How CMOs tackled the recession?

Razorfish recently released the sixth annual Razorfish Outlook Report. The report consist of trends affecting the CMO, learnings from the thought leaders and an analysis of 2009 media spends by Razorfish clients.

Here are some highlights from the report:

• Innovators will benefit from the economic recovery, other may not. CMOs who used the down time to innovate and advance their brands are in a great place. Those that failed to do so are going to fall further behind the innovators.
• Recession = digital experimentation for many. With economy under recovery, Razorfish expects 2010 to be a year of tremendous growth and experimentation. Just to be clear, experimentation will still be carefully considered and measured in 2010. But the brands will be hungry to explore new opportunities to connect with the consumers. The channels that were most popular for experimentation in 2009 included data brokers, digital out-of-home, and ad exchanges.
• Watch out, Google. Razorfish expects the combination of Microsoft Bing and Yahoo! to challenge Google’s dominance. Bing is a good example of how innovation can occur even with a tried-and-true form of marketing — search.
• Think global local, act local is they way to go… even for global marketers. With the increasingly sophisticated and fragmented micromarkets around the world, even the global marketers need to immerse themselves into “thinking and acting global”.
• Razorfish saw decreases in overall budgets, but more budget was shifted digital.
• Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is becoming an important part of media mix, especially for retailers.Retailers are seeing value in reaching shoppers while they are on-the-go. They are uing DOOH to guide consumers for an unplanned visit at their brick-and-mortar stores.
• Video to get bigger. Clients are increasingly investing in video and other forms of rich mredia. Future looks brighter for video… increasingly dollars and impressions will move into video in 2010. It will be crucial for brands to understand the true value and video ads, which may be different that ads placed on TV.
• Brands will continue to evolve in their use  of Twitter to develop a personal voice for the brand that appropiately resonates with the loyal customer base.
• Interactive TV remains more intriguing to talk about than to embrace as an advertising model. Why? The amount of ad inventory available within interactive TV remains miniscule. There are privacy issues attached with opening up set-top box data, but the biggest barrier to success is that cable companies lack the incentive to change the current model.
• In-game advertising, not just about billboards within the console. As games intertwine with social and location based services, the opportunities for brands to be relevant and meaningful partners are growing. Raozrfish expects to see growth in this category not only in brand focused entertainment, but also from the brands who have a product or services that can be a part of a gaming, social or local experience.

These highlights do not do justice to the comprehensive research report released by Razorfish, I sincerely request you to read the full report.

Posted via web from Brandcentered

Search is going social: Eye tracking study

A fresh report from Forrester Research indicates that the number of people who visit a network at least once a month has about doubled in the last two years. Adam Ostrow writes, “Specifically, 55.6 million adults – or just less than 1/3rd of the population – in the US now visit social networks at least monthly . . . .  That’s up from just 15 percent of adults in 2007, and around 18 percent last year.”  Which is a rather extreme rate of growth, especially considering the huge numbers involved.

So as social media usage is increasing, people using social media as a search tool has also increased. According to comScore,U.S. Search Engine Rankings, May 2009 – Search queries are up on Facebook, showing a 5% increase in May 2009; Google search queries are down 2%. As search options advance on the social networks, there may be a different search-behavior than reflected by people on traditional search sites.

Oneupweb, a search engine  and digital marketing agency used Eye Tracking technologies to investigate how users interact with sponsored ads while conducting search tasks on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Click Here the full report. This is a good read! Breaks few myths here & there, but personally would have been great to see this study based on more participants. (this study is based on 25 participants)

Search engine marketers need time management tips

In a recent on-demand webinar by Omniture there were many interesting findings! Most important thing that came out of it is that time is the nemesis for Search engine marketers!

Webinar linked to the image

Apart from time, 50% sighted tracking effectiveness and 32% sighted decreasing paid search ROI as their biggest concern. During the course of webinar I realized that more than half of the search engine marketers are using primitive tools to manage their campaign. For e.g. Almost 60% of the respondents manage their campaign from spreadsheets. That’s incredible isn’t?

Also, manual bidding in the engine is the most predominant bid management strategies being used. About 20% of of the respondents are not using any sort of bid management strategies!!! Meaning they adopt a ‘set-forget’ approach. Wherein, you set the parameters on say Google or Yahoo & let them continue to run.  Almost half of search marketer’s time is spent on manual processes that could be easily automated by integrating right tools & technologies. One example of this manual process, 42% spend time in pulling & consolidating reports.

This webinar is very informative & discusses business practices that can help manage time in much better way

Few myths about teen media trends (busted) by Nielsen.

Last month Neilsen released a report on the myths & realities of teen media trends. Based on the report -  How Teens Use Media report (PDF). Following are some key myth busters from the report:

Myth: Teens use media – 10 screens at a time. Reality: Teens are most likely than adults to use their media one screen at a time.

Myth: Teens are abandoning TV for new media. Reality: They’re watching more TV than ever.

Myth: Avid commercial skippers, teens favor the DVR. Reality: Teens prefer their TV live. (report says teens watch more commercials than you might think.)

Myth: Among all teens…U.S. teens spend maximum time watching T.V. Reality: Honors goes to South Africans and Indonesians

Myth: Teens are driving growth of online video. Reality: They watch less online video than their elders.

Myth: Teens are the most avid users of internet. Reality: Teens browse less than half as much as the typical user.

Myth: Due to expenses mobile video is beyond a teen’s reach. Reality: Teens make up 20% of the mobile video audience and watch more than the average user.

Myth: The only way to reach teens over their phone is texting. Reality: Teens text at incredible rates, but  are early adopters  of all mobile media.

Myth: The silver screen is too old-fashioned and expensive for today’s teens. Reality: Teens go to the movies more than any other age group.

Myth: Teens are biggest gamers of all. Reality: Teens account for just 23% of the console audience and less than 10% of PC game minutes.

Myth: With MP3 players and PCs, teens no longer rely on radio. Reality: Radio is the top source of music consumption for 16% of teens globally  and the secondary source  for another 21%.

Myth: Teens wouldn’t know a newspaper if the paperboy hit them in the face. Reality: More than a quarter of U.S. teens  say they read a daily newspaper and more than  a third say they read on Sunday.

Myth: Most advertising to teens is for junk-food and entertainment. Reality: Advertisers  are more likely  to target teens  with messages about health and beauty.

Most of the times brand managers feel that teens have a very different media consumption patterns, but this report surely has something else to say. Doesn’t this show that teen media trends are actually not very different than others?

What’s up with Location-Based Services?

It’s been long time since I wrote about ‘Location-Based Services’ on my blog. Thinking this, I was curious to understand the status of LBS in current scenario. This post will answer few curious questions that directed the flow of my endeavor to satisfy my curiosity. So without wasting anytime let’s see if LBS buzz has lived up to it’s expectations in this dynamic wireless era.

What is the status of the overall global LBS industry?

According to a recent study by Gartner Inc., The worldwide users of Location-Based Services are set to double to 95.7 million in 2009, up from 41 million a year ago, which should result in over $2 billion in revenue. “The LBS industry has matured rapidly in recent months through a mixture of consolidation, improved price/performance of the enabling technologies and compelling location applications,” said Annette Zimmermann, senior research analyst at Gartner.

Is there any demand for the LBS based apps? And what are the opportunities for advertisers and carriers?

Recently Compete launched a Smartphone Intelligence report that highlights few findings related to the above mentioned questions. 1 in 3 smartphone owners currently use a Location-Based Service at least once a month. In addition to this, 20% smartphone users expressed possible interest in using LBS if they knew more about what was available and how to use them. The below mentioned char shows some specific types of LBS apps that are being used now:

As we can see, weather & navigation based apps are a hit with the current LBS users. It also turns out that consumers are interested in getting local alerts and special offers or promotions from nearby stores or other retailers. This  interest in ‘local alerts & special offers’ present a wonderful opportunity for advertisers to reap the rewards by serving  these users with relevant ad content that will most likely see higher clickthrough rates! Surely looks like a valuable tool for the advertising networks!

Is greater interest in local  services like alerts,  ATM, restaurant reviews, special offers etc. a consequence of recession? Surely looks like that to me, with increased number of household with tight pockets, greater interest in “Local”  does not surprise me. People are surely limiting city-to-city travel and have started exploring more options available in their own city. Isn’t it? As more and more people venture out in their own city, they become more likely to use LBS to explore local restaurants, events, store locations, etc.

The report also states that, LBS services are also important to mobile carriers. It is because smartphone owners who use LBS are more likely to spend more money each month on their total wireless bill.

Also, 24% of Smartphone users have spent anywhere from $10-$50 for a single application, while 28% have spent between $5-10 on a single app. So LBS definitely looks like a gold mine for advertising networks, service providers and the mobile carriers! Only thing to look is the way revenue is shared by these parties in the future.

Talking about future, what does the future for LBS look like?

As it is very apparent that greater availability of GPS phones, reduced prices, and flourishing app stores arena have all contributed to the rapid growth of location tools. Gartner, Inc. also predicts that free Location-Based Services will gain further traction, with 40% to 50% of all users in North America and Western Europe using these tools in the next four years.

Apple’s App Store has proven itself a hot commodity. It features more than 35,000 applications available to consumers in 77 countries, enabling developers, including retailers, to reach tens of millions of iPhone and iPod Touch users. – Internet Retailer.

LBS subscribers forecast by ABI Research

Looks like the relevance of LBS will keep on growing till the development of new mobile devices & mobile operating systems used in NetBooks keep on evolving. And as LBS goes mainstream data plan will also reduce considerably, surely LBS has a great future!

I couldn’t have asked for a better video to end my post! CNN reporter Susan Candiotti explains  the pros & cons of  Location-Based Marketing.

‘We Are All Direct Marketers Now’

In an article by Les Luchter on Jan 14, 2009 had a mention of the concluding remarks by Michelle Tiletnick, research manager of the Direct Marketing Association. She said, “We are all direct marketers now, whether we know it or not,” & thus concluded the executive summary of the DMA’s new 78-page qualitative report, “Future of Direct Marketing.”

35 Direct Marketing leaders have contributed insights in this report. Here are some findings from DMA:

“Where will direct marketing will be in five and ten years?“

• Customers will be in control

• Measurable and accountable marketing will increase

• Traditional direct marketing (mail, catalogs) will decrease while digital marketing rises

• Marketers will increase the use of multiple channels–but with a single message
  “How should direct marketers prepare for these changes?”

• Invest in the future (technology, staff, mindset)

• Ask customers for their media preferences

• Test everything

• Be open-minded

I don’t know if I should consider myself a Direct Marketer or not, but one thing I am very sure of is…. I spread great amount of Word Of Mouth about the product or services I experience or have deeper knowledge about! I enjoy doing that, yes I feel great because I have control over my content. So be it good or bad brand experience, I make sure people around me are aware of it.

I find this article very resourceful & hence recommend everyone to check out the full article. My only  minor apprehension with this report is the time-frame. For time 5 years is too long, I see this happening in two -three year at max.

eMarketer: Top 10 Predictions for 2009

The firm recently identified (via Marketing Charts) the following key trends for 2009:

1. The Internet is a Buyers’ Market: Marketers will continue to stretch their budgets by making use of cost-efficient online ad placements. Lower prices for most display ads and less competition for many search keywords will make online a buyers’ market.

2. Search Marketing Remains Recession-Resistant: While search marketing is not recession-proof, it is recession-resistant, with estimated spending growth in 2009 at 14.9%, to $12.3 billion. While search advertising will grow less in 2009 than in any previous year, its inherent strength means greater spending gains than for any other major form of advertising, whether online or traditional media.

(view chart of U.S. search advertising spending, 2007-2013)

3. Video Ad Spending Will Run Counter to Economic Trends: Growth will run counter to overall economic developments, rising by 45% in 2009 to reach $850 million.

(view chart of U.S. online video advertising spending, 2007-2013)

4. Social Network Shakeout: With U.S. ad revenue growth slowing, smaller and niche social networks will have a tough time gaining traction and several may close down or be acquired by larger players. Marketers that have built standalone social networks tied to their brands will either shutter them or migrate them to existing social network platforms where they can reach a broader audience.

5. New Revenue Streams for Social Networks: E-commerce will be a growing revenue stream for social network sites. Expect both MySpace and Facebook to enhance their self-serve advertising systems to allow consumers and businesses to buy and sell real-world goods and services.

6. E-Commerce Sales Growth From Existing Online Buyers: Online retail sales (excluding travel) will grow by only 4% in 2009 – the first full year to feel the impact of the economic crisis. Over the long term, online sales growth has been on a downward slope as the number of online buyers approaches saturation.

7. Seismic Shift in TV Ad Sales: U.S. TV ad spending will decline 4.2% to $66.9 billion in 2009. This precipitous drop in spending reflects not only expectations of a continued poor economy but a seismic shift in the way television advertising is bought and sold, eMarketer said.

8. More Newspaper Companies to Tank: Newspaper advertising will decline in 2009 more than any other medium. Industry-wide cutbacks will continue, and there will be some consolidation, while firms will be forced to undertake drastic measures to stay afloat.

9. User-Generated Content Aggregation: With so much user-generated media populating the web and mobile channels, content aggregation will become more important than ever. In 2009, expect to see the emergence of real-time aggregation tools that combine algorithmic approaches with human input. These aggregation tools will develop from the ground up, much like the content itself.

10. Multicultural Marketing Will Gain Intensity Online: Although white Americans make up about 70% of the U.S. internet population, more and more African Americans and Hispanics are going online through their PCs and mobile phones. Marketers will follow with language- and culture-specific messages.

Twitter users are older & more educated. Facebook users, younger & earn more

Two weeks back, I shared the Quantcast demographic data on Twitter to my professor. At that time I was under the impression that Twitter scores more with young people.

It was only today, I came across a small study on the demographics differences between Twitter and Facebook users. This is a quick study done using Quantcast data.

Facebook users are younger & earn more: From the study done by the author I realized that more than 50% of the users on both these properties are likely to be female! 32% of Facebook users are younger than 17 years as compared only 1% of Twitter users are under 17. 61%  of  Facebook users & 51%  of Twitter users earn more than $60,000.

Twitter enjoys the older & more educated: According to the data 52%  of Twitter users are older than 35  and 63% have a college degree. Whereas,  only 21% of Facebook users  are older than 35  &  57% have a college degree.
According to the author, this may seem like a contradiction but isn’t one. Given that 32% of Facebook users are younger than 17, their higher household income is probably a reflection of their parents’ income and not theirs.

Quantcast also shows that, Facebook users are more interested in topics related to teens, bridal, fashion/ cosmetics, baby, education and parenting whereas Twitter users are more interested in topics related to politics, science, technology and news.

I completely agree with the interests of the users, but this study has left me little confused. May be beacuse I’m not sure how reliable Quantcast’s data is. Anyways I got to learn more about their traffic patterns.

@ anishvshah