Turn On, Tune Out, Click Here - WSJ.com

Complete episodes of about 90% of prime-time network television shows and roughly 20% of cable shows are now available online, according to Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. There are still notable holdouts, such as Fox's "American Idol" and current seasons of HBO series like "Entourage."

Turn On, Tune Out, Click Here - WSJ.com

Here we go. Another conspiracy theory: When the economy tanks, consumers will cut cable and keep broadband. Most of their favorite shows are online already anyway. Besides, we can't survive without Facebook. Now here comes a far-fetched (but eminently possible) prediction -- once the bad economy doesn't let up, consumers cut broadband and keep their mobile contracts. Why? We can't survive without Facebook. But we've got it on our phones already anyway.

In sum, the bad economy will accelerate the convergence. Discuss.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Notes from the Digital Generation Gap - Mom X vs. Mom Y

A recent study conducted by NewMediaMetrics found a significant difference in the types of digital behavior embraced by the X and Y generations when it comes to child raising. Gen Y is much more attached to media that connects them to other moms (online communities, blogs, video-sharing sites, etc.), while Gen X moms are more likely to embrace the web for task-oriented activities like shopping online and uploading photos. The study concludes that this might signify a shift in the way that marketers should be targeting the next new generation of moms online.

Research Brief » Blog Archive » Y Moms Connect Through The Internet; X Moms Task

More evidence, if you will, for my theory of the new generation gap. The key point is it's all coming to pass very, very quickly. The changes in attitude, media behavior, shopper behavior and general worldview are quick and clearly defined.

What does this mean for marketers? We need to toss our assumptions about how interactive creative works. We need to recalibrate how we judge ideas in the early stages of planning and development. We can't fall back on yesterday's best practices, even though they still feel freshly minted.

And it means that the marketers who persist in clinging to the tried-and-true may find themselves scrambling for new structures as early as first quarter 2009. Could happen.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Research Brief » Blog Archive » I Want It My Way

Ads delivered via mass media are preferred by 17% of U.S. adults, and an additional 17% of consumers are most interested in ads delivered in print. 32% of U.S. all adults are either disinterested in advertising delivered by any medium or they have not been exposed to a particular ad platform.

The 9% of U.S. adults who prefer "Ads on Emerging Media Vehicles" are far more likely than the average adult to agree with the following statements.

• A celebrity endorsement may influence me to consider or buy a product.
• I'm always one of the first of my friends to try new products or services.
• I follow the latest trends and fashions.
• Brand name is the best indication of quality.

Anne Marie Kelly, Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Planning at MRI, says "Consumers who prefer advertising messages delivered through their mobile devices and product placement tend to be younger, pro-innovation, pro-celebrity and pro-fashion… this segmentation analysis helps them to target… consumers most receptive to their media plan."

Research Brief » Blog Archive » I Want It My Way

So, there's an 8 point gap between the "emerging media" consumers and the "mass media" troglodytes. How long before that gap evaporates? Hmm.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Traditional Media Not Dead Yet for Marketing, Study Says - TV Decoder - Media & Television - New York Times Blog

A study to be released on Wednesday finds that advertisements appearing in traditional media like television are still “much more likely” to have made a positive impression with consumers than ads running in digital media.

The study, called “When Advertising Works,” was conducted by Yankelovich in association with Sequent Partners. The Center for Media Design at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., provided assistance.

The study covered 16 types of media. Besides TV, the traditional kinds included billboards, magazines, newspapers, radio and movie theater commercials. The digital kinds included e-mail messages, Internet banner ads, social networking Web sites, video games and video-sharing Web sites like YouTube.

When asked what kind of an impression the ad made, 56 percent of survey respondents said traditional media ads made a positive impression, in contrast to 31 percent who said that about digital media ads. Thirteen percent reported a negative impression of traditional media ads versus 21 percent for digital media ads. Thirty-two percent said they had neither a positive nor a negative impression of traditional media ads, in contrast to 48 percent who said they had neither a good or bad impression of digital media ads.

Traditional Media Not Dead Yet for Marketing, Study Says - TV Decoder - Media & Television - New York Times Blog

On the other hand, advertising is NOT dead. It is NOT the end of advertising as we know it. Discuss.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Thirty Countries Exceed 100% Per Capita Cell Phone Usage (But Not the USA)

By the first quarter of 2006, notes the report, thirty countries had already exceeded 100% per capita cell phone usage. In that same year, there were about 241 million mobile phone users in the US (roughly 80% per capita mobile phone penetration). The U.S. market is not expected to top 100% per capita penetration until the year 2013.

Included by the author is the Simmons New Media Study released in April 2008 comparing the usage of different mobile functions among consumers in the U.S. While 59% of people who have used a cell phone in the past 30 days have text messaged, and 49% have taken photos, less than 2% have shopped by mobile and less than 5% have used mobile GPS.

Research Brief » Blog Archive » Thirty Countries Exceed 100% Per Capita Cell Phone Usage

Blogged with the Flock Browser

The Location Is The Message

To illustrate how the new life pattern research can be applied, Bowen provided the “Digital Outsider” with detailed data on the “mobile millennials” cluster. If you look at the illustration on this page, you’ll see a map with push-pin icons highlighting key intervals for reaching the valuable consumer targets, starting when they leave their homes in the morning and fill up their tank at a local gas station, to the video rental store they stop at on their way home from work or school in the evening.

“The idea is to map that back to where advertisers can most effectively intercept them during their daily life, so that they can reach them in the most contextually relevant environment,” Bowen explains.

Digital Outsider » Blog Archive » The Location Is The Message

Blogged with the Flock Browser

IDC - Press Release

The Internet will go from the number 5 medium all the way to the number 2 medium in just 5 years, making it bigger than newspapers, bigger than cable TV, bigger even than broadcast TV, and second only to direct marketing. Video advertising will be the principal disruptor of Internet advertising over the next five years by attracting the most new marketing dollars. Its revenue will grow sevenfold from $0.5 billion in 2007 to $3.8 billion in 2012 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 49.4%. This growth will take place because brand advertisers will shift significant amounts of money into these video commercials, primarily from broadcast television and to a lesser extent from cable television.

IDC - Press Release

Blogged with the Flock Browser

MediaPost Publications - Study: Image-Oriented Emails Not Getting Delivered - 06/06/2008

It's back to the drawing board for marketers, whose image-oriented email campaigns are increasingly being blocked by default and Web mail clients.

That's according to Jeanniey Mullen, Email Experience Council founder and a chief marketing officer at Zinio. The Email Experience Council, the email marketing arm of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), released "Retail Email Rendering Benchmark Study." The 41-page study examines the email design practices of 104 top online retailers tracked via RetailEmail.Blogspot, and examines their performance in an images-off email environment. It also includes the results of a survey of 472 marketers regarding rendering issues, conducted in conjunction with SubscriberMail, the sponsor of this study.

"The results of this study underscore the importance of proactively designing email to compensate for image suppression," said Jordan Ayan, CEO of SubscriberMail, in a statement.

MediaPost Publications - Study: Image-Oriented Emails Not Getting Delivered - 06/06/2008

Dispatch from the front lines of "Duh!"

Blogged with the Flock Browser

murketing » “Buying In”

"Buying In has vast social implications, far beyond the fields of marketing and branding. Most importantly, from the policy point of view, it obliterates our old paradigm of companies (the bad guys) corrupting our children (the innocents) via commercials. In this new world, media-literate young freely and willingly co-opt the brands, with most companies being clueless bystanders desperate to keep up. Consuming and interacting with products has become the new turf for the identity politics game, stirring the kind of savage feelings previously reserved for matters of ethnicity and class. I really don’t know if this is good news or bad news, but I can say, with certainty, that this book is a must-read."
– Po Bronson, author, Why Do I Love These People?

murketing » “Buying In”

Blogged with the Flock Browser

AP About to Release Results of Young Media Consumers Survey

The survey found that young consumers get their news in an irregular fashion, and generally have no ritual of news consumption, like reading the newspaper or watching the evening news every day. However, the survey also found that young people, in addition to facts and updates, wanted the news to be presented with context. “They wanted to find a path to the backstory,” said Kennedy. “And they wanted to find a path to what’s going to happen next.”

Other significant findings of the survey included the fact that most of the survey group shared news with each other, whether via text message, e-mail, or social networks, like Myspace and Facebook. Also, the survey found that 16 of the 18 participants got their news through e-mail, a medium which traditional media like newspapers rarely employ.

AP About to Release Results of Young Media Consumers Survey

Blogged with the Flock Browser

MediaPost Publications - C Suite Favors E Media, Study Finds 'Business Elite' Embracing Online - 05/13/2008

America's business elite, the so-called "C suite" that run our country's medium and large size businesses, are changing their personal media habits and spending much more of their time online. That may come as little surprise given the corresponding shifts that have taken place in the consumer population but the new findings, released this morning by global market research giant Ipsos, provides tangible proof of the impact digital media is having on one of the most difficult to reach, but most important media targets of all.

MediaPost Publications - C Suite Favors E Media, Study Finds 'Business Elite' Embracing Online - 05/13/2008

Blogged with the Flock Browser

MediaPost Publications - Study: Biggest Barrier To Mobile Ads Is Unfamiliarity - 04/14/2008

In a new study, Forrester reports that 83% of marketers believe that mobile will become a more effective platform over the next three years. But at present, consumers' lack of familiarity with the format remains a barrier. For instance, only 7% of mobile users trust ads on their cell phones.
Still, the research firm suggests that advertisers look at the kinds of things people are using their phones for in addition to talking. Some 42% are text-messaging, nearly a quarter are exchanging picture-messages, and 15% are using mobile e-mail.
Furthermore, almost one-third have interacted with some type of marketing on their phones, which Forrester calls a "sizeable minority" that will grow as mobile is increasingly added to the digital mix. Despite frequent claims of high click-through rates for mobile, however, only 1% said they had clicked on a banner ad while browsing on their cell phones, according to Forrester's data.

MediaPost Publications - Study: Biggest Barrier To Mobile Ads Is Unfamiliarity - 04/14/2008

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain - New York Times

Research shows that among the youngest Internet users, the primary creators of Web content (blogs, graphics, photographs, Web sites) are not misfits resembling the Lone Gunmen of “The X Files.” On the contrary, the cyberpioneers of the moment are digitally effusive teenage girls.

Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain - New York Times

Blogged with Flock

What Women Want (on the Net, That Is) - Advertising Age

This is required reading for anyone who works on a brand that is purchased by women. (Um ... everybody.)

Last year, "women's community" was the most visited and fastest growing internet category, tied with politics, according to a ComScore Media Metrix year-end report. The number of unique visits to women's community sites jumped 35% to almost 70 million from 52 million.

What Women Want (on the Net, That Is) - Advertising Age - Digital

Blogged with Flock