comScore Voices

How the Next Generation Consumes Online Health

John Mangano — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:19:50 -0600

Today’s generation of teenagers and young adults represents a unique class of Internet users, born with the web at their fingertips and an innate ability to navigate it with agility. For this generation, the Internet was not a new technology upending other modes of communication – it was the norm. Most grew up learning to seek out information primarily through search engines instead of card catalogs, engaging with social networks to interact with peers, and watching online video for entertainment.

Extreme Couponing: Searching for the Deals

Eli Goodman — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:22:30 -0600

Growing up I will always remember our family’s Sunday paper routine: Dad would immediately open up the bundle and take out the Sports section, I would jockey with my brother for the Comics, and Mom would furiously attack the coupons with her scissors.

For Whom Does Gold Glitter?

Frank Findley — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:30:28 -0600

As the best performing asset classes of the past decade, silver and gold have been hot topics on the financial news scene. But how widespread is the interest in this investment choice, and what do we know about the investors who do show interest in these precious metals? To answer these questions we applied to investments the same behavioral research techniques pioneered by comScore for understanding consumer brands.

The Chicago FireStarter Venture Capital Fund

Gian Fulgoni — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:03:51 -0600

The digital revolution has touched us all, bringing extraordinary services to our finger tips and improving our lives in ways that would have been inconceivable just a short time ago. In recent years, Chicago has seen a variety of new technology companies explode onto the digital scene. While Groupon has understandably garnered a huge amount of attention on its own, there have been many other successful Chicago startups, some since acquired but many others still growing rapidly and independently in a variety of fascinating digital sectors. Every week, it seems, a new digital company is born in Chicago.

What does the Louis CK Experiment Mean for the Future of Digital Content Distribution?

Andrew Lipsman — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0600

Ever since leading comedian Louis CK announced the release of his new stand-up comedy special for $5 over his website louisck.net, the media has been abuzz about the potential for this sort of digital distribution model to be successful and shift the paradigm for the way content is marketed and distributed. The results appear to show that CK’s effort was a fairly unmitigated success, generating more than $1 million in revenue against $250,000 in production costs. After covering his costs, CK generously donated a significant portion of the proceeds to several charities, paid his staff handsomely, and kept the remainder for himself – truly a win-win-win effort.

comScore, FTC and TRUSTe Headline Privacy Town Hall

Gian Fulgoni — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:31:05 -0600

For those of you who may not be aware, Saturday, January 28th is the fourth annual Data Privacy Day, a day devoted to promoting best practices to help equip business and consumers to protect their online data and privacy. comScore is delighted to be helping lead this effort as Data Privacy Day Champion.

How African American and Caucasian Millennials Are Affected by Targeted Advertising

Jeremy Alexander — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:09:06 -0600

comScore recently released a report titled Next Generation Strategies for Advertising to Millennials highlighting results from a study of the unique characteristics of this generation and how to effectively market to them across media. Figure 1 illustrates how trends of advertising effectiveness among differing age groups have stayed consistent over the last 50 years, with older audiences tending to generate higher lifts in Share of Choice (comScore’s advertising effectiveness metric) compared to younger audiences – Millennials being no exception as illustrated by the 2011 study.

Facebook Continues its Global Dominance, Claiming the Lead in Brazil

Sarah Radwanick — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:09:50 -0600

Brazil’s social networking market has a new leader. Earlier this week comScore released results showing that in December Facebook surpassed Orkut, becoming the largest social networking destination in Brazil for the first time.

A Look Back at the 2011 Holiday Shopping Season

Gian Fulgoni — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:16:57 -0600

With 2011 behind us, I thought you might be interested in some observations regarding what the holiday shopping season told us about the state of the consumer economy.

Proven Techniques for Effective Digital Creative - Part 1 of 5: Teaching a New Dog Old Tricks

Frank Findley — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:15:20 -0600

“Why do some of my ad campaigns drive offline sales while others don’t?” This is one of the most common questions I receive from our clients, and the answer often resides – at least in part – in the quality of creative used. For this reason, I’m doing a 5-part blog series outlining proven techniques for designing effective digital creative. In each post, I will outline one technique along with its supporting research and case examples. I hope you enjoy them and look forward to hearing your comments and questions.

It’s a Social World: A Global Look at Social Networking

Carmela Aquino — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:42:51 -0600

Over the past few years, social networks have evolved to become an integral part of the online experience, providing the means for users to facilitate offline connections and build new ones online. In the process, social networks have shaped the way we communicate and have even cultivated new social behaviors. Indisputably, the way we keep in touch with friends, find recommendations, and share ideas with others has changed with the advent of social networking.

State of the U.S. Social Networking Market: Facebook Maintains Leadership Position, but Upstarts Gaining Traction

Andrew Lipsman — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:12:36 -0600

comScore recently released our global social networking report, “It’s a Social World: Top 10 Need-to-Knows about Social Networking and Where it’s Headed,” which we certainly encourage you to download if you haven’t already. And while the report offers a comprehensive global view of what’s happening in social media, I thought it might also be interesting to drill down into the latest snapshot of the U.S. social networking market.

Online Pinboards – Is this the new way to Facebook?

Eli Goodman — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:32:41 -0600

With news this week that Facebook is beginning to roll out its new Timeline feature, it reminds us that so much of what’s captured on the world’s most popular social networking site are our fondest memories. And if you look at your newsfeed in any given day it will often reflect the present – what’s happening in the world around you today. But there is not typically a lot of discussion about more aspirational topics, and what people are hoping for in the future.

Why is Cyber Monday Becoming More Important to Holiday Season E-Commerce?

Andrew Lipsman — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:34:51 -0600

As the Cyber Monday phenomenon was brought to light there was a common misconception that it was the heaviest online spending day of the year. While comScore always observed a significant increase in spending on this day, online spending typically continued to climb into mid-December with several individual spending days surpassing the Cyber Monday totals.

Occupy Wall Street: How News Publishers are Missing an Opportunity for New Readers

Eli Goodman — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:33:01 -0600

Publishers who deliver Occupy Wall Street content benefit from more viewers, more ad sales, and best case scenario, more permanent return viewers. But how many are actually capitalizing on this opportunity?