â–¶ PR Positions in Demand: A new report tracking marketing and advertising finds that account services, public relations and social media are the areas in strongest demand among executives who plan to hire in the first quarter of 2011. Among the findings from The Creative Group study:
• The top five areas of hiring are account services (16%); public relations (15%); social media (15%); interactive media (14%); and media services (13%).
• A net 4% of marketing and advertising executives surveyed anticipate increasing personnel in the next three months, up 1 point from the previous quarter.
• 93% of executives say they are confident in their firm’s prospects for growth in Q1, unchanged from the previous quarter.
• Nearly half (48%) of executives said they are concerned about losing top creative talent to other job opportunities in the coming year, up 7 points from last quarter.
Source: The Creative Group
â–¶ In the Giving Mood: Americans are charitable in their giving habits this year, says the Liberty Mutual “2010 Responsible Giving Survey,” fielded by Ketchum Global Research Network. Findings show that 81% of Americans appreciate charitable donations given on their behalf in lieu of a physical gift and 74% would volunteer their time to charity as a gift if they thought others would value this type of responsible giving. Other findings include:
• While 78% of adults give gifts during the holiday season because they want to and not out of a sense of obligation, 48% of adults will be purchasing fewer gifts this holiday season.
• Though Americans will be purchasing fewer gifts overall, the survey reveals that consumers are seeking more responsible ways to give, and 59% of Americans have plans to prepare alternative gifts, including homemade gifts and donations of time or money to charities.
• 30% of adults say they will donate money to charity rather than purchase some gifts this holiday season.
Source: Ketchum Global Research Network
â–¶ Local TV News Hits Home: Local television news is more effective in engaging viewers’ attention with advertising than other TV program genres and competitive media, cites a Hearst Television study. Key findings include:
• 49% of viewers ranked local TV news first as a major part of their daily routine. Broadcast prime-time dramas and sitcoms ranked second (47%) followed by broadcast network prime-time reality TV (42%), cable prime-time dramas/movies (37%) and cable news (34%).
• 45% of respondents said they pay more attention to local TV news than most other TV genres, while cable news was cited by 39%; 81% cited local TV news as the “most important” news source among local, network broadcast and cable TV news.
• Local TV news is also relatively “DVR-proof,” says the study. Only 17% of respondents cited having recorded local TV newscasts for later viewing; 57% said they never, rarely or only sometimes fast-forward through portions of recorded local TV newscasts.
Source: Hearst Television
â–¶ Cool CSR: Cisco took the No. 1 slot on the Greenpeace Cool IT Leaderboard, which ranks the most environmentally responsible IT companies. Cisco received 70 out of 100 possible points, while Ericsson received 57 points and Fujitsu 52 points. Greenpeace praised Cisco for “making IT climate solutions an increasingly core part of its business.” Other Leaderboard finding include:
• Fujitsu was particularly praised for a 12-prong proposal it made to the Japanese government in support of reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a country. The company showed strong leadership in its proposal “while the rest of the Japanese IT companies remained silent,” said Greenpeace.
• Google, which ranked fourth with 47 points, was praised for publicly opposing Prop. 23, a proposition to suspend the law already in place that mandates emissions reductions in California. Google received the highest rating when it came to environmental advocacy with 30 points, the most any company could achieve.
• Companies that did not fare as well with Greenpeace include: IBM (46 points), Intel (31 points) and Microsoft (29 points). Greenpeace deducted points from their ratings because the three companies lobbied against a European Union-proposed plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020. PRN
Source: Greenpeace