad range of influences—from Japanese anime to East L.A. graffiti art.
Today’s young consumer shun direct overtures aimed at appealing to their ethnic background and they tend to discard traditional cultural labels in favor of their own self-created monikers like “Mexipino”, “Blaxican”, “China Latina”.

As a market segment, Millennials are shaking the foundations of advertising and media. Enabled by technology, their lifestyle is characterized by instant text messaging, mobile media, and virtual social networking. Millennials Hispanics are 211% more likely to download content from the Internet than the general population. Over 60% of Hispanic Millennials are online.
Downloads just might be the manner in which Hispanics are attaining and interacting with certain brands for the first time. For example, downloading may be a preferred method to receive media content including local and national news. This is exemplary of a larger phenomena occurring across the youth culture, as people in younger age brackets go online for content typically associated with more ‘traditional’ media, such as movies or television.  Media content providers and marketers have an opportunity to leverage downloading habits and create content that engages Hispanic Millennials and other Hispanics online.

by Claudia “Havi” Goffan

Accessing of social networking sites or blogs also saw significant growth, increasing 2.6 percentage points to 20.8 percent of mobile subscribers.
Intelligent Technologies You Should Know About
Social Media Network Dashboard Sets New Benchmark for Collections
U.S. Census Facts for Features: Hispanic Heritage Month 2009
Study highlights snacking differences between Hispanics, general population

Walden University Launches Online Degree in Spanish

Extends access to higher education for Spanish-dominant adults. Walden University Launches Degree Taught in Spanish, Delivered Online; Offers Tuition Success Award

MINNEAPOLIS, July 29 /PRNewswire/ –Walden University has launched an online B.S. in Business Administration degree taught in Spanish with the option to learn English. The curriculum is fully delivered in Spanish, and is supported by a full suite of Spanish-language services. Walden’s program is designed to serve those for whom the English-language barrier is an obstacle to a degree from an accredited U.S. university.

Census data show that one-half of the foreign-born population of the United States is Hispanic. Members of the Hispanic community are, in particular, expected to benefit from this program offering.

“The segment of the Latino population that prefers learning and communicating in Spanish has not been well served by U.S. higher education institutions,” said Dr. Ivonne Chirino-Klevans, director of the Spanish-language B.S. in Business Administration program at Walden University. “Walden’s degree program removes the language obstacles preventing many eligible Hispanics from earning a degree. College ready, Spanish-dominant individuals now have a greater opportunity to improve their lives and advance their careers.”

To help provide an opportunity for all eligible students to pursue a degree, Walden has announced it will offer a Walden University Academic Success Award. Open to all students enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration program (taught in Spanish with the option to learn English), this award can provide a 15 percent tuition reduction, which equates to between $6,000 and $6,750 over the life of the program*.

Walden’s bachelor’s program provides a full suite of Spanish-language support services, including enrollment and academic advising, writing assistance, tutoring, library resources, technical support, financial and personal counseling, and career services. For those students who want to become English-proficient, Walden offers an optional English-language component (ESL). With the ESL component, students can learn English while earning their degree, and eventually may become eligible to transfer into Walden’s English-language B.S. in Business Administration program. Regardless of the path students choose, upon graduation and with demonstrated proficiency, they may be able to enter Walden’s M.B.A. program.

The program combines academic theory with practical application. The Spanish-language program is designed to achieve the same outcomes as Walden’s English-language B.S. in Business Administration program and prepares students for real-world jobs in a global economy. For example, students will learn how to apply basic business principles to solve problems and leverage domestic and global opportunities; how to use critical thinking and business application skills to make strategic business decisions; how to evaluate the use of technology in a competitive global economy; and how to work effectively across cultures.

Students in the program will communicate in Spanish with other students and faculty members to exchange ideas; discuss key concepts, theories, and issues; practice new skills and strategies; and apply new knowledge to prior experiences.

Walden has long been a champion of the Latino community. In April 2009 The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Educationmagazine ranked Walden University No. 12 on its list of the top 25 colleges and universities with the largest Hispanic graduate student enrollment. The program, targeted to meet the specific and unique needs of the Latino community, is based in Walden’s College of Management and Technology. For the second year in a row, Walden was listed as having the No. 4 largest online graduate management program by enrollment by U.S. News & World Report. Walden is also a part of the Laureate International Universities network, with sister universities located across eight countries in Latin America.

For more informationabout Walden University’s B.S. in Business Administration (taught in Spanish with the option to learn English), visit www.licenciatura.waldenu.edu.

*Award, tuition and fees are for the 2009 – 2010 academic year and are subject to change. The total award amount is dependent upon each student’s transfer of credits and prior learning assessment totals. This award cannot be combined with any other Walden scholarship or tuition reduction offer. Not valid to Tennessee residents.

About Walden University

Since 1970, Walden University has supported working professionals in achieving their academic goals and making a greater impact in their professions and their communities. Today, more than 33,000 students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries are pursuing their bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degrees at Walden. The university provides students with an engaging educational experience that connects them with expert faculty and peers around the world. Walden is the flagship online university in the Laureate International Universities network–a global network of 45 online and campus-based universities in 20 countries.

Walden offers more than 36 degree programs with more than 140 specializations and concentrations. Areas of study include: health sciences, counseling, human services, management, psychology, education, public health, nursing, public administration, technology and engineering.

For more information, visit www.WaldenU.edu. Walden University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association, www.ncahlc.org.

Source: Walden University