Spending on online video advertising is expected to increase 89% in 2007 compared with 2006, according to a new eMarketer report, "Internet Video: Advertising Experiments & Exploding Content."
Video ad spend in the U.S. will reach $775 million in 2007, growing 89% from $410 million in 2006, eMarketer predicts. Still, online video ad spend will constitute just 4.2% of total online ad spending in the U.S. However, that proportion is expected to reach 11.5% in 2010, becoming a $2.9 billion business.
"At some time early in 2010, one in 10 dollars devoted to internet advertising will go for video placements," said David Hallerman, eMarketer's senior analyst and author of the report.
The high year-over-year growth rates of online video ad spend are expected to continue over the next several years: 67.7% in 2008, 53.8% in 2009 and 45.0% in 2010.
Online Video Ad Spend to Surge 89% in 2007
Pew report: New breed of 'net newsers' shape US media habits
The Guardian - A new generation of well-educated, technically-savvy young web users are shaping the media habits of the US, with one in 20 Americans saying they do not watch TV on a typical day and a sharp decline in newspaper readership, according to new research.
The biennial Pew Research Center report on changing news audiences described 13% of the US public as "net newsers" - web users under 35 who read more political blogs than watch national news coverage, rely heavily on web-based news during the day and have a strong interest in technology and technology news.
Yahoo, MSN and CNN were the three most popular web news destinations, though users gave many of the leading mainstream media websites low credibility ratings.
Just 6% said the Huffington Post was very highly credible and 13% said the same of Google News, which aggregates news from mainstream news organisations.
Net newsers are typically affluent and 80% are graduates, making them a highly desirable demographic for advertisers.
They do favour some traditional media brands, including the New Yorker, The Atlantic and the BBC, the Pew survey of 3,600 adults found. But only 47% watch TV news on an average day.
The research paints a picture of steady decline in the US newspaper industry, with the percentage of Americans who regularly read print titles falling from 58% in 1993 to 34% in 2008.
According to the long-running survey, respondents saying they listened to radio news fell from 47% to 35% over the same period. As for network TV, the national news dropped from 60% to 29% and local news from 77% to 52%.
Cable TV grew from 33% of Pew respondents saying they watched it in 2000 to 39% this year, while the number of people who turn to web news at least three days each week rose from 2% in 1996 to 37% in 2008.
"For more than a decade, the audiences for most traditional news sources have steadily declined, as the number of people getting news online has surged," said the Pew report.
"A sizable minority of Americans find themselves at the intersection of these two long-standing trends in news consumption."
However, TV is still the most popular medium for the US, with 46% of the public classified as "traditionalists" who watch throughout the day, but are likely to be older and less well educated than net newsers.
More than 40% of this traditionalist group are unemployed, and were found to prefer visual news stories to audio and have little interest in science or technology news.
A further 14% are described as "disengaged", a poorly-educated group with little interest in current affairs.
Pew's research identified a further 23% of US media consumers as "integrators", an older group who are affluent and influential but still rely mostly on TV news and are interested in politics.
The research also found that the proportion of young people in the US getting no daily news has increased from 25% in 1998 to 34%, with only 10% of people using social networking sites for their news.
Top Canadian Web Rankings January 2008
Google Sites Rank as Top Visited Property for the First Time in Canada
Tax, Career, Real Estate, and Travel Sites Experience Gains in the New Year
TORONTO, CANADA, February 25, 2008 –comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its January 2008 rankings of the largest and fastest-growing Internet properties and site categories in Canada based on data from its comScore Media Metrix service. The month saw increases to tax, career, real estate, travel, and health-related sites as Canadians reevaluated the past year and planned for 2008. Google Sites vaulted into the top position as the most visited Web property in Canada for the first time.
"Several job sites such as Monster, Workopolis, and JobBank achieved significant gains in January as many Canadians resolved to improve their careers in 2008," said Brent Bernie, president of comScore Media Metrix, comScore Canada. "January is also an active time of year for visiting government entities both on the provincial and federal level, which provides Canadians with the necessary information and tools for preparing for a busy RRSP and tax season. Finally, the extreme cold weather and record breaking snow levels in Canada have driven us to travel entities on the Web in hopes of finding warmer destinations."
Top Gaining Site Categories for January 2008
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| ||||
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| Total Unique Visitors (000) | |||
| Dec-2007 | Jan-2008 | % Change | ||
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 23,784 | 23,802 | 0 | |
| Taxes | 1,805 | 2,591 | 44 | |
| Retail - Health Care | 1,511 | 2,032 | 34 | |
| Hotels/Resorts | 4,302 | 5,658 | 32 | |
| Career Services and Development | 7,762 | 9,761 | 26 | |
| Real Estate | 5,816 | 7,107 | 22 | |
| Online Travel Agents | 5,639 | 6,885 | 22 | |
| Business to Business | 5,058 | 6,009 | 19 | |
| Health - Information | 8,028 | 9,530 | 19 | |
| Training and Education | 673 | 793 | 18 | |
| Family | 8,041 | 9,438 | 17 | |
* Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Top Gaining Properties for January 2008
| Top 10 Gaining Properties by Number of Canadian Unique Visitors* | ||||
| Property | Total Unique Visitors (000) | |||
| Dec-2007 | Jan-2008 | % Change | ||
| Total Internet : Total Audience | 23,784 | 23,802 | 0 | |
| Softvoyage.com | 1,747 | 2,665 | 53 | |
| Workopolis.com | 2,808 | 4,184 | 49 | |
| Monster Worldwide | 2,825 | 3,994 | 41 | |
| JobBank.gc.ca | 1,413 | 1,983 | 40 | |
| Canada Revenue Agency | 1,691 | 2,339 | 38 | |
| MacRAE’S Owen Media Network | 1,486 | 2,051 | 38 | |
| MLS.ca | 2,158 | 2,861 | 33 | |
| Gov.on.ca | 1,887 | 2,477 | 31 | |
| Expedia Inc | 3,770 | 4,890 | 30 | |
| ServiceCanada.gc.ca | 2,145 | 2,762 | 29 | |
*Ranking based on the top 100 Canadian properties in January 2008.
** Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
How to drive revenue from ads on your site
Yahoo blog - As a publisher, it’s important to know how to optimize your web site to help drive better traffic. This can help drive up your program earnings which is enough motivation for most publishers.
Last year, Yahoo!’s Cody Simms and Amit Paunikar wrote in a great four-part series on this blog about various optimization practices. In case you missed it—and in case you don’t have time to read a four-part series—we’ve boiled it down to some key tips to help your business.
Focus on making your site as text-based as possible
“Crawlers” are programs that analyze the content on your site for ad targeting purposes. Be sure to include important topic-oriented items in the text fields of your site, rather than hinting at them in image or other elements.
Consider adding dynamic content on the home page
Content that frequently changes while remaining on-topic for your audience not only keeps the interest of your audience, it perks up the attention of our content analyzers. Static content could bore users, which may result in low click-through rates.
Structure your site
Your site structure helps your users and our systems to understand what your site is about. Here are some tips:
• Integrate keywords into your URL structure. Consider using permalinks, rather than query strings.
• Use strong keywords as “anchor text.” Link text should be descriptive rather than text like “Click here.”
• Use concise descriptors. Put short descriptions under a link when possible.
Content do’s
You want to make your content relevant, which helps drive your click-through rate. Relevant content can also help ads become more appealing to your users. Here are several actions to take that should help on this front:
• Write for users. Users generally come to your page to read your content, not to click on ads.
• Maintain your editorial integrity. Write unique articles that drive traffic to your site.
• Take time to optimize your web pages. Use distinct titles, headers and section headlines for each article.
• Limit the number of low-content pages on your site. If you have a page with a lot of images, make sure you use alternate text.
• Maintain a high “signal-to-noise” ratio. Keep the content of each page focused on one or two topics at most.
Content don’ts
Simplicity helps clarity, so you don’t want to load your site down with too much stuff. Here are a few tips of what not to do with your content:
• Don’t use unnecessary code.
• Don’t use unnecessary language.
• Don’t try to take shortcuts around lack of content or traffic.
• Whatever network you use, don’t violate the “Terms of Service” or “Terms and Conditions.”
Ethnic media and the advertisers
U.S. ASIAN WIRE — According to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, Asian Americans represented $253 billion in spending power in 2001, and this number is projected to reach $528 billion by 2009. While Hispanics make up the largest minority in the U.S., there are 13.5 million Asian Americans (residents who say they are Asian or Asian in combination with one or more other races) according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau findings. This group comprises 5% of the total U.S. population. There is also a sizeable proportion of Asian Americans who are business owners and entrepreneurs.
Rather than an afterthought, Asian Americans should be of special interest to marketers. While Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco have the highest Asian populations, other cities are increasingly becoming urban hubs. According to a 2005 report titled "Asian Americans in the U.S." written by Dr. Robert Brown and Ms. Ruth Washton for Package Facts, specific goods and services, including computers and Internet services, home electronics, and automobiles are more likely to be owned by Asian Americans than other ethnic groups.
A study by Ethnic Media in America conducted by Bendixen & Associates in partnership with the Center for American Progress Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in Education Fund revealed that Asian-American newspapers reach a substantial percentage of adults in the U.S. Approximately 80 percent of all Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese adults read an ethnic newspaper on a regular basis. This reach extends to other media outlets, including television and the Internet.
Ethnic media can play a powerful role as part of a marketer's overall media mix. One of their chief advantages is cost efficiency. In addition to their unique connection with the community, ethnic media typically can't charge the same ad rates as mainstream media of a similar size. One estimate is that less than 4% of ad dollars go to ethnic media.
Saul Gitlin, EVP of strategic services at Kang and Lee Advertising, is one of the leading experts on marketing to Asian Americans. "I think planners and buyers need to know that this is a very rich media environment. They may not be aware of them personally, but the media is there." He tells potential advertisers that Asian-American marketing is cost effective and essential to a complete ad campaign.
There are currently significant changes taking place in the advertising marketplace. Audiences are moving away from big media and adopting more niche media instead. The entrenched model of advertising has been leveraging the economies of scale—the more people an advertiser reaches with his message, the greater the opportunity to make a sale. In an interview with Ad Age, media guru Rishad Tobaccowala said the new model must be outcome, engagement and effectiveness instead. Surveys show that ethnic media connects with ethnic consumers along three important variables: reach, use and trust.
For a variety of reasons, the Asian media is difficult to measure as a group. Not only does "Asian" not speak of a single culture or nationality, it also doesn't define a particular language. Even within Asian nationalities, there are language differences that make it difficult to group. China alone has seven distinct dialects.
Media buyers with no experience in ethnic communities often find that their efforts fail to perform well, leaving them with the conclusion that these communities may not be worth pursuing. In addition, many marketers fear their pitches might unwittingly offend people from other cultures. Brian M. Heiss, Senior Vice President & Managing Editor of Diversity Spectrum Corporation, said, "There is no handbook out there that says, 'This is how you market to Asian Americans.'" According to Heiss, "If you do it with thoughtfulness and understanding, you may be successful."
For marketers trying to reach the Asian-American community the obstacles may be cultural, not language. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 86% of Asians are literate in English.
Ted Fang, publisher of San Francisco-based AsianWeek, an English-language newspaper serving the Asian/Pacific Islander community, says that the one unifying factor for the community is English. Fang says that due to, "the inter-ethnicity of marriage—when a Korean woman marries a Chinese man—the language they speak at home is probably English." A recent study by OMD Worldwide concluded that ad relevancy is more about communicating in kind culturally than speaking in a language.
Leslie Yngojo-Bowes, the president and founder of U.S. Asian Wire, was previously the media relations manager for Business Wire when she realized that the needs of the Asian community weren't being addressed. She launched U.S. Asian Wire, Inc. in 2006, a distributor of press releases and news content specifically reaching Asian American media. She is currently collaborating with Ted Fang to develop an Asian Pacific American Media Association. "It's a win-win for media, advertisers, PR, marketers, and the Asian community -- bringing this full circle" stated Ms. Yngojo-Bowes. We are hosting our first organizational meeting with participants from Asian American press in Orlando, Florida later this month. This is very exciting and the timing is ripe as advertisers, marketers, and PR specialists are increasing efforts to reach Asian American communities."
Ethnic media has traditionally encountered indifference from media buyers who, despite studies to the contrary, believe that they can reach the ethnic community through mainstream newspapers and magazines. There is still a lack of awareness from media buyers about the buying power of nonwhites. "The media cartel has run a business based on the Ozzie and Harriet general market," said Jo Muse, chairman of ad agency Muse Cordero Chen & Partners.
Some marketers demand proof in advance that their campaigns to reach ethnic audiences will pay off in sales, a standard not applied to other media says Deborah Gray-Young of ad agency E. Morris Communications.
The burden of making themselves more appealing to advertisers lay upon ethnic media itself. The ethnic media has traditionally survived on local ads—auto repair shops, grocery stores and restaurants—and classified advertising. Measurement has been perceived as a problem for many ethnic media outlets, preventing them from attracting mainstream ads.
In a special marketing forum that addressed the political landscape as related to advertising, Len Fong, principal of The Kobayashi Maru Group, said one of the ways to get past the advertising "gatekeepers" is to create critical mass for ethnic media.
"We need to know marketing numbers," Fong said. "We lack the proof of performance—a lot of our media outlets are not even audited. That prevents us from being in consideration. "Asian media leaders need to develop their own research and provide local data about the community and local market to their clients, seeking out third-party validation where possible. In addition, ethnic media must provide detailed demographic information about their readers that large advertisers require."
Amee Enriquez, the Executive Editor of Balita, a newspaper for the Filipino community in Southern California, says that they chose to become audited for several reasons. "We wanted to add more credibility to our newspaper. What better way to do so than joining the ranks of other reputable news organizations that underwent the same process? Doing so separates us from others who claim numbers but can't back them up."
At this moment, there is a great opportunity for Asian media to increase their participation in the marketplace. Gitlin says, "Some clients will still look at a population below 6% of total and [think] they don't need to address it. But let's look at California. Asians make up 20% of the population in California and more than that in San Francisco. If I start a meeting by asking a potential client if California is important to them, it shows them how profound this audience segment really is."
Heidi Gardner, the VP of Diversity and Strategic Programs at American Advertising Federation, stated that ethnic media adoption is a three-stage process. "First you have awareness, then acceptance, then change. On the whole, the [advertising] industry is somewhere between awareness and acceptance. Yes, it's moving slowly but we're getting there."
Email wins best marketing medium title
Search Engine Journal - Datran Media (an online marketing firm specializing in email marketing) recently published the results of a survey which consists of 2,000 online marketers in December 2007 on the best performing medium for their online marketing efforts.
eMail marketing came ahead of search and display. There are some very interesting statistics in this survey that many will find helpful.
- 82% of the marketers surveyed indicated that they plan to increase their use of email marketing in 2008, and 55% of the respondents said they expect ROI from email to be higher than any other channel.
- Email ROI will hit $45.65 for every dollar spent in 2008, more than twice the ROI of other mediums including search and display, said Datran Media, citing data from the Direct Marketing Association.
- Some 67% of respondents stated that email has helped boost sales through other channels. In these scenarios, email is a tool for sales as well as a media channel.
- Search is the favored channel for complementing the email channel.
Marketers from 90 companies including OgilvyOne Worldwide, Avenue A/Razorfish and Stamps.com offered valuable insight into major brands’ overall positive outlook for the email channel. Across these companies and others, 67 percent of respondents stated that email has helped boost sales through other channels. In these scenarios, email is leveraged as a tool for sales as well as a media channel.
Although eMail may seem and look to be the greatest thing through this survey, keep in mind email can be very tricky.
Just like there are many SEOs that promise you the world and don’t deliver, search marketing companies that provide no results through PPC marketing, eMail can provide with you horrible ROI’s if you don’t do the right research and carefully choose who you use to do your email marketing.
More Americans use web as source of political info
ClickZ - The percentage of Americans who regularly go online for news about the presidential campaign has increased from 13% in 2004 to 24% for the 2008 elections. "Internet's Broader Role in Campaign 2008" released by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Pew Internet & American Life Project looks at the increased usage of social networking sites and online videos for topical election news.
42% of young adults ages 18 to 29 use the Web as a primary source, up from 20% in 2004. As a whole, nearly one in four American adults regularly learn about campaign information from the Internet, up from 9% during the 2000 presidential campaign.
People get campaign news from many sources. MSNBC leads the pack; 26% of the respondents say they go there. MSNBC is followed by CNN (23%) and Yahoo News (22%). The survey identifies sources it categorizes as long-tail sites such as the Drudge Report (3%); MySpace (3%); and YouTube (2%).
Younger audiences cast a wider net to find relevant news. When asked which Web sites they head to for campaign news, 41% of 18 to 49 year olds listed more than one Web site, compared to 24% of people 30 and over. Younger audiences look at more than long-tail news sites; 61% of 18 to 29 year olds get campaign news from at least one of the three top sites (MSNBC, CNN, and Yahoo News) versus 46% over 30 years of age.
The data are part of a quadrennial survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Internet & American Life Project on campaign news and political communication. The survey was conducted in December 2007 among 1,430 adults.
China has 210m internet users!
SEJ - China has now 210 million users according to a press release from the China Internet Network Information Centre (The CNNIC is a government agency).
That’s a lot, considering that half a year ago there were only 165 million users and a year ago 137 million. In one year the number of users has gone up with 73 million users.
Full story here.
Top 30 newspaper sites Dec 2007
Editor and Publisher - Monthly Top 30 Most Popular Newspaper Sites
NEW YORK Newsday's online traffic edged past The Wall Street Journal Online in the month of December, according to the latest data from Nielsen Online (owned by E&P's parent company). Newsday had 6.4 million unique users in December compared to the Wall Street Journal, which had 5.4 million uniques.
Newsday managed to almost triple its traffic compared to December 2006 data.
The New York Times once again tops the chart of the top 30 newspaper Web sites with 17.1 million unique users, a 29.9% year-over-year gain.
The number of people visiting the Orlando Sentinel surged 78.6% to 1.5 million uniques in December 2007 compared to December 2006.
Politico.com continued to do well, in the 21st slot.
The number of unique users slipped in San Francisco. SFGate.com and the San Francisco Chronicle fell 30.9% year-over-year for that month. Visitors to AZCentral (part of the online arm of the Arizona Republic) dropped off 36.6%.
Below is the list for the top 30 newspaper Web sites for December. As always, this is custom-made by Nielsen. Look for the average time spent data at these papers in the coming days.
Brand or Channel -- Unique Audience (000) -- Year-over-year % Change
NYTimes.com -- 17,177 -- 29.9%
USATODAY.com -- 9,939 -- 9.1%
washingtonpost.com -- 8,478 -- 11.2%
Newsday -- 6,450 -- 182.8%
Wall Street Journal Online -- 5,409 -- 109.0%
LA Times -- 4,607 -- (-6.4%)
Boston.com -- 4,364 -- 15.0%
Chicago Tribune -- 3,891 -- 14.0%
Daily News Online Edition -- 2,956 -- 23.2%
New York Post -- 2,851 -- (-5.7%)
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle -- 2,785 -- (-30.9%)
Philly.com -- 2,300 -- 33.4%
International Herald Tribune -- 2,250 -- 14.9%
Village Voice Media -- 2,224 -- 70.6%
Chicago Sun-Times -- 2,186 -- 8.3%
Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- 1,974 -- 26.2%
The Houston Chronicle -- 1,946 -- (-18.6%)
The Seattle Times -- 1,840 -- (-19.3%)
DallasNews.com - The Dallas Morning News -- 1,828 -- 21.9%
Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- 1,785 -- (-0.1%)
The Politico -- 1,672 -- N/A
Orlando Sentinel -- 1,522 -- 78.6%
NJ.com -- 1,455 -- 40.1%
Azcentral.com -- 1,435 -- (-36.6%)
Baltimore Sun -- 1,332 -- 26.2%
MercuryNews.com -- 1,315 -- (-15.1%)
The Detroit News -- 1,256 -- 21.4%
The San Diego Union-Tribune -- 1,180 -- 10.4%
Detroit Free Press -- 1,168 -- (-22.9%)
The Washington Times -- 1,161 -- (-24.9%)
AFP reporters barred from using Wikipedia and Facebook as sources
journalism.co.uk - Agence France Presse (AFP) has banned its journalists from using Facebook and Wikipedia as sources, the agency's London bureau chief told a Lord's Committee yesterday.
In response to a question from the Lord's Committee on Media Ownership and the News about the trustworthiness of online sources, Pierre Lesourd said that internal rules that governed the entire organisation prevented journalists from relying on many new 'virtual' sources for news.
"We have internal rules that are regularly updated [on this matter]. Wikipedia for example, we have a written rule inside the company that forbids any journalist using Wikipedia," he said.
"We have the same thing, updated last week, for Facebook because of the incident with Bilawal Bhutto in Oxford.
"Some newspapers picked up pictures on Facebook about Mr Bhutto, which turned out to be fake.
"We are trying to be vigilant about it but, obviously, everyday a new virtual source appears. We have to be very careful."
Speaking to Journalim.co.uk today, Mr Lesourd clarified the policy, stating that reporters working for the international agency could not pick up information from these sites for news without referring to other, more reliable sources for factual clarification.
Internet 'significant in 14 or 15 years time' until then the paper makes the money
journalism.co.uk - The editor of The Sun newspaper told a Lords' Committee the internet edition can't yet replicate the economic operations of the newspaper.
Giving evidence to the Lord's Committee on Media Ownership and the News, Rebekah Wade said that The Sun's revenue from the internet would only become significant in '14 to 15 years time'.
Staggering growth of online operations did not mean that much, she added, as growth was from a base of nil and revenue from the newspaper's daily print sales of nearly three million remained most important economically.
However, she added, that may change in the coming years as internet operations developed.
"We have a set of projections [for internet development] and sets of targets that we want to achieve, and so far we are achieving them.
"Long-term I can't be detailed and say this percentage will come from the internet but it will become significant in 14 to 15 years time. Right now the newspaper makes the money."
Asked by the Committee about an aging print readership Wade said that the aim of the paper was to bring younger readers to The Sun brand through its digital operations.
"Out of the 300,000 daily unique users [on Sun Online] 70% will be under 35. It's very different from the newspaper, online we are bringing young readers to the Sun world. This is our strategy," she said.
2008 new media trend
New Communications Review - Entertainment of the Future is Circular
"Circular Entertainment," identified by Nokia as a result of a global study into the future of entertainment, predicts that up to a quarter of the entertainment consumed by people by 2012 will have been created, edited and shared within their peer circle rather than coming out of traditional media groups. The study, "A Glimpse of the Next Episode" by The Future Laboratory, combines views from industry leading figures with Nokia's research from a sample of 900 million consumers around the world to construct a global picture of what it believes entertainment will look like over the next five years. Read the full article here.
Want A More Successful Business? Meet Social Needs
New research from Communispace, supporting the hypothesis that people are looking to fulfill six essential social needs online, and drawing on the Maslow hierarchy of human needs, concludes that businesses that help facilitate those needs are more likely to create deeper emotional bonds than usually exist between companies and customers. In the report by Julie Schlack, Michael Jennings and Manila Austin "Meeting Business Needs by Meeting Social Needs...", the Communispace researchers, building on the work of social scientists, have identified the specific social needs that are met through participating in social networks. The study addresses "Six Social Needs" and relates them to Online social networks, suggesting that business can take advantage of these observations in creating more affinity with their prospects and customers. Read more about the study here.
Get Back to The Basics for 2008, Marketers Say
According to the first annual survey of Top Marketing Trends for 2008 of 1700 MENG (Marketing Executives Networking Group) members, conducted by Anderson Analytics, key areas for 2008 are found to be:
(1) Marketing basics (60% "Very Important") which include specific concepts such as customer satisfaction, customer retention, segmentation, brand loyalty and ROI were of greatest interest. (2) Search Engine Optimization (42%) had relatively wide appeal, and cut across marketers in all fields. (3) "Green Marketing" (32%) was another important emerging concept and it was identified as the trendiest marketing buzzword. Read more about it here.
Almost 50% of Internet Users Google Themselves
Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint; 47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago. However, few monitor their online presence with great regularity. Just 3% of self-searchers report that they make a regular habit of it and 74% have checked up on their digital footprints only once or twice. Access the full report here.
Yahoo to Dominate 2008 $8.6B Graphical Ad Market
Get ready to pay more for both premium and remnant display ad inventory. JP Morgan is forecasting the U.S. graphical ad market to hit nearly $8.6 billion this year--a 20% increase from 2007, with much of that cash flow being driven by costlier CPMs. Analysts on JP Morgan's U.S. Equity Research Internet team gave their bullish predictions for the display market during a recent 2008 Global Internet Outlook conference call, Analyst Imran Khan named Yahoo as one of the "greatest beneficiaries of improved graphical advertising trends." MSN, AOL and CNET were included as winners in the buoyant display market, but Khan went so far as to peg Yahoo as the leader in 2008--forecast to snag 10% of the $20 billion global graphical ad market. MSN is slated to snag roughly 7.2%, while AOL and CNET will own 5% and about 2% of the global display market, respectively. Read more about it here.
Online Advertising Spending up 48% for 2008
According to the Executive Summary of a newly released Borrell Associates study on the 2008 outlook for local Online advertising, a 48 percent increase in local online ad spending is anticipated in 2008, bringing it to $12.6 billion. Driving most of the growth, says the Summary, is the popularity of local search and online video advertising. Local search advertising will more than double next year, to $5 billion, while locally placed online video will triple, to almost $1.3 billion. A major component of local video advertising will be long-form pieces for home, automotive and health-related categories. Access the whole story here.
U.S. Advertising Spending up 4% in 2008
According to a new study from GroupM, advertising spending in the US measured media is expected to increase almost 4% in 2008 compared with 2007, when spending was up about 3%. Worldwide spending is expected to go up 7% in 2008, after an anticipated 6% increase in 2007. US advertising spending is expected increase 3.7%, to $168.6 billion, in 2008. Spending in 2007 is expected to come in at 2.8% higher than in 2006. Worldwide spending is expected to go up 6.8%, to some $479 billion. Read the full article here.
The End is Near for Netscape
Marking the end of an era, AOL has decided to retire the Netscape Web browser after nearly 14 years of operation. As a result, AOL has decided to throw its weight behind Mozilla's Firefox browser. "AOL's focus on transitioning to an ad-supported Web business leaves little room for the size of investment needed to get the Netscape browser to a point many of its fans expect it to be," AOL/Netscape development director Tom Drapeau said in a recent blog posting. AOL, which acquired Netscape for $4.2 billion in 1998, will maintain Netscape only as a general-use portal as of February 1. Read more about it here.
Is Your TV Ready for All-Digital Format in 2009?
According to the CTAM Pulse, a nationwide survey of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers conducted last month by the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, forty-eight percent of U.S. households are aware of the planned digital TV transition, compared to just 29 percent from a survey taken in July 2005. After February 17, 2009, the nation's broadcast television stations will begin broadcasting exclusively in digital. Any consumer receiving broadcast TV over the air on an analog TV set must take some action for that TV to continue receiving programs from the local TV stations. Read the full article here.
Media Use Differs Between Teens and Tweens
From Mediapost: The Nielsen Company recently announced some of the findings of an in-depth study, "Kids on the Go: Mobile Usage by U.S. Teens and Tweens," on the mobile media and cross media behavior of U.S. "tweens" (ages 8-12), finding that 5% of tweens access the Internet over their phone each month. While 41% of tween mobile Internet users say they do so while commuting or traveling (to school, for example), mobile content such as the Internet is also a social medium for this audience. 26% of tween mobile Internet users say they access the web while at a friend's house and 17% say they do so at social events. Nielsen reports that tweens spend less time surfing the Internet than their teen counterparts. In this report, 48% of U.S. tweens said they spend less than one hour per day online. When they are online, 70% of tweens use the Internet for gaming. Comparatively, 81% of U.S. teens say they spend one hour or more per day online, with e-mail being the most pervasive online activity for this age group. Read more about the study results here.
Google Leads Top 10 Social Bookmarking Sites
According to AddThis.com, the top 10 social bookmarking sites for November were: Google (#1 at 17%), Favorites, Facebook, Live, Del.icio.us, Digg, MyWeb, Ask, Furi, and StumbleUpon (#10 at 3.6%). Find out more here.
TV Watchers Also View Video on Other Devices
According to the recent release of The ChoiceStream 2007 Survey of Viewer Trends in TV and Online Video, 55% of connected consumers who watch TV watch some type of video on devices other than their TV sets, including their computers, mobile phones and digital media players (e.g., iPod). Not surprisingly, video-watching on these alternative devices is more popular among younger consumers (66%) than older ones (36%). Get more information about the survey here.
Online Reviewers Bring Goodwill Toward Men (And Women)
Bazaarvoice recently released the findings of a study that surveyed over 1,300 online reviewers to discover what moved them to share their opinions. Overwhelmingly, the survey found, reviewers are motivated by goodwill and positive sentiment: 90% write reviews in order to help others make better buying decisions, 70% want to help companies improve the products they build and carry, 79% write reviews in order to reward a company, and 87% of the reviews are generally positive in tone. Read the full story here.
Young adults show significant interest in free ad-supported TV show downloads
Ipsos Reid release - Recent research conducted by Ipsos Insight among U.S. online adults hints that future growth in online video services may be predicated more on downloading models than on streaming models – and potentially more on free ad-based content than on paid content – particularly as younger consumers spend an increasing amount of their disposable time online.
As part of a wider survey of online adults on technology and media trends, consumers were asked to rate their overall preference for a variety of online video service models if they were going to use them to view their “favorite TV shows.” The service models tested included streaming-only and downloading-only versions of both fee-based video services and free, ad-subsidized versions. Two very interesting stories emerged. First, the results clearly illustrate the consumer appetite for free, ad-subsidized online video services, in this case specifically for television programming. In addition, the data also articulates a division in preference among younger and older consumers in general: younger consumers – those ages 18 to 34 – prefer downloading longer form television programming online, while consumers 35 and older have a greater affinity for streaming television programming content.
Please indicate your preference for the following types of online video services if you were going to use them to view your favorite TV shows. Letters indicate the value is significantly higher than the value in the corresponding column at the 95% confidence level.
While today there are very few options offering legitimate free downloads of original television programming on the Internet, the data here suggest there is significant latent demand for these types of services explains Adam Wright, Director with Ipsos Insight: “Directionally, it’s clear the younger generation of consumers have a stronger preference for downloadable options when it comes to accessing television programming on the internet. Many of these consumers have grown up downloading music online, and simply want similar flexibility in how they access television programming online. The challenge for many in the space will be to crack the code on how free downloadable television programming could co-exist with the other traditional video delivery models for delivering an advertising audience.”
Younger Consumers Flocking to Online Video Streams & Downloads
Whether downloads or streams, it is clear that online video services are quickly building an audience with Americans – particularly younger consumers. Today, online adults age 18-34 spend more time surfing the Internet (13.1 hours per week) than they do consuming any other entertainment media, including watching TV (12.3 hours per week). This is quite different from their older counterparts age 35-54 and 55+, who still consume more TV (watch 15.2 and 16.3 hours per week, respectively) than any other entertainment medium. In terms of online behaviors, roughly two-thirds of online adults age 18-34 have streamed a video off of the Internet in the past 30 days, and nearly three in four teenagers have done so in the past 30 days. Far fewer online adults are downloading videos off the Internet today – just over one in four (28%) have downloaded a video file online in the past 30 days, which represents only a modest gain compared to the close of 2006 (23%).
Yet despite the fact the video downloading market today remains relatively niche, the reality is that video streamers and video downloaders are typically the same people. Taking a closer look at the relationship between downloading and streaming reveals an overwhelming majority of online video consumers have accessed video content using both acquisition methods. For example, two in three adults age 18-24 have downloaded and streamed video content off of the Internet. The data here also underscore a similar trend that was noted earlier: the older the market segment, the greater the reliance on streaming vs. downloading as the primary way to access video content online. A number of factors are likely influencing these trends, including a far greater number of free, ad-subsidized video streaming options online in comparison to free video downloads. Other behavioral-driven factors are also likely contributing to this trend, as Wright explains: “Perhaps what’s most striking about the data here is how this illustrates older consumers’ preference for the broadcast model for watching video.”
Specifically, have you ever downloaded or streamed digital video files or both? Letters indicate the value is significantly higher than the value in the corresponding column at the 95% confidence level.
Given what we know – that younger consumers love online video, and are the most likely to prefer downloadable video content online – the question now is just when will video downloading begin to take off in the U.S, and what impact might this have on traditional video delivery models. Wright concludes, “Clearly younger consumers are growing an affinity and expectation for downloadable video content, but they are also spending an increasing amount of their disposable time surfing the Internet, so we may be witnessing the gradual shift in how the next generation will consume video content. As opposed to broadcast models, these consumers want to possess video content so they can view it when and where they want, whether in the living room or ‘on-the-go’ from a portable device. The digital medium is really about empowerment, and video sites that enable younger consumers to access the television content they want in the format they prefer will be in position to quickly build an audience with this highly sought after market.“
Methodology
Data for this study were collected through an Internet-based sampling and data collection methodology using the Ipsos U.S. Internet Panel, and accurately reflects the online population (18 years and older). A total of N=1,033 respondents completed the online questionnaire between October 19 and October 25, 2007. With a total sample size of n= 1,033 respondents, one can say with 95% certainty that the results are accurate to within +/- 3.05 percentage points.
Additional data was sourced from Ipsos Insight’s MOTION Summer Wave study, which was conducted via telephone interviews among a representative U.S. sample of consumers aged 12 years and older in July 2007. To learn more about MOTION, Ipsos quarterly syndicated tracking programming researching the U.S. online video market, please visit: http://www.ipsosinsight.com/knowledge/techcomm/products/motion.aspx
