Abbreviated Marketing News Round-up
Apple Grabs Top Spot On Millennial Ad Network
Apple became the top device maker on Millennial Media’s mobile ad network for the first time this year in September—with a 22.4% share of mobile ad impressions, thanks to the iPhone. Apple’s 2.65% gain allowed it to edge out Samsung, whose share was roughly flat from the prior month, at 22%.
Among devices, not surprisingly, the iPhone was also No. 1 in share of impressions — with 13%, trailed by the BlackBerry Curve (6.4%) and the Samsung Instinct (4.3%). Samsung had six of the top 20 mobile phones in the Millennial network, which it says reaches 51.2 million people, or 79% of the 61.4 million U.S. mobile Web users. (Millennial data doesn’t include the iPod touch or other non-Wi-Fi devices.)
Most Online Shoppers Want Live Customer Service
A live voice is still the most preferred form of customer service among online Americans, but two-thirds (67%) of US consumers say they would value the option of having both a live text chat and a live voice conversation to get the help they need when making online purchases, according to a survey by ATG (Art Technology Group, Inc).
The survey, which explored shoppers’ perceptions of—and preferences for—live help options such as click-to-call and click-to-chat when browsing and buying products or services online, also found that live help availability currently available on websites is not meeting the demand that exists among consumers. Some 59% of survey respondents do not think e-mail queries to customer service or FAQ pages – the most common customer service features found on online stores today – are useful.
Top 10 Autos for Customer Brand Loyalty
Ford Motor Company vehicles accounted for six of the top 10 autos for customer brand loyalty in the US according to a Q209 auto-industry analysis from Experian Automotive.
According to the quarterly study, Ford Fusion (62.4%), Ford Edge (57.9%) and Ford Five-Hundred (56%) had the highest percentages of owners who returned to buy a Ford vehicle, while the Ford Freestyle (51.9%) was fifth, the Ford Escape (49.4%) ranked seventh, and the Ford Focus (47.57%) placed ninth.
Abbreviated Marketing News Round-up
Local Online Advertising To Rise Only 5% In 2010
Online advertising will increase just 5% to $14.9 billion next year as a lagging economic recovery and a maturing Web ad market combine to further slow growth, according to a new report from Borrell Associates.
That rate would be less than half the 12% gain (to $14.2 billion) that the local media research firm projects this year, and well below the torrid 45% annual growth of the last five years. In addition to the impact of economic downturn, Borrell said the diminishing returns reflect a local online ad category rapidly approaching “saturation.”
Borrell expects that the 13.8% share that online makes up of all local advertising will peak at 16% by 2013. As a result, Borrell predicts that local Web advertising will post an anemic 2.9% growth rate over the next five years.
The Nielsen Company reports that time spent on social network and blogging sites accounted for 17% of all time spent on the Internet in August 2009, nearly triple the percentage of time spent on the sector a year ago.
Year-over-year, estimated online advertising spend on the top social network and blogging sites increased 119% to approximately $108 million in August 2009. The share of estimated spend on these sites has also grown, increasing from a 7% share of total online ad spend in August 2008 to a 15% share in August 2009.
Men More Likely To Ditch Traditional Media for Digital
Men are more likely than women to say that the internet has replaced their need to read printed newspapers and magazines, and also are more likely to be willing to pay for a subscription to an online newspaper or for a service to watch online TV with limited ads, according to a US consumer trend study by TargetCast.
But while the study (PDF) found the future of traditional media—particularly newspapers, magazines and radio – to be increasingly challenged by a rapid migration of hard-to-reach consumer groups to digital alternatives, it also revealed that internet ads are have lower overall purchase influence.
September Search Share: Google Grows, Yahoo & Bing Decline
Google accounted for 71.08% of all US searches conducted in the four weeks ending Oct. 3, 2009, while Yahoo Search, Bing and Ask.com received 16.38%, 8.96% and 2.56%, respectively, according to an analysis by Experian Hitwise.
Despite a significant challenge from Bing since the alternative search engine’s introduction in June, Google’s share of search increased 1% over August 2009, when it stood at 70.24%. And while both Yahoo and Bing together account for 25% of US search share, Yahoo saw a decline of 3% vs. September, while Bing’s share slid 5%. The remaining 52 search engines in the Hitwise Search Engine Analysis Tool accounted for 1.04% of all US searches.
Abbreviated Marketing News Round-up
Click-Happy Tweeters View Ads Twice As Much
Twitter users are nearly twice as likely to click on internet ads, review products online and visit advertiser and company profiles than those who use only traditional social networks, such as MySpace or Facebook, according to a study from media research firm Interpret, LLC.
The survey, which was conducted in August 2009 among more than 9,200 internet users found that one-fourth (24%) of Twitter users reviewed or rated products online, compared with just 12% of those who’d used other social networks – but not Twitter.
Tweeters also show double the propensity for viewing online company profiles than do non-Tweeters (20% vs. 11%), and are almost twice as likely to investigate ads or sponsored links by clicking on them (20% vs. 9%).
UPS Shows Brands What “Brown Can Do” For Them
In a first for a package delivery company, United Parcel Service is giving away samples from major brands to its customers. The company is piloting a program in Chicago, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Miami, Phoenix and Washington, D.C., in which people who get UPS’ Direct-to-Door home delivery also get offers and samples from a roster of brands. It is expected to go nationwide in 2010.
The offers will be packaged in a custom-designed “UPS Direct-to-Door Pak”—white with an image of a UPS delivery van—and delivered to residents in the test ZIP codes who are receiving a small package shipment that day. Each Direct-to-Door Pak can contain approximately 12 offers and samples from UPS customers.
Brands participating in the program include Williams Sonoma, Bed Bath & Beyond, FTD.com, Pottery Barn, The Finish Line, Sephora, West Elm and Zappos.com.
Interaction Rates For Video Banners Higher In Social Media
Higher interaction rates, or video completion rates—what would you rather your online ads achieve? For the former, focus on expandable formats, while in-page formats are more likely to achieve the latter, according to new research from social media ad optimization firm Lotame. “Of the banner types in the social media space, we found that video creative had higher click-through rates than non-video units, with in-page units performing better on average from a CTR standpoint than expandable ads,” the report reads.
When compared on the three most common banner sizes within Lotame’s network of sites, the firm found that wide skyscrapers (160×600) had the highest click-through rate performance, followed by medium rectangles (300×250) and leaderboards (728×90), which had roughly the same click-through rate performance.
The study, which factored in consumer usage data from over 250 publishers, also concluded that click-through rates are not the best metric to determine a rich media ad’s effectiveness.
Abbreviated Marketing News Round-up
Subliminal Ad Messages Work Best When Negative
Subliminal advertising is most effective when the message being conveyed is negative, a finding that could have implications for future ad campaigns or public-safety announcements, according to a study by researchers from University College London (UCL).
The study, which was led by Professor Nilli Lavie of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, involved showing 50 UK participants a series of words on a computer screen. Each word appeared on screen for only a fraction of second—at times only a fiftieth of a second, which is too fast for the participants to consciously read the word.
The words were either positive (e.g. cheerful, flower and peace), negative (e.g. agony, despair and murder) or neutral (e.g. box, ear or kettle). After each word, participants were asked to choose whether the word was neutral or ‘emotional’ (i.e. positive or negative), and how confident they were of their decision.
The research found that the participants answered most accurately when responding to negative words—even when they believed they were merely guessing the answer.
According to a recent Compete Smartphone Intelligence survey, with insights into how consumers are using their iPhones and other “smart” devices, smartphone owners agree on their favorite types of applications; entertainment, games, music, social networking and weather are the most popular across platforms.
The survey data shows that smartphone owners prefer personal and social apps to business applications and are relatively open to targeted ads. iPhone owners, more so than other smartphone users, were more likely to spend money on apps., while 83% of all smartphone users preferred apps $5 or below.
AT&T Says Google Flaunts FCC Rules
AT&T has accused Google of violating common carrier rules as well as net neutrality principles by blocking Google Voice calls to some rural locations.
“We urge the Commission to level the playing field and order Google to play by the same rules as its competitors,” AT&T Senior Vice President Robert W. Quinn, Jr. said in a letter sent Friday to the Federal Communications Commission.
But Google says that net neutrality principles apply only to Internet service providers, not companies such as itself. Google also argues that it should not be required to follow the same common carrier rules as telecoms, which must connect all calls.
