Tuesday 27 March 2012

Performics Weekly Digital Research Recap

Posted by Cristina Lucero & Christina Mannarino, Performics Research & Insights Team

United States

Channel Insights

Search

-What If Yahoo! Sells Right Media? (ClickZ)

  • Yahoo! may sell off some of its ad platforms. The move is seen as an alternative to investing resources needed to upgrade the platforms.
  • Such a move wouldn't exit Yahoo! from ad technology entirely. The company owns a large portfolio of ad products, including Blue Lithium, Dapper, and a huge ad optimization platform - each of which has a technology component. However the sale of Right Media in particular would change the company's role in the ad-buying ecosystem.
  • Performics reaction: "As an advertiser, we're less concerned about the technology and more concerned about the inventory changing. Right Media has probably the most extensive selection of high-quality bidded inventory available to trading desks like ours at Performics, so as long as they don't lose anything we're happy."
  • Read the full article here.

 

-comScore Media Metrix Ranks Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for February 2012

 

  • comScore's stats for February show that Google still rules the Web, with 186.6 million visitors
  • Pinterest really is on fire, with a 52% increase in unique visitors over a single month
  • The next biggest properties were Microsoft Sites with 174.4 million and Yahoo! sites with 173.5 million. Facebook, in the meantime, came in at number four with 158.6 million visitors, and, curiously, MySpace jumped 8 positions to rank number 42 with 25.5 million visitors.

Mobile

-Mobile Barcodes Drive Traffic to Brand Sites from Print (eMarketer)

  • A February 2012 report found that well-planned campaigns put mobile barcodes in attention-grabbing places, and then gave customers a clear call to action to lead them to content
  1. More than 40% of 2-D barcodes took users to general commerce and product information online, and just over 23% led customers to brand-building sites
  2. The pairing of video with mobile barcodes was also a popular approach, with about 13% of landing pages containing video content
  3. The open-source QR code remains the advertising industry standard with almost 90% market penetration

-Tablets to Be Major Player in Mobile Games (Juniper Research)

  • A new study suggests that their large screen sizes and impressive graphics will make tablets a growing force in mobile games
  • Juniper Research predicts total end-user revenue from tablet games will grow to $3.1 billion by 2014, up from $491 million in 2011
  • Juniper projects that social and casual games will drive the bulk of mobile game downloads overall. And because of the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, game revenue on feature phones will be cut in half by 2016.
  • Read the full article here

Social

-Twitter Takes Promoted Tweets Mobile (Twitter)

  • Twitter has announced that it is to begin showing Promoted Tweets to mobile users who don’t follow the advertiser's feed
  • Twitter has also added new targeting tools that allow advertisers to target their messages to desktop computers and laptops or specifically to mobile devices
  • Given that 55% of the more than 100 million users who log in to Twitter every month do so at least once via mobile, this expanded roll out of Promoted Tweets in mobile is a great opportunity for brands to connect with more users, more of the time
  • Read the Twitter blog post here

Demographics

Teens

-Teens, Smartphones & Texting (PewResearchCenter)

  • 63% of U.S. teens were text-messaging daily as of July 2011, up from 54% in September 2009
  • The Pew report also showed that about one in four (23%) of teens have a smartphone.  There are no differences in ownership of smartphones compared to regular cell phones by race, ethnicity, or income
  • When it comes to tablets, about 16% of teens used the devices to go online in the last 30 days
  • 18% of smartphone users shared their location compared with 8% of regular phone owners and 2% of all other teens. Older teens, at 9%, are most likely to use location services like Foursquare
  • Read the full report here

Men

-Men Show Online-Shopping Savvy (eMarketer)

  • Men not only check online for the best prices on products and services in traditionally “male” categories such as auto and tech, but they also do a significant amount of online comparing of prices in more “female” sectors like health/wellness and food/cooking
  • Men go even further in their research, too, with over half reading reviews of products and services and nearly as many sharing positive research results with friends
  • Men’s shopping savvy continues when they are in the store, too. There, they use their smartphones as tools to make decisions. Nearly as many men as women will call a friend to ask advice about a purchase while they’re shopping in a store.

Global

Channel Insights

Social

-Brazil’s Social Networking Activity Accelerates in the Past Year Fueled by Facebook Growth (comScore)

  • Key insights from the 2012 Brazil Digital Future in Focus include:
  1. Brazil ranks as the 7th largest Internet market globally with a home and work computer audience of 46.3 million visitors age 15 and older, up 16% from the previous year
  2. Facebook surpassed Orkut in December 2011, taking the lead as the top social networking destination in Brazil with 36.1 million visitors, up 192% from the previous year
  • Facebook also became the most-engaging social networking site with visitors averaging 4.8 hours on the site in December 2011, up from just 37 minutes a year ago.  Mobile phones and tablets continue to alter the digital landscape, accounting for 1.5% of all digital traffic in Brazil during December.  Of this proportion of total activity, more than 42% was driven by page views occurring on tablet devices.
  • Read the press release here

Mobile

-Mobile Internet Uptake on the Rise in France (eMarketer)

  • Mobile Internet usage surged in 2011, after stagnating from 2009 to 2010
  • In addition, reading email (19%), downloading applications (17%) and watching TV (8%) all nearly doubled in adoption rates over 2010, according to the annual report from French telecom and postal regulator l’Autorité de Régulation des Communications électroniques et des Postes (ARCEP) and the Conseil général de l'industrie, de l'énergie et des technologies (CGEIET)
  • By the end of 2012, eMarketer estimates total mobile phone users in France will reach 50 million and mobile internet users will reach 14 million, or roughly 28% of all mobile users in the country

Industry Insights

Auto

-Auto Brands Must Play by Five New Rules to Win Over Chinese Consumers (TNS)

  1. The dealer is your new best friend: In China, car dealers are viewed as the most reliable source of advice throughout the buying process
  2. "We" matters more than "me": In a nation where 80% of people are first-time buyers, people rely heavily on the advice of friends and family, as well as on social media, when it comes to choosing a car.  Manufacturers need to understand how to mobilize customers and fans to become brand ambassadors, for instance by providing practical advice for new drivers via social media and customer support.
  3. Once people start looking, it’s too late: Brand loyalty towards cars in China is low and fewer people have fixed ideas about what they want at the outset
  4. Offer the right deal: Getting a good deal is extremely important to Chinese buyers:  80% buy a car having secured a discount
  5. Ignore digital at your peril: 95% of Chinese participants use online sources during the buying process, and around a quarter are classed as heavy users

 

Thanks as always to the team at blog.performics.com!

 

No comments:

Post a Comment