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Augmented Reality Shopping Coming Soon. Susan Kuchinskas | July 2, 2012 | 2 Comments inShare12 IBM Research has a prototype of a data-driven personal shopping assistant mobile app. IBM Research announced the prototype of a mobile app that can act as a personal shopping assistant in stores. The mobile app could be branded and provided by retailers. Consumers would download the app and then input products they're shopping for and their selection criteria. For example, a shopper looking for breakfast cereal could specify a product that's low in sugar, highly rated by consumers and on sale. Consumers could also opt in to include info from their social networks, such as reviews or comments from friends.

On the front end, here's how it would work: Upon entering a store, consumers download the app on their smart phone or tablet, register, and create a profile of features that matter to them - from product ingredients that will inflame an allergy, to whether packaging is biodegradable. But the devil is in the details. Global Internet Ad Spend Up 12% in Q1 [REPORT] Buoyed by strong growth in Latin America and the Middle East/Africa, Internet ad spending rose 12% in the first quarter compared to Q1 2011, according to Nielsen. In a period in which overall ad spending rose 3.1%, every media sector was up except for magazines, which fell 1.4%. Even newspapers — a segment known for downsizing and contraction — rose 3.1%. Perhaps the biggest surprise was radio, which was up a robust 7.9%. A Nielsen rep said that figure doesn't include Internet-based radio outlets like iHeartRadio and Pandora.

As the chart below shows, most of the strongest growth occurred in Latin America and the Middle East/Africa. Comparatively, growth in more developed regions like North America and Europe was much more restrained. Nielsen didn't break out online ad spending for North America, but IAB set the figure for U.S. online ad spending at $8.4 billion in the first quarter, a 15% jump over Q1 2011. Image courtesy of Flickr, Davichi. Social Campaigns on Tuesdays Earn Highest Engagement. There are good days to start a social marketing campaign, and there are better ones: Most Facebook campaigns are deployed on Fridays, but those deployed on Tuesdays generate the most customer engagement, according to a study by Yesmail Interactive, which examines the customer engagement of campaigns conducted via popular social channels. The new findings are based on a three-month study of consumer engagement with online campaigns for 20 major retails brands, including Abercrombie & Fitch, The Gap, Ralph Lauren, American Eagle, J Crew, and Forever 21.

Among the Facebook campaigns studied, those deployed on Tuesdays earned the highest engagement, even though Tuesday ranked fourth in terms of the number campaigns conducted. Overall, fewer Facebook campaigns were conducted over the weekend during the three-month study period. Below, additional findings from the report titled "Using Digital Market Intelligence to Drive Multi–Channel Success," by Yesmail Interactive. Volume-Based Engagement vs. At least 8 in 10 Online Users Engage in Social Media Globally: Forrester. Social media is now a global phenomenon, with most online adults in North America, Europe, metro Asia, and Latin America regular users, according to a new update of Forrester's Global Social Media Adoption In 2011, originally published in January 2012.

More than 86% of online US adults and 79% of European online adults engage with social media, whereas In BRIC countries some 93% of online users use social tools. The report uses Forrester's Social Technographics system to classify social media use worldwide (18 countries in North America, Europe, South America, and Asia). Users fall into seven groups based on online activities, and consumers can fall into several different groups. Only Inactives are an exclusive group. Below, some highlights from Forrester's update regarding global social media adoption study: "Emerging markets are in love with social media.

" History of the Internet in a Nutshell [INFOGRAPHIC] 21 Internet Marketing Stats That Will Blow Your Mind. 1) The more posts per day, the less engagement -- when a brand posts twice a day, those posts only receive 57% of the likes and 78% of the comments per post. (Source: Track Social ) Be mindful of your publishing frequency on Facebook, and start testing with your own page to see what frequency is right for your community. Tweet This Stat! 2) The click-through rate on triggered messages is 119% higher than “Business as Usual” messages. (Source: Epsilon and DMA ) Using personalized and timely lead nurturing with marketing automation is an important strategy for improving the overall performance of your email marketing and customer generation. Tweet This Stat! 3) On average, companies respond to only 30% of social media fans' feedback. (Source: Factbrowser ) Engagement is rare. 4) The average tablet user spends 13.9 hours per week with the device. 5) Text messaging users send or receive an average of 35 messages per day. 19) About 1 in 3 bloggers are moms.

Strategy - CMOs Expect Big Returns From Digital Marketing. Though online marketing is still a work in progress for many organizations, most corporate management teams are fully supportive of digital investments, driven by the benefits of improved marketing ROI, stronger customer analytics, and richer online engagement, according to a new report by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council. Below, additional findings from the 2012 CMO Council Survey. Online marketing is still a work in progress Among senior-level marketers surveyed, only 9% say they've reached a highly evolved and proven digital marketing strategy, whereas a plurality (36%) admit their efforts are a random web of loosely connected and poorly integrated point solutions. Some 35% of senior-level marketers say they have a strategy in place and are currently testing and rolling out solutions, and 13% are gaining momentum via cloud-based platforms and applications. Management supports digital marketing, with benefits Among surveyed senior-level marketers:

Mary Meeker's Latest Incredibly Insightful Presentation About The State Of The Web. Listening to China’s Digital Generations. Digital Economy, Globalization Listening to China’s Digital Generations May 23, 2012 Decrease font size Increase font size Tools inShare Related Articles About This Video In April 2012, BCG published a report on the rapidly evolving digital lifestyles of Chinese consumers.The report was the latest in a series chronicling the transformation of China’s consumer landscape.This video highlights some of the key findings of the report. The Internet in China has gone mainstream.

In order to understand China’s online market, companies need to look at it through the eyes of users. China’s e-commerce market has its own local flavor that may confound Western companies. Comments 1 to 2 of 2 Absolutely, this video and the article suffice the growth of internet in a developing country such as China. . - Aamer 03, Oct 2012 03:12 AM I would like to see more content on BCG Prespectives similar to this, I enjoy listening to the podcast while doing paper work. - scherer 31, May 2012 06:57 AM Back to top CEO Agenda. Use of Smartphone Location-Based Tools Nearly Doubles. Growing numbers of smartphone owners are using location-based information services: Nearly three-quarters (74%) say they use their smartphone to get real-time location-based information, up from the 55% who said so a year earlier, according to a study by Pew Research.

Moreover, 18% of surveyed smartphone owners say they use a geosocial service such as Foursquare to "check in" to certain locations or share their location with friends. That's up from a reported 12% in May 2011. Finding maps and directions is among the most popular location-based smartphone activities, via services such as Google Maps. However, location data is increasingly being used to enhance mobile apps ranging from photography to restaurant reservations. By contrast, check-in services have languished with lower adoption overall, in large part due to privacy concerns.

Below, findings from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Some 46% of all US adults now own a smartphone, up from 35% in 2011. Social Media Ad Spend to Reach $9.8B by 2016. Social media advertising revenue—now dominated by Facebook and Twitter—is forecast to reach $9.8 billion in 2016, up from an estimated $3.8 billion in 2011, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.0%, according to BIA/Kelsey's US Local Media Annual Forecast. Growth in local markets is projected to be particularly robust over the five-year period, driven by crucial changes to Facebook's and Twitter's ad platforms that are offering better opportunities for smaller brands to reach consumers online, according to the report.

Below, additional findings from BIA/Kelsey's five-year social ad spending forecast. Social display, which dominates social media advertising* is projected to climb from $3.6 billion in 2011 to $9.2 billion in 2016—a CAGR of 20.6%. The segment of non-display ad formats, such as Twitter's promoted products, is expected to grow robustly, from $140 million in 2011, to $630 million in 2016, a 35.2% CAGR. Internet Ad Revenues Hit $31 Billion in 2011, Up 22% Over 2010 [STUDY] Strong growth in display, video and mobile-based advertising prompted a banner year for U.S. online advertising as revenues topped $31 billion, a 22% jump over 2010 and a new record, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Mobile grew the most of all categories — 149% — but still represents a puny share of the overall market — $1.6 billion — according to the report issued on Wednesday.

Digital video also rose 29% to $1.8 billion, search was up about 27% to $11.7 billion and display advertising jumped 15% to $11.1 billion, or 35% of all revenues. Search is still the largest category with 47% share. "This historic moment, with an especially impressive achievement in mobile, is indicative of an increased awareness from advertisers that they need to reach consumers where they are spending their time — in digital media,” said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO, of the IAB, in a press release. A full copy of the IAB report can be found here. Push Notifications: Not So Annoying Anymore. Push notifications, those less, er, pushy cousins of SMS messages, are on the rise. Urban Airship, which powers push notifications for more than 60,000 apps, said it took in as much revenue in the first quarter of this year as it did in all of 2011.

Building on smartphone apps’ ability to recognize a person’s location, interests and identity, push messaging services are delivering results. In the past year, Urban Airship claims that some brand app developer customers have enjoyed as much as a 540 percent increase in daily app opens, 30 percent uptick in social sharing and 20 percent increase in mobile orders. For example, flash sale site Rue La La saw app open rates increase twenty fold and user sessions by 25 percent. Overall push notifications lead consumers to use apps 18 percent to 30 percent more, said Urban Airship CEO Scott Kveton. Early SMS-based text campaigns may have felt unfamiliar and intrusive to consumers.

China: The World's Largest Online Population [INFOGRAPHIC] China has come online extremely quickly in recent years. Today, one in five Internet users are Chinese — that's half a billion people. And while growth has evened out since 2007, it shows no sign of stopping. Chinese Internet users spend about the same amount of time online as their U.S. counterparts, but their habits differ. Instant messaging apps are still big, and edge out even search engines in terms of active users. Chinese users also flock to web "portals," as U.S. users did in the earlier days of the World Wide Web.

Our friends at Statista have compiled a swath of compelling data on the largest new online population. Infographic courtesy of Statista.com. Global Mobile Advertising Industry Insights: Microsoft Advertising. Web Sites - Social Media Users Prefer Social Login Over Traditional. More than three-quarters (77%) of social media users say websites should offer social login—i.e., using a social media identity to log in at a website—as an alternative to traditional account creation or logging in as a guest, up from the 66% who said so a year earlier, according to a study by Janrain. When required to register or create a new account at a website, only 14% of social media users say they complete the registration, whereas 54% say they’re likely to leave the site and not return; 26% go to a different site if possible, and 6% say they leave or avoid the site altogether: Below, additional findings from Janrain's new study, which explores consumers' perceptions of online registration and social login.

Leaving False Information Many socially networked consumers leave false information when asked to register: 88% admit to having given incorrect information or leaving forms incomplete when creating a new account on a website, up from 76% who said so a year earlier. The Biggest Challenge For Marketers: Engagement. A recent McKinsey Quarterly study revealed that having the ability to engage their customers and leverage those relationships is the No. 1 digitally related challenge facing marketers today. The survey, which was conducted over a two-week period, queried nearly 800 marketing executives representing a wide range of industries from business-to-business marketing and business-to-consumer marketing. The results of the survey were quite fascinating insomuch as over 50% of the respondents indicated that engaging their customers and gleaning deep insights from those engagements is their most important challenge from a digital perspective yet over half of the respondents also said that over the past two years the advancements in digital marketing have provided them with the ability to engage their customers.

Look at these two charts: Chart #1 Chart #2 So, from Chart #1, you see the No. 1 challenge marketers face in today's digital world is engagement. Sources: Google Images, McKinsey Quarterly. Mobile Email Audiences Up 28% Some 89.6 million Americans used their mobile phone to access email for work or personal purposes during the three-month period ended November 2011, up 28% (19.5 million) from the 70.1 million who did so a year earlier, according to comScore Data Mine.

In November, more than three-quarters of smartphone owners (78%) used mobile email. Among all mobile users, (smartphone and feature-phone users), mobile-email penetration was lower, at roughly 40%. Most mobile users (64%) now access email via mobile device nearly every day. Moreover, that audience segment registered the biggest growth over the previous year: 33%. Mobile users who access email via device at least weekly also grew at an impressive 27% year over year. One-Quarter of Email Opens via Mobile Nearly one-quarter (23%) of email messages were viewed via mobile devices in the six months ended September 2011, up 34% from the previous six-month period, according to separate research from Return Path. Trends and Benchmarks in Click-Through Rate by Message Type. 7 Top Online Marketing Trends for 2012 [Data Included] 2012 Trends: Video Leads Online Ad Growth. Top 5 Tech Advancements Changing the Face of Education. 10 Social Media 2011 Highlights (Data Included) 2012 Email Marketing Predictions.