MPA has an agreement with CANIEM, a sister association, to offer four professional development seminars a year, assist the organization in developing engagement and accountability research, and to consult with the organization as appropriate.
On April 26th, Wayne Eadie, Senior VP, Research and Charles McCullagh, Senior VP, International, offered a seminar for 65 representatives of the major Mexican publishers about “How to Prove to Agencies that Magazine Advertising Work.”
McCullagh offered an overview of the international publishing scene, focusing on fast developing countries, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRICs) and the quick pace of ad growth. With Mexico, the BRICs, while enjoying strong print advertising growth are feeling the effects of television and the universal advertiser demand for cross-platform and cross-media marketing programs. To be sure, outside of the United States the spending on cross-platform is quite small but the growth over the next ten years is expected to be bullish at the expense of print.
McCullagh raised the question of why the top General Interest Magazines in Latin America (by circulation) were all published in Mexico while the to Special Interest magazines (by circulation) were all published in Brazil. He suggested on reason might be the heavy television focus in Mexico and magazines, many of them later introductions than television, were simply responding to that reality. In effect Mexico is more of a mass market for magazines. Brazil apparently has a longer tradition of special audience and special interest magazines and is likely a little more advanced with niche marketing and especially Internet marketing techniques (for subscriptions).
McCullagh offered the example of launching Scientific American magazine in Brazil and Mexico at the same time. The former was far more successful because the knowledge magazine market was more developed, the use of online credit card use was more accelerated, and there were fewer obstacles in the postal system.
He reminded the attendees that engagement research was really a global phenomenon and not merely an import from the US. He noted that engagement and accountability research was being promoted, if not demanded, by the major global advertising agencies. He commented on CANIEM’s earlier research effort called “8 Myths and Realities,” which attempted to dispel some very basic misunderstandings in the market. The research was a confirmation that Mexicans were significant readers and users of magazines but tended to emphasize the Magazines vs. Television scenario rather than how the two medium can compliment one another. Wayne Eadie would take this issue up in greater detail, suggesting a way forward for magazine publishers in Mexico.
Eadie has been encouraging the Mexican market to conduct ROI studies in “this new age of accountability.” He reminded attendees that one engine of accountability—media mix modeling---is fundamental for most package goods companies, many with a strong footprint in Mexico. He quoted Don Gloeckler, Manager, Media Research, Procter & Gamble, to this effect: “If you haven’t already done a marketing mix model for your brand, do that first.” And from Michael Lolito, CEO, Media IQ: “ROI is the Holy Grail. You want to know something about how your brand is being used, do that first.”
Eadie explained marketing mix modeling as a way to examine how budget reallocation can improve ROI performance and noted that studies that looked at 340 brands over five years have been very consistent. In short, a balanced media mix yields higher ROI. After trade promotion, magazines are the most effective in the marketing mix. Magazines are rarely saturated with advertising while advertising on TV often exceeds the point of no return. Eadie concluded that significant gains in total advertising impact can be achieved by reallocating over-saturated TV “weight” to magazines.. These findings have been consistent across key categories: automotive, financial services, OTC and personal care. He encouraged Mexican publishers to work together and conduct ROI research as an indisputable way to shows agencies the power of magazines, especially in a television-dominant country.
Eadie took the attendees deeper into this issuing by summarizing research from Marketing Evolution on Cross-Media Accountability Studies, an independent aggregation of 20 separate studies—an effort not associated with the MPA. Each study looked at TV, magazines and online with TV having at least 50% of the advertising mix or more. The over-arching, as presented by the speaker, was that magazines remain essential in optimizing media ROI throughout the purchase funnel. He summarized other recent research finding: magazines are the least multi-tasked medium; magazines connect with consumers; and magazines drive traffic to the web.
Perhaps the most interesting part of Eadie’s presentation was research on whether core drivers of reader engagement also drive the effectiveness of advertising appearing in magazines. Over 70 MPA member titles were represented in the study. 25,000 issue-specific readers were surveyed. And more than 5,000 print ads were measured. The results: ad recall and actions taken were significantly higher among engaged readers.
The objective of this seminar was to acquaint Mexican publishers with the state of engagement and accountability research in the US and elsewhere; to offer publishers specific strategies to counter objections to print from agencies; to remind them that most available research indicates that a marketing strategy than combines the strengths of magazines, TV and print result in the best ROI for all channels; and to encourage similar research in Mexico, with an assist from MPA.
Country profile: Vietnam
Country profile: Vietnam
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It became a unified country in 1976 after the armed forces of the communist north had seized the south of the country in the previous year.
This followed three decades of bitter independence wars, which the communists fought first against the colonial power France, then against US-backed South Vietnam. In its latter stages, this conflict held the attention of the world.
OVERVIEW |
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The US had entered hostilities to stem the "domino effect" of successive nations falling to communism.
The jungle war produced heavy casualties on both sides, atrocities against civilians, and the indiscriminate destruction and contamination of much of the landscape.
A visit to Vietnam by US President Bill Clinton in November 2000 was presented as the culmination of American efforts to normalise relations with the former enemy.
Vietnam struggled to find its feet after unification and it tried at first to organise the agriculture-based economy along strict collectivist lines. 
Economic reform has challenged Communist Party ideology
But elements of market forces and private enterprise were were introduced from the late 1980s and a stock exchange opened in 2000.
Foreign investment has grown and the US is Vietnam's main trading partner. In the cities, the consumer market is fuelled by the appetite of a young, middle class for electronic and luxury goods. After 12 years of negotiations the country joined the World Trade Organization in January 2007.
But the disparity in wealth between urban and rural Vietnam is wide and some Communist Party leaders worry that too much economic liberalisation will weaken their power base and introduce "decadent" ideas into Vietnamese society.
Vietnam has been accused of suppressing political dissent and religious freedom. Rights groups have singled out Hanoi's treatment of ethnic minority hill tribe people, collectively known as Montagnards.
- Full name: Socialist Republic of Vietnam
- Population: 83.6 million (UN, 2005)
- Capital: Hanoi
- Largest city: Ho Chi Minh City
- Area: 329,247 sq km (127,123 sq miles)
- Major language: Vietnamese
- Major religion: Buddhism
- Life expectancy: 68 years (men), 72 years (women) (UN)
- Monetary unit: 1 dong = 100 xu
- Main exports: Petroleum, rice, coffee, clothing, fish
- GNI per capita: US $620 (World Bank, 2006)
- Internet domain: .vn
- International dialling code: +84
President: Nguyen Minh Triet
Parliament confirmed Nguyen Minh Triet, the head of the Communist Party in Ho Chi Minh City, as president in June 2006. He has a reputation for fighting corruption and is seen as an economic reformer.
The former head of state, Tran Duc Luong, had submitted his resignation alongside the prime minister and the chairman of the National Assembly. The change of guard had been expected.
Secretary-general of the Communist Party: Nong Duc Manh
The Communist Party holds the real power in Vietnam. It reappointed Nong Duc Manh as its secretary-general in April 2006. 
Nong Duc Manh aims to modernise Vietnam
Mr Manh, who is seen as a moderniser, urged Vietnam to speed up economic reforms and to tackle bureaucracy and deep-rooted corruption.
He says he wants to "lift people from poverty and hunger" and to turn Vietnam into a developed, industrialised country.
Mr Manh began his first term in 2001, becoming the first secretary-general with no direct experience of the struggle for independence. He oversaw five years of strong economic growth.
The Communist Party leadership recommends candidates for the posts of president and prime minister.
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The Communist Party has a strong grip on the media. The Ministry of Culture and Information controls the press and broadcasting.
 |  Internet cafes must register the personal details of customers 14.5m internet users by the end of 2006 (official statistic) Vietnam named as one of 13 "enemies of the internet" by Reporters Without Borders in 2006  |
Internet providers face fines or closure for breaking the rules and "cyber dissidents" have been imprisoned.
There are hundreds of newspapers and magazines, but television is the dominant medium. Vietnam Television (VTV) broadcasts from Hanoi and is available via satellite to the wider region. There are many provincial stations. Some foreign channels are carried via cable.
State-run Voice of Vietnam (VoV) operates national radio networks, including the VoV 5 channel with programmes in English, French and Russian.
The press
Television
Radio
News agency
US-Vietnam: From enemies to friends
 | | By Julian Pettifer BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents |
Four decades on, the trauma of the war between the US and Vietnam is beginning to fade, and the two countries are undergoing a transformation in relations.
"We struggled 1,000 years against the Chinese, 100 years against the French and 20 years against the Americans. It is time to think of the future," said a ministry of foreign affairs spokesman in Hanoi recently. 
Many Vietnamese are too young to remember the horrors of war
That future evidently assumes an ever-closer relationship between the old enemies, Vietnam and the US.
It has been an extraordinary transformation, to see the coming together of two nations so deeply divided by history, ideology and culture.
To understand how it has happened, the part played by demographics is important.
Seventy per cent of the population of Vietnam was born since 1975 and has no memory of the war.
When I spoke to students at the Polytechnic University in Hanoi, they had no interest in discussing what they call "the American War".
They wanted to talk about the future, not to dwell on the past.
They would like, if at all possible, to study in the US because they admire its educational opportunities and - significantly - its "freedom".
Two young women spoke admiringly of former president Bill Clinton but made very long faces at the mention of President George W Bush: "He makes too many wars around the world," they felt.
Old enemies
Many Americans, including war veterans, are visiting Vietnam as tourists and they may well find themselves talking to their former enemies, the Viet Cong (VC), who successfully infiltrated every corner of South Vietnamese life, including the armed services.
One of those Viet Cong is Nguyen Thanh Trung. 
Nguyen Thanh Trung secretly joined the Viet Cong in 1969
When Trung was a boy, his father, a Viet Cong guerrilla, was shot and killed and his body mutilated by the South Vietnamese army.
Trung came to terms with his father's death but never with the desecration.
For 12 years he planned his revenge.
In 1969 he enlisted in South Vietnam's air force. The day before, he had secretly joined the Viet Cong.
He was sent to the United States and trained as a fighter pilot.
A few weeks before Saigon fell to Communist forces in April 1975, Trung made off with his F-5 aircraft and dropped two bombs through the roof of the Presidential Palace.
His revenge was complete. But by that time, he says, it no longer mattered.
The most important thing was to put an end to the fighting.
Now he is working hard to improve relations with the US and he is in a very good position to do just that.
Trung is now chief pilot and a vice president of Vietnam Airlines and he proudly told me that next year it starts direct flights to the US.
It is, he says, not only commercially important, but it marks an important milestone in improving US/Vietnam relations.
Radical movement
Another former Viet Cong activist is now formally charged with improving relations with the United States.
Ambassador Ton-Nu-Thi Ninh is unlikely revolutionary material. 
Madame Ninh, National Assembly member
She was born into an aristocratic, Mandarin family and given a French education.
It was in Paris in the 1960s that she was swept up in the radical student movement and recruited by the VC.
On returning to Saigon, she became Professor of English at Saigon University while working undercover to bring the Communists to power.
She is now a member of the National Assembly and vice-chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Like many Vietnamese, Madame Ninh distinguishes between the American people, whom she likes and the American Government, which she sometimes finds difficult.
"The [American] officials... are lacking some sensitivity... I think that Vietnam is showing a lot of self-restraint and that is not acknowledged enough by the officials," she said.
But for Vietnam to prosper, it is very important, she said, to have good relations with the US.
"For a country [like Vietnam] that wants to escape from poverty... to build its place in the sun, in peace, this is the opportunity of centuries, of millennia and we've got to grab it."
Businessman Kien Thanh Bui made a similar point.
Mr Bui is a Vietnamese American, an expert on banking and insurance, who has been advising the Hanoi Government on building a market economy.
He said it is in the interests of the US and Vietnam that commercial ties continue to grow.
Drawn together
The volume of trade already tops $8bn a year and the US is a substantial investor in Vietnam.
One of those investors is Henry Nguyen. 
Henry Nguyen, investor
Henry's father is a civil engineer who worked for the Americans and who escaped to the US, just before Saigon fell in 1975.
Henry was a tiny baby at the time and grew up "an all-American kid".
But in his 20s, he was drawn back to his roots and now runs a major venture capital business in Vietnam.
Both the US and Vietnam, he said, are drawn together by trade but there are also very clear political and security issues relating to China.
"Vietnam... doesn't want too much influence from China and, at the same time, tries to balance out with the US and vice-versa," he said.
What with trade, geo-politics, kinship, tourism and the generation gap, the direction of Vietnam/ US relations seems irreversible.
BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents will be broadcast on Thursday, 13 July 2006, at 1102 BST.
The programme will be repeated on Monday, 17 July at 2102 BST.
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