According to new research being released today by Knowledge Networks, one-in-five U.S. consumers already are using game systems to watch TV or movie content at least once a month.

The new report, “Over-the-Top TV: A Complete Video Landscape,” which comes from KN’s ongoing Home Technology Monitor tracking studies, details how American consumers already are utilizing 23 different methods for accessing TV and movie content outside traditional “live” TV viewing platforms such as linear broadcast, cable and satellite TV.

The KN report reveals that 21% of American consumers already utilize their videogame systems to view conventional TV/movie content via their consoles, and that using them to play DVDs (17%) is currently their No. 1 options, but a significant percentage also is using them to view content either via Blueray discs (6%) or via some method of online streaming or downloading (6%). Those numbers shoot-up for younger demographics most likely to utilize videogame systems as a primary entertainment device (see table below). Read more at www.mediapost.com

Using the Internet to research product purchases has become a common practice for many people, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. The nonprofit organization found that 58% of Americans perform online research of products and services they are considering buying, up from 49% in 2004.

Furthermore, the number of people who research purchases on any given day has spiked from 15% of adults in September 2007 to 21% three years later. The study also found that more people are also doing more than just gathering information about products online — they are increasingly providing it as well.

Nearly a quarter (24%) of the 3,001 adults surveyed between August 9 and Sept. 13 said they had posted comments or reviews about items or services they bought. “Many Americans begin their purchasing experience by doing online research to compare prices, quality, and the reviews of other shoppers,” said Jim Jansen, senior fellow at the Pew Research Center.

Among Internet users, 78% said that they at least occasionally research products and 32% have posted comments about products online.

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57% of TV viewers in the US who have Internet access use both mediums at the same time at least once a month. That translates to more than 128 mln US consumers. Average TV viewer who uses the Internet simultaneously does that for 2 hours and 40 minutes a month, and that 28% of the time they are on the Web at home, they are also watching television, Nielsen said. Read more at www.itfacts.biz

According to iSuppli Corp global shipments of Internet Enabled TVs (IETV) will reach 27.7 million units in 2010 while only 4.2 million 3-D units will ship this year. iSuppli admits that in coming years 3-D will grow quickly but the hard sell among manufacturers and retailers for now addresses a very limited market of early adopters. But IETV makes sense to more people. 3-D is costly and suffers from very limited content. “IETV provides immediate benefits by allowing TV viewers to access a range of content readily available on the Internet,” says Riddhi Patel, iSuppli Director and Principal Analyst for Television. Read more at www.mediapost.com

According to a new comScore release, more than 123 million Americans visited newspaper sites in May, representing 57% of the total U.S. Internet audience, as the New York Times Brand led the category with more than 32 million visitors and 719 million pages viewed during the month. The average visitor viewed 22 pages of content on the New York Times. Tribune Newspapers ranked second in terms of audience with 24.8 million visitors, followed by Advance Internet and USA Today Sites. Top Newspaper Groups (May 2010 Total U.S. Home & Work Locations)   Total Unique Visitors (000) Total Pages Viewed (MM) Average Pages per Visitor Total Internet Audience 215,691 592,519 2,747 Newspapers 123,897 5,339 43    The New York Times Brand 32,530 719 22    Tribune Newspapers 24,753 359 14    Advance Internet 18,053 326 18    USA Today Sites 16,771 154 9    WashingtonPost.com 16,677 178 11    McClatchy Corporation 13,987 216 15    MediaNews Group 13,362 141 11    NYDailyNews.com 12,502 122 10    Hearst Newspapers 12,017 195 16    Wall Street Journal Online 11,325 115 10 Source: comScore Media Metrix , June 2010 Read more at www.mediapost.com

Despite growing privacy concerns, an astonishing 540 million Internet users worldwide visited Facebook in April 2010, or 35.2% of the entire population of Web users, according to new data from Google. Even more incredibly, those users clicked on 570 billion Facebook pages in April, a number eight times larger than Facebook’s nearest competitor.

The new figures come from Google’s DoubleClick Ad Planner, and rate the top 1,000 most-visited sites on the Web (excluding Google itself, YouTube and Gmail).

Yahoo came in second place after Facebook, with 490 million unique visitors, 31.8% of the world’s Internet-connected population, and 70 billion page views. Next was Microsoft’s Live.com, with 370 million unique visitors and 39 billion page views.

Illustration: Steve LyonsThe most popular sites after Live.com were Wikipedia, MSN.com, Microsoft.com, Blogspot.com, Baidu.com, GG.com and Mozilla.com.

The numbers show that Facebook is the undisputed king of social networking, with rival Twitter attracting a comparatively modest 96 million unique visitors and 5.4 billion page views in April 2010. Read more at www.pcworld.com

According to Internet Retailer’s recent search engine marketing survey of 102 web-only retailers, chain retailers, catalogers and consumer brand manufacturers, 28.0% of merchants report more than 25% of their site traffic stems from paid search advertisements, while 51.5% say more than a quarter of their traffic comes from natural search. Search engine marketing is one of Internet retailing’s fundamentals, says the report. Web merchants keep pouring money into advertising on search results pages and on search engine optimization projects to move up in natural search results.

In the past year: ·      44.9% of merchants report that the conversion rate on pay-per-click search advertising went up ·      16.3% say it went down ·      38.8% say their conversion rate held steady ·      47% report more than 25% of their web sales stem from search engine marketing ·      44.6% increased their paid search budgets ·      49% say they will increase it in the year ahead Shar VanBoskirk, Vice President and principal analyst at Forrester Research, says “Everything we see from the retail side indicates… considerable interest and investment in search related to… driving more online sales.” 37.7% of respondents spent more than 50% of their online marketing budget, 11.9% spent 61% to 75%, and 20.8% spent more than 75%, according to the Internet Retailer survey of IRNewsLink e-newsletter readers conducted with e-mail marketing and survey firm Vovici Corp. Read more at www.mediapost.com

See more at www.emarketer.com

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

Many people who want to read electronic books are discovering that they can do so on the smartphones that are already in their pockets — bringing a whole new meaning to “phone book.” And they like that they can save the $250 to $350 that they would otherwise spend on yet another gadget.

Over the last eight months, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and a range of smaller companies have released book-reading software for the iPhone and other mobile devices. One out of every five new applications introduced for the iPhone last month was a book, according to Flurry, a research firm that studies mobile trends. Read more at www.nytimes.com

The American Press Institute asked 2,400 newspaper executives if their papers “provide access to stories or information such as sports scores, headlines, stock quotes, etc.,” via Twitter, Facebook, Email alerts, Mobile/PDA, YouTube, Kindle, Flickr, e-readers, etc., and told them to “check all that apply.” As the chart below shows, a whopping 24% of all respondents answered “None at this time.” Bizarre.

See more at www.businessinsider.com

Here is a short list of highlights and findings from the report: -        As mentioned above, search traffic increased by 13.7% with an optimized display campaign running. -        A third-party display campaign ran in contrast to our own campaign in a separate period, and CPCs and CTR metrics reached all-time lows during this period. -        Search visits decreased by -30.8% when the optimized display campaign was not running (again, keep in mind that this gap may be partially attributed to the change in the economy over the time period surveyed). -        Daily unique visitors to the subject site increased by 2.5% in the second period, with an optimized display campaign running. -        Online users who viewed the display ads likely remembered the client’s brand after seeing the display ads, which translated to higher clicks and recognition when performing a search. -        With the optimized display campaign running, paid search click-throughs increased 14.87%, and costs-per-click decreased by 11.22%. -        ROI also increased with the optimized display campaign running. Read more at www.mediapost.com

According to new research from PQ Media, spending on word-of-mouth marketing rose 14.2% to $1.54 billion in 2008, despite the worst economic recession in 70 years. However, WoM spending is on pace to grow another 10.2% this year, placing it among the fastest growing advertising and marketing segments.

PQ Media defines WoM marketing as an alternative marketing strategy which encourages consumers to dialogue about products and services through various online and offline tactics, often facilitated by brand ambassadors.

Industry spending increased at a compound annual growth rate of 37.6% from 2003 to 2008, as the rise in popularity of blogs, social networks and online communities led brands to shift dollars to WoM as part of integrated media solutions in their quest to engage more elusive consumers.

Total spending on WoM is expected to increase at a CAGR of 14.5% from 2008 to 2013. Both major sectors - content & services and ancillary products - will post strong gains and contribute to overall growth. Ancillary products spending will increase faster than content & services spending primarily because the market is smaller with more growth potential.

Patrick Quinn, President and CEO of PQ Media, notes that “The most influential marketer in a consumer’s life is someone they know and trust, such as a family member, friend or colleague…”

Read more at www.mediapost.com

% Share of WoM Spending by Marketers in 2008
Brand Market	Share of WoM Spend
Consumer Goods Products	17.4%
Food & Drink	12.2%
Finance & B2B Services	9.5%
Electronics & Telecom	9.4%
Retail	9.2%
Auto & Transportation	8.6%
Entertainment & Media	7.5%
Apparel & Accessories	6.2%
Health Care & Pharma	4.1%
Sports & Gaming	3.6%
Travel & Leisure	3.3%
Home & Garden	3.2%
Other	5.8%
Total	100.0%
Source: PQ Media, July 2009