Of the $368 billion marketers plan to spend this year, 32.5% will go toward digital; 30.3% to print. Digital spending includes e-mail, video advertising, display ads and search marketing. “It’s a watershed moment,” says the study’s lead author, Outsell vice president Chuck Richard.

The Outsell study was developed by collecting data from more than 1,000 US advertisers (both consumer and B2B) in late 2009.

Nowadays, food brands often come out with “new and improved” versions of popular products. That’s part of keeping a brand current and accommodating changing consumer tastes.

But not Tabasco. For 142 years, the world’s leading hot sauce has used the same formula for its “original red sauce.” The McIlhenny Company still soaks the peppers in secondhand white oak bourbon barrels, as the company has always done. While the peppers are now grown in various locations around the world, the final product is aged on Avery Island, Louisiana, where the family-owned company has been based since 1868. The packaging hasn’t changed much, either. Tabasco still comes in 2-ounce bottles, each with the iconic triangular label.

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Today, there are plenty of small gourmet competitors, but Tabasco holds an estimated 20 to 25 percent market share. The product sells in 165 countries, and carries labels printed in 20 languages. Forty percent of McIlhenny’s sales comes from international markets. The company has plans to expand in China and Eastern Europe.

So while other products may change, Tabasco remains an original—and that’s what makes this brand hotter than ever.

[Via Fingerprint]

Viewers of NBC’s Olympics coverage through February 20, 2010 preferred ads with an Olympics theme, according to data from The Nielsen Company.

Six of the 10 most-liked ads contained an Olympics theme. The ads, aired by Visa, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Procter & Gamble, included either a direct mention to the Olympics or imagery alluding to the games. As it turns out, American TV viewers like their Olympics—even in the commercials they watch.

A Nielsen survey asking Olympics viewers about commercials aired during NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage through February 20 shows that six of the 10 most liked ads contained an Olympics theme. The ads, aired by Visa, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Procter & Gamble, included either a direct mention to the Olympics or imagery alluding to the games.

Digital Coupon Redemption Value Beats Newspapers

According to statistics from Coupons.com, the Grocery iQ smartphone app grew 170% in value during 2009 to more than $858 million. By comparison, growth measures for newspaper coupon value last year ranged from 8%  to 16%. As a result, says the report, redemption values on its digital offering outstripped the increase in newspaper-based coupons by more than 10 to 1.

Steven Boal, Coupons.com CEO, said “[....] for the first time in almost two decades the use of coupons increased in 2009 [....] due (in part) to the growth of digital coupons [....] more consumers made them part of their shopping routine.”

Video Email On Rise In 2010, Study Reveals

Marketers will pay more attention to video email, social media integration and the war to unclutter the inbox this year. About 64% of the 200 email marketers who participated in the study plan to use video email marketing in 2010—up from nearly 12% last year, according to a study Implix will release Monday.

More than 65% of marketers participating in the study believe video emails can have a moderate or significant influence on conversion rates. And more than half of responders claim that video emails can increase click-through rates and drive customers onto landing pages. Only 4.7% of email marketers do not see any benefits from using video emails.

When it comes to different uses of video email by small businesses, nearly 29% consider training courses the most effective use of video email, followed by product demonstrations, 22%; product offers, 19%; and customer testimonials, nearly 18%, respectively.