March 2010 Archives

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While the recession has certainly nibbled away at the total amount people are willing to spend on products they believe to be green, the environment continues to be a concern for the majority of consumers.

New data from market researcher Mintel shows that 35% say they will still pay more for "environmentally friendly" products, despite changes in the economy. And about half of the most committed shoppers say they are buying "as much or more" organic food than before the crash.

Still, in 2009, growth in green space all but stalled. "We've been tracking this for six years, and we are now seeing that this number has reached a plateau," senior market analyst Chris Haack tells Marketing Daily, "and that seems to have been happening regardless of the recession. It seems to have reached its saturation point."

In its analysis of the food and beverage and personal care categories, which he says are among the most mature in their green offerings and account for most of the purchases, people say they are spending less but remain committed. In food and beverages, Mintel reports that sales growth of natural and organic food, which grew 24% from 2006 to 2008, rose just 1.8%.

"People are trading down -- buying cheaper foods," he says, "but they don't want to make a trade all the way down to processed foods." Some 21% of organic food buyers say they have cut down or eliminated organic purchasing, and another 20% have switched to less inexpensive organic options. Based on their commitment and the economy picking up steam, Mintel forecast a 20% growth rate in green food and beverage purchases from 2010 to 2012.

And while sales of green personal care products climbed 18% in the 2006-08 period and just 1.2% in 2009, Mintel predicts rapid growth once consumer spending begins to recover. "One-third of all consumers have never tried organic or natural personal care products, suggesting that there is plenty of room for growth," it reports.

Haack says that consumers in the 25 to 44 age group seem to be the most committed to green products, but that as offerings proliferate, do does confusion about product claims, as well as concerns about greenwashing.

He also anticipates a major uptick in green claims and products in the tech sector, as consumer spending recovers. "The replacement cycle on tech products is so short, it will give marketers more opportunities to differentiate themselves with green benefits."

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At least in the U.K., video and display advertising are effective at driving "significant uplift" in site visitation and advertiser search queries, according to a new study from .Fox Networks and comScore.

Commissioned by .Fox -- Fox International Channels' global online ad network -- the study relied on comScore's single-source panel methodology, and evaluated results from four campaigns across four industry sectors.

Over a four-week period, the average uplift across the campaigns saw site visitation increase by more than a factor of seven following exposure to an ad. Consumers, meanwhile, were three times more likely to conduct search queries using brand or relevant generic terms in the same time period.

What's more, when evaluating video and display side by side, consumers exposed to video advertising were 28% more likely to visit the brand site, and nearly twice as likely to conduct a trademark search.

"Confirming expectations and previous industry understanding, video was able to generate a more immediate impact in the first five exposures than display ads in terms of increases in site visitation and search queries," report the study's authors.

The study was compiled examining four campaigns conducted in 2009 across the Travel, Finance, Government and Utilities sectors. The campaigns used various combinations of video and display formats, and delivered a total of 300 million impressions to UK Web users.

"This research centers on consumer behavior proxies that are better placed to reflect communication goals, defining success based on a mix of visitation, engagement and search behavior across a four-week period," said Anthony Rhind, Global co-CEO of Havas Digital -- one of the agencies that sponsored the study.

"By addressing difficult planning considerations such as cross-format and multiple touchpoint attribution, this .Fox research better reflects the way Havas Digital believes campaigns must be evaluated," Rhind added.

The study compared the behavior of Web users who were exposed to the online campaigns with a control group of comScore panelists who were not exposed.

The control group was generated using a pair-wise matching process along a number of key demographic and behavioral variables.

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Center For Media Research

GenX and Millennials Driving Recovery

According to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Retail Forward, entitled The New Consumer Behavior Paradigm: Permanent or Fleeting?, for the first time in the last three recessions, it will not be Baby Boomers at the heart of the economic recovery, as the recession has taken a bite of their savings and retirement accounts. This time it is the Gen Xers and Millennials who will be driving the recovery.

And, the report notes, shoppers will be more deliberate and purposeful in their spending, as conspicuous consumption will give way to more conscious or practical consumerism.  Rampant deal-seeking will be replaced by more purchase selectivity and the use of shopping techniques and tools discovered during the recession. Additionally, the affluent segment of Generation X and the young Generation Y will lead spending in the recovery.

When it comes to retirement and savings, Boomers have lost the most, which means they now have very different spending habits, according to Lisa Feigen Dugal, PricewaterhouseCoopers' U.S. retail and consumer practice advisory leader. Now it's the Gen X and Gen Y demos that have disposable income, and they spend very differently and have different ways of seeking bargains.

Among Gen Y consumers (those between 18 and 27 for this report) just 25% say the economy has significantly changed their spending behavior, while 36% of Gen Xers say it has, and 37% of Boomers say they have significantly changed shopping habits.

In the past two recessions, Baby Boomers quickly led the recovery. However, this group has been hit hard by the recession at a point in life when their financial commitments loom large and retirement is on the horizon. Marketers will need to look to the smaller Gen X generation and large Gen Y population to fuel growth in the initial stages of the post-recession recovery. Among Gen X, one segment that will have a meaningful positive impact on spending is "up-market affluents" given their life stage needs and above-average spending potential.

A higher proportion of Gen Y's income is discretionary as a result of fewer debts and a less-urgent need to accumulate wealth in the immediate term relative to older shoppers. Furthermore, as this generation is accustomed to instant gratification and demands the latest gadgets, spending on technology staples like MP3 players and smart phones will remain a priority and create unique opportunities for tech-oriented retailers.

Feigen Dugal adds "... there will not be a wholesale return to previous shopping patterns and behaviors. To succeed during the recovery, (marketers) will need to recognize that some shopper segments will still be in a 'recession' shopping mode... "

As shoppers' "wants" are steadily reintroduced into the equation, trading-down behavior related to the choice of retailer, product, or brand will lose some traction in the recovery. However, private label brands will remain a significant factor due to their increasingly higher quality and low cost, since retailers don't have to advertise or promote them to the same degree as national brands.

Findings included in study indicate that one-fifth of consumers will continue to forgo buying items that seem too expensive, resulting in a contraction for the luxury and gourmet foods markets. The emergence of a more thoughtful approach to spending on luxury and non-discretionary goods means shoppers will place a premium on goods that have qualities of timeliness, usefulness, and versatility.

Mary Brett Whitfield, senior vice president at Kantar Retail, concludes that "... retailers and suppliers can take advantage of this "frugal fatigue" and offer affordable do-it-yourself alternatives to pricier products... (shoppers) remain cognizant of today's economic realities and need to balance that with personal desires... "

For the complete report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, please visit them here

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Campbell's Select Harvest, Bud Light Lime and Arnold Select Sandwich Thins topped the list of last year's most successful food and beverage product launches, while Quilted Northern Ultra Plush, Tide Total Care and Sundown Naturals headed the list of hottest non-food CPG launches, according to Information Resources, Inc.'s 15th annual "New Products Pacesetters" benchmark analysis report.

The results were released Tuesday during IRI's "Summit 2010: Reinventing CPG & Retail Conference" in San Antonio, Texas.

The Select Harvest line realized total one-year dollar sales in food, drug and mass channels (excluding Walmart) of $202 million; Bud Light Lime realized $133 million; and Arnold Select Sandwich Thins tallied $87 million, IRI reports.

Other top 10 food and beverage launches, in order of sales volume, were Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers ($85 million), Dreyer's/Edy's Fun Flavors ($72 million), Gatorade Tiger/Focus ($65 million), Miller's MGD 64 ($53 million), Mountain Dew DEWmocracy ($52 million), Bush's Grillin' Beans ($45 million) and Kellogg's FiberPlus Bars ($45 million).

Many of the top food and beverage launches clearly reflect the economy-driven trend of cooking and entertaining at home, and manufacturers' responsiveness to consumers' heightened interest in fresh, healthy and fun/interesting food choices at affordable price points, observed IRI.

While brand extensions historically have not outsold newly developed brands, the top launches also reflect food and beverage makers' recognition that leveraging existing, trusted brands with innovative extensions makes sound strategic sense during tough times when consumers are more hesitant to try unknown brands, notes IRI Business Insights Practice EVP Anne Berlack.

The year's top-performing new food and beverage products succeeded by "providing a fun twist on a traditional product and/or by delivering against consumer values of maintaining high-quality and health-wise meals and snacks that can be enjoyed at home or on the run," such as low-cal, low-sodium soup and high-fiber, whole-grain bread, Berlack sums up.

The brand extension trend was also clear among non-food product launches. In fact, more than 90% of both food and beverage and non-food launches identified as "Pacesetters" were extensions, IRI reports.

The top 10 non-food launches, in order of one-year sales volume in the retail sectors tracked, were Quilted Northern Ultra Plush ($135 million), Tide Total Care ($79 million), Sundown Naturals ($57 million), Gillette Venus Embrace ($51 million), Smooth Away ($51 million), PediPaws ($50 million), Bounty ExtraSoft ($49 million), Always Infinity ($46 million), Secret Flawless ($41 million) and K-Y Yours + Mine ($35 million).

As with food and beverages, the roster reflects the trend to saving money by "doing it yourself," with products that promise to make at-home beauty care and home/family-care routines easier and more pleasant, and over-the-counter health care offerings dominating.

The self-reliance trend driving home, health and beauty care will continue to drive innovation in non-food CPG products for at least the next several years, as most consumers' budgets will remain tight even as the economy improves, predicts Berlack.

IRI compiles the "New Products Pacesetters" report (downloadable at us.infores.com) using its New Product Profiler, Consumer Network and InfoScan Reviews.

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Popular media multitasking is becoming more fashionable.

From its Three Screen Report, The Nielsen Company says Americans have increased their usage of the Internet and watching TV by 35% in the last quarter of 2009 over the year before -- rising to three and a half hours per month.

The rapid rise seemed to take place within the last six months of the year. In June 2009, multitasking was 2:39, and in December 2008 it was 2:36.

Nielsen says nearly 60% of TV viewers now use the Internet once a month while also watching TV -- up 3% from a year before. The survey also notes that the number of people who are multitasking grew almost 5% from the year before to 134 million.

Matt O'Grady, media product leader for The Nielsen Company, says from the report: "The initial fear was that Internet and mobile video and entertainment would slowly cannibalize traditional TV viewing, but the steady trend of increased TV viewership alongside expanded simultaneous usage argues something quite different."

Looking at another part of its Three Screen Report, Nielsen says Americans, on average, now watch about 35 hours of TV and 2 hours of time-shifted TV per week.

Nielsen says DVRs are now in 35% of all U.S. households.

The demographic that uses DVRs the most is the 25-54 viewers, who spend three hours a week using time-shifted viewing. Viewers 65 and older spend the least time -- just over one hour a week.

When it comes to using the Internet, Americans 35-49 have the most usage -- six and a half hours per week. The least usage is among teenagers and children, who come in at 1 hour 21 minutes and 24 minutes, respectively.

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Not surprisingly, it's difficult to find a large brand that isn't at least thinking about how it can participate in social networking phenom Facebook. With over 400 million members, Facebook teases with an audience that is nearly four times greater than that of the Super Bowl... every day. Unfortunately, many brands are finding that there is a big difference between setting up a fan page and creating a meaningful presence that attracts real customer engagement.

The single biggest point of failure according to my colleague, Kevin Tate, principal of StepChange, is an unwillingness to follow the four golden rules of creating a successful Facebook presence. Kevin knows a thing or two about this topic, as he has worked with nearly 100 brands to create meaningful Facebook presences in a world where many have failed.

The four golden rules of creating a successful Facebook presence are fairly straightforward, but to rush straight to stage four is where companies typically fall down.

1. Strategy - Before you start building, there are a few things to think about. For instance, who do you want to talk to? What do you want to talk to them about? What do you want them to do? Figuring these questions out up front will help ensure a successful step two.

2. Presence - With most companies, creating a solid presence requires creating one or more fan pages with several tabs. This is the "getting the house in order" step. Presence can be a difficult step, as this step requires patience while you build your following.

3. Activation - This is the "what do you want them to do" part. A brand can have all the fans on Facebook, but what's the value of a fan just sitting there? Activation is the "what do you want them to do" portion of building a fan page. Real value is when a fan is doing something for you outside of being just another follower.

4. Amplification - This is more of an outcome than a stage, but if you have the right presence and you've done your activation, amplification should allow you to tap your Facebook presence to amplify or build on current campaigns, in-store promotions and other marketing activities.

A good example of a company that has done a great job building out its Facebook presence, with a little over 1.1 million fans, is Dunkin' Donuts. The company has a "fan of the week," where it highlights that fan in its profile picture. In addition, fans celebrate promotions that are going on in the different tabs where they can dunk themselves in chocolate, design their own donut (leading to hundreds of thousands of likes and comments by fans) and even upload photos taken in stores or with Dunkin' Donuts products.

Unfortunately, for every Dunkin' Donuts, there are fifty other brands that have failed to lead with a strategy or even create a meaningful presence on Facebook, but instead have gone right to trying to "activate" their customers. Some will eventually figure out a way to engage with the 400 million-plus members of this increasingly popular site, while others will abandon their efforts and just assume that Facebook "isn't for them."

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Saying he deplores the lack of understanding about the importance of history and tradition among today's kids "who have no tradition other than slavish devotion to pop fads, digital social media and Cheetos," Mike Crosson, publisher of SocialMediopolis.com is especially upset about music. Said he: "My father taught me about the Big Bands and Sinatra, and while it wasn't my choice of music, I at least listened and learned when I was a teenager. Kids today don't, for the most part. They don't expand their selection and listen to classical or Latin or International music or anything else other than pop rock and rap. They seem extremely insular and opinionated and obsessed with presentation rather than substance. In a word, they are blissfully and willfully ignorant."

While I am certain this is a refrain familiar to anyone with teens under management, it made me wonder if the electronic age is solely to blame for this condition. Just as Mike's dad introduced him to the music of his formative years, so did mine, but I took a greater interest in the history and sociology that produced "We'll Meet Again" and "Autumn Leaves." If you are of a certain age, your parents were raised in the depression, went to war in Europe or The Pacific or Vietnam and lived out the GI Bill-funded "suburban dream." The music they played was strongly associated with those eras, often a direct reflection of their experiences within them.

You could not listen to Big Band and not think of World War II. You couldn't listen to swing and early rock and roll and not conjure images of your parents in their cocktail dresses and jackets and ties (remember them?). Perhaps it is our fault that our kids have only a passing interest in our music because we don't have thunderous events to tie it back to. Although Vietnam spawned a dozen movie soundtracks, it really only produced "The Ballad of the Green Berets" as any kind of affirmative anthem, Country Joe and the Fish notwithstanding.

How do you explain to your kids that you listened to the Moody Blues on the downward slope of an acid trip or were so stoned at the Allman Brothers concerts that they were 20 rows in front of you and you don't remember seeing them? Or you left the Black Sabbath concert because you HAD to get a couple dozen donuts before the stores closed? Or that you should only listen to Harry Nilsson's "The Point" if you have the psychedelic picture booklet that came in the album or that if you go see The Rocky Horror Picture Show you have to take a squirt gun and a pocket of rice?

Somehow all of that pales in comparison to troops marching off to save freedom to the music of The Andrews Sisters and Glenn Miller. Yes, there is music associated with the anti-war movement of the 60s and 70s, the fight for civil rights and feminism, sexual liberation, and the start of the environmental movement, but John Denver was no Nat King Cole and Helen Reddy was no Billie Holiday.

All of my kids went through the phase of "discovering" the Rolling Stones or The Beatles or Jimi Hendrix, but soon moved on to hardcore ghetto rap or hip hop or whatever is featured on Rock Band. They took away no cultural context except to ask us if we were hippies. You would think that with ready online access to the music and history of the 60s, 70s and 80s that our kids would take something of an interest in whatever traditions or history developed around music when we were their age. But they don't, not for long anyway. Clearly we were not The Greatest Generation.

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Los Angeles is a giant laboratory and proving ground for new out-of-home advertising strategies -- which also makes it a hotbed of opposition to the burgeoning, diversifying medium. Witness the seemingly endless battle over digital billboards, which now involves the LA City Council, the Planning Commission, and the state and Federal courts. But at least one of the more contentious issues -- the environmental cost associated with vinyl "super-graphics" applied to the sides of buildings -- appears to have been solved.

The environment-friendly fix comes courtesy of Midnight Oil and LA Graphico, sibling marketing companies based in Pasadena, which specialize in online advertising and super graphics (focused on the movie industry) in partnership with another local company, Billboard2Swag, which takes LA Graphico's discarded vinyl building wraps and turns them into sturdy, stylish reusable shopping bags.

Unlike the reusable shopping bags sold by green-thinking supermarket chains, each of the Billboard2Swag bags is unique.

Given the size of the super-graphics, which measure thousands of square feet in area, there's no guarantee a particular bag will have anything recognizable on it, but it does offer some eye-catching abstractions.

Plus, there is a certain cachet (at least in L.A.) to owning a bag made from, say, a giant super-graphic for "Avatar." The green selling point helps: Billboards2Swag is able to reuse over 95% of each LA Graphico super-graphic, leaving virtually no waste for the landfill.

Although it forged the partnership with Billboard2Swag on its own initiative, LA Graphico hopes the green solution will help attract more environmentally conscious advertisers that may have shied away from the giant out-of-home ads.

According to Brandon Gabriel, a principal at Midnight Oil and LA Graphico, the two companies' growth strategy includes cross-selling more of their online ad clients to outdoor and vice versa. The bags can only help persuade digital adherents to venture out-of-home, while allowing existing super-graphic advertisers to polish their green credentials.

One interesting PR advantage: as conversation pieces, the bags continue generating buzz and publicity for a movie long after the super-graphic comes down.

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It's no secret that the restaurant meal has for several years now been the most hotly contested daypart among restaurants. New data from Mintel point to an acceleration of that battle, as restaurants expand their offerings even as consumers cut back on breakfasts out and check sizes. 

Mintel's tracking shows that restaurant chains have added a whopping 460 new breakfast items to their menus just last year -- even more than in either 2008 or 2007.

But at the same time, Mintel's November 2009 survey showed half of U.S. consumers indicating that they spent less on breakfasts last year than in 2008, while just one in 10 indicated they had spent more.

Moreover, nearly half said they don't eat breakfast out during the week (47%) or even on weekends (45%).

Restaurant breakfast and brunch sales fell 3.4% between 2007 and 2009, according to Mintel, and the category is expected to grow only modestly through 2011 before regaining momentum. The researcher forecasts that the breakfast foodservice market will expand by 13% between 2009 and 2014.

"We see an increasingly competitive market for restaurant breakfast, even though sales have declined," sums up Eric Giandelone, director of research, Mintel Foodservice. "Restaurants are refreshing their breakfast menus, but I believe that reduced consumer spending, as well as relatively high unemployment, will limit sales growth over the next year."

How can restaurant operators position themselves to win share when consumer options are expanding while sales are contracting? Giandelone stresses the need to be "keenly aware of what drives people into restaurants for breakfast" -- recognition, for example, that Mintel's research shows people driven mostly by low prices and convenience for weekday breakfasts, but food quality on weekends.

Recognizing consumers' strong desire for the ability to get breakfast fare outside of traditional breakfast hours is also critical, says Giandelone. Indeed, the top item cited by consumers when asked what they would like to see more of in relation to restaurant breakfasts was "all-day breakfast (36% want this on weekdays, 38% on weekends).

Not surprisingly, a desire for more "value" breakfast options is also a top-runner among consumers surveyed (cited by 32%).

Mintel's data confirm the hot-as-a-griddle competitive environment that is already apparent in the growing number of breakfast category moves by major chains.

The long list includes last month's announcement by Burger King that it will add Starbucks Corp.'s Seattle's Best Coffee to all U.S. locations -- a clear response to the success of McDonald's McCafe coffee drinks line. Burger King, McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, Wendy's, Denny's, Hardee's, Carl's Jr. and just about every big brand out there have expanded breakfast offerings, many with an emphasis on value and convenience items.

The list of chains offering all-day breakfast menus has also grown, as old-timers like Jack in the Box and IHOP have been joined by Denny's and others.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

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Center For Media Research

Targeting, Video and Social Networking Keys For Small Business Promotion in 2010

According to according to The "2010 Email Marketing Trends Study" by GetResponse. 53.8% of respondents, said they intend to focus on Email personalization and targeting in 2010. 52.4% of respondents plan to improve message titles and subject lines in 2010. Other responses included increasing customer loyalty with special offers and gifts, identifying the best time to send emails, and using split testing. Only 10% of respondents plan to take no specific Email action.

Nearly 75% of respondents think behavioral targeting of email recipients, such as sending messages based on open and click behaviors, can cause a significant or moderate increase in email marketing effectiveness.

The study found that consumers believe that targeting messages based on a combination of customer preferences and previous behaviors is the most powerful technique in terms of improving email relevancy. "Getting personal" based on these two factors is more effective than demographics, purchasing history, or subscription date segmentation, says the report.

Techniques Planned To Implement In Upcoming Email Marketing Campaigns? (% of Respondents)

• Interest-based preferences... 59.40%
• Recent open or click-rate activity... 34.90%
• Demographics... 32.50%
• Purchasing history... 29.70%
• Subscription date... 17.90%
• None... 8.50%
• Other... 5.70%

Exploring the trends and technologies impacting the email marketing activities of SMB marketers in 2010, most SMB marketers see the benefits of incorporating video into their email messages. Over 80% of respondents plan to use video emails in 2010, while in 2009 only 15.7% of responders used video in their email campaigns.

Use of Video Email Marketing in 2009; Plans For 2010 (% of Respondents):

• Didn't use it, and do not plan to use video email this year... 19.5%
• Didn't use it but plan to use video emails this year... 64.0%
• Used it and plan to decrease the number of video emails this year... 0.8%
• Used it and expect to send about the same number of video emails this year...  3.8%
• Used it and plan to increase the number of video emails... 11.9%

Over 65% of marketers believe that video email marketing can have a moderate or significant influence on conversion rates. In particular, marketers who have already used video emails recognize the benefits on overall email marketing results. Almost 64% of those marketers claim that it results in significant rate increases!

Anticipated Influence Of Video Emails On Conversion Rates (% of respondents):

• Significant increases... 45.5%
• Moderate increases... 20.4%
• No influence... 5.1%
• Not sure... 28.9%

Considering the different uses of video email by small businesses, 28.8% of SMB marketers consider training courses as most effective use of video email, with Product Demos, Product Offers, and Customer Testimonials taking the next 3 places respectively. Branding came in at a far away 5th position!

Considered To Be The Most Effective Uses Of Video Emails By Small Businesses:

• Training courses... 28.8%
• Product demos... 22.0%
• Product promotions... 19.1%
• Customer testimonials... 17.8%
• Brand image messages... 5.1%
• None... 4.7%
• Other... 2.5%

In 2009, the most popular social media integration tool used in email marketing was placing "follow us" links into email messages. But only one of every 4 marketers was placing links to email campaigns and newsletters on social media pages, or including a "share" option in their online communications. Over 37% of responders didn't use any social media integration tools last year. It appears that this result could change dramatically in 2010, concludes the report.

Over 90% of respondents claimed that they planned to integrate social media into their email campaigns in this year. The most popular use of social media integration tools in 2010 will be adding sign-up forms on Facebook and other social media sites. Nearly 65% of marketers surveyed hope to gain new subscribers via social media subscription forms.

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Center For Media Research

Social Networking Sites Attracting Mobile Browsers

According to the latest comScore report, 30.8% of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January 2010, up 8.3 points from 22.5% one year ago. Access to Facebook via mobile browser grew 112% in the past year, while Twitter experienced a 347% jump.

Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile, said "Social networking remains one of the... fastest-growing behaviors on both the PC-based Internet and the mobile Web... "

In January 2010, 11.1% of all mobile phone users accessed a social networking site via mobile browser, an increase of 4.6 percentage points from the previous year. Much of this growth has been driven by smartphone owners, 30.8% of whom accessed social networking sites on their mobile browsers, up more than 8%age points on the year. By comparison, just 6.8% of feature phone users accessed social networking sites on their mobile phones.

In January 2010, 25.1 million mobile users accessed Facebook via their mobile browser, up 112% from the previous year. MySpace attracted approximately half that of Facebook in January. Facebook's mobile browser audience surpassed MySpace in February 2009.

Twitter, which has experienced tremendous growth in both mobile and PC-based visitation, attracted 4.7 million mobile users in January, up 347% versus year ago. These figures do not include access of the social networking services by the nearly 6 million mobile phone owners who do so exclusively through mobile applications.

For additional information from ComScore, please visit here.

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Marketing Daily News

After analyzing 128 companies' policies regarding food marketing to children, nonprofit watchdog Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has issued a "report card" that gives nearly three-quarters (95) of them an "F" grade for not having policies or having "weak" policies.

The study, spanning food/beverage manufacturers, restaurant chains and entertainment/media companies, did not attempt to assess the companies' actual compliance in cases in which marketing-to-kids policies are in place. Instead, last summer, CSPI staff collected information on the existence/nonexistence and content of company policies via telephone interviews, company Web site searches, articles in the Nexis news service and Google keyword searches.

Companies were identified for inclusion based on food marketing expenditures data (including the Federal Trade Commission's 2008 report on marketing to children) and studies of the most often- visited kids' Web sites. Companies from the top 100 food processors and restaurants that market to children, as well as media companies with top-ranking/most popular licensed characters, movie theater chains, kids' TV channels, kids' movies and kids' magazines were included.

All 16 companies that have policies through the Council of Better Business Bureaus' Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) were included (CFBAI's principals include in-school marketing as well as other kids' food marketing). Of the 128 companies analyzed, 87 (68%) were found to have no policy regarding food marketing to children, earning them an automatic "F." Most of these "no policy" companies are restaurant chains or entertainment companies: Just 10 (24%) of the 42 restaurants analyzed and 13 (22%) of the 58 media entities analyzed were found to have policies, versus 18 (64%) of the 28 F&B manufacturers analyzed.

The long list of "no policy" companies includes the owners of restaurant chains Arby's, Chili's, Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, Church's Chicken, Cheesecake Factory, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Denny's, Applebee's, IHOP, Domino's Pizza, Golden Corral, Jack in the Box, Little Caesar, Panda Express, Panera Bread, Papa John's, Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen, Romano's Macaroni Grill, Home Town Buffet/Old Country Buffet, Sizzler, T.G.I. Friday's, Texas Roadhouse, Waffle House, Wendy's and Whataburger.

However, CSPI's "no policy" list does include some major food and beverage manufacturers, such as McKee Foods Corp. (Little Debbie snack cakes), Pinnacle Foods Group LLC (Aunt Jemima, Lender's, Duncan Hines), Sara Lee Corp., Schwan's Home Service, Inc. and Sunkist Growers, Inc. Eight companies were deemed to have "very weak" or vague policies, also earning them an "F": Bob Evans Farms, Inc., CBS Corp., American Dairy Queen Corp., Discovery Communications, LLP, Mattel, Inc., NBC Universal, Inc., Univision Communications Inc. and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (New Line Cinemas).

No company received an "A." Only one -- Mars, Inc. -- received a "B+," based both on its policy of not marketing to children under 12 and having marketing policies that cover "most of the key media approaches used to reach children, with the exception of on-package marketing and most marketing in high schools," according to CSPI.

One media company (Qubo Venture, LLC) and one food and beverage maker (Procter & Gamble, via its Pringles brand marketing) earned "B" grades. Six were graded "B-": Nestlé USA, Kraft Foods Global, Inc., Cadbury Adams USA, LLC, Hershey Company, Dunkin' Brands and General Mills, Inc. Seventeen companies received a "C."

Those getting a "C+" were Post Foods, PepsiCo, Inc., Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and Coca-Cola Company. The "C's" were Walt Disney Company (ABC, Funschool and Pixar), Burger King Corp., Campbell Soup Company., Sesame Workshop, Hostess Brands, Kellogg Company and ConAgra Foods, Inc. (Chef Boyardee, Kid Cuisine and Peter Pan).

The "C-" list includes Unilever (Popsicle, Skippy), Highlights for Children, Inc., Dannon Company, McDonald's USA, LLC, H.J. Heinz Company (Bagel Bites) and Viacom International Inc. (Nickelodeon). (Per CSPI, companies that have a "no advertising to children under 12" policy in addition to Mars, Inc. include Cadbury Adams, Coca-Cola, Dunkin' Brands, Hershey, Highlights for Children, H.J. Heinz Co., Krispy Kreme and P&G. Those with a "no advertising to children under six" include Campbell Soup, General Mills, Kellogg, Kraft, Nestlé, Post Foods and Unilever.)

Seven companies were graded "D," including "D+'s" Sunny Delight Beverages Co., Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corp., Cartoon Network and Ruby Tuesday, Inc., and "D's" Doctor's Associates Inc. (Subway), Yum Brands, Inc. (KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell) and CEC Entertainment Concepts L.P. (Chuck E. Cheese).

The aspects of policies that were analyzed spanned a broad range, including advertising in traditional and digital media, product placements, in-school and other marketing, as well as the nutrition standards applied in marketing policies.

Among all F&B manufacturers with marketing-to-kids policies, 94% had either nutrition standards or no-marketing-to-kids standards. In addition, 50% of restaurants and 46% of entertainment companies with kids' marketing policies had nutrition standards. Among companies with policies, 61% of food manufacturers, 50% of restaurants and 15% of entertainment companies had nutrition standards considered "good" by CSPI, or policies of not marketing food to kids.

"Despite the industry's self-regulatory system, the vast majority of food and entertainment companies have no protections in place for children," said CSPI nutrition policy director Margo G. Wootan, who headed up the study.

Noting that the FTC, together with other federal agencies, is expected to propose a set of nutrition criteria and other standards for foods marketed to children that the FTC "hopes" will be adopted on a voluntary basis once finalized in July, Wootan added that if companies who market food to kids do not adopt the standards voluntarily, "they will be clanging the death knell of their self-regulatory initiative and inviting strong government involvement in food marketing aimed at kids."

CSPI's bottom line, as summarized in its "report card" document (available on its Web site): "In order for self-regulation to result in meaningful change, all food and beverage manufacturers, restaurants and entertainment companies that market to children should adopt a uniform set of nutrition standards and apply them to the full range of their marketing to children. If substantial progress in corporate marketing practices does not occur by Jan. 1, 2012, the federal government should adopt legislation or regulations to protect children from the marketing of unhealthy foods."

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

MediaPost News

Marketing Daily

As part of a new sweepstakes promoting its chocolate squares, Ghirardelli Chocolate is broadcasting consumer-generated comments about peoples' favorite Ghirardelli "moments" in New York's Times Square, as well as streaming them live on the brand's site.

Fans are being asked to visit the "Million Moments of Timeless Pleasure" sweepstakes site area (ghirardellimoments.com), register and type in a 75-character message about when and where they most enjoy eating Ghirardelli Squares chocolates.

People may register for the sweeps by offering their "moments" any time between now and Oct. 31 (one moment per person per day may be entered), but only comments posted between now and the end of April are eligible for possible broadcasting in Times Square.

"Our customers have told us that there are a million different moments during the day when they reach for our premium chocolate, such as for a burst of energy after a long day or as a special reward after a big success," said Ghirardelli VP, marketing Mona Maher, explaining the creative inspiration for the promotion.

The grand prize for the sweeps is a trip for two to one of four world-famous squares: Times Square, Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, St. Marks Square in Venice or Trafalgar Square in London.

The sweeps also offers thousands of instant-win prizes of bags of chocolate and gift baskets, and one prize of free chocolate for a year.

Simultaneously, Ghirardelli is touring 10 major U.S. cities, distributing one million pieces of Squares chocolate along the way. Consumers can locate the Squares team and follow it on Twitter at @GhirardelliTour.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

MediaPost News

Marketing Daily

To help marketers, agencies and publishers understand how social media is influencing consumer brand perception and purchasing decisions, Knowledge Networks has teamed with MediaPost Communications Inc., the publisher of Marketing Daily and the parent of the Center for Media Research, to launch the "Faces of Social Media," a new, long-term tracking study providing a consumer-centric view of social media's effect on 30 key product categories.

The new syndicated report will track the marketing impact of social media in the general population and on users in five explicit social media segments ranging from "Evangelists" to "Passive Users." Parallels will be drawn from category-specific comparisons with non-users of social media to address the true incremental effect of social media.

"We are helping CMOs and brand managers decide to what degree they should play in social media and how best to target specific audiences," says Simon Kooyman, CEO of Knowledge Networks. "We are painting a more sophisticated picture of social media's influence, showing where and how category consideration and [social media] level of influence intersect."

"While there is a sea of data about social media, little of it speaks to the needs of marketers, who are trying to make specific plans for their categories and brands," adds Chuck Martin, director of MediaPost's Center for Media Research.

The report, which will publish biannual trends, will begin with a report benchmarking what proportion of product category consumers are the highest-potential targets across each of the social media user clusters, how their use of social media is impacting brand perceptions and decisions, how it relates to demographic composition, which social media platforms dominate, and how specific social media features influence the process, how use of social media impacts use of other media, perceived trust of social media information about specific product categories, the influence of "friends" versus "non-friends" on the attitudes of social media users, etc.

To ground the social media/category comparisons, the companies said overall media consumption for each social media segment will accompany the data, as well as a "Social Media Influence Score."

Knowledge Networks is one of the top 15 survey-based consumer research companies in the U.S., and is highly regarded for the quality of its research methods and the representation of its consumer panels.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

MediaPost News

Online Media Daily

Those who follow hockey know the deadline for NHL teams to trade players came and went Wednesday. Typically, the day drives the most traffic and unique visitors to the NHL site. But this year, a real-time Twitter feed on the NHL's site produced the most impressive interaction with fans to date.

Michael DiLorenzo, the NHL's director of social media marketing and strategy, calls the number of people -- 1,500 -- who visited the Twitter channel Wednesday on the NHL site "small potatoes," but "significant." Each person on average viewed 8 pages and spent 25 minutes on the site. "That's the type of engagement you get on Facebook," he says.

TweetMixx Channel creates a distribution method for tweets. In December, the NHL became the first in a handful of companies to launch a white-label platform from Mixx that aggregates tweets from Twitter on Web sites and blogs.

While three Twitter feeds provide information, the one with the greatest influence comes from the Insiders' Tab, where tweets stream from influential North American hockey writers. In Canada and the United States, the NHL-related stream on Twitter appeared in the top 10 trending topics. Those tweets feed through the TweetMixx Channel and onto the league's site.

TweetMixx is not the only tool that provides additional content to publishers. AdGent 007 also integrates into Web sites, relying on an API widget that allows brands to integrate online advertising with real-time tweets and Twitter feeds.

Similar to TweetMixx, publishers can use tweetedia to control, manage and filter Twitter streams on sites. The free AdGent tool offers management of featured Twittter feeds. Publishers can use the free tool to support traditional banner advertisements with or without sponsorship. As an ad network, publishers can upload a widget on blogs and other sites.

AdGent 007 splits the revenue with participating bloggers, although the percentage is being worked out. The ads appear in a 300 x 350 dpi box at the bottom of the unit, but hosts don't have a say in the ads that appear in the box. The ads and social media aim to drive the traffic.

The NHL's social media strategy has attracted more hockey fans to the site. When Casie needed quick access via iPhone while at a baby shower to track the U.S. and Canadian game last Sunday, she relied on the NHL Web site for up-to-the-minute reports and scores.

The NHL hopes that kind of loyalty rings through to advertisers. The league hopes to support their TweetMixx Web page with sponsors looking to skin the page. DiLorenzo knew that social media continues to drive traffic to the NHL Web site, but now he has the numbers to back up the claim. "Our playoffs are coming up and we'll see something similar," he says. "Every night you have a couple of mashup games, but they are highly scrutinized and broken down by fans, similar to NFL games."

Statistics published by Facebook on the Gold Medal Hockey game on Sunday reflected the energy and excitement. The U.S. scored in the last 20 seconds after losing 2 to 1. That tie sent the game to overtime, where Canada scored to win.

The Facebook published data points to member status updates that align peaks in the game to reflect that winning point from Canada. Between 2:29 and 2:54 p.m. Pacific time, more than 3.5 million status updates were posted, which is twice the pace of the rest of the day. "When it comes to following NHL players and teams, our fans use social media as a second screen for sharing and amplifying what's happening on the ice," DiLorenzo says.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

MediaPost News

Online Media Daily

Gaming companies could be wasting their time (and a lot of money) pouring their efforts into the wrong channels. A study released Tuesday indicates that the core gaming audience has a limited tolerance for messages directly from the publishers of games. In fact, the audience is even suspicious of "expert" reviews (such as those on IGN.com and Gamespot), which they perceive as biased because they are highly commercialized and subsidized by advertising from the publisher.

"The heavy gamer really disregarded the majority of publisher advertising and marketing; their preference was to go to the purest sources they could find," says Ivan Todorov, CEO of Blitz. "One thing that kept coming up in both the study and in the focus group was that they preferred to go to YouTube to watch game-play footage over the marketing or the destination Web sites, or even the content on Gamespot or IGN."

YouTube was an unmediated source, where other gamers had posted game play, that respondents trusted. "They tend to think that publisher content has been touched up, or sweetened up, in post-production to make the graphics look better," says Todorov. "They really prefer peer content." Another outlet that gamers went to for information was Wikipedia -- even before they went to the publisher site -- or sometimes, elsewhere after, avoiding the publisher site.

The top three sources cited as "one of the most important factors" in determining gaming purchases were talking to friends, having friends who played the games, and online peer reviews, with people citing friends as being twice as influential on their decision as expert reviewers. Surprisingly, only a small percentage said social networks were one of the most important factors.

This leads Todorov to conclude that social networks like Facebook are severely under-utilized. "Which really presents a good opportunity for game marketers to really enable those tools and platforms that allow gamers to become influencers," he says. On of the key way of doing this would be incorporating social platforms into game play, such as challenging friends to be high scores, etc.

The study also found that television was one of the biggest drivers of interest in games, but was most effective when featuring actual video of the game, something that Blitz found was often overlooked. Another obvious mistake that gaming marketers make, according to the report, is neglecting to clearly state what is new in a sequel, which can be a key buying-decision-making differential.

In an effort to better understand what types of marketing and what channels influence avid gamers Blitz, a marketing agency that has working with top video game publishers, commissioned Mintel to conduct a study of 1,000 gamers between the ages of 13 and 35 (with a 60/40 split between male and female respondents), supplemented with additional focus groups and research. For the purposes of the study, an avid gamer was one who played a minimum of 7 hours a week on either consoles or portable game devices, and buy at least 9 titles a year. The white paper that resulted, "Pulling the Trigger to Purchase," can be downloaded here.

"While this study focused strictly on the techniques used to market video games, targeting the 'avid gamer' is similar to targeting other key audiences that can act as influencers for brands. These groups help carry the banner for a brand, in a way that can often be perceived as more genuine than the brand pushing the message by itself," says Todorov.

Blitz is an integrated marketing agency that has worked with many video game publishers, including Activision/Blizzard, Atari, Bioware, Eidos, Electronic Arts, Lucas Arts, Midway, Nintendo and Vivendi Games.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

Center For Media Research

Social Media Adoption Yields New Customers For Small Businesses

The third wave of the Small Business Success Index, by Network Solutions and the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, reports social media adoption by small businesses has doubled from 12% to 24% in the last year. Small businesses are increasingly investing in applications including blogs, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.

Key social media usage highlights (% of respondents)

• 75% surveyed have a company page on a social networking site
• 61% use social media for identi fying and attracting new customers
• 57% have built a network through a site like LinkedIn
• 45% expect social media to be profitable in the next twelve months

Dr. Alan Glazier, CEO and Founder of an eye and vision care center, said "... I was forced to consider alternative options to keep my business visible... with a very small investment in social media marketing, I was able to generate new business opportunities... (and) most importantly, my marketing budget has been reduced by more than 80%... "

61% of the respondents use social media to identify new customers. The biggest expectation small business owners have from social media is expanding external marketing and engagement including identifying and attracting new customers, building brand awareness and staying engaged with customers.

50% of small business social media users say it takes more time than expected. While social media adoption has doubled in the last year, ther e are still some roadblocks to small businesses fully exploiting its potential. Another 17% feel that social media gives people a chance to criticize their business on the Internet. Related to this, only 6% feel that social media use has hurt the image of the business more than helped it.

Janet Wagner, director of the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland, says that "Social media levels the playing field for small businesses... "

Other key findings from the December 2009 Small Business Success Index:

Small businesses experience positive effects from the economic downturn:

• 72% have found ways to operate more efficiently (up significantly from 66% in June)
• 47%have been led to find new products and services that benefit customers
• 43% have become better teams as hard times force people to work together

Building online presence continues to be key focus for small businesses:

• Com pany Web sites seem to be the top technology investment in the next two years, with small businesses either adding new features/functionality to their existing Web sites or building one from scratch
• The ability to showcase their products and services online to attract new customers is second in the hierarchy of technology investments
• Social media investments rank third in small business investments to be made in the next two years

Customer service the biggest strength of small business owners:

• Small businesses are highly successful at answering customer questions, ensuring customer satisfaction, showing empathy, providing consistent service, resolving problems and winning repeat business
• Four of the six customer service dimensions have gotten stronger compared to a year ago, and one of these, ensuring customer satisfaction, is significantly higher

Connie Steele, Director at Network Solutions, concludes that "... social media can be the best friend for small business owners who constantly seek new ways to maximize productivity while keeping costs low... "

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

MediaPost News

Media Daily

The YouTube team has been brainstorming about ways to improve search. On the home page, videos serve up, algorithmically driven by the person's search habits. But what if the searches tied into the types of videos that friends might watch on social networks?

Considering the genres and videos that friends view across a variety of social networks might become a good indicator for the type of videos the person searching would like to see, too. Better yet, YouTube could push out suggestions based on a combination of preferences.

And while a YouTube spokesperson says these ideas are not a product roadmap for search, they do represent the creative thinking that spawns ideas at Google's video site. One of those ideas that launched in January could represent the future of search on YouTube. The YouTube Music Discovery Project and Playlist Creation Tool, dubbed Disco supports Vevo music videos, as well as those from Warner Music and others.

The music tool, Disco -- incubated in TestTube, YouTube's lab for experimental projects -- allows people to search for an artist's name or song in the search box. The person searching can add the returned results into their playlist, or save or delete songs already queued up in the list to play.

"Preliminary data shows the average session time has increased substantially since we launched Disco," the Google spokesperson says.

YouTube is working on bringing additional advertising into the Disco music player. It recently added the ability to buy the songs played through Amazon.com and Apple iTunes. The tool also offers ad overlays that serve up in the first 10 seconds, which YouTube added shortly after the tool's launch. Additional advertising models will emerge in the coming months.

Products like Disco are focused on addressing that problem of search and discovery for music on YouTube. The tool, however, doesn't allow people to type in words, similar to the way you might on google.com, to find a song or artist. Try searching on words to a song in "Disco" and get a bunch of song titles that include the keywords.

Search on YouTube is complicated. The company continually looks for way to make music more discoverable. Most people think visually, rather than by keywords. They might type in "funny video" or "dog walking video." The person knows what they want to find, but it remains unclear how to discover it in YouTube search.

Upgrades to YouTube released Thursday include features in Disco, such as the ability to add videos to the queue. The site allows people to search results within the page while watching a video. Results appear on the right side of the video page, without interrupting the video viewing experience.

Searching and discovering music has become one of YouTube's priorities. Engagement follows, along with getting people to stay longer on the site and never leave.

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