Will these paywalls, however carefully crafted, persuade people to pay for something they are used to getting free? A barrage of surveys suggests it will be difficult. A poll by Harris Interactive for paidContent:UK, a website owned the Guardian, finds that three-quarters of Britons say they would switch to an alternative free news source if their favourite website began charging. In November 2009 Forrester, a consultancy, found that 80% of Americans would abandon news websites if they charged. Plenty of news outlets, from the BBC to CNN, seem likely to continue providing free online news, and there will be plenty of aggregator websites to sift their offerings. Read more at www.economist.com

During 12 weeks, the two firms found that online ad campaigns with an average reach of 40 percent of their target audience led to a 9 percent increase in retail sales of the brands advertised.

“These early results confirm the ability of online advertising to successfully build retail sales of CPG brands on par with the impact of television advertising,” said Gian Fulgoni, executive chairman of comScore. Read more at www.adotas.com

The study, based on a 200,000 panel of consumers who were members of grocery store loyalty programs, indicated that online advertising lifts retail sales of CPG products by an average of 9%, compared to an average lift of about 8% from TV campaigns (measured by Information Resources, Inc. and published in their seminal research paper How Advertising Works). Read more at www.marketingvox.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

Members of the Baby-Boom generation are increasingly shifting away from traditional TV in favor of online services and entertainment, and now spend more free time online than they do watching TV, according to a study by ChangeWave Research.

The May benchmark survey of business professionals ages 45-63, focused on TV viewing habits vs. home internet usage. It found that Boomers spend an average of 12.9 hrs/week online, compared with only 11.8 hours/week watching traditional TV. It also found that many Boomers would be willing to give up their subscription TV service if they could get the same programming online.

See more at www.marketingcharts.com

Read more at www.mediapost.com

Effectiveness of Media at Driving Consumers to the Web
Medium	Effectiveness
Magazines	26.0%
Broadcast TV	17.8%
Cable TV	16.4%
Newspapers	13.7%
Radio	11.0%
Out of Home	8.2%
Other	6.8%
Source: ICOM, American Advertising Federation (AAF) 2006, July 2009

New research from Affinity confirms that magazine ads with URLs are more likely to drive readers to advertiser websites overall, as well as across a range of genres. Even if “drive to web” is not the goal of the advertising campaign, including a URL to boost web visits is a benefit most advertisers will appreciate, says the report.

The VISTA research is based on an analysis of 833 ads in seven different magazines representing six distinct magazine genres:

Magazine Ads Driving Readers To Websites (Index)   Ads Without Web Address (Index 100) Ads With Web Address Included (Index) Home 100 203 Financial 100 122 Fashion 100 152 Men’s 100 138 Travel 100 286 Source: Vista/MPA, July 2009

Percent Visiting Brand Website   Pre-Control Post-Control Point Difference No URL included 5% 7% 2 URL included 13% 19% 6 Source: MarketingEvolution/MPA, July 2009 Read more at www.mediapost.com

In December 2008, Datran Media conducted its third annual marketing and media survey by reaching out to over 3,000 industry executives from Fortune 1000 brands and leading interactive agencies including Sony, Macy’s, Razorfish and RAPP .

See more at www.datranmediasurvey2009.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%.

Though newspaper advertising revenues were down -5% in 2008, print media still takes 37% of world advertising revenues. Read more at www.mediapost.com

See more at www.marketingcharts.com