CMO Survey

We must have made a media turn somewhere, because no matter what I read from whatever perspective, surveys, articles and workshops about marketing communications decisions seem to be exclusively about proper use of digital media. The report of the American Marketing Association's recent CMO Survey indicated that marketers currently allocate almost 11% of their marketing budgets to the various social media and plan to increase it to 14% of their budgets in 2016 and to almost 24% in the next five years. Much of this has to do with the increasing acceptance and improving capabilities of mobile technologies such as smartphones. (Tablets, bah! Smartphones are getting bigger and easier to use. They're becoming like tablets. Laptops, bah! They're becoming like tablets with matching keyboards. Who said tablets are dying?) Whatever the gadget, it's clear that marketers are committing resources to a greater and more intense use of digital media with a mobile emphasis. See the presentation at Slideshare.

What's Happened with China's Currency?

Economics21 has a commentary that details the data and the numerous accusations. The campaign trail often leads to statistical pandering with out of context data (usually unadjusted for inflation or population changes, and sometimes cunning data selection). Until the crash of a few weeks ago, China's yuan had been appreciating more than 2% per year, and prices paid for Chinese goods were increasing more than 7% a year. This commentary explains it.

China Journalist Forced to Apologize for Crash

The Washington Post relates the story about the journalist who was forced to apologize on television that he was sorry for reporting facts that might be misinterpreted. There has always been suspicion about the validity of China's statistical reporting. But bad news must be blamed on someone, it seems, even if they did not cause it.

Canada's Economy Slips into Recession

The Canadian press is using the rough definition of two consecutive negative quarters, which they have now had for the first half of 2015. Year-to-year comparisons of GDP growth, a lagging measure, is +1%. The world decline in commodity prices is a major negative factor. Non-energy sectors of the economy performed more positively.

Coverage: Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, CBC, Statistics Canada, and a chart.