February 2009 Archives

RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDAI RESEARCH

Friday, February 27, 2009

According to a study from by Resources, Inc., lower-income households' Consumer Product Goods spending growth is outpacing higher income households' in the United States and will generate $84 billion in incremental CPG spending during the next decade. They shop more frequently than other income groups, but spend less per trip.

Lower-income shoppers are not a homogenous group, and the report focuses on the differences and recessionary spending patterns and behaviors of lower-income micro segments driving CPG growth. Five key lower-income micro segments will be responsible for many growth opportunities, says the report.

This report disposes many conventional views of lower income shoppers.

Much of what retailers and manufacturers believe about their lifestyles, their attitudes, and their spending is wrong, says the report

Lower income U.S. households are projected to increase based on a growing Hispanic population and growth in the number of retiring Baby Boomers in the coming decade. Also, many will shift into the middle-income group.

Younger households and households with kids are driving growth across key food categories. African American and older household spending has increased notably in salty snacks and chocolate candy; Hispanics in frozen dinners & cereals.

Conservative growth estimates project U.S. lower income households to grow to over 50 million and for annual CPG spending to climb to over $100 billion.

This trend represents an incremental 10-year CPG opportunity of $84.2 billion.

IRI Consulting and Innovation President Thom Blischok, says "...at this point in history, the lower-income shopper is continuously challenged to stretch each and every one of their dollars, which will continue for at least the next four-to-eight years."

Sean Seitzinger, senior vice president, IRI Consulting and Innovation, explains ".,. once you understand the wants and needs of the different shopper segments, you can then put the right products with the right pricing on the right shelves with the right displays to meet all of their needs."

For more information on the report and IRI, please access the PDF file here, or read the complete release here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

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RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Vertical Search (B2B) Report 2009, published by Econsultancy and sponsored by Convera, based on an online survey of more than 500 media and internet professionals, shows that the need to find information quickly is the main advantage of vertical search engines from the perspective of business users. 67% of the respondents say that quicker to find desired information is a major benefit of vertical search; 65% say more relevant information; 64% feel that focus on specific business interests and workflow is a significant benefit.

Additional highlights from the findings include:

• 47% of respondents are more likely than last year to be using widgets (desktop or in-browser) that provide customized internet marketing and business information, compared to 35% of internet marketing professionals a year ago
• More than half of survey respondents report that their businesses are using SaaS for email (77%), web hosting (74%), sales and marketing (62%), CMS (59%), file and assets storage (57%), search (57%) and ad serving (51%)

Business-to-business marketers say they plan to increase spending on online performance-based ads in 2009, at the expense of traditional display ads, as they seek clearer, more measurable returns during the economic downturn, according to the report.

• 78% of advertisers are planning to raise their spending on CPA (cost-per-action/acquisition) formats this year
• 67% plan to increase spending on cost-per-lead (CPL) ads
• Just under half will increase spending on cost-per-click (CPC)
• 29% say that their spending on CPM (cost-per-mille /online display advertising) will increase this year

The 2009 Vertical Search Report is a follow-up to research conducted a year ago among publishers and advertisers to determine how digital marketing professionals are finding work-related information online, and the challenges facing publishers and advertisers as they move online to monetize offerings. More research findings include:

• 53% of publishers surveyed incorporate "basic" search site features on their site, compared with 41% who have integrated "more sophisticated" search tools
• 6% have no site search features on their website at all
• 37% of publishers use in-house technology for site search
• 22% use search embedded within the content management system
• 17% use licensed technology
• 15% use freeware such as open source technology
• 33% of publishers surveyed offer the ability to search third-party content from their website
• 18% of publishers are planning to implement this in the future
• 91% of publishers surveyed make use of search log analytics
• 28% refer to search logs frequently
• 36% say they derive strategic value from search log analytics
• 26% of internet marketing professionals use their mobile/cell phone for searching at least once a day, and 18% use their mobile device for a work-related search at least daily
• 75% of respondents say that the quality of the mobile search experience is average or poor, compared to only 25% who say that it is excellent or good

Linus Gregoriadis, Econsultancy's research director "Publishers... more than ever need to... adapt to trends such as... performance-based advertising and the increased use of widgets."

For more about the Econsultancy Report, please visit here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Monday, February 23, 2009

MEF has identified what members see as the biggest trends facing the mobile entertainment industry in 2009:

• The 'iPhone effect' -Mobile applications have emerged as a new content category and the mobile internet will finally come of age
• Greater value and transparency for consumers will help sustain demand in 2009
• Some delay in the proliferation of mobile advertising
• Telcos begin to acts as enablers for the Entertainment industry with services such as billing, authentication and zero tariff data
• The emerging dominance of services that operate at a multi-platform level
• The rise of ring back tones
• Social networking becomes an important driver of mobile entertainment consumption
• 2009 will be the year that mobile video really takes off
• Emerging economies will become an increasingly important driver for mobile entertainment worldwide
• A proliferation of touch screen devices drives discoverability and content usage

More about mobile entertainment, from a Nielsen report summarized by Mediabuyerplanner,  shows that content from NBC and CBS is among the most popular with viewers of mobile video, with many tuning in to watch hour-long dramas, a format that was assumed unpopular with mobile viewers. NBC is drawing the largest audience to mobile, generating 1.8 million mobile video streams. Of those, 1.3 million were for full episodes of shows like Heroes and The Office.

Traditional shows are popular because they're familiar, says the report. Made-for-mobile shows, such as those CBS has had in development, are hard to find because mobile web users are less inclined to search aimlessly. Still, CBS is continuing to produce mobile series, and has scored with short Hollywood news segments.

Steve Andrade, general manager of NBC.com, says that "Long-form is doing better for us than short form and... we're surprised... "

Nielsen estimates that 10.3 million mobile phone subscribers, 5% of the cell phone population, access video via their phone each month. M:Metrics' most recent survey shows that just 7.5 million users watched video in a given month.

"As smartphones continue to drop in price, and new entrants impress consumers," says comScore, "mobile internet penetration and engagement will continue to soar..."

For more about mobile entertainment trends from MEF, please visit here, or from mediabuyerplanner, visit here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Friday, February 20, 2009

According to the comScore 2008 Digital Year in Review Report, the job search category ranked as the top-gaining site category for the year, up 51% to nearly 19 million visitors in December 2008, as the millions of Americans affected by the deteriorating job market sought online job resources for assistance. Other top-gaining categories in the report included coupons, up 46% to 31.6 million visitors, politics, up 43% to 12 million visitors, and classifieds, up 27% to nearly 53 million visitors.The study shows that U.S. Internet users viewed a total of 4.5 trillion display ads (not including video) during the past twelve months, with the average person viewing more than 2,000 ads per month. Despite the staggering total volume, the number has declined somewhat over the course of 2008. This, though, is believed to reflect a shift in strategy among some display ad publishers to reconfigure their advertising inventory to reduce ad clutter in order to drive up CPMs, while some advertisers are shifting from static and rich display ads to using video ads.

The list of top display advertisers continued to be dominated by phone service providers. In November 2008, AT&T was the top advertiser while Sprint Nextel, Vonage, and Verizon made the top ten list. On the publisher side, Yahoo! sites served the most display ads in November, followed by Fox Interactive Media, and AOL LLC with 18.2 billion. 

Total U.S. e-commerce spending reached $214.4 billion in 2008, a 7%  increase versus the previous year. Travel e-commerce spending grew 9% to $84.3 billion, while retail (non-travel) e-commerce spending grew 6%  to $130.1 billion.  2008 ranked as the softest year for retail ecommerce spending growth since comScore began tracking it in 2001. January showed the first signs, as growth rates declined to 12 percent after growing at a 20-percent rate in 2007.   

Growth rates reached a peak in April at 15 percent, followed by eight successive month of declining growth rates in the remainder of the year. The holiday shopping months of November and December saw negative growth rates, representing the first months on record to have lower online sales than the same month the prior year. 

The fastest-growing retail category in 2008 was Video Games, Consoles & Accessories which continued to benefit from online sales of popular game consoles. Other fast-growing categories included Home, Garden & Furniture and Sport & Fitness, both of which benefitted from an increasing consumer willingness to complete high-ticket purchases online. 

Online activity in 2008 largely reflected the biggest news events of the year, including the economic crisis and the U.S. presidential election. Job Search ranked as the top-gaining site category for 2008, growing 51% to nearly 19 million visitors in December, as Americans turned to the Internet to seek new career opportunities after significant job losses were incurred during the second half of the year. Category leader, CareerBuilder.com Job Search, jumped 78% to 9.1 million visitors.

As signs of an economic recession continued, consumers became increasingly cost-conscious and sought ways online to curb their spending.

• Coupon sites witnessed a 46% increase during the year, reaching more than 31.5 million Americans in December
• Classifieds also saw a sharp increase in traffic, growing 27% to 52.8 million visitors, as Americans attempted to benefit through the purchase and sale of used items
• Craigslist grew 51% during the year

The Politics category was one of the fastest growing categories in 2008, up 43% to nearly 12 million visitors. Both candidate sites peaked in October, with BarackObama.com reaching 8.5 million visitors and JohnMcCain.com with 3.8 million visitors.

According to the study, the U.S. Internet population grew 4% in 2008 to 190.7 million visitors in December. Google Sites captured the top U.S. property ranking in April and reigned in that position for the balance of the year. For the year, Google Sites grew 12% to 149 million visitors.

The top growing properties in 2008 (based on the top 100 properties in December 2008) increased the size of their online audiences through acquisitions/partnerships, organic growth, or a combination of the two.

Other properties grew their audiences more organically. Facebook.com continued its strong momentum by growing its visitor base 57% to 54.6 million visitors, while Wordpress, the largest blog publishing platform, surged 64% to 24.2 million visitors. The Firefox Internet browser showed a 40%  increase for the Mozilla Organization.

Please visit here to download free PDF file of the complete comScore Digital Year In Review report.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Thursday, February 19, 2009

A new survey from the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) shows that the recession had a more profound effect on the marketing industry than predicted just six months ago,.  Following up on a survey conducted in August, the second survey conducted on this topic reveals that more companies are identifying cost savings and reductions (93% as opposed to 87% six months ago) and that 37% of respondents today plan to reduce budgets by more than 20%, up substantially from the 21 % of respondents in the first survey.

The top five areas where marketers plan to reduce costs or expenditures in marketing and advertising efforts are:

• Departmental travel and expense restrictions (87% versus  63% in the previous survey)
• Reducing advertising campaign media budgets (77% versus 69% in the previous survey)
• Reducing advertising campaign production budgets (72% versus  63% in the previous survey)
• Challenging agencies to reduce internal expenses and/or identify cost reductions (68% versus  63% in the previous survey)
• Eliminating or delaying new projects (58% versus  61) in the previous survey)

Other tactics gaining greater consideration by marketers today, as compared to six months ago include:

• Departmental salary or hiring freezes jumped to 57% from 45% six months ago
• 48% of marketers are looking at reducing agency compensation today, versus 32% six months ago

In the first survey, the ANA asked if marketers thought their budgets would increase, decrease or remain the same in the next six months.  In the recent survey, the ANA asked what actually happened.

• In July/August, 53% of marketers thought their advertising budgets would be reduced in the next six months, when in fact, 71% experienced a budget decrease
• 38% thought their budgets would remain the same, but only 23% had their budgets untouched
• 9% thought they would see a budget increase, when only six% did

When asked about their predictions for what will happen in six months from now:

• 49% of respondents felt that their advertising budgets would be reduced
• 43% think that they will stay the same
• 8% have hope that their budgets will increase

Bob Liodice, ANA President and CEO, concludes that "... some marketers, (in the current economic environment)... will skew their media mix towards promotional spending and direct marketing... others will frame a new, relevant and timely brand message."

For more information, please visit the Association of National Advertisers here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCH BRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

61% of morning shows, which air while viewers are getting ready for work are most likely to be watched in part, while 26% are kept on in the background. Good Morning America generates the highest ratings for "information provided" and "hosts," among the three morning shows evaluated. 54% of viewers say they watch part of Entertainment news magazines, and 20% just keep it on in the background.

Uniquely formatted TMZ, though, over-indexes relative to other programs in the news magazine genre on loyalty (25% "make a special effort to watch"), 41% view of the entire program, and 36% talked about the show). 

In the latest results among court show viewers, Judge Judy attracts strong word-of-mouth ratings (48%) and ties Judge Mathis as most recommended (21%).  Judge Judy is the court show that program viewers most often say they would "miss a lot" if it no longer aired (36%). The appeal of Judy's show, according to the respondents, is in her no-nonsense style, "The way she cuts through the malarkey and gets down to what is legally right in her view... tells it like it is!  I want to be her... and tell...  people what I think of them!"

In the midst of the ongoing economic recession, television networks have to watch their expenses, says the report. NBC's decision to move Jay Leno and the tentatively titled The Jay Leno Show to the 10 P.M. hour can be seen as a cost-cutting move. Although 2009-10 schedules have not been set, Leno will be competing against some top shows currently airing at 10 P.M.

The report concludes that "...Jay Leno and NBC have their work cut out for them.  It is expected that when The Jay Leno Show debuts next television season, it will have increased viewership compared to The Tonight Show in its current time slot, but it is important that the show is engaging enough to make sure viewers tune in."

Source: FastTrack Television- Weekday is a monthly tracking study conducted by E-Poll to measure awareness, viewing and perceptions of weekday broadcast programs among a total of 1,000 daytime network viewers ages 13-54. This analysis was based on female viewers ages 13-54.

For more about the study, please visit here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

In addition:

• 42.1% chose online display advertising as a strong performer
• 32.8% selected offline media, such as television and print
• 32.1% chose direct mail
• 22.9% selected social media
• 9.2% chose mobile marketing

Most Important Online Marketing Consideration in 2009 (Open End)

• How to engage customers and be more relevant in their everyday lives
• The proper way to speak to our customers
• How to maximize behavioral targeting in email and display marketing efforts
• How to better leverage email, search and social networking
• Finding a way to monetize social media
• Diversifying online advertising campaigns to include more emerging technologies
• Going all digital with marketing efforts
• Targeted direct marketing based on user online behavior
• Increase on our email marketing spend for better segmentation and targeting
• Make on-line marketing more measurable
• Offline budget shift to online to supplement currently program

Please visit Direct here for access to the complete 3rd Annual Marketing & Media Survey Results report.

For more information visit www/mediapost.com

RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Monday, February 16, 2009

Younger viewers are not the dominating presence in front of the English language small screen. Hispanics, aged 18-34, are actually less likely (54%) than older Hispanics, aged 55+, to prefer English language television (61%). And:

• 52% of Hispanics aged 35-54  prefer English language television.
• 45% percent of Hispanics with children in the household say that they prefer Spanish language television.
• 63% of Hispanic households without children are highly likely to prefer English television
• 80% of College educated Hispanics prefer English language television

Mixing languages does not complicate the lives of United States Hispanics who are living with ease in both worlds - one that is in English and the other that is in Spanish, concludes the report.

The person playing that Spanish beats music on radio is most likely to be a Hispanic female (51%), as they are more likely than Hispanic males (38%) to tune into Spanish radio. Among radio preferences overall, Hispanics are practically split as 49% stated that they listen to English language radio while 45% percent listen to Spanish language radio.

• Hispanics aged 55+ are more likely to prefer radio in English than in Spanish (56% vs. 38%)
• Among those 35-54, half (50%) prefer radio in English.
• Hispanics, aged 18-34, are practically split among preference as 46% prefer English and 47% prefer Spanish radio.
• 55% of all Hispanics said that their language preference for the Internet is English.
• 39% of Hispanics age 18-34 prefer Spanish language internet sites
• 42% of Hispanic females prefer Spanish when surfing the web compared to just twenty nine percent (29%) of Hispanic men

53% of Hispanics read the news and they are looking for information in both languages:

• 53% in English to find out the current affairs in their local U.S. city
• 33% in Spanish to follow up with the news in their home country
• 44% read Spanish newspapers that cover news in their community in the United States. 57%, with an annual household income under $50,000, do so

Cynthia Pelayo, Ipsos senior research manager, says "... many US Hispanics continue to speak primarily Spanish, among their peers, family and friends, to watch television in Spanish and to be involved in cultural community events that are mostly conducted in Spanish."

She goes on to note that their innate skill to utilize either language is an advantage in functioning in US institutions while preserving their Hispanic heritage.

With a sample of this size, notes the report, the results are considered accurate within ± 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population adult homeowners in the U.S. been polled. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/gender composition reflects that of the actual U.S. population according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

To read the complete Ipsos Whitepaper, please visit here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Friday, February 13, 2009

According to research from Webvisible and Nielsen, reported by Marketing Charts, though 63% of consumers and small business owners turn to the internet first for information about local companies and 82% use search engines to do so, only 44% of small businesses have a website and half spend less than 10% of their marketing budget online.

The research finds an accelerating trend toward online media for local search. However, the report says the study uncovers a significant disconnect between the way small business owners act as consumers vs. the way they market their businesses online.

The survey found that search engines are the most popular source for finding local information:

• 82% use search engines
• 57% use Yellow Pages directories.
• 53% use local newspapers
• 49% use Internet Yellow Pages
• 49% use TV
• 38% use direct mail
• 32% White Pages directories

Of those surveyed, 50% said search engines were the first place they looked when seeking a local business, while 24% chose the Yellow Pages directories.

92% of searchers say they are happy with the results they get when using search engines, though 39% report frequently not being able to locate a particular known business. This means, says the report, searchers don't may choose to contact a similar business with a stronger online presence.

Webvisible found that online search and e-mail newsletters are the only forms of traditional media that are growing among consumers who wish to locate local products or services. Compared with two years ago, respondents report they use search engines and email newsletters more, while they use newspapers, magazines, direct mail and radio less:

Despite the growing use of online media for local searches, only 41% of small businesses report turning to online search engines first, and 31% turn to Yellow pages directories first. In addition, only 44% of small businesses have a website.

When using a search engine to find a business they know exists, only 19% of survey respondents report never or rarely encountering trouble locating that business online and 39% say they routinely have difficulty.

Though less than half of small businesses do have a website, the ones that do are not happy overall with their online marketing. Among those small businesses that have a website:

• 51% believe both the quality and ability of their site to acquire new customers is only "fair" or "poor"
• 30% of business owners feel that they typically do a better job of marketing than a close competitor
• 78% believe they advertise in the same places as their competitors
• Only 7% of small business owners say their primary marketing goal is to get more visitors to their website
• 61% spend less than three hours a week marketing their website
• 99% of small business owners are directly involved in the marketing
• 65% believe it is very important to know where their customers come from
• Only 9% are satisfied with their online marketing efforts
• 78% of small business owners dedicate 10% or less of their budget to marketing Of those, 30% do no Internet advertising

 Over the past two years, 43% of small businesses say they have increased use of search engines in their marketing efforts. In contrast, use of traditional small business advertising mediums is on the decline:

• 23% say they use the Yellow pages less
• 42% say they use the local newspaper less

    For the purpose of this survey, the term "local business" refers to any retail business in a respondent's local area, including restaurants, entertainment venues, places of recreation, etc. and services such as plumbers or accountants. The term "Internet Yellow Pages" refers to online Yellow Pages websites such as yellowpages.com, judysbook.com, superpages.com, etc.

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RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The biggest increase in internet use since 2005 is the 70-75 year-old age group. While just over one-fourth (26%) of 70-75 year olds were online in 2005, 45% of that age group is currently online, and doing more activities online.

Instant messaging, social networking, and blogging have gained ground as communications tools, but email remains the most popular online activity, particularly among older internet users, writes Sydney Jones and Susannah Fox in the report. 74% of internet users age 64 and older send and receive email, making email the most popular online activity for this age group. 89% of teens claimed to use email in 2004. Now, just 73% currently say they use email.

Teens and Generation Y (age 18-32) are more likely than their older counterparts to seek entertainment through online videos, online games, and virtual worlds, and they are also more likely to download music to listen to later.

• 78% of 12-17 year-old internet users play games online
• 73% of online teens email, the second most popular activity for this age group
• only 50% of Generation Y play online games

The report says that health questions drive internet users age 73 and older to the internet just as frequently as they drive Generation Y.  Researching health information is the third most popular online activity with the most senior age group, after email and online search.

Generation X (ages 33-44) continues to lead in online shopping:

• 80% of Generation X internet users buy products online
• 71% of internet users ages 18- 32 buy products online
• 38% of online teens buy products online
• 56% of internet users ages 64-72 do  
• 47% of internet users age 73 and older buy online

67% Generation X internet users lead in online banking, while  57% of Generation Y to do their banking online, up from 38% in 2005. There has been no significant growth among older generations when it comes to banking online

Downloading videos is now being done more equally across all generations under 73 years old.

• 31% of Generation X claim to download videos as of 2007
• 38% of Generation Y downloaded videos 
• 13% of G.I. Generation internet users (age 73+) reported downloading videos, up from 1% in 2005
• 13% of the online Silent Generation (ages 64-72) say they download videos, up from 8% in 2005

Who are these people...

The writers note, in summary, that "...contrary to the image of Generation Y as the 'Net Generation,' internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life."

For additional information about the report, and access to the PDF file, please visit pewinternet.org here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, James Steyer, saie "Nearly 5.3 million kids watch football each week, yet one in six of the ads shown during the broadcasts features content that's wildly inappropriate for kids -- that's every other commercial break..."

Common Sense Media's report found that:

• 300 of the ads were for alcohol
• 40% of the games included advertisements for erectile-dysfunction drugs
• 500 of the advertisements involved significant levels of violence, including gun fights, explosions, and murders
• 80 of the advertisements involved significant levels of sexuality, including scenes about prostitution and strippers
• 44.7% of the violent or sexual advertisements were promotions by the networks for their own programs

One big reason for pro football's popularity, says the report, is the game's appeal for the whole family. On any given Sunday afternoon, millions of families gather in front of the television to root for their favorite teams.

• According to Nielsen reports, more than 5.3 million kids ages 2-17 (and nearly 2.8 million kids ages 2-11) watch the average pro football game on broadcast television or ESPN each week
• Pro football is by far the most popular sport among kids. 65.7% of kids ages 7-11 say they watch pro football on television

Ronnie Lott, former San Francisco 49er and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, says "Football teaches kids a lot of great lessons... but families... should be able to watch these games without worrying that their kids will be bombarded with adult ads... "

Most pro football games are broadcast between 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm EST, hours that have traditionally been considered time for family programming. Yet the promotional spots for TV shows, ads for movies, DVDs, and video games shown during these time periods were clearly intended for adult audiences only, says the report.

While the report says that though approximately 16% of the ads and promos during pro football broadcasts are about sex, violence, and alcohol, more than 360 ads and promos (an additional 6% of the total reviewed) were for junk food and soda... juxtaposed with the NFL's new Play 60 public service campaign, which encourages kids to be more physically active.

In summary, the study:

• Reviewed 57 pro football games
• Evaluated 5778 ads and promos
• Found 519 ads and promos with violence
• Saw 242 violent promos for network programs
• Found 80 ads and promos with sexuality
• Discovered 26 which were sexual promos for network programs 
• Viewed 300 ads and promos with alcohol

Parents want to watch pro football with their kids without getting sucker punched by ads aimed at grown-ups. They want America's game to be fun for every American family, including our kids. So, who's responsible for responsible broadcasts?

The report quotes N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell, in a statement in The New York Times, June 2, 2007, who said "If you're involved with the N.F.L... (or) represent the N.F.L... you are held to a higher standard, and you need to be accountable... (with) a certain standard of behavior... to live up to, from the commissioner on down."

Please refer to the complete release here to find access to the PDF report and samples of ads reviewed by this study.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

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RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Friday, February 6, 2009

The number one online newspaper destination in December 2008, with 18.2 million unique visitors, was the NYTimes.com.. USATODAY.com and washingtonpost.com took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots. 

 Chuck Schilling, Research Director, agency & media, Nielsen Online, said "Nine of the top 10 newspaper Web sites experienced positive year-over-year growth," driven, in part, by the holiday season, the weakened economic news, and political reporting.

Not only are more people visiting newspaper Web sites, but they are also visiting these sites more often than they were a year ago, says the study. The number of total visits to the top 10 newspaper sites increased 27% year-over-year, growing from 199.6 million in December 2007 to 252.7 million in December 2008.

 "Despite the current troubles for the traditional newspaper industry, people are visiting newspaper sites more and more often to stay on top of current events," said Schilling.

 Nielsen Online also reported December 2008 data for the Top Parent Companies/Divisions and Top Web Brands. The parent level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single company or division. 

 Example: The data indicates that 55.2 million home and work Internet users visited at least one of the Facebook-owned sites or launched a Facebook-owned application during the month, and each person spent, on average, a total of 2 hours, 7 minutes and 58 seconds at one or more of their sites or applications.

The brand level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content.

For more information, please visit Nielsen-Online here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Thursday, February 5, 2009

According to the 2008 Personalization Survey from ChoiceStream, 39% of consumers overall are more likely to click on an ad if it is personalized, while that number rises to 58% among those who shop online at least several times a month. The survey finds that the bigger the spender, the greater the interest in personalized ads. Half of those spending more than $250 online over the past six months indicate that they are more willing to click on ads that are personalized. This compares with only 32% of the smallest spenders.

The survey finds that consumers are surprisingly savvy about online advertising in terms of its effect on their behavior. 70% of consumers admit that their purchase decisions are at least sometimes influenced by having seen an ad for an item.

A smaller percent of consumers admit that they are influenced by brand advertising as well, with 39% admitting that they are more likely to buy from vendors or retailers that they have seen advertised than from unrecognized sources. In both cases, the bigger the spender, the more likely he or she is to admit to being influenced by advertising.

A full 60% of shoppers are aware that retailers use information about their online shopping behavior to target advertising to them, the study found. Additional survey findings include:

Overall, 78% of consumers are interested in receiving personalized content

The types of content consumers want personalized are consistent with the previous findings, with music, books and DVDs being the most popular categories.

Cheryl Kellond, SVP at ChoiceStream, says "Advertisers that are spending premiums to target the biggest spenders and the most frequent shoppers should... note that those shoppers want intelligent ads that speak to their specific needs and shopping intent... "

Other personalization suggestions from the respondents include:

• 71% of the consumers believe that personalization would improve their experience in social networking by introducing them to other members with similar interests and preferences.
• Interest in personalized ads is strongest online and on television. A large majority 72% of consumers are interested in personalized advertising distributed through their television
• 73% interested in Online distribution of personalized advertising
• 35% are interested in personalization on their mobile device
• 45% of consumers reported receiving personalized recommendations that were a poor match based on their tastes and interests in 2008

Respondents were US adult internet users, 95% of whom have made at least one online purchase within the past year, who were distributed across 4 age categories (18-24, 25-34, 35-49, 50+). They were 54% female and 46% male.

To access the PDF report on the Study, please visit ChoiceStream here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

According to a new study by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, with Satmetrix, 58% of the 480 executives surveyed said their companies do not compensate any employees or executives based on customer loyalty, satisfaction improvements or analytics. 38% said their companies have no programs in place to track or propagate positive word of mouth among customers, and only 29% said their companies rate highly in their ability to handle and resolve customer problems or complaints.

Senior marketers admit their companies are failing to take decisive, company-wide action to integrate customer voice and experience into key business and marketing processes, says the report. The study underscores critical deficiencies in the way companies measure, optimize and leverage customer experience to drive loyalty, improve brand value and increase business performance and growth, including:

• Insufficient availability and aggregation of real-time customer experience data across touch points that should be shared across the organization
• Poor use of customer interactions to collect insights and intelligence or maximize up-sell and advocacy opportunities
• Lack of Internet processes and systems to track online word of mouth and drive customer advocacy
• Intermittent or deficient monitoring of customer experience that fails to provide true and timely insights into problems and opportunities
• Too few compensation programs tied to customer experience, loyalty and satisfaction gains

CMO Council executive director, Donovan Neale-May, says "Customer experience is one of the most critical determinants of brand strength and business growth... we are missing a major opportunity to turn customer pain into competitive gain... through better use of web and contact center technologies and processes."

Survey data shows that most companies are not taking advantage of opportunities to drive company-wide performance improvement and business growth:

• Only 38% of companies gather customer insight from customer engagement situations
• Just 32% look for ways to turn problems into new sales opportunities
• Only 15% introduce new products or services to further monetize the relationship
• Merely 17% use the opportunity to identify and cultivate potential customer champions and advocates

Although 34% of respondents said their companies have made no changes to the way they track and analyze customer experience in recent years:

• 45%  of respondents say their companies have taken steps to better integrate and analyze customer data
• 39% said they have increased personalization and intimacy in their customer communications
• 20% say they have embraced intelligent Internet analytics

18% are capturing real-time information at the "point of pain."

Nearly two-thirds of companies do not have a formal Voice of Customer program in place, and other key findings of the study include:

• 13% of companies have deployed real-time systems to collect, analyze and distribute customer feedback
• 74% say they receive customer feedback via e-mail, only 23 percent say they track and measure the volume and nature of these messages.
• 14.5% track word of mouth on the Internet
• 12% are using a word-of-mouth marketing platform to drive online customer advocacy

Laura Brooks, Ph.D. and vice president of research for Satmetrix, concludes that "Companies must become more... committed to leveraging... customer experience as a key business metric... but measurement is not an end in itself... companies need to commit... to understanding the key determinants of their score... to improve their customer experience competitiveness."

For more information about the Giving Customer Voice More Volume study, please visit the CMO Council here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCHBRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

Monday, February 2, 2009

A new study by Bendick and Egan Economic Consultants, released in January, 2009 by the NAACP and Mehri & Skalet, reports data on African-American professionals in the advertising industry in pay, hiring, promotions, assignments, and other areas of employment. The study says that Black college graduates working in advertising earn $.80 for every dollar earned by their White counterparts, and Black managers and professionals are only one-tenth as likely as their White counterparts to earn $100,000 a year.

 The Executive Summary reports that as employment discrimination has sharply diminished across the American labor market over recent decades, barriers to equal opportunity in this $31 billion a year industry have remained largely intact.

Across multiple measures, says the summary, the Black-White gap averages 38% larger in advertising than in the overall U.S. labor market. The divergence between racial equality in this industry and the rest of the labor market is more than twice as large today as 30 years ago.

• Earnings provide one important measure of the industry's unequal treatment of African Americans. The racial pay gap is more than twice as large in advertising as in the overall labor market.
• Data from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission estimate the expected representation of African Americans at 9.6% of advertising managers and professionals. The current 5.3% representation reaches only 55% of that benchmark
• About 16% of large establishments in the industry employ no Black managers or professionals, a rate 60% higher than in the overall labor market.
• Blacks are only 62% as likely as their White counterparts to work in advertising agencies' "creative" and "client contact" functions, says the report
• Based on national demographic data, African-Americans should be 9.6% of the managers and professionals, but in 2008 only 5.3% of managers and professionals were African-American, a difference of 7,200 African-Americans

Please visit here for the summary release, and link to the PDF final report from Bendick and Egan.

And, a quick extra from Scarborough Sports Marketing at the last minute. A look at the people who attend Cardinals and Steelers games...  

• Cardinals attendees in Phoenix have more disposable income than Pittsburgh's Steelers attendees. 23% of adults in Phoenix who went to a Cardinals game during the past year have an annual household income of $100k+, versus 13% of Pittsburgh's Steelers game attendees who are in that income bracket.
• Cardinals attendees are more likely to have children at home - 56% have at least one kid age 17 or younger in the household, versus 39% of Pittsburgh's Steelers game attendees.
• Both Cardinals and Steelers game attendees are more likely than others in their respective cities to be young. Steelers Attendees are 31% more likely than other Pittsburgh adults to be ages 18-34, and Cardinals attendees are 23% more likely than other Phoenix adults to be in this age range.
• Cardinals and Steelers game attendees are equally likely to be single. One-third of game attendees in each of their home city markets are single, and these attendees are more likely than others in their home cities to be single.
• Pittsburgh is known as a blue collar town, and Steelers game attendees are 12% more likely than the city as a whole to be blue collar. By contrast, Phoenix's Cardinals attendees are 18% less likely than all Phoenix adults to be blue collar.
• Phoenix's Cardinals game attendees have almost an even gender split. 52% of those who attended a game during the past year are male, and 48% are female. In Pittsburgh, 58% of Steelers game attendees are male, vs. 42% who are female.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com