Usability Key Feature for Auto Sites

Usable Sites Earn High Marks Two high-performing sites, Honda and Kia, are found by J.D. Power to each focus on usability and allow shoppers to access information quickly and easily. As a result, both Honda and Kia perform well in each of the four measures examined in the study: speed, appearance, navigation and information/content.

‘Edgy’ Sites Fare Worse In contrast, some of the lowest-ranking websites use what J.D. Power identifies as an edgy, brand-centric design that put marketing goals ahead of meeting shopper needs. As a result, they perform particularly poorly in the appearance measure. Certain design elements on these sites hinder speed, ease of navigation and user access to information and content. Read more at www.marketingcharts.com

According to new data from The Nielsen Company, airing an ad both on TV and online greatly increases its effectiveness. In a Nielsen study of direct-to-consumer drug advertising, exposure on TV and online was more than twice as likely to prompt patients to ask their physician about the drug than on TV or internet alone. Compared to consumers who had only seen a TV ad for a specific drug, consumers who had seen both a TV and online ad were 100% more likely to ask their doctor about it.

Consumers who had been exposed to the ad both online and on TV in the last seven days were 157% more likely to ask their doctor about the drug than consumers who had only been exposed online in the last seven days.

Ad Exposure on TV Plus Online (Index vs. 100)   Internet & TV vs. Internet Only (Past 24 Hours) Internet & TV (Past 7 Days) TV & Internet Exposure vs. TV Only Memorability 89 87 100 Brand communication 88 91 103 Intent to ask doctor 212 157 100 Source: The Nielsen Company, July 2010 Read more at www.mediapost.com

Apparently, in-text advertisements, those seemingly annoying little ads that pop up when someone moves a cursor over a hot-linked piece of text in an article, can create impactful campaigns. According to a comScore study, Kontera’s in-text targeted ads delivered five times greater brand awareness than traditional display ads, and twice as much lift in brand purchase intent.

The study suggests 34% of consumers strongly felt Kontera in-text ads “clutter the page,” compared with 61% for interstitials, 52% for video ads, 45% for rectangle ads, and 36% for banners.

Twenty-one percent of consumers strongly agreed the in-text ads are “related to content,” compared with 14% for rectangle ads, 14% for interstitials, 10% for video, 15% for Google text ads, and 11% for banners.

Thirty three percent say in-text ads a less intrusive ad format, compared with 40% for rectangle ads, 53% for video ads, 63% for interstitial ads, and 29% for banners. Read more at www.mediapost.com

Two Screens are Better than One Turns out two media are better than one in moving consumers from awareness to action. In a Nielsen  study of direct-to-consumer drug advertising, exposure on TV and online was more than twice as likely to prompt patients to ask their physician about the drug than TV alone.

The study also found that premium in-stream video ads which aired as part of a full-length TV episode online generated significantly higher levels of ad recall and brand recognition than other Internet video, display or standard TV ads. Read more at blog.nielsen.com

The Internet is the fastest growing segment of the paid product placement industry, according to a new outlook from media industry economic analyst PQ Media. While still one of the smallest product placement mediums in the branded entertainment category, paid product placements grew 11.1% to $40 million in 2009, a year in which the overall marketplace declined 2.8% to $3.61 billion, according to the PQ Media Global Branded Entertainment Marketing Forecast 2010-2014 being released today.Read more at www.mediapost.com

Many social media marketers are eager to tie a hard number to the value of their efforts. To that end, firms have attempted to analyze the worth of fans and followers on social networking sites like Facebook.

Digital consulting firm Syncapse and research company Hotspex have come up with an empirical formula that puts an average value of $136.38 on the Facebook fans of the site’s 20 biggest corporate brands. Most of that value comes from how much the fans will spend on the brand’s products, with additional dollars coming from customer loyalty, recommendations and earned media.

The study found that people spent significantly more on products they were fans of, compared with consumers who were not fans. In the case of many of Facebook’s most popular food and beverage marketers, fan spending was more than double that of non-fans.

The pattern of increased fan spending held across all of the top 20 brands on Facebook, with differences ranging from 51% for Oreo fans to 168% for fans of Nokia. Read more at www.emarketer.com

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Social Networking Study: Facebook Use Continues to Rise; Brand Participation and Engagement Heavily Welcomed by Social Networkers

The study of 3,000 U.S. social network users tackled not only general behaviors and platform preferences for social sites; it delved deeper into how social sites affect family and friend relationships and consumer attitudes towards brands and products. The most staggering statistics include:

Eighty percent of respondents have an active Facebook account, and 23 percent of those without an active Facebook account plan to join in the next six months

Consumers reported a desire to connect with brands throughout the study:

Fifty percent of Facebook users click on Facebook ads to “like” a brand

Thirty-seven percent learned about a new product or service from a social networking site

Thirty-two percent of respondents have recommended a product/service/brand to friends via a social networking site

Thirty-two percent of Twitter users re-tweet content provided by a company or product Read more at blog.performics.com

The social networking audience in the US has reached critical mass. eMarketer estimates that 57.5% of all US Internet users, or 127 million people, will use a social network at least once a month in 2010. By 2014, nearly two-thirds of all Internet users, or 164.9 million people, will be regular users of social networks.

See more at totalaccess.emarketer.com

Social Media No. 1 Emerging Channel for Lead Gen

Tech marketers tap social for finding new customers

Social media is developing a reputation for being valuable not just for customer interaction and brand awareness but also for lead generation. In February 2010, for example, inbound online marketing platform HubSpot found Twitter usage could double monthly leads, and Onesource reported in January that business-to-business salespeople were looking to LinkedIn for prospecting.

See more at www.emarketer.com

See more at www.emarketer.com

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The “2010 Digital Marketing Outlook” report found that 81% of the brand executives surveyed expected an increase in digital projects in 2010, and one-half will be moving dollars from traditional to digital budgets. Further, more than three-quarters think the current economy will push more allocations to digital.

Senior marketers reported that social networks and applications were their biggest priority for 2010, followed closely by digital infrastructure. While social media marketing looks set to stay top of mind, a majority of respondents considered a range of digital activities at least “important,” with only games failing to inspire widespread interest.

See more at www.emarketer.com

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. Two-fifths had friended a brand on Facebook or MySpace.

See more at www.emarketer.com

Similar to the respondents in Lightspeed Research’s “Global Web Index” survey, those polled for the “2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study” were interested in brands that would keep them informed, provide product information and give incentives—and generally use new media to help solve consumers’ problems. Entertainment was considered much less important.

See more at www.emarketer.com

Online marketers had better not be negligent. Good creative makes a successful campaign, but data from Dynamic Logic suggests that the worst-performing campaigns can actually negatively affect brand metrics.

Top-performing campaigns, by contrast, boosted online ad awareness, message association and aided brand awareness by more than 8 percentage points each. Read more at www.emarketer.com

The Online Publishers Association and ComScore, both seriously interested parties, did a study of 80 campaigns for 50 top brands which was tracked across the top 200 highly trafficked sites and concluded:  1. The 80-20 rule applies to clicks. Eighty percent of the clicks come from 20 percent of the people exposed to the ads. At very best only 1 in 5 ads draws a click whether that was the intention of the ad or not. 2. Displays Ads Prompt Search. Queries for terms exposed in display ads were search 50% more often a week after exposure and 38% more often even 4 weeks after exposure. If you see something that intersects your interests or your personal wish list, you are more likely to search for it directly when you’re ready to buy. Direct and brand advertising interact synergistically online and offline.   3. Display Ads Drive Site Engagement. Those exposed to ads spent 34 minutes per unique visitor on the sites exposed. This is hard to believe in terms of the time spent on site and the amount of “lift”. Maybe it just measures the vagaries of site architecture and navigation. 4. Brand Exposure Bumps Up eCommerce. Those exposed to brand ads spent 7% more on average when they bought. This feels like advertising orthodoxy; exposure drives awareness, consideration and purchase. It’s possible that added impressions convinces customers to trade up a little. Read more at blogs.imediaconnection.com

According to the first annual Community and Social Media Study, from the The e-tailing group five out of ten social media tools have been adopted by more than 50% percent of brands and retailers, with the Facebook Fan Page leading the way at 86%. In addition, the study found three-fourths of the  survey respondents feel brands have accelerated their use of, and commitment to, community and social media in the past six months. The study found that the penetration of social media tools within brand and retailer organizations is extremely high, given the length of time these tools have been around: Community and Social Networking Tools Employed and Planned (% of Respondents)   Anticipated Timing Network or Tool Today Next 12 Months Beyond 1 Year No Plans to Employ Facebook fan page 86% 10 3 1 Twitter 65 19 7 9 Customer reviews 55 26 13 6 Blogs 55 25 12 8 Viral videos 50 22 13 15 Facebook connect 43 31 10 16 Social listening 36 31 19 14 Q & A 29 20 25 26 Community forums 27 18 23 32 Product suggestion box 19 26 20 35 Source: e-Tailing Group, September 2009 Read more at www.mediapost.com