Brazil. Video. Ecommerce. Politics. Web Users Seek Info in Pharma Ads. What do Internet users most want to do after being diagnosed by a doctor? They seek more information—and many turn to the Web. Nearly one-half of Internet users responding to a survey by About.com said they used a search engine to find more data about their specific medical condition. Another 20% went to health Websites to get more info, and others used search engines to find out more about treatment options and prescription drugs.
Just 35% of Internet users simply trusted their doctor without looking to the Web. Marketers can capitalize on this hunger for health information by using their ads as an educational tool. More than four in 10 Internet users told About.com that pharma ads made them aware of treatment options and educated them about symptoms and conditions; 17% felt like they could speak more knowledgeably with their doctor because of pharmaceutical advertising. Keep up on the latest digital trends.
Check out today’s other article, “Executives and Social Media.” Few Senior Surfers Sighted. The generation entering their golden years is doing just fine without making the Internet a daily part of their lives, thank you. According to the Pew Research Center, 28% of US residents over age 65 had used the Internet in the 24 hours prior to polling in March 2009. By contrast, 75% of people ages 18 to 29 reported the same. Seniors don’t seem to be overly chatty, either, at least when they are on the go.
Nearly three-quarters of people ages 65 and above received “very few” or no calls on their cellphones. That number compares to 72% of 18-to-29-year-olds who received all or most of their calls on a mobile phone. Older Americans might not know what they’re missing—online or on mobile phones—but it doesn’t seem to be bothering them. Pew found that among older adults, happiness varied little by age, race, ethnicity—or fondness for technology. Note: Seniors do go online for information: See The Internet Is Getting Gray. Never miss a trend.
Gapminder.org - For a fact based world view. Understanding Luxury Brands and Social Media. Samir Balwani is an emerging technology strategist at Morpheus Media, a firm specializing in Social Marketing, SEM, and SEO. You can follow him on Twitter @samirbalwani and get his newsletter. One of the biggest misconceptions by brand managers is that the web is not a luxury market. The truth is that people are spending more money online and it's a place luxury brands must build a presence. However, most have a nagging fear of ruining their brand reputation. So, how can luxury brands engage in social media? The Luxury Market Online Before we answer the previous question, let's define the luxury market. "...within the scope of socio-psychology as a result of its connection to a culture, state of being and lifestyle, whether it is personal or collective.
So, brands with scarce products and high prices must find a way to find consumers online. In November 2007, eMarketer published a report titled "Affluent Internet Users: How the Rich Live Online. " Problems With Luxury Brands Online 1. Who Uses Social Networks and What Are They Like? (Part 1) A new study by Anderson Analytics looks into the demographics and psychographics of social networking users on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn with a goal of providing marketers with information about users' interests and buying habits as related to their network of choice. The end result is a detailed look at the profiles and habits of social networking users on the web today. Some of the study's findings echo things we've already heard. For example, Facebook users tend to be old, white, and rich. MySpace users are young...and fleeing. The Anderson study sampled over 11,000 GreenfieldOnline panelists (an online survey community) over an 11 month period to understand social networking services' (SNS) reach and overlap among the U.S.
Of course, not everyone is devoted to one social network alone. Social Networkers, in General Interacting with Brands When it comes to brands online, the study found that: Social Networking Myths Shot Down Non-Social Networkers. Report: Twitter still 'missed opportunity' for Fortune. A new report from global public relations firm Weber Shandwick has found that when it comes to Fortune 100 companies, they just don't get Twitter...not yet anyway. According to the study (PDF), which looked at how the world's 100 top companies used Twitter between late August and early September, the companies have a grand total of 540 Twitter accounts owned by just 73 companies; 27 firms don't participate in the microblogging tool/social network. Some 76 percent of those 540 accounts weren't "updated often" and 52 percent were not actively engaged, as measured by the accounts' use of hash tags, links, references, and retweets.
Weber Shandwick contends that in order for a company to be successful on Twitter, it needs to engage users through five basic activities: listening to followers, participating in conversations, updating accounts frequently, replying to questions, and retweeting useful messages. Weber Shandwick also offered a word of caution. CPGs Focus on Social Relationships. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies and social media are not an easy mix. Because CPG companies tend to focus on reaching a mass audience and have well-honed ways of measuring marketing effectiveness and sales, social media has been a less than perfect fit. But rather than a hindrance, this can be an opportunity for CPG companies. “By looking at social media as a way to listen to consumers, respond to their needs and create ongoing dialogue—instead of as another way to advertise to them—CPG companies can reinvigorate their marketing and create new bonds with consumers,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “CPGs and Social Media: Much More Than Advertising.”
The CPG industry is turning its attention toward online advertising, but remains firmly committed to traditional media. Still, the Nielsen figures represent only image-based ad spending, and do not include any other social marketing outlays. Still, metrics remain a hurdle. Deep Brand Engagement Creates Customers. The power of online brand interaction is not to be denied: A solid majority of connected consumers have had their opinion of a brand swayed, either positively or negatively, by an online experience. And more than 97% said that experience influenced whether they purchased a product or service from that brand. Razorfish’s “2009 FEED” survey polled US broadband users who had visited a community site, consumed or created digital media, and spent at least $150 online in the past six months.
These connected consumers were also connected to brands. About one-quarter had produced content to participate in a contest held by a brand, and close to the same amount had followed a brand on Twitter. The main reason to follow or friend a brand was to get exclusive deals or offers, followed by general fandom—because the user was a current customer, or because of interesting or entertaining content. “Digital experiences not only build a brand, they can also make or break it. Publications Like, Totally Wired 11/12/2009. Younger Women Step to Social Beat. Generation Y females have redefined the idea of “peer group” to encompass online friends, bloggers and anonymous reviewers, according to the “Why Y Women?” Report from PopSugar and Radar Research.
Looking to this expansive group of peers, rather than experts or celebrities, Gen Y women are particularly influenced by social media. Younger women are nearly twice as likely as their Gen X counterparts to say they had discovered a new brand or product when a friend mentioned it in an online status update. They are also significantly more influenced by blogs, by both professionals and especially by “someone like me.” Telling friends in person or on the phone is still by far the most common way for Gen Y women to spread the word about products or brands they love.
But they post about products and brands on social networking sites or online forums nearly twice as much as older women. Keep up on the latest digital trends. Gen Y Holds Tight to E-Mail and Texting. Newspapers may be reporting on the demise of e-mail, and some research indicates that young people are turning more toward social networking than more traditional online communication, but college students still see e-mail as a critical medium for messages.
More than one-quarter of college students told the Participatory Marketing Network and Pace University’s Lubin School of Business’ IDM Lab that e-mail was the activity they were least likely to give up for a week—far ahead of the 9% who said they couldn’t live without social networks. “These results may be surprising to some, but not if you consider the role email continues to play in the day-to-day lives of Gen Y,” said Michael Della Penna, PMN co-founder and executive chairman, in a statement. “As long as email remains the collection point for social networking updates, including alerts around new followers, discussion updates and friend requests, it will remain a powerful force in marketing and our lives.” Previous Article. Americans Want Brands that Inform. The top characteristic US consumers want from brands they like is to improve their knowledge—and the least desirable one is for a brand to “only be visible in store”—according to the “Global Web Index” from Lightspeed Research.
Helping consumers keep up to date on topics that were important to them was also key, followed by being entertaining, becoming part of a daily routine, and informing consumers about the product and the company. Consumers were relatively uninterested in brands that tried to act like their friends. Unsurprisingly in a difficult economy, consumers said the most relevant thing a brand could do for them was offer discounts. That topped various social and creative efforts such as online communities and brand-created video or TV programs. Word-of-mouth was the No. 1 purchase driver according to the surveyed consumers. Face-to-face recommendations had significantly more weight with respondents than TV ads, advice from online friends, e-mails or Websites. Facebook Grabs Soc Net Share. Not only has Facebook surpassed MySpace as the leading social network in the US, it has moved far ahead in terms of market share of US social networking site visits.
According to September 2009 data from Experian Hitwise, almost 59% of all social network category visits were at Facebook, compared with just over 30% for second-place MySpace. That amounted almost to a tripling in share for Facebook year over year, while MySpace dropped 55%. Twitter, in fourth place with 1.84% of social networking site visits in September 2009, posted a huge increase over September 2008. But reports of a Twitter slowdown are bolstered by the fact that the site actually lost share since August 2009, down 0.11 percentage points. Time spent on Twitter was down year over year, by 56%. Average time spent on Facebook was up while MySpace dropped, but MySpace remained in the lead.
Keep up on the latest digital trends. Check out today’s other article, “What’s the Best Way to Improve Conversions?” Bigger Banners, Richer Media. According to Eyeblaster’s “Global Benchmark Report 2009,” increasing ad size is not necessarily the best way to boost performance. The company found that for banner ads, where size is the main component of ad visibility, bigger is generally better. But rich media ads such as expandable banners and floating ads saw improved results from different creative, rather than larger size. Rich media ads, according to the report, “have more ‘dimensions’ than two—pixels are augmented by flash, video and expansions that catches the users’ attention.
Therefore in Rich Media, size portrays only a part of the performance picture.” Video, for example, improved performance significantly for most rich media ads, by 71% overall. Eyeblaster found that expandable strips had the highest interaction rate of any rich media format, followed by expandable banners. User interactions with advertisements varied widely across industries, as well. Keep up on the latest digital trends. Factors Behind eMarketer’s Revised Online Ad Forecast - eMarkete. eMarketer has revised its US online ad spending forecast downward, predicting 2009 spending of $22.8 billion. Online ad spending for the first half of the year decreased by 5.3%, according to reported results from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, eMarketer’s benchmark.
Indications—such as relatively strong Q3 results from Google—suggest an increase in search spending. Even in down years, second-half growth is stronger. eMarketer predicts a smaller second-half 2009 decrease of 2.9%, which will mean a decline of 2.9% for the year. (Note that 52% of 2009 spending will occur in the second half of the year.) Moderate growth will pick up again in 2010 and 2011, with spending projected to rise 5.9% and 6.6%, respectively. 2012 will see double-digit growth, due to the presidential election and economic stabilization, but slightly lower rates of increase will resume in 2013. Overall, many major advertisers are still looking for a way into online advertising. Understanding Consumer Preferences.
Multichannel campaigns will find greater success when marketers are aware of consumer preferences and behaviors. That finding, from a Forrester Consulting study commissioned by ExactTarget, should not come as a surprise. But marketers may be ignoring its implications. Just 32% of marketing decision-makers surveyed in July 2009 said they knew how their customers behaved across channels, and only 37% were aware of consumers’ channel preferences. In June, ExactTarget found in its “2009 Channel Preferences Survey” that Americans’ opinions about permission marketing were changing. Respondents’ preference for e-mail and text messaging was greater than the year before, and direct mail was losing ground fast. Now, consumers choose e-mail at a rate of three-to-one over any other channel for marketing communications. But permission is key. In spite of Web users’ increased use of social networks for written communication, they were not very open to receiving marketing messages through such sites.
Online Spending Passes TV in UK. Online ad spending has been fortunate in the economic downturn—recession-resistant due to its high level of accountability, Internet ad revenue growth has remained positive as spending in all other media dropped. In the UK, the effect has been so dramatic that online took the biggest slice of advertising revenues in the first half of 2009.
Research from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB UK), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the World Advertising Research Centre (WARC) put online revenues at 23.5% of the total from January to June, 1.6 percentage points ahead of TV. This makes the UK the first major economy to see online spending overtake television. “Internet advertising has beaten all expectations to achieve growth in the most challenging market conditions,” said Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the IAB UK, in a statement. “Online display has performed notably well against its peers in TV, print and radio despite more than £1.5 billion being wiped off the advertising industry.” Behavioral Targeting Misses Mark. Social Radar: Apple, Microsoft Are Top Social-Media Kingpins - A. Women Rule the Social Web. Online Measurement: 16% of the Web Clicking Display Ads - Advert. Social Site Users Depend on Their Networks. Ad Dollars Flood to Social Nets.
Online’s Slice of Ad Spending Grows Worldwide. Online Helps Marketers Do More with Less. The Web Analytics Headache. Social Media Measurement Lags Adoption. Demographics of Facebook Growth. Are Women Really Ignoring Social Network Marketing? Media Dollars Shift to Digital in Downturn. Measuring the Business Effects of Web 2.0. Executives and Social Media. Display Campaigns Boost Search Effectiveness. Internet Radio Revs Up. Social Network Marketing Expands Sphere. Digital Screens Energize Outdoor Media.