Americans Spent 43% More Time On Social Networks This Year Than They Did A Year Ago

Nielsen 8-3-2010

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/what-americans-do-online-social-media-and-games-dominate-activity/

What Americans Do Online: Social Media And Games Dominate Activity – August 2, 2010

Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8 percent just a year ago (43 percent increase) according to new research released today from The Nielsen Company. The research revealed that Americans spend a third their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging.

Share of Time June 2010

1. Social Networks 22.7%
2. Online Games 10.2
3. E-mail  8.3%
4. Portals 4.4%
5. Instant Messaging 4.0%
6. Videos/Movies 3.9%
7. Search  3.5%
8. Software Manufacturers 3.3%
9. Multi-category Entertainment 2.8%
10. Classifieds/Auctions 2.7%
11. Other 34.3% 

Additional findings include:

• Online games overtook personal email to become the second most heavily used activity behind social networks – accounting for 10 percent of all U.S. Internet time. Email dropped from 11.5 percent of time to 8.3 percent.
• Of the most heavily-used sectors, videos/movies was the only other to experience a significant growth in share of U.S. activity online. Its share of activity grew relatively by 12 percent from 3.5 to 3.9 percent. June 2010 was a major milestone for U.S. online video as the number of videos streamed passed the 10 billion mark. The average American consumer streaming online video spent 3 hours 15 minutes doing so during the month.
• Despite some predictions otherwise, the rise of social networking hasn’t pushed email and instant messaging into obscurity just yet. Although both saw double-digit declines in share of time, email remains as the third heaviest activity online (8.3 percent share of time) while instant messaging is fifth, accounting for four percent of Americans online time.
• Although the major portals also experienced a double digit decline in share, they remained as the fourth heaviest activity, accounting for 4.4 percent of U.S. time online.

Email Remains Top on Mobile Internet Activities

The way U.S. consumers spend their Internet time on their mobile phones paints a slightly different picture to that of Internet use from computers. In a Nielsen survey of mobile web users, there is a double-digit (28 percent) rise in the prevalence of social networking behavior, but the dominance of email activity on mobile devices continue with an increase from 37.4 percent to 41.6 percent of U.S. mobile Internet time.

Portals remain as the second heaviest activity on mobile Internet (11.6 percent share of time), despite their double digit decline and social networking’s rise to account for 10.5 percent share means the gap is much smaller than a year ago (14.3 percent vs. 8.3 percent).

Other mobile Internet activities seeing significant growth include music and video/movies, both seeing 20 percent plus increases in share of activity year over year. As these destinations gain share, it’s at the cost of other content consumption – both news/current events and sports destinations saw more than a 20 percent drop in share of U.S. mobile Internet time.

“Although we see similar characteristics amongst pc and mobile internet use, the way their activity is allocated is still pretty contrasting, added Martin. While convergence will continue, the unique characteristics of computers and mobiles, both in their features and when and where they are used mean that mobile Internet behavior mirroring its PC counterpart is still some way off.”

 Report: Digital Coupons Now Topping Printed

BizReporter by Kristina Knight http://www.bizreport.com/2010/08/report-digital-coupons-now-topping-printed.html#

In the last year, according to a new report from Coupons.com, digital coupons have grown 100% as free-standing inserts (i.e. coupons from newspapers) have increased only about 8%. Quite the difference, especially coupled with information that more than $1 billion in digital coupons have been downloaded or directly loaded to a store loyalty card in the same time period.

“Consumers continue to crave savings, and more and more of them are tapping digital coupons as an important part of their savings strategy,” said Steven Boal, CEO of Coupons.com Incorporated. “We expect more brands and more consumers to increasingly adopt digital coupons, and we foresee substantial growth across the entire digital domain–with particular growth within social media and mobile environments.”

From Coupons.com more than $1 billion in savings were printed or loaded to a loyalty card; for the same period in 2009 $529 million in savings were printed. Another bright spot for the digi-coupon craze? In June 2010 alone more than $110 million in savings coupons were printed.

Why the high growth rate? The report suggests eases of use could be one reason. When coupons were only available through newspapers, consumers had to wait until Sunday, go through the flyers, clip the coupons and then remember to take them to the store. The availability of digital coupons and digital coupon hubs means consumers can easily search for specific coupons, print them out or download the information direct to a loyalty/rewards card for redemption.

Which consumers are using coupons?

• Consumers with an average household income of $96,000 (annually)
• 33% of consumers with college degrees use digital coupons
• Consumers who have an annual household income of $100,000 and who have college degrees are twice as likely to use digital coupons

According to NCH Marketing Services more than 45 million American consumers are now taking advantage of digital coupons, an increase of more than 5 million since 2008. Their research also indicates that search queries for coupons and discounts have increased by more than 50% year over year

 Radio’s Most Valuable Listeners Profiled

RBR 8-6-10 http://www.rbr.com/media-news/research/26516.html

Research results released by Alan Burns and Associates identified four groups of consumers that CEO Alan Burns calls “MVLs” or most-valuable listeners.

According to the Burns study of over 2,000 women age 15 to 54, radio’s MVLs” or most-valuable listeners are both heavier listeners and more loyal to their P1 station.

 The four groups are:

1. At-work listeners, who are 50% more likely than others to be radio’s heaviest users
2. Social Media Highly Actives”, 78% of whom listen to three hours or more radio daily
3. Listeners who visit station web sites or join listener or rewards clubs,
4. Listeners who join station Facebook pages; they are 71% more likely to be heavy radio users.

 “There is some overlap among those groups” notes Burns, “but if you take care of all four, you will do extremely well.”

 Other findings include:

• At-work radio listeners tend to be more personality-friendly; they are more likely to value entertaining morning shows and to enjoy air personalities in general.
• As a source of music in the workplace, radio now competes with iPods, non-radio music streams, satellite radio, and other music systems.

At-work music listeners say their usual sources of music at work now are

•  54% Radio
• 23% iPods, other digital devices, or audio equipment
• 15% non-radio music streams online
• 7% satellite radio

 24% of at-work radio listeners now say they listen to local radio via online streaming.

 Half of Mobile Users to Be Web-Enabled by 2013

Emarketer – 8-10-2010http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007857

Popularity of smartphones will drive adoption…..According to Nielsen, smartphones were used by 25% of the US mobile phone audience in Q2 2010, up from 23% the previous quarter and 16% in Q2 2009. The research firm predicts they will overtake feature phones by the end of 2011.

This increased ownership of smart devices is driving growth in mobile internet usage. The acceleration of this trend has led eMarketer to raise its forecast relative to the estimates released in November 2009. According to eMarketer projections, 85.5 million mobile users will access the web from their mobile devices in 2010, versus 83.5 million in the previous forecast.

In 2013, penetration will reach the halfway mark, and by 2014, 142.1 million users, representing 53.9% of the US mobile user population, will access the internet using mobile browsers or applications.

Mobile internet usage will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.7%, much faster than the CAGR of 2.1% expected in mobile subscribers over the same period.

In April 2010, comScore found a total of 72.8 million mobile internet users, representing an average for the three-month period prior to reporting. This falls in line with eMarketer’s estimates, which are for December of each year: comScore’s figure is an improvement over eMarketer’s 2009 estimate of 68.6 million users and well on the way to the 85.5 million predicted by the end of the year.

comScore’s findings also highlight the importance of smartphones in the mobile internet equation. Growth in web access from smartphones was in the triple digits between April 2009 and 2010, while access from feature phones actually dropped over the same period.

Continued Shift To Digital Alternative Media And Drivers Of Growth

Veronis Schuler Forecast

VSS found the long-standing mass media model of one-to-many is being challenged by the growing influence of a new model that leverages the ability to target the individual and multiple niche audiences, as well as empowers the individual and niche audiences to select between sources of content.

The report wrote that “Overall, media usage will remain relatively flat during the 2010-2014 forecast period as consumer and business end-users continue to migrate to digital platforms that have more searchable and often shorter and more focused content when compared with traditional media.

“This shift to alternative digital media will also be influenced by consumers and business end users taking more command over what information and entertainment they want to consume through wireless devices, such as computer tablets, eBooks, and third- and fourth-generation mobile phones.”

Programmers see a direct link between social media engagement and station ratings.

Inside Radio 8-13-10

Sitting on Rick Vaughn’s desk at Clear Channel’s North Michigan Avenue facility in Chicago is a report that shows the impact social media and other digital platforms have on station ratings.

It’s a subject Vaughn is well versed in. In addition to programming CHR “Kiss 103.5” WKSC, he serves as director of social media for Kiss, urban WGCI and Spanish hits “Mega 95.5” WNUA. “WGCI is a great example of how using those platforms can increase your ratings,” Vaughn says. The station’s 18-34 share increased from 4.6 in July 2009 to a 2nd place 6.7 in July 2010. While it’s difficult to attribute a ratings increase to one particular factor, the cluster made social media a priority one year ago and the numbers speak for themselves.

With more than 67,000 Facebook followers, WGCI is Clear Channel’s top station in a metric that’s become increasingly important. “Z100” WHTZ, New York (56,000) and WKSC (46,000) are among the top five. WKSC morning man Drex has over 54,000 followers. “Between the jocks and the radio stations, we can blast a message to over 160,000 people, set an appointment and really affect the ratings,” Vaughn says. “The two go hand in hand.” CHR sister “Q102” WIOQ Philadelphia got serious about social media in January, when Tim “Romeo” Herbster arrived as PD, afternoon host and online PD for the six-station Clear Channel cluster.

Fresh from internet broadcaster Goom Radio, the former Z100 night jock says Q102 had less than 1,000 followers when he joined. It’s since grown to 17,000 while the station is experiencing its highest ratings since Philly became Arbitron’s first PPM market in 2007. “Every demo has seen all time high PPM ratings,” he says. There’s also an impact on station web site traffic. Last month Q102.com received over 10,000 referrals from Facebook and Twitter. Still, not everyone is gung-ho on social media. There are stations in top 25 markets that have less than 500 followers. “Everyone should be doing social media to increase ratings,” Vaughn says. “It’s free marketing and a platform on which you can deepen your personal relationship with your consumer through a one-on-one conservation.”

Social Site Use Up 43 Percent in a Year in U.

ClickZ 8-13 http://www.clickz.com/clickz/stats/1726203/us-users-increase-social-network-use-percent-year

Internet users in the U.S. spent 43 percent more time on social networking sites in June 2010 than they did during the same period in 2009, according to data from Nielsen. The audience measurement firm estimates services such as Facebook and Twitter now account for almost 23 percent of all time spent online by U.S. users, up from 15.8 percent in June 2009.

Much of the growth for social networks appears to be coming at the expense of other online communication methods, such as e-mail and instant messaging, which experienced drops in their overall share of time by 28 percent and 15 percent year-over-year, respectively. Portal sites were the other major loser, with their share of users’ time dipping 19 percent.

Overall, Nielsen found U.S. users spent 36 percent of their time communicating across social networks,blogs, personal e-mail, and instant messaging.

Alongside social networking, online gaming and online video were the other two site categories that experienced major gains over the past year, growing their share of time by 10 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Search, meanwhile, remained relatively flat, accounting for just 1 percent more of users’ time.

Nielsen: Mobile To Outpace Internet Growth

Mediapost by Wayne Friedman 8-17-10 http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=133965

Mobile media will significantly outpace the Internet and other traditional media platforms — especially in emerging and faster growth economies.

A new report from Nielsen Wire, with research from The Cambridge Group, says: “Defying classic economic models, the demand for communication (cell phones) leads traditional media growth, signifying a global, disruptive phenomenon.” Growth for the Internet will continue — but at more predictable growth patterns.

Strong mobile growth markets will be in those territories that have a rising financially strong middle class, so called BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Nielsen says this large economies are expected to grow on average by four or five percentage more than established economics for the next five years, 2010-2015 — especially over G-7 nations, including the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan.

Those BRIC nations — and other countries — are expected to see around a 7% growth rate in mobile versus developed countries 2% rise.

Mobile media platform growth occurs because access to mobile devices and services generally occurs at a lower household incomes levels. For example, Internet penetration in established economies generally requires a income threshold of around $20,000 of per capita GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to achieve a 50% penetration rate in a specific territory. But for mobile penetration, household income levels can be as low as $5,000.

Estimates are that over the next 5-10 years, mobile penetration will climb to roughly 140 phones per 100 inhabitants, even in poorer economies. That means the gap between developed and emerging economies will have largely disappeared.

For the industry, a different structure for marketers and advertisers will apply, when it comes to marketing campaigns. Mobile will lead other media platforms.

Given this development, the study adds: “A reverse innovation model is evolving, where effective mobile advertising platforms are identified first in emerging markets, then transferred back for further refinement in established markets.

“The implications of the disruptive growth associated with mobile technology in emerging markets also should readily transfer to other industry sectors.”

Borrell sees big local online ad growth

Inside Radio 8-24-10

Borrell Associates projects continued strong growth for online advertising into 2011, including for mobile.

• The firm expects total online ad growth of 14% from $45.6 billion to $51.9 billion
• The fastest growth is among the local advertisers. Borrell forecasts they’ll bump online spending by 18% next year from $13.7 billion this year to $16.1 billion in 2011. The big driver will be targeted display advertising such as banner ads, which Borrell expects to grow almost 60% in 2011. Use of display ads targeted by advertisers to local markets will more than double, reaching more than $2.3 billion next year, analysts predict.

As radio embraces more video on its websites, advertisers will follow. Borrell pegs streaming ads to jump 60% in 2011. “More DIY and less expensive tools put this ad format within the budgets of even small advertisers. Because of this, two out of every five streaming video ad dollars will come from local advertisers next year,” the report says.

• But streaming audio will “remain a footnote,” says Borrell. Even with another year of double-digit increases expected, analysts note streaming audio ads have yet to pass the $1 billion ad spending level.
• Perhaps the promotional budget is where radio has more opportunity. Borrell notes more marketers are shifting promotional dollars to the web. The firm expects the figure will grow 10% in 2011 to $24 billion. “Much of this increase

 Targeted Display and Streaming Video Ads to Grow 60 Percent in 2011

Clickz 8-25-10

Online ad spending growth is being propped up by targeted display and streaming video advertising, says a new report. According to Borrell Associates, both targeted display ad spending and streaming video ad spending will grow by around 60 percent in 2011. In turn, spending on less-targeted ads such as run-of-site display and national paid search is poised to fall.

 ”There really is unparalleled ability in the past year, year-and-a-half, to be able to deliver ads targeted to that one person as opposed to whom you think might be visiting a site,” said Gordon Borrell, CEO of the local media and advertising research firm, referring to the increased usage of behavioral and other forms of targeting. “That’s peeling off a lot of the growth from [run-of-site] banner ads,” he continued.

According to Borrell, targeted display advertising will hit $10.9 billion in total in 2011. Local targeted advertising will reach $2.3 billion, while national is expected to hit $8.6 billion, the company reported. And, while national targeted advertising will grow almost 50 percent, local targeted ads will grow at an even higher rate.

“They’re not buying mass anymore; they’re buying niche,” said Borrell.

Streaming video advertising spending is also expected to jump by over 60 percent next year, to reach $5.6 billion. Although Borrell recognized that larger brand advertisers are creating some of that revenue increase, he said small and medium sized businesses using services provided by yellow pages and other local advertising companies are the true drivers.

“It’s driven more by the small and medium businesses because it’s a new market,” he said.

According to the report, two of every five dollars spent on streaming video ads will come from local advertisers next year. Local streaming video ads will generate $2.2 billion in 2011, the report shows.

Meanwhile, ROS and national paid search advertising is on the decline. Borrell expects total ROS ad spending to fall 14 percent overall in 2011, though local ROS will fall around 3 percent. National paid search will drop around 11 percent.

Local online ads will generate around $16 billion in 2011, growing nearly 18 percent. In all, the report shows online ad spending will increase 14 percent, reaching almost $52 billion. However, according to Borrell, mobile advertising is helping lift those numbers. “If mobile didn’t exist, online advertising would go flat,” he suggested. “As smartphone ownership now comprises 25% of all cellphone ownership, mobile ad sales will enjoy growth of more than 20 cents of every online ad dollar spent next year,” the report states.

 Text Messaging

Inside radio 8-26-10

Nearly half of cell phone owners text multiple times a day, with a higher incidence among younger demos: More than seven in 10 teens and 18-24s text multiple times a day, the study showed.

 Teens, women and Hispanics are America’s serial texters. As text messaging has grown in popularity, it’s eclipsed the request line at many young-targeting stations for audience feedback and contesting. It’s also taken its place with email among the permission-based marketing avenues that sales departments offer clients.

 SMS messages per month (sent & received)

By in ethnicity:

• Hispanics and African Americans text more than Whites
• Hispanics 767
• African Americans 780
• Whites 566
• Asians 384

By Age:

• Teens text the most -  sending or receiving an amazing 2,779 SMS messages a month or roughly 92 a day.
• In the next two age brackets, text usage falls by more than half each time
• 18-24 sending or receiving 1,299 messages – about 43 messages a day
• 25-34 exchanging an average of 592 messages – about 20 messages a day

By Gender

• Women send or receive an average of 601 SMS messages a month
• Men  send or receive an average of 447 SMS messages a month

The results are compiled from one year (April 2009-March 2010) of mobile usage data gathered by the Nielsen, which analyzes the cell phone bills of more than 60,000 mobile subscribers each month in the U.S. The data supports findings earlier this year from Arbitron and Edison Research’s Infinite Dial study

 BIA/Kelsey Predicts More Radio Growth Than Expected

FMQB 8-25-1 http://www.fmqb.com/article.asp?id=1929961

The radio industry will see its over-the-air revenues in 2010 climb 4.4 percent over last year to $13.93 billion, with another $459.3 million in revenues coming from digital and online sources, according to a revised forecast issued by analyst BIA/Kelsey.

The company attributes the uptick to collective increases across the country in various radio markets.

• Stations in Top 10 markets will average a 6.26 percent increase from 2009, while San Francisco and Philadelphia in particular can expect overall revenue growth of eight percent due to an increase in spending by national advertisers.
• BIA/Kelsey also said that scattered cities in a number of markets will hit 7.5 percent or greater growth this year, including Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood, Florida (7.5 percent); Denver, Colorado (8.5 percent); Syracuse, New York, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Springfield, Massachusetts (8 percent); and New Haven, Connecticut (7.7 percent).
• Markets 11 to 25 will raise an average of 4.05 percent, while others will see average revenue increases of between 2.73 percent and 3.66 percent.

“We’re glad to see positive growth in most U.S. radio markets but still feel there remains enough uncertainty in the country’s overall economic performance to tread carefully stepping into the second half of the year,” said BIA/Kelsey VP Mark Fratrik. “Bear in mind, too, that the third and fourth quarters of 2009 were better than the first half of that year, so we do not expect the change to be that large by the end of this year. Radio’s performance this year will largely be driven by the success of the top markets; however, its impact will resonate to smaller ones.”

The company also notes that the small volume of radio station transactions this year have been a function of the revenue and profit decline experienced in recent years and a lack of bank financing. As of July there were only $168 million in transactions compared with $207 million in 2009.

“Station owners are hesitant to sell at today’s lower multiples, while potential buyers’ view the growth potential conservatively in light of the economic uncertainty,” Fratrik added. “Additionally, the inability to get sufficient debt financing to lower the cost of capital leaves the transaction marketplace stuck in neutral.”

Teens Experiencing Facebook Fatigue?

http://mashable.com/2010/06/30/teens-social-networks-study/

Online gaming site Roiworld surveyed 600 teens ages 13 to 17 in late April and found that teens spend two hours per day online on average, 80% of which is spent using a social network. These same teens are, however, showing signs of “Facebook Fatigue.” Nearly one in five (19%) who have an account no longer visit Facebook or are using it less.

Of the group that are saying goodbye to Facebook, 45% have lost interest, 16% are leaving because their parents are there, 14% say there are “too many adults/older people” and 13% are concerned about the privacy of their personal information.

While interest in Facebook may be waning, it’s still the most popular social network among teens — 78% have created a profile and 69% still use it. YouTube ranks second; 64% of teens claim to have a YouTube profile and continue to use the site. MySpace comes in a distant third (41%) and Twitter takes the fourth spot (20%).

The study also suggests that the teens that continue to stick to Facebook do so primarily to play games. Roiworld found that more than one-third of the teens who play games on Facebook admit to spending at least 50% of their time on the site immersed in gameplay. The online gaming trend extends far beyond Facebook, as 75% of surveyed teens claim to play games on the web.

It seems obvious that the newest generation of online users would have few qualms about spending money online, and this study supports that theory. The research purports that 43% of teens using social sites have spent money within a social network. They’re purchasing items such as currency for virtual items (35%), music (33%), avatar accessories (30%) and points to level up (23%). Nearly half of this crowd (49%) indicate that they have an allowance for such expenditures.

For more on how teens are spending their time and money online, check out a portion of The Teens and Social Networks study embedded below.

Bridge: Is Radio Ready For Digital Future?

http://www.bridgeratings.com/press.06.30.10.Social%20Media%20Impact.htm

June 30, 2010: A survey by Bridge Ratings “pinpoints just how unprepared” radio is for a digital future, the company said. An earlier Bridge study found that social media marketing can bring more tune-ins for radio. But, says Bridge, “Whether the tool is social network marketing, loyalty clubs or increasing online listening, terrestrial radio executives seem to have their hands tied.”

Bridge talked with 242 GMs and market managers in the top 150 markets in May and June. Asked “What is preventing your station(s) from having all the digital resources they need to build audience and increase billing,”

• 92% of those surveyed picked budget as the roadblock,
• 91% said lack of “know-how” is the obstacle.
• 80% cited lack of personnel as an issue.

Says Bridge, “the fact that costs and personnel assets to direct and operate digital strategies are the number one and two issues makes sense since they are inextricably tied together; station management can’t have one without the other. “And while staffing a digital department ranks as the third obstacle to effectively moving forward more quickly, it is clear by these interviews that traditional radio’s executives find themselves between a rock and a hard place; the desire to move faster is there yet the resources are not.”

In another survey conducted at the same time with 2,612 persons 12 and up, Bridge said two findings were “quite clear”: “For the immediate future terrestrial radio should maintain its weekly listenership penetration, and Internet radio and social networking show the greatest growth.”

• 44% of respondents said they were motivated to visit a station website and 38 percent said they were moved to listen to a station after some social media contact by a station. But less than 10 percent said they’d recently had communication from a radio station in any social network.

Bridge said of the digital preparedness survey, “Terrestrial radio management in general seem to be getting the message that leveraging the Internet’s tools to further its business is a critical component of future growth and success. Intellectually it is clear. The ability to empower the radio business as a whole is stifled by recent economic developments and corporate rationale concerning reinvesting a greater portion of profit

Mobile Consumption

The mobile future presents yet another opportunity for traditional radio as part of being prepared.

91% or 285 million Americans own cell phones. Activity on cell phones is no longer limited to a simple phone call for most users. The cell phone has become a hand-held computer and consumption projections provide insight into not only which activities are growing but which offer the best opportunity to marketers.

In this latest Bridge Ratings study, 2311 panelists were asked about their current and potential use of cell phone activities. This chart expresses these interests as the percentage of panelists who expect to use the activities more in the next 6 months based on their current usage.

Social networking (29%), Text messaging (25%) and Tweeting (22%) are mentioned most often with Internet radio streaming in a close fourth position. All of which provide outstanding business growth opportunities for terrestrial-based radio businesses.

Media Planning: Advertisers Must Go ‘Beyond Demographics’

MediaPost  by Wayne Friedman 7-2-10

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=131352

Adding the Internet into a media plan that includes television is a must — but to be effective, it’s more important to target consumers far beyond traditional demographics.

A report from The Nielsen Company on optimizing advertising/media in using TV and the Internet says the key to efficient planning is “aligning media inventory with precisely defined consumer segments that go beyond demographics to encompass client-specific profiles and evaluating media from a consumer-centric, holistic fashion, to allow you to optimize your cross-platform plans.”

The study, put together by Howard Shimmel, senior vice president of media product leadership, and Scott McKinley, executive vice president of advertiser solutions for Nielsen, examined direct-to-consumer pharmaceuticals for its analysis.

Putting TV together with online exposure for one product resulted in messaging that was “more than twice as likely to prompt patients to ask their physician about the drug than TV alone.”

The intent to buy was at a 157 index after seven days of exposure — a 212 index after 24 hours, versus a 100 index of just being exposed to television.

In looking at a specific group of targeted consumers for another media buy — cholesterol sufferers — Nielsen says the percent of sufferers reached from the cross-platform media synergy on both TV and online more than doubled, from 7.5% of the patient universe to 18.1%.

In another analysis, Nielsen evaluated another pharmaceutical product looking to target males 50-plus for incontinence. But Nielsen decided to evaluate this more fully, since not all men 50-plus are sufferers. Nielsen was able to filter that of all males 50-plus, 28% hit the highest levels — a 115 index, well above the buying target.

Study: One Third Of Adults Play Music On Phones

FMQB – July 8, 2010 http://www.fmqb.com/article.asp?id=1868693

A new survey on Americans’ use of the Internet done by Pew Internet says that six in ten American adults are now wireless Internet users, and mobile data applications have grown more popular over the last year. Cell phone ownership has remained stable over the last year, but users are taking advantage of a much wider range of their phones’ capabilities.

The survey showed that as of May 2010, 33 percent of adults use their phone to play music, up from 21 percent in April 2009. Additionally, 20 percent have used their phone to watch a video, 15 percent have posted a photo or video online with their phone, and 11 percent have purchased a product using their phone.

Pew also says that minority Americans lead the way when it comes to mobile access, as nearly two-thirds of African-Americans (64 percent) and Latinos (63 percent) are wireless Internet users. Additionally, black and Latino cell phone owners take advantage of a much wider array of their phones’ data functions compared to white cell phone owners. While 26 percent of white adults play music on their phones, that number jumps up to 52 percent for African-Americans and 49 percent for Hispanics.

As for young adults, nine in ten 18-29-year-olds own a cell phone, and they are significantly more likely than those in other age groups to engage in data applications such as music, games and texting. Among 18-29-year-old cell phone owners, 64 percent play music on their phones, 40 percent have watched a video on their phone, 33 percent have posted a photo or video online from their phone and 20 percent have purchased something using their mobile phone.

Ad Industry Optimism Reaches Highest Point Yet: Improves For All Media, Especially Digital

MediaPost by Joe Mandese http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=131596

Advertiser optimism toward their media spending, which bottomed out a year ago, continues to rise and is now at the highest relative point since a well regarded research company began tracking it three years ago.

Nearly a third (32%) of ad executives now expect to increase their ad spending over the next 12-months, marking the greatest percentage since Advertiser Perceptions Inc. (API) began asking that question in the spring of 2007.

Conversely, only 22% said they plan to decrease their ad spending, marking a positive 10 percentage point difference between those planning to increase or decrease their advertising budgets, which is the basis of API’s advertiser optimism index.

That compares with a negative five percentage point index in the spring of 2009, when API executives say the advertising recession effectively “bottomed out,” and signals that Madison Avenue is firmly on the path to a sustainable recovery.

The findings correlate with recent upgrades major industry analysts have made to their overall ad spending forecasts for the U.S. and global advertising marketplaces over the next 12-months, and raises questions about whether the ad industry is a “leading” indicator for a general economic recovery, or whether it is a “lagging” indicator of more systemic macro economic problems.

“The answer is pretty simple,” said Brian Wieser, the global director of forecasting at Interpublic’s Magna unit, who recently issued his most optimistic outlook for the U.S. and global advertising economies since the global economic recession began. “It’s tightly related, but it’s concurrent – not leading, not lagging.”

Wieser, who is more or less Madison Avenue’s de facto chief economist, says that the “best fit” on the role of ad spending as an economic indicator is, “measured as correlation.

“Between changes in virtually any economic variable and total advertising revenues are always concurrent (comparing same quarter to same quarter or same year to same year),” he said. “The correlations are much lower when you look at it on a lagging or leading basis, and whether you look one quarter or two quarters ahead or behind.”

Ken Pearl, one of the partners of API, said he still considers advertising to be a lagging economic indicator, but he noted that “advertiser optimism” is a leading indicator of advertising spending, and therefore is a key perceptual metric for Madison Avenue to follow.

“Advertiser optimism leads ad spending. Based on that, I think that advertisers are feeling better about the economy, or at least, more comfortable about the reality of economic uncertainty, which in either case will positively affect ad spending,” he explained.

Pearl noted that the optimistic momentum has been building since last year, and that for at least the near term, “We’re moving in the right direction.”

•  If that’s true, it should be good news for all the media, because the sentiment among ad executives is improving for every single medium, even supposedly business model challenged ones such as newspapers, magazines and radio.
• While magazines and national newspapers continue to be the only media yielding a net negative difference (minus 10 percentage points and 32 percentage points, respectively), they both mark substantial improvements from a year ago (when they were minus 26 percentage points and minus 46 percentage points, respectively).
• Broadcast TV has flattened out to zero percentage point difference, following three consecutive years of erosion in advertiser confidence, and all other media are ascending, especially digital media (plus 60 percentage points), and particularly mobile (plus 62 percentage points).

 The current sentiment reflects the responses of 1,412 ad executives – both marketers and agency media buyers – to interviews completed online in April/May 2010, and is being published here for the first time.

 Mobile Devices Continue To Take Market Share

Media Post by Laurie Sullivan 7-8-10 http/www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=131641&nid=116341

Advertisers wondering when mobile will catch on might want to take a big breath and hang on. Two separate reports released Thursday reveal that mobile device use, from smartphones to tablets, continues to increase.

• Smartphones are now owned by 49.1 million people in the U.S. as of the three month ending in May – up 8.1% compared with the prior three months, according to a comScore MobiLens report released Thursday.
• Mobile browser use also continues to rise. Browsers were used by 31.9% of U.S. mobile subscribers in the three months ending in May, up 2.3% points.
• Sixty-two percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device — up 1.4% points.
• Subscribers who used downloaded applications comprised 30% of the mobile subscribers, up 2.1% points from the previous period.
• The number of social networking sites or blogs accessed through a mobile device rose 2.6% points to 20.8% of all mobile subscribers.

The Research in Motion (RIM) mobile smartphone platform led in the U.S. with 41.7% share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.4%, and Microsoft with 13.2%. Google grew 4% points to capture 13% of the market. Palm rounded out the top five with 4.8%. Despite platforms losing share to Google Android, most continue to gain subscribers as the overall smartphone market grows.

That growth isn’t limited to smartphones or mobile phones. Similar to early adopters of high-priced tech products, those visiting the U.S. Yahoo network on the iPad are ages 30 to 54. Yahoo users ages 30 to 34 make up 17%; and ages 45 to 54, 16%. About half of those using Yahoo on the iPad have relied on the search engine and its content for at least six years.

Apple iPad users are 2.8 times more likely to search for investment-related information than the average U.S. Yahoo user. As more people access Yahoo on the iPad, the interest in business and investment topics continues to rise. In the most findings, connecting to investment-related information rose 46% in the United States in the past two months.

Adoption is not limited to the United States. With the May availability of the iPad in nine countries, Yahoo also tracked international users, and compared characteristics of those in the U.S. to elsewhere in the world.

Yahoo iPad users on Yahoo outside of the U.S. show similarities in adoption. Males tend to outnumber females in Japan 4:1, but overall, international use skews similar to the United States

Mobile Display A Billion-Dollar Business?

Radio Ink 7-9-10 http://www.radioink.com/Article.asp?id=1870300&spid=24698

ABI Research is predicting that mobile display advertising, about a $313 million market today, will nearly quadruple, to more than $1.2 billion, in 2015. Display ads are only one component of mobile advertising, which also covers text messaging, search ads in-app ads, and streaming video.

Additionally, ABI Research Practice Director Neil Strother said a survey conducted by ABI in February found that 28 percent of mobile subscribers access the mobile Internet every day. He said, “This is a huge increase over the number doing so just 14 months ago, and is a powerful driver for the mobile marketing and advertising market.”

Smartphone use is driving mobile marketing, with smartphone penetration in the U.S. currently at about 20 percent, but ABI notes that there is potential in mobile devices of all kinds.

Strother said, “Marketers have increasingly been shifting budgets into mobile campaigns. This became evident during our research interviews with advertising agency executives, technology vendors, and mobile ad network operators, who said they have been seeing year-over-year increases of 25 percent to 30 percent in campaign spending.”

Study Finds Mobile, iPads Fastest Growing Media Among Ad Execs

MediaPost by Joe Mandese http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=131823&nid=116443

Nearly half (46%) of ad executives – both marketers and agency media buyers – currently are utilizing mobile media as part of their advertising plans, and it is expected to grow at a faster rate than any other major medium, according to the most recent findings of an ongoing tracking study of top industry executives. The study, Advertiser Perceptions Inc.’s Advertiser Intelligence Report, found that

• 62% of respondents plan to increase their ad spending on mobile media over the next year. Based on the responses, AIR projects that 60% of ad industry executives will be utilizing mobile media as part of their base advertising plans within the next 12 months.
• The survey, which was completed online among 1,412 marketers and agency executives in April and May, also found that banner ads (62%), and text (60%) are the most commonly used advertising formats on mobile media, but video will be the fastest growing, rising from 28% of respondents currently to 43% within the next 12 months.
•  Mobile search advertising, currently used among 41% of respondents, is the next fastest rising format, and is projected to grow to 48% of respondents in the next year.
• Smart phones (87%), conventional mobile phones (53%), and PDAs (42%), currently are the most popular mobile media platforms utilized by respondents, but the iPad is the fastest growing and is projected to rise from 22% of respondents currently to 49% within the next 12 months.
• Industry executives currently are using mobile media primarily to target consumers nationally (55%) vs. locally (45%).

 Double-Digit Growth Again for Online Ad Spend

emarketer 7-13-10 http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007812

eMarketer forecasts that 2010 will bring a return to double-digit online ad growth, with global spending set to reach $61.8 billion. Growth will continue at rates of over 10% each year through 2014.

“By 2014 eMarketer forecasts that figure will leap to $96.8 billion, growing at an 11.9% compound annual rate, despite the slow, uneven and fragile global economic recovery,” said eMarketer’s Jared Jenks, author of the new report “Worldwide Ad Spending.” “These rates will be unmatched by other media.”

North America and Western Europe accounted for nearly three-quarters of the world’s online ad spending in 2009, but those mature online ad markets will post slower growth rates than developing areas in Asia-Pacific, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

In terms of dollars, however, the more developed regions will still increase by many billions because of their large established bases and still largely untapped potential of the internet.

The internet’s share of total ad spending worldwide will jump from 11.9% in 2009 to 17.2% in 2014. Continued high growth in the online space coupled with a 2009 spending decrease of 10.5% for total media, followed by a slower recovery, will help online get an ever-larger slice of the ad spending pie.

“The reasons for this growth in share are clear,” said Jenks. “Online is more measureable, more effective and where people are increasingly spending their time.”

One in five smartphone owners are using them to listen to music in cars.

Inside Radio 7-14-10

There’s more evidence that smartphone apps are a smart investment for radio. Approximately 20% of vehicle owners with smartphones use their device to listen to music through connection to external or vehicle speakers. And more than 40% would like to do so in the future.

Those are among the findings from J.D. Power & Associates 2010 U.S. Automotive Emerging Technologies Study. Fielded in May, the survey of 18,000 vehicle owners finds that the proportion of vehicle owners who listen to external music devices in their vehicle, such as MP3 players, has increased from 2009. Among current portable digital music player owners who listen to their device through the vehicle’s speakers, smartphones are the next-most-mentioned device for in-vehicle connection, after portable digital music players.

The study also finds that among the 51% of vehicle owners who indicate ownership of a smartphone, interest levels in wireless connectivity systems are higher than the industry average, both before and after price is revealed. Before price is revealed, 77% of smartphone owners indicate interest in wireless connectivity systems for their vehicles, compared with the industry average of 64%. Roughly 30% of smartphone owners say they are texting and checking emails while in the vehicle. Among these same owners, nearly 40% indicate they would like to have the ability to have emails read aloud through their vehicle’s sound system, while a similar proportion would like the ability to have text messages displayed on an in-vehicle screen

Smartphones Make Mobile Radio Sing – For Clear Channel, CBS, Pandora, and other providers of streaming audio, the future lies in handheld devices

BusinessWeek By Olga Kharif

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2010/tc20100712_478568.htm?campaign_id=techn_Jul13&link_position=link32

In an early sign that mobile radio is coming of age, Clear Channel Communications in January sold out its inventory of certain mobile ads. The news came as the nation’s largest terrestrial radio broadcaster, with more than 800 stations, was crawling out of one of U.S. radio’s deepest-ever advertising slumps.

Traction in mobile ads signals a watershed among radio companies this year: Delivery of content to smartphones is emerging as a major audience-and-revenue driver. Clear Channel’s mobile effort is already “meaningfully profitable” less than two years since it launched, says Evan Harrison, president of the digital unit at San Antonio-based Clear Channel. “Mobile is a strategic necessity for us.”

By 2015, mobile radio apps that can stream programs onto Apple (AAPL) iPhones, Research In Motion (RIMM) BlackBerrys , and Android devices will generate as much ad revenue for traditional radio companies as will streaming on personal computers, according to consultant SNL Kagan. “Most of the growth in the digital space is going to come from mobile,” says SNL analyst Justin Nielson. Terrestrial radio ad sales from streaming to PCs and mobile phones should more than double to $1 billion in 2015, from $480 million last year, according to SNL.

The amount of time consumers spend listening to mobile radio is rising. The average user tuned in to Clear Channel’s iheartradio application on an iPhone or BlackBerry for 137 minutes a week in July, up from 120 minutes at the end of 2009, Clear Channel said. Usage has increased as the app improves and content increases, Harrison says. By contrast, the amount of time consumers spend listening to traditional radio has tumbled to four hours a week this year, from 10 hours in 2005, according to consultant Forrester Research (FORR).

Mobile users: a more focused audienc – Advertisers are following the audience. “There’s a tremendous amount of interest” in mobile advertising, says David Goodman, president of CBS Interactive Music Group, part of New York-based CBS (CBS), which also powers radio apps for AOL Radio (AOL), Yahoo!’s radio service (YHOO), and Last.fm.

Mobile ads may be even more attractive than online ads to marketers because they’re more likely to hold a person’s attention and marketers can discern a listener’s whereabouts. “When you are on the desktop at work and listening to music, you multitask,” says Eyal Goldwerger, chief executive officer of New York-based TargetSpot, in which CBS has invested and which puts audio ads from such corporations as McDonald’s (MCD) and Wal-Mart (WMT) into mobile radio apps. “When you are on mobile, you tend to multitask less. Your attention is much more captive. And your location is valuable.”

Mobile-subscription and -song sales may boost revenue further. More than half of Slacker’s total sales come from payments by users accessing its online radio-streaming service via smartphones. That’s up from less than 20 percent at the beginning of the year, says Jonathan Sasse, marketing senior vice-president at the San Diego-based company. By year-end, mobile revenue may account for 75 percent of the total, he says. After years of struggling to make it as a PC streaming service, Slacker expects to be profitable this year.

Radio listeners are more willing to pay a subscription fee for commercial-free service and to buy songs on a smartphone rather than on a PC, Sasse says. If a radio app is preloaded onto a phone and a purchase can be charged to a wireless bill, users are 10 times more likely to upgrade to Slacker’s $3.99-a-month premium service via a one-year subscription, Sasse says. Downloaded more than 10 million times, Slacker’s apps are preloaded onto select phones, such as BlackBerrys from Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, which is owned by Deutsche Telekom (DT).

Mobile use expanding in double digits – Making money from PC advertising that runs amid streaming music “is very, very difficult” Sasse says. “It became clear that phones were going to be the point of consumption for our consumers. That’s the path for us. Monetizing mobile is the key. There’s no question that mobile is the strongest opportunity for us.”

In recent months, mobile apps have emerged as the industry’s biggest user-growth engine. While terrestrial, satellite, and PC-based radio services are adding listeners in the single digits percentagewise, mobile use is expanding at a double-digit pace, according to SNL. Mobile listeners now constitute more than half of Slacker’s 1.5 million to 2.5 million monthly users, up from about 25 percent of total users at the beginning of the year.

More than 30 million people use Internet radio provider Pandora Media on their mobile phones, out of 58 million total users, says Joe Kennedy, chief executive officer of the Oakland (Calif.)-based company. “It’s only this year that mobile has become the majority of Pandora’s usage,” he says. “Consumers like to listen to the radio when and where they want to.” The company expects to become full-year profitable this year.

Mobile radio adoption will grow as more consumers opt for smartphones over basic mobile devices. Smartphones accounted for 34 percent of all phones sold in the U.S. in the first quarter, twice as much as a year earlier, according to consultant NPD Group. The bevy of lower-priced smartphones coming to the market, as well as cheaper data plans from carriers such as AT&T, (T) should fuel growth. While a third of smartphone customers use radio apps today, that number will increase to 50 percent by 2015, says SNL’s Nielson.

Wireless broadband in cars – Unlike traditional broadcasts, mobile radio ads can run video and be interactive, features for which advertisers pay extra. “We went from primarily being on air, to [selling] rich media video ads,” says Harrison, at Clear Channel. Online and through its mobile apps, the company’s users view 500 million photos a month. They can access exclusive content that includes performance videos and 50 digital-only channels, such as one hosted by the group, the Eagles.

As wireless broadband becomes more widely available, particularly in cars, Web radio will become a bigger threat to satellite and terrestrial radio providers, grabbing some of their users, says Susan Kevorkian, a program director for consultant IDC.

By the same token, mobile apps can reduce the outflow of listeners to rival services. Releasing mobile apps for Android and BlackBerry devices this year likely helped satellite radio provider Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) curb monthly outflows of self-paying subscribers to an average of 1.8 percent per month in the second quarter, from 2 percent monthly a year earlier, says David Joyce, an analyst at Miller Tabak & Co. in New York who upgraded his recommendation on the stock to “buy,” from “neutral,” on July 7. The same day, Sirius said it added more than 583,000 net subscribers in the second quarter.

 June 2010: More than 10B Videos Streamed in U.S. – Source: The Nielsen Company

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/june-2010-more-than-10b-videos-streamed-in-u-s/

More than 10.2 billion videos were streamed in the U.S. in June 2010, a 1.3% increase over the number of streams last year and nearly a 4% jump over last month’s figures.

Subaru Outback to double as Wi-Fi hot spot

by Caroline McCarthy CNET 7-16-10 http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-20010774-48.html

The Subaru Outback, a “crossover” SUV and yuppie icon that seems naked without a ski rack on top and several Whole Foods grocery bags in the backseat, is now offering wireless connectivity with Autonet Mobile in-car Internet service for its 2011 incarnation.

This means the Outback is the latest in a parade of models to feature built-in Internet connectivity. The next generation of Ford’s Sync service, a multimedia system in partnership with Microsoft, can hook up to USB modems. And Autonet Mobile has already debuted as an option in some Cadillac vehicles and in Chrysler’s gimmicky “Web Edition” cars a few years back.

“Subaru Mobile Internet easily allows users to check e-mail, surf the Web or listen to Internet radio and even stream video and post to social networking sites,” a release stated Friday. “Outback passengers can check weather and traffic, download hiking trails, and even reserve a campsite while they’re on the road.”

The release gently reminds all readers that this is designed for passengers while the car is in motion, because even those aspiring to Bear Grylls-like levels of under-pressure multitasking shouldn’t attempt to download trail maps while they’re driving.

The Autonet Mobile service in the 2011 Outback will be a $499 option, plus a $35 activation fee and $29 monthly subscription. (There’s a one-year minimum subscription, but Subaru said in the release that it will give away three months for free.) It’s a 3G connection and can handle up to 10 users in a range of about 150 feet.

Given the availability of fast cellular data connections and 3G cards for laptops, in-car Wi-Fi doesn’t have quite the thunderous appeal that, say, in-flight Wi-Fi does. But there are a few areas where it makes a ton of sense–Internet radio, for example, or for a group of four people on a lengthy road trip. And perhaps car-tech junkies can consider it a small bit of gratification as they wait ever-so-patiently for the day when their SUVs can sprout a pair of wings.

Web helps NPR reverse network’s graying audience.

Inside Radio 7-20-10

•  The median age of National Public Radio listeners is 55, which the network says has been steadily climbing in the last few years.
• The online audience is younger, however, with the median age of NPR.org users dropping to 48.
• “That difference becomes even more dramatic when we look at mobile platforms,” NPR senior research for digital media Matt Gallivan notes in a blog post. Users of the NPR News iPhone application have a median age of 38.
• Podcast listeners are even younger at 33 — or 22-years younger than the radio audience.

Gallivan writes, “It’s important to point out that these groups are, for the most part, subsets of the radio listening audience.” For instance, NPR says the overwhelming majority of its podcast listeners also tune-in to the FM and AM stations. Mediamark Research found some interesting qualitative data about NPR’s audience, with a mix of liberal (37%), conservative (28%) and middle-of-the-road (25%) listeners. One-third believes that following traditional gender roles for men and women is “very important.” They’re also more likely to shop at Wal-Mart or Target than high-end retailers like Bloomingdale’s — although they’re more likely to be found in a Starbucks than McDonald’s. In tomorrow’s Inside Radio: NPR sees growing success with national advertisers.

ESPN says World Cup brought “historic” streaming results.

Inside radio 7-20-10

 The World Cup may not have had the broad appeal of the Super Bowl, but that more niche appeal may have proved beneficial for ESPN Radio. More listeners went looking online to hear play-by-play. As a result, from June 11-July 11, ESPNRadio.com generated more than 11.8 million total listening hours to all its streaming stations — 29% of which was logged by World Cup listeners

Ando Media data shows the average time spent listening to the World Cup was 42 minutes with nearly five million session starts. World Cup attention crested June 23, when ESPNRadio.com logged the largest concurrent audience ever to a single stream worldwide, according to Ando. The player peaked at 186,000 listeners connected to the U.S. versus Algeria match. Of note, 6% of those listeners came via the ESPN Radio app for the iPhone and iPod touch. The World

 Six in Ten American Adults Online Wirelessly

MediaPost 7-21-10 by Jack Loechner

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=132167

According to the findings of a daily tracking survey on Americans’ use of the Internet by Princeton Survey Research Associates International for the Pew American Internet and American Life Project, six-in-ten American adults are now wireless internet users, and mobile data applications have grown more popular over the last year.

The definition of a wireless internet user includes the following activities:

• Going online with a laptop using a wi-fi connection or mobile broadband card. Roughly half of all adults (47%) go online in this way, up from the 39% who did so at a similar point in 2009.
• Use of the internet, email or instant messaging on a cell phone. Two-in-five adults (40%) do at least one of these using a mobile device, an increase from the 32% of adults who did so in 2009.

Taken together, 59% of American adults now go online wirelessly using either a laptop or cell phone, an increase over the 51% of Americans who did so at a similar point in 2009.

Cell phone ownership has remained stable over the last year, but users are taking advantage of a much wider range of their phones’ capabilities compared with a similar point in 2009. Of the mobile data applications asked about in both 2009 and 2010, all showed statistically significant year-to-year growth.

This year seven additional cell phone activities were included. Among all cell phone owners:

• 54% have used their mobile device to send someone a photo or video.
• 23% have accessed a social networking site using their phone.
• 20% have used their phone to watch a video.
• 15% have posted a photo or video online.
• 11% have purchased a product using their phone.
• 11% have made a charitable donation by text message.
• 10% have used their mobile phone to access a status update service such as Twitter.

Although young adults have the highest levels of mobile data application use among all age groups, utilization of these services is growing fast among 30-to-49 year olds. Compared with a similar point in 2009, cell owners ages 30 to 49 are significantly more likely to use a range of mobile data applications on a handheld device.

• The mobile data applications with the largest year-to-year increases among the 30-to-49 year old cohort include:
• Taking pictures (83% of 30-to-49 year old cell owners now do this, a 12-point increase from 2009)
• Recording videos (39% do this now, an 18-point increase from 2009)
• Playing music (36% do this now, a 15-point increase)
• Using instant messaging (35% now do this, a 14-point increase);
• Accessing the internet (43% now do this, a 12-point increase compared with 2009)

 Online Ad Spend Resumes Rapid Growth

July 21, 2010 eMarketer http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3iabea5ee8f01f624a13b4fe192ad670e3

Online advertising spending will resume double-digit growth in 2010, reaching $61.8 billion worldwide, according to eMarketer.   Unlike other major media, online advertising spending increased in 2009, growing 2 percent to $55.2 billion, the research firm reported.  By 2014, eMarketer estimates online spending will leap to $96.8 billion worldwide, growing at an 11.9 percent compound annual rate, despite the slow, uneven and fragile global economic recovery.

Meanwhile, the Internet’s share of total media ad spending worldwide will jump from just under 12 percent in 2009 to 17.2 percent in 2014.  “In some ways, the recession has propelled online advertising by forcing marketers with limited budgets to make every dollar count,” said Jared Jenks, an analyst at eMarketer. “Marketers now see online as more measurable, more effective and where people are increasingly spending their time

 Facebook Hits Half A Billion Members

Mediapost 7-21-10 by Gavin O’Malley http://www.mediapost.com/blogs/raw/?p=3348

As expected, Facebook signed up its 500 millionth member this week — up from about 100 million just two years ago — the social net said Wednesday. Facebook has amassed 100 million new members since February alone. And, as USA Today notes, the statistics only get more startling from there.

• On an average day in Facebook Land, 115 million “friendships” are confirmed, while members post about 400,000 events.
• To date, Facebook users have uploaded 50 billion photos, and tagged 15 billion of them.
• Meanwhile, about 70% of Facebook’s users now live outside of the United States, with the Middle East, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India and Brazil becoming some of the fastest growing regions. Partly as a result, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently predicted that Facebook would hit a billion members.

 SNL Kagan: Radio’s digital revenue will double within five years.

Inside Radio 7-22-10

Digital radio ad revenue (including internet, mobile and interactive) is growing quickly, but remains a small percentage of total radio revenues. While SNL Kagan estimates digital revenue will nearly double from $552 million this year to $1 billion in 2015, it will account for just 5.3% of total radio industry revenue, up from 3.2% this year. Mobile is a big driver and viewed as “the next big thing” by online broadcasters. Smartphone owners — now 120 million strong — are expected to reach 221 million by 2015. Internet radio’s big three — Pandora, CBS and Clear Channel — report dramatic uptakes in mobile consumption. Though mobile streaming is still dwarfed by online audio consumed on computers, half of registered Pandora and Slacker users are now streaming radio content from their phones.

Total U.S. mobile advertising is growing exponentially, up 40% to $480 million this year. A hockey stick 75% surge to $841 million is forecast for next year. By 2015, the total U.S. mobile ad market will reach $5.3 billion, according to Kagan. Although it will grow at a faster clip than internet spending, mobile will still lag behind internet advertising, which is forecast to hit $43 billion in 2015. “The advent of mobile has grown the industry and transformed the business model,” SNL Kagan associate director Robin Flynn told an online radio webinar audience Wednesday. Advertisers are paying a premium for targeted in-stream audio ads. As targeting gets more finite and precise, CPMs are expected to increase further. Kagan estimates CPMs for non-targeted in-stream audio ads are $3-$5; $5-$10 for demo-targeted ads; and $10-17 for geo-targeted ads. Video ads are also delivering higher cost per-points: $8-$15 for a 20-second video pre-roll.

The three biggest trends affecting online radio revenue.

Inside Radio 7-22-10

A trio of digital radio executives discussed how internet radio advertising is evolving during Wednesday’s SNL Kagan webinar.

1. Improved targetability. While it’s still an impression and CPM-based industry, internet radio is “working toward a smarter impression, where we know where the listener came from before they listened to us, where they go after and where they’re geographically located,” Katz 360 Sales VP Tom Perry says. “We get asked, ‘Which of your affiliates are able to do that.” Pandora director of audio sales Les Hollander says such targetability and analytics “puts us more on the playing field with digital media. Some franchises want to copy-split down to the Zip Code level.” But it’s more of a request than a requirement, according to CBS Radio VP of national digital sales Adam Goldman. “The more intel we have about our consumer, the better we can get. But the more you drill down, the smaller the audience gets.”
2. Internet radio is becoming more of a “lean-in” experience. CBS Radio’s new streaming audio player makes it a more interactive experience, allowing users to track what songs and ads they’ve listened to and get recommendations for other artists, songs and stations based on what other users are consuming. Pandora, which just hit the 60-million registered user mark, has a “guaranteed view” ad policy that serves display ads only during those lean-in moments, when users are looking at the screen and interacting with the player by giving a song a thumbs-up or thumbs down or using other functionalities. Pandora says it’s averaging about 7-8 consumer interactions per hour.
3. Breaking down ad agency silos. It may take a while but a consensus is emerging that ad agencies need to break down the walls between their audio and digital departments — and that could cause more dollars to flow to internet radio. While Katz estimates that about 90% of digital radio dollars are placed by agency audio departments, a “big education process” is taking place at the agency level, Perry says. “Agencies are trying to figure out how to get their siloed departments to work together,” Hollander says. “It’s not easily done, even though their job is to follow the consumer.”

Digital Coupon “Events” Take Off

MediaPost 7-23-10 By Erik Sass http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=132601

The number of special product promotions featuring digital coupons increased 84% between the first half of 2009 and the first half of 2010, thanks, in large part, to new marketing initiatives via retailer Web sites and social media, according to Kantar Media, which operates a Web site-tracking service called Marx.

The surge in special coupon “events” accompanies a massive increase in the total number of digital coupon redemptions over the last year.

Focusing in on retailer Web sites specifically, Kantar-Marx found that the number of manufacturers staging promotion events with digital coupons (268) surpassed the number using traditional print freestanding inserts (213) — another sign of their growing popularity.

Marx vice president of sales Bob Cristofono stated that “manufacturers are distributing coupons on retailer Web sites to build purchase intent with the consumer and drive shopping trips for the retailer.” He says manufacturers need to understand “competitive promotion activity on retailer Web sites to fully understand retail pricing, merchandising support and promotional lift.”

However, special promotion events for new products still lean heavily toward print as opposed to digital coupons.

In the first half of the year, 196 new products were launched with print freestanding inserts, versus just 35 launched with digital coupon promotions. On the other hand, digital promotions for new products tended to have more installments, with 6.1 “event dates” for online promotions versus just 1.6 “event dates” for print FSI events.

Kantar-Marx attributed the increase in digital coupon events in part to increased use of social media by manufacturers, including consumer packaged-goods companies — especially Facebook and Twitter.

 Companies issuing digital coupons encourage users to visit social media sites to download additional savings, join Web clubs and contribute to charities.

Separately, the last year has also seen a big increase in the number of digital “groupons” — communal coupons, often issued by small, local businesses, which require a certain number of people to participate before the promised discount is activated.

This gives an incentive to consumers to recruit more people to participate in the “groupon” promotions, which are now being offered by local publishers on behalf of local businesses.

Study: Hybrid-connected model will put internet radio in five million cars by 2015.

Inside Radio 7-28-10 http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/svcg.pag/AT00

Motorists are on the road to having not just dozens of local, over-the-air radio stations at their fingertips, but thousands of internet stations, too.

A new study forecasts five million cars will be internet radio-equipped in North America by 2015, using a “hybrid-connected model.” That involves accessing applications “brought-in” on smartphones that run inside the car and are controlled via Human Machine Interface (HMI) in the vehicle, such as the Ford Sync.

“There is a gradual shift in the United States and Europe from embedded telematics to hybrid-connected telematics in terms of allowing features to run from a smartphone inside the car,” business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan says in a new report. “The hybrid-connected model will have an addressable market size of more than five million units by 2015 in North America alone.” The report says the use of safe HMI to allow smartphone apps to be accessed inside the car will enable vehicle manufacturers to create “a superior brand image, since consumers can continue to savor their digital experience inside the car.” And that creates a lucrative opportunity for automakers to sell HMI solutions as part of option packages so consumers can “manage everything through one communication module with a single bill.” However, the burgeoning market has a few hurdles to overcome, such as connectivity and driver distraction. “Telecom operators are objecting to this model and want vehicle manufacturers to put an additional security identity module (SIM) card with a dedicated voice and data plan to power services inside the car,” the report says.

Cellphones: The New Billboards

7-15-10 Forbes By Helen Coster,

http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/15/mobile-marketing-cmo-network-mobilemarketing.html?feed=rss_leadership_cmonetwork

Ad-weary Internet users may have trained their eyes to ignore banner ads, but on an otherwise uncluttered mobile phone screen the ads are harder to ignore. That’s the thinking behind SAP’s new mobile marketing campaign, which it launched in mid-June along with related online and print ads.

The software company used an ad network to seed banner display ads on the mobile version of 11 different IT and business technology sites, including CBS, Gizmodo and CNN. Users can click on the display ads and, if their handset allows it, connect to an SAP site that hosts five different short videos, where luminaries, including Accenture’s Royce Bell and New Yorker writer James Surowiecki, talk about the connection between clarity and successful businesses (and accompanying ads plug SAP).

Costanza Castelnuovo-Tedesco, SAP’s vice president of global advertising and branding, says the company turned to mobile marketing as a way of reaching its target audience of C-level execs and “senior business decision makers,” who are early adopters of technology and are frequently on the road. They also increasingly access the Web via their mobile devices. Castelnuovo-Tedesco says the campaign is too new to have quantifiable results. One of its creators, Maria Mandel, the executive director of digital innovation at OgilvyOne, points to a Mobile Marketing statistic that mobile banner ads have a higher click-through rate than Internet banner ads–2% vs. 0.15%.

Mobile phones are an increasingly vital link to information, banking and commerce; 11% of the country’s 267 million mobile phone users own Internet-ready smart phones. In recent months brands including Buick, Kraft and Walmart and have been building “M sites”–mobile phone-ready versions of their Web sites. Alexandre Mars, chief executive of Phonevalley and head of mobile at Publicis Groupe, says M sites should be the first step in any company’s mobile marketing strategy. “You can’t teach your baby to run before it knows how to walk,” says Mars.

According to mobile research firm M:Metrics, 49% of American mobile phone users actively use text messaging, which explains marketers’ interest in text-based campaigns. Last year Ogilvy used text messaging in a test pilot with its then-client, mattress and bed manufacturer Select Comfort. Select Comfort bought ads in local newspapers, which instructed users to send the company an SMS message with their zip code. Select Comfort sent back the nearest store location along with a mobile coupon for $50 off. According to OgilvyOne’s Mandel, seven times more people texted in their responses than those who called in the company’s 1-800 number that was also in the advertisement.

Phonevalley’s Alexandre Mars says that both mobile banner ads and text-based campaigns have the advantage of being easy to scale. “The question is still the same,” Mars says. “How can you do it big? When you are talking to clients, you have to be scalable.” In October Phonevalley completed a campaign for Puma in China. Mobile phone users could download a mobile game, after which Puma sent them a coupon for a free phone toy accessory. One hundred and fifty-five thousand people downloaded the mobile game, and 70,000 redeemed the coupon in stores.

On the more innovative–but less scalable–end of the mobile marketing spectrum are Quick Response Codes, or “QR” codes. QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes that look like a square of black and white pixels. When a user scans his phone over a QR code, software in the phone automatically connects the mobile user to a specific URL. Marketers in Japan have been using QR codes since the mid-’90s; there, handsets come preloaded with QR readers. A recent QR code-based campaign for Northwest Airlines covered Tokyo’s billboards and subway stations with ads containing the bar codes. The QR code directed users to a mobile version of the airline’s Web site, where users could pay a game and win coupons for flights.

 In the U.S., QR codes are less popular because most handsets lack the software required to read them. “Domestically, QR-based initiatives still sit squarely in the ‘test’ bucket,” says Courtney Acuff, vice president and director at Denuo. The QR codes aren’t standardized, and different codes require different kinds of technology to read them. Even if the codes were standardized, most users don’t want to download the necessary technology.

Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. has incorporated QR codes into print advertisements and in store windows. Users first have to visit the company’s mobile site and download software. They can then scan a QR code, which will direct them to a mobile commerce site. The company won’t disclose how many people have downloaded the software, or the volume of sales that customers have purchased over their phones. The campaign may be driving more PR buzz than actual revenue.