Colorado groups are working to appeal to more Hispanic and Latino residents to vote, after recent data from the Pew Research Center found there are around 659,000 eligible Latino voters in the state -- not only voters, but consumers, buyers of products and services.

Hispanic consumers make up 23.2% of the U.S. Millennial population throughout the United States. Based on that percentage, Claritas, a data-driven company, estimates one out of every four Millennials is Hispanic.

By 2028, Claritas predicts that nearly 50% of the combined Gen Z and Millennial American population will be Hispanic.

Claritas has released the report, The 2022 Hispanic Market Report, which offers marketers insight into how to appeal to multicultural American consumers and specifically, the Hispanic population, which the company pegs as the nation’s fastest-growing multicultural subset.

Today, around 66.5 million Hispanic consumers live in the U.S., representing more than $1.7 trillion in annual buying power.

About 70% of Hispanic households subscribe to Netflix, and are 22% more likely to be subscribers than the average U.S. household. About 40% subscribe to Disney+ and are 39% more likely to be subscribers than the average household.

The report also suggests that nearly one out of every three Hispanic Americans are Spanish language dependent or bi-lingual Spanish preferred – and their families originate from a wide variety of countries, from Mexico and Spain to Guatemala, Colombia and Honduras.

Hispanics, according to the report, represent a potentially lucrative customer base for banks and other financial institutions.

The group is “more underbanked than any other race/ethnic group, with only 75% owning a checking account versus the U.S. average of 89%. “Of those who are less assimilated into the U.S. culture – less than 46% have a checking account and only 24% have a savings account. In addition, more than 50% of Hispanic households have opened a new credit account versus 38% of other U.S. households in the past year.

Less than 36% of Hispanics have life insurance coverage -- but this is not due to financial reasons. More than half of less acculturated Hispanics say they simply don’t understand life insurance well enough, and 20% say no one has ever approached them about buying it. Some 60% agree that life insurance is important for retirement planning.

Hispanic consumers rely on mobile devices more so than laptops or desktops. About half use their mobile device to manage insurance and policy claims. Claritas suggests that providers interested in supporting the Hispanic market should build an app and offer it in Spanish.

Almost 30% of Hispanic households switched mobile providers in the last year, and only 46% rate their current mobile provider as “good” or “very good” – making the Hispanic population a potentially good target for mobile service providers looking to steal business from competitors.

Chris Winfrey, the chief operating officer, will become president and chief executive officer of the company, starting in December.

Rutledge -- who has been in the top post since 2012 -- will oversee Charter’s Government Affairs, among other responsibilities, in the new post through the end of his contract in November of 2023.

Winfrey came to Charter in 2010 as chief financial officer, adding oversight to the company’s Spectrum cable/broadband and mobile brand in 2019. He became chief operating officer last year.

Under Rutledge’s tenure, he boosted the company's subscriber base organically and through acquisitions, making deals to buy Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Optimum West cable systems.

Charter’s service area spans across 55 million homes and businesses.

A long-time cable TV executive veteran -- with more than 50 years in the business -- Rutledge became president of Time Warner Cable in 2001.

Later on, before coming to Charter in 2012, he was chief operating officer of Cablevision Systems, where he oversaw the company's cable TV business and its Rainbow Media unit, Cablevision's national programming business, which includes the AMC, IFC, Sundance TV and WEtv networks; Clearview Cinemas and Newsday.

Rutledge is a former chairman of the NCTA, the cable TV/internet business trade organization

Salesforce has kicked off its 2022 Dreamforce conference in San Francisco by debuting Genie, a data platform that it says now powers the Salesforce Customer 360 CRM tool. 

Salesforce Genie contains built-in connectors that pull in data from every channel, along with Salesforce transactional data and historical data from proprietary data lakes.

Genie harmonizes this data into a real-time customer graph to create a unified customer profile record.

The goal is to make “every part of Customer 360 more automated, intelligent and real-time," says David Schmaier, President and Chief Product Officer, Salesforce.

Companies have an average of 976 separate applications, potentially creating 976 versions of a single customer, the company notes. 

Sales reps need real-time insights about every customer, service agents require a complete view across every touchpoint and healthcare providers need timely data to deliver care recommendations. 

Salesforce Einstein, which now generates over 175 predictions per day, can with Genie deliver personalization and predictions based on real-time data, the company adds. 

Genie, which runs on Hyperforce, the Salesforce public cloud infrastructure, is now available with these capabilities and versions, the company says:

• Sales Cloud Genie allows sales reps to receive real-time guidance from Einstein during customer video and voice calls. 
• Service Cloud Genie provides proactive alerts from the contact center to service reps in the field. 
• Marketing Cloud Genie enables marketers to deliver personalized messages across channels.
• Commerce Cloud Genie helps retailers build tailored shopper experiences based on customer actions, including abandoned shopping carts and actions taken on a website or mobile app.
• Tableau Genie lets businesses monitor KPIs.
• MuleSoft Genie unlock data across modern or legacy systems.
• Slack Genie enables IT teams to automatically view data from any channel with intelligent workflows.

Salesforce serves a variety of brands, including Formula1 and L'Oréal. "A global TV audience of 1.5 billion is at the heart of everything we do,” says Marek Borowik, global head of fan engagement at F1," adding that the company partnered with Salesforce to attain a "full view of our fanbase, increase and deepen the intensity of fan engagement, and attract new fans." 

Asmita Dubey, chief digital and marketing officer at L'Oréal, says Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Personalization Commerce Cloud, and Service Cloud can help connect with consumers "at every point of their shopper journey via their preferred on-line and off-line channels, including web, mobile, and in-store." 

Amazon opened its first Go grocery store in Seattle, inviting shoppers to walk in, grab what they need and walk out without having to interact with a cashier or machine at a checkout station.

On Monday, Instacart announced a similar experience. Connected Stores will debut a handful of services similar to Amazon at the high-end grocery store Bristol Farms in Irvine, California, a Good Food Holdings company acquired by Emart, South Korea's largest retailer, for $275 million in 2018. (Can't wait to try it.)

In the coming months, consumers will have the ability to see and use the Connected Stores technology — including Caper Carts, Scan & Pay, Lists, Carrot Tags, and FoodStorm software.

Good Food Holdings will also use Storefront Pro to power Bristol Farms’ online store, connect it to its physical store to create a better experience across both.

For retailers, this means eliminating repetitive tasks so employees can focus on things like customer service and higher profits, since customers who shop online and in-person are more engaged and spend more.

Data is one benefit that the release or company doesn't talk about.

The ability to tie online and offline purchases will ease the burden of ad targeting. Not only does it mean more data per individual, but it gives retailers and brands a better understanding of why consumers purchase some products online, while they purchase other products in stores.  

Instacart describes Connected Stores as “a bundle of new and existing Instacart Platform technologies that will help grocers build a unified, seamless, personalized experience” online and in-store. It’s not just about helping retailers build websites and apps, but rather connecting all of Instacart ecommerce solutions like Storefront Pro with new in-store technologies.

Services include a new model of Caper Cart, a smart cart powered by artificial intelligence (AI) equipped with scales, sensors, touchscreens, and computer vision technology.

The screen helps customers navigate the store, and unlike self-checkout terminals and other smart carts, the scanless technology eliminates the need to manually scan items.

The items get dropped and checked out from the cart. Instacart says the new cart is slimmer and holds 65% more than the previous version.

Then there is Scan & Pay, which enables consumers to scan items as they shop and pay for them using a mobile phone. Scan & Pay links purchased items in the store to the consumer’s online account, making it easier to buy them again.

Other services include Lists, Carrot Tags, FoodStorm Department Orders, and Out of Stock Insights.

Carrot Tags are smart electronic shelf labels with pick-to-light capabilities that make it easy to find products and learning about new ones. Out of Stock Insights help retailers identify when items are running low or out of stock in real-time so they can alert associates.

Fewer Americans are expressing concerns about online privacy this year than last year, according to findings of a study released this morning by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF).

While the shift was deemed small -- 42% vs. 48% in a comparable study fielded by the ARF in 2021 -- the ARF noted it likely because American consumers have been given greater control over their privacy settings in the past year due to steps taken by Apple, Google and others.

"They took steps to protect their privacy, such as changing privacy settings, at about the same rate as in 2021," reads the ARF's just-released "Fifth Annual Privacy Study," adding, "Men and younger persons were more likely to take privacy related actions than women and older persons."

While overall American consumer privacy angst may be waning, the study also found that a significant percentage remain concerned about misuse of their data.

"A quarter to a third of persons thought typical targeting scenarios were a misuse of their data," the report states, adding: "More thought it a misuse when based on their location being known and less when being retargeted after leaving goods in a cart.

"When asked how they feel about being grouped with other similar persons, the respondents," they study found they "were less favorable about being grouped with others because of their mobility and location than they were about being grouped by age and gender."

TV measurement company iSpot.tv has struck a deal with streaming analytics company Conviva to add TV network streaming data into iSpot's cross-media program and advertising platform -- to help the company pursue its new media “currency” efforts.

The deal, iSpot says, is intended to create a “unified” service that includes second-by-second, onscreen verification for all programming across a TV network's footprint.

iSpot, which has deals with multiple networks in place for currency testing and deployment, says it can now more easily integrate program viewing data for connected TV (CTV), mobile, tablets, and computers across its TV network “currency” partners.

In addition, it will accelerate the time to create and market a “cross-platform program rating” -- which many marketers say is key for a broader, much-needed single-source measurement system.

Emily Wood, vide president of business development at iSpot, says it will also give network partners the ability to authorize their first-party streaming data “for use in our currency products and beyond.”

Since January 2022, iSpot.tv and Conviva have been working to integrate data from Conviva's internet-scale census-level streaming profile for next-day cross-platform ratings for both programming and ads.

A major backer of iSpot.tv, NBCUniversal, believes this to be a good approach.

Kelly Abcarian, executive vice president of measurement and impact for NBCUniversal, said in a release: “iSpot and Conviva's collaboration has shown how to set a new bar for speed, accuracy and completeness.”<

Walmart on Tuesday introduced a series of “Innovation Partners” that can support advertising and marketing services across social feeds, live streams, video, mobile, and connected TV (CTV).

TikTok, Snap, Firework, TalkShopLive, and Roku are among the companies included in the program.

“As the media funnel continues to collapse, advertisers are realizing the opportunity to reach shoppers on leading platforms where they are increasingly spending their time,” Seth Dallaire, executive vice president and CRO of Walmart, wrote in a post.

Gen Z and millennial consumers will drive 17% of social commerce by 2015 -- up from 10%, according to Accenture. About 64% of social media users -- an estimated 2 billion social buyers -- said they have made a purchase on social media in the past year.

The pilots between Walmart Connect and TikTok will provide advertisers an opportunity to serve in-feed ads on TikTok.

More than 50% of TikTok users say they watch ads on their feed instead of scrolling past them. The partnership combines TikTok's full-screen video format with Walmart Connect's targeting and measurement.  

Snap brings advertisers Snap Ads, Collection Ads, and Snap AR with Walmart Connect geo-based measurement of omnichannel sales lift.

This is the first-time advertisers can buy Snap advertising units through Walmart Connect. Seventy-five percent of Snap users are between the ages of 13 and 24 in the U.S. This group holds more than $1.9 trillion in spending power, according to Dallaire. 

Firework will enable supplier-funded shoppable live streams and short shoppable videos on Walmart.com/live.

Walmart Connect is testing how brands can leverage Firework’s capabilities to create premium, engaging, mobile-first video experiences and to start, has partnered with J&J, L’Oreal, P&G, and Unilever. 

The TalkShopLive partnership enables supplier-funded shoppable live streams on Walmart.com/live, Walmart Connect is testing how brands can amplify their content and connect with shoppers. Live streams are running J&J, L’Oreal, P&G, and Samsung, among others. 

Walmart recently announced a partnership with Roku to make TV streaming the next ecommerce shopping destination.

As the exclusive retailer enabling streamers to purchase featured products fulfilled by Walmart on Roku, the new experience offers product discovery and checkout experience. This new experience will be funded by advertisers through Walmart Connect and Roku Advertising.

Walmart Connect will connect brands to customers through the T-commerce platform on Roku. Advertisers will receive insights on effectiveness with Walmart Connect measurement.

Suzanne Spence, CEO of The Brandtech Group’s mobile advertising platform Mobkoi, announced Friday that Chris Davis has been appointed as the company’s first global chief revenue officer.

Davis, in his new role, will support Mobkoi’s goal of doubling annual revenue by 2024. He will focus on maintaining Mobkoi’s global position, roll out new platforms and processes, and support vertical diversification beyond the company’s core luxury business.

Davis also will focus on the company’s rapid growth in North America, with U.S. revenue and the number of clients doubling since January.

“This year we made a meaningful commitment in the U.S. market,” Spence said. “This is our coming out party in the U.S., meaning moving the CEO position into the U.S. and bringing on a market leader to help build our brand.”  

Spence said Mobkoi has experienced about 150% year-over-year growth in the U.S. market. The company also is bringing on a variety of brands, not just in the luxury market.

Davis, market leader in which Spence refers, has worked with many of the world’s most successful brands across numerous verticals including entertainment, gaming, luxury, fashion, retail, auto, wireless, finance and consumer product goods.

“He is our Trojan horse in the metaverse, because he was doing it before anyone was saying the word, metaverse at NeoPets,” Spence said.

Davis, a baseball pitcher in college, said NeoPets trademarked the term “immersive advertising,” something the metaverse is based on. (Ironically, Spence played the position of baseball catcher in college.)

“I’ve been in the space for nearly 20 years and have been fortunate to be part of four management teams with really good outcomes,” he said, when asked why he joined Mobkoi. “There’s an opportunity to build, manage, and mentor sellers, which I enjoy doing.”

Most recently, Davis served as CRO for TINT, an enterprise user-generated content platform that has worked with more than 5,000 brands in 174 countries. His also worked at ESPN, New York Times, LinkedIn, Condé Nast and others, on both the services and media aspects of the business. He worked at CHEQ, and oversaw the integration of the NeoPets property into MTV Digital.

Based in the New York office, Davis joins on the heels of several new U.S. appointments at Mobkoi, including Kassidy Keller as vice president of marketing in April, and Shane Glass as acting president of North America in May.

On Monday, Meta announced a new Facebook Reels application programming interface (API) that allows developers to integrate a “Share to Reels” feature so users can easily share Reels on Facebook pages, bringing greater user-accessibility to short-form video.

In a blog post, Meta said this one-button feature will remove “friction for users previously using 3rd party platforms and then uploading at a later time to Facebook.” 

When developers integrate this feature, users can now use a third-party app to post Reels as well as post to a page that they are an admin of.

The API does not allow apps to post Reels to groups or individual users. 

Meta named three launch partners that have integrated the new Reels API in their platforms, including creator-economy platform Jellysmack, social media management tool Sprout Social, and Wix, a website creation platform. 

The new API is targeted toward content-creation platforms (“for making video editing smart, accessible and collaborative”), social-media management platforms (“to help manage, schedule, and post content”), and large publishers and enterprise creators (“for developing in-house social media management tool linked to Reels”). 

In June, Meta launched a similar API for Instagram Reels.

In August, the company made it possible for users to post Reels from Instagram to Facebook and vice-versa. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is banking on Reels to compete with the continued rise of TikTok. 

The second-quarter 2022 results showed that Instagram users spent 26% of their time on the app watching Reels.