Online TV Network consumption appears to be an activity set aside in specific sessions from most other online activities, says the report. For those who go online to watch TV shows, that activity dominates that particular online session, with women and the 18-34 group spending the biggest parts of their sessions on network viewing:.

While many of us may watch TV with friends or family members, the viewing of TV shows online proves to be a rather solitary activity. This may change as internet connectivity to our main TV screens becomes more ubiquitous, but right now, the majority of online viewers prefer to be alone.

TV commercial spots reused online appear to have more impact on recall and likeability than creative just designed for online, as noted in a case study with food and beverage ads.

The writer concludes that “This look into the similarities and differences of TV viewing on the web should be a reminder to brand managers that ‘context’ is just as much king these days as content.”

And, to put Online viewing in perspective, another recent Nielsen report finds that the number of unique viewers of online video increased 5.2% year-over-year from 137.4 million unique viewers in January 2009 to 142.7 million in January 2010.

Among the top Web brands ranked by unique viewers in January, Disney Online was the fastest growing month-over-month, increasing 23.3%. Facebook and MSN/WindowsLive/Bing were the second and third fastest growing, increasing 18.6% and 15.6% month-over-month, respectively.

For additional information from Nielsen and this study, please visit here.

Source: MediaPost Research Brief – Online TV Viewing For Catch-Up

]]> http://americaninteractivemarketing.com/online-tv-viewing-for-catch-up/feed 0 http://americaninteractivemarketing.com/twitter-ad-platform-imminent http://americaninteractivemarketing.com/twitter-ad-platform-imminent#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:51:22 +0000 admin http://americaninteractivemarketing.com/?p=568 by Laurie Sullivan

Twitter plans to launch an advertising platform in about a month, according to Seth Goldstein. The chief executive officer and co-founder of socialmedia.com led a panel Monday focused on the next wave of interactive advertising at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting 2010 in Carlsbad, Calif., that shed light on Twitter’s strategy.Declining to confirm exactly when Twitter would release the platform, Anamitra Banerji, head of product management and monetization at Twitter, told MediaPost following the panel that “we are working on an ad platform, but it’s only in the test phase.”

During the panel, Banerji presented a chart that demonstrated peaks and the total number of tweets during the Super Bowl. One blue line represents tweets about the game. The red line represents tweets about brands and ads during the game. A spike during the final touchdown of the game corresponds to 50% of tweets on Twitter at that moment.

Twitter sees this sort of user behavior across the site all the time, Banerji said. “People are constantly talking and engaging with brands, sharing their feedback,” he explained before the panel transitioned into a question-and-answer session. “What if brands start to participate? What would the chart look like then?”

There’s a movement in Twitter to include hash tags in tweets to suggest the messages represent ads. Banerji said when Twitter launches an ad platform, the company will make it “explicitly clear that a sponsor” paid for the ad, and make it “relevant and useful, so the user doesn’t think of it as an ad.”

Banerji called the hash tag ads a “workaround,” for now. Twitter engineers have a better idea what will and won’t work, he said.

Goldstein, who also co-chairs the IAB social media committee, coaxed Banerji to share details on the “imminent” Twitter ad platform by asking questions such as “you were at Overture before, so what did you learn from that experience” when it comes to “developing the first search ads you’re putting into Twitter?”

“Innovate very, very quickly, before someone innovates on top of you,” Banerji said. “And be very, very focused on execution. Just be dedicated to your own roadmap and don’t worry so much about what’s happening around you.”

Goldstein also asked, you will “likely in the next month or so offer Twitter owned and operated ads, perhaps?” to which Banerji replied, “that’s right.”

Completing the question, Goldstein asked how Twitter will manage that while supporting the ability to let a “thousand flowers bloom around the ecosystem?”

“We don’t think of ourselves as a Web site — essentially it’s a platform,” Banerji said. “We don’t really control the ads or the way the tweets are viewed and then consumed. We are completely open around other people innovating around us. Ultimately, publishers should have choice. But the one area of concern for us — and that’s if bad ads get identified in Twitter — it’s a problem for us in the long term. So, we should do whatever we can to encourage positive behavior.”

Source: Online Media Daily – Twitter Ad Platform ‘Imminent’

The latest findings from online market research firm InsightExpress suggest that mobile advertising continues to deliver better brand metrics than online advertising. The company found that mobile campaigns through the fourth quarter performed 4.5 to five times better than online ones against norms for measures including unaided and aided awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase intent.

“Online campaigns continue to offer exceptional reach, flexibility and variety,” said Joy Liuzzo, senior director of marketing and mobile research at InsightExpress, in a statement. “However, the high levels of engagement, the explosion in technical capabilities, low levels of clutter and the novelty of mobile advertising all likely contribute to increased brand impact.” Within mobile media, the Internet has proven to be the most effective branding option compared to SMS text and mobile video. Mobile Web campaigns led to increases of 9 percentage points in unaided and aided awareness and 24 percentage points for ad awareness. SMS generated increases of 5 percentage points for unaided awareness, 10 for aided awareness and 18 for ad awareness.

Mobile video is still emerging, but shows strength in boosting brand favorability, delivering an increase of 13 percentage points compared to 12 for the mobile Web and 7 for SMS.

Mobile campaigns overall led to a higher level of purchase intent than online ones across key consumer categories including travel, auto, retail and technology. But is the novelty factor that’s partly driving better ad results in mobile starting to wear off?

During the course of 2009, “upper funnel” brand metrics related to awareness have remained largely unchanged while others like favorability and purchase intent are actually increasing. That trend indicates a greater emphasis on engagement in mobile campaigns.

As a more established medium, however, the desktop Web still enjoys the advantage of being easier to buy than mobile. Despite the promise of better return-on-investment, launching a campaign across different handsets, mobile operating systems and networks remains more difficult than selling a brand online.

Source: MediaPost -Study: Mobile Campaigns More Effective (But Still Present Buying Difficulties)

]]> http://americaninteractivemarketing.com/study-mobile-campaigns-more-effective-but-still-present-buying-difficulties/feed 0 http://americaninteractivemarketing.com/its-not-all-about-roi http://americaninteractivemarketing.com/its-not-all-about-roi#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:20:10 +0000 admin http://americaninteractivemarketing.com/?p=555 by Morgan Stewart, Wednesday, February 3, 2010
In December, I began working on a project with Econsultancy to understand where marketers are allocating their budgets in 2010. Consistent with other reports, we found the migration of budgets from traditional to digital channels continues. In fact, digital marketing budgets will increase by an average of 17% in 2010, and 28% of marketers are migrating at least part of their overall marketing budgets from traditional to online channels. 54% of marketers plan to increase email budgets in 2010. Another 43% plan to keep their email marketing budgets the same, leaving only 3% that will decrease spending on email. So yes, our expertise will be in demand for the foreseeable future.

Questions about how and why budgets are being reallocated are more intriguing. We’re all familiar with reports showing that ROI from email is very good. The DMA reports figures each year and, while we may debate the finer points, few disagree with the general premises that email is very measurable and provides a good return.  According to our study, email is one of the most successfully measured marketing channels, along with paid search. As such, it makes sense that people would increase their investment in email and search. However, only 17% say they do a good job measuring ROI from social media, while 70% are planning to increase marketing budgets in this area. Granted, figuring out how to track and calculate ROI for social media is a hot topic. I attended OMMA Social in San Francisco last week and there was a lot of talk about ROI: tracking, proper calculation, allocation, etc. (Sorry, I didn’t walk away with any answers.) But that’s beside the point. The point is that something other than ROI is motivating brands to increase social media budgets — while cutting budgets for print, radio, and television.

So what is? Brand reputation.
While only 41% of marketers use “brand reputation” as a measure of marketing effectiveness, these marketers are significantly more likely to be shifting their budgets from traditional to digital channels than those using other success metrics. Ironically, marketers using ROI as a success metric (65%) were less likely to be shifting their budgets from traditional to digital channels. It’s not that ROI isn’t important. It’s just that these marketers have already made the transition.

Email marketers need to take note of brand reputation as well. Consider:

1)    Monitoring brand reputation through social media can help avoid disaster in other areas. Promoting a product or service that is falling flat in the market only perpetuates the problem. By monitoring how your products (or those of your suppliers) are doing in-market through social media, you can get a good feel for which products should, and should not, be featured in your email program. Monitoring social media can also provide much-needed inspiration about the talking points that best highlight your products.
2)    Relevance is only getting more important. We are all growing a bit tired of talk about relevance. However, your ability to deliver relevant content impacts your brand’s reputation, both online and offline. As brand reputation becomes a bigger online focus, make sure your email program is enhancing, not detracting, from that reputation.
3)   Branding is no longer about simply being known, but being known as good global citizens. Several companies, like Chase Financial Services, have used social media as a tool for getting fans involved in their charitable endeavors. However, as fellow Email Insider Kara Trivunovic wrote recently, some companies have broadcast their relief efforts in Haiti by using email to notify subscribers.

So yes, ROI is a critical success measure. However, your brand’s reputation sets the stage for everything else. If your reputation is tarnished, no channel can be effective, no matter how efficient it is.

Soucre: Mediapost – It’s Not ALL About ROI