According to a new poll of brand marketers by Harris Interactive for Buddy Media, 72% of brand managers agree that social media offers great potential to reach existing and potential customers across the globe, but they are lacking tools and information to leverage it successfully. |
| Major Obstacles in Using Social Media to Reach Local Market Customers |
Major Obstacles in Using Social Media to Reach Local Market Customers (% of Brand Managers) | | Obstacle | % of Respondents Agreeing | | Tracking or measuring success or ROI | 48% | | Managing information | 45 | | Engaging audience | 42 | | Identifying influencers to carry brand message | 39 | | Keeping specific content fresh | 32 | | Posting multimedia content | 28 | | Tracking real time metrics | 24 | | Finding creative for online social marketing | 23 | | Tools to customize content anywhere | 22 | | Source: Buddy Media / Harris Interactive, August 2010 |
Read more at www.mediapost.com |
| Young adults in both countries report nearly an identical amount of time spent on the internet each week |
| Americans in the age group watch an average of about one hour more TV per day than Canadians. On weekdays, Americans watch an average of 5.9 hours per day, while Canadians watch 4.8 hours. On weekends, Americans watch an average of 5.5 hours, Canadians watch 4.6. |
| Though youth in both countries are heavy users of mobile devices, there is a marked cultural difference in text messaging. Americans send and receive an average of 129.6 text messages per week, nearly double the Canadian average of 78.7. |
| Both groups enjoy online social networking, but do so differently. Canadians gravitate to Facebook, with 81% having registered a profile, compared with only 57% in the US. At the time the study was conducted, Americans were more into MySpace, with 54% having registered, compared with 23% in Canada.Read more at www.marketingcharts.com |
Despite America’s reputation as a nation of big talkers — the U.S. is not setting the pace in smartphone adoption — ranking third when ranked by penetration. Italy has the largest percentage of smartphone owners at 28%, while Spain is not far behind with 23%. France has the most room to grow, with an 11% penetration level. |
| Broadband Adoption Increases in Rural America but Remains Below Overall U.S. Level |
Rural markets (defined as having a population less than 10,000) in the U.S. experienced a 16-percentage point increase in broadband penetration from Q2 2007 to Q2 2009, making it the fastest growing geographic market segment in the nation. Comparatively, micropolitan areas (population between 10,000-50,000) grew 14 percentage points during the same period, while metropolitan areas (population 50,000+) grew 11 percentage points.
|
Broadband Penetration* Based on Geographic Area**
Q2 2007 – Q2 2009
Total U.S.
Source: comScore, Inc.
|
| Geographic Area
|
Q2 2007
|
Q2 2008
|
Q2 2009
|
Point Change Q2 2009 vs. Q2 2007
|
| Metropolitan
|
81%
|
87%
|
92%
|
11
|
| Micropolitan
|
69%
|
76%
|
83%
|
14
|
| Rural
|
59%
|
66%
|
75%
|
16
|
Read more at www.comscore.com |
Several comScore studies have confirmed that online campaigns drive offline sales, according to Fulgoni. In the first study, comScore took four categories, 53 brands and 200 of the most trafficked sites. The company looked at people exposed to display advertising and what they did in the month following. Findings reveal that 18% searched on the brand advertised and 29% went to the advertisers’ sites. Consumers
who were exposed to the display advertising spent 55% more time than the average visitors to these sites the next month. The rise in time spent is matched by a similar increase in page views — about 51%. |
Then, comScore analyzed the impact that online campaigns have on retail sales by matching the name and the address of consumers to retail loyalty card databases. The supermarket Kroger, for example, has issued about 60 million loyalty cards, which provide a massive data set to understand the degree that online search and display campaigns drive retail sales. The findings suggest a lift that is five times stronger when people are exposed to search ads alone, compared with display. Search alone produces an 82% lift, compared with display at 16%, and 119% when search and display are combined. About 82% of online ad campaigns measured by comScore have generated an average lift of 22% in CPG brand sales in retail stores. Read more at www.mediapost.com |
The top 10 markets in Europe account for 93% of the total value of the market, and many of these countries saw year-on-year growth rates less than 20%: |
| The Netherlands, Europe’s early adopter of online advertising, grew only 9% in 2008. |
| Other mature online markets saw similar trends, with growth slowing in France at 18.5%; the UK, Germany and Sweden at 19% and Italy at 20%. |
| On the other hand, Belgium beat the 20% mark to grow 21%; Denmark and Norway hit 22%; and Spain saw relatively strong growth at 26%. |
Search remains the leading format in Europe with the strongest year-over-year growth rate of 26%, accounting for 43% of online ad expenditure and a value of €5.6 billion in the 19 countries measured. |
Online classified ads rank #2 in terms of year-over-year growth rates, at 17.4%, with a 26% share of ad spend and a market value of €3.8 billion, IAB reported. Read more at www.marketingcharts.com |
| Despite the global financial crisis, newspaper circulation grew 1.3% world-wide in 2008 |
| Global newspaper circulation increased +1.3% in 2008, to almost 540 million daily sales, and was up +8.8% over five years. When free dailies are added, circulation rose +1.62% in 2008 and +13% over five years. Europe is the hotbed for free newspaper development: 23% of daily newspapers in Europe were free in 2008. |
| Newspaper circulation increased +6.9% in Africa last year, +1.8% in South America, and +2.9% in Asia. It decreased -3.7% in North America, -2.5% in Australia and Oceania, and -1.8% in Europe. In many mature markets where circulation is declining, newspaper reach remains high — many European countries continue to reach over 70% of the adult population with paid newspapers alone. In Japan, it’s 91%. In North America, it’s 62%. |
According to MessageLabs, the percentage of worldwide e-mail traffic that is spam has been falling over the past few years, dropping from 86.2% in 2006 to 81.2% in 2008.
|
However, MessageLabs reported a 5.1% spike in spam over the past month. In May, a whopping 90.4% of worldwide e-mail traffic was spam.
|
The worst-hit area was Hong Kong, where 92% of all e-mail received was spam. Other highly spammed locales included China, the UK, Australia and Japan.
|
|
Major Obstacles in Using Social Media to Reach Local Market Customers
