Nielsen continues to analyze our changing media world habits and publishes snippets of the results to the public while providing the comprehensive details to the telecom and mobile media markets. The Nielsen Company has blazed the path for all market research which gauges the shopping patterns, lifestyles and media habits of U.S. consumers.

Recently, Nielsen has taken a look at today’s Generation Z (born 1991 or later) and their media use habits. The Generation Z cohort has been raised in an age that is dominated by media choices like never before. The growing technology of the internet, television, video games, mobile phone and apps seem to become re-invented faster than one can keep up with. According to Nielsen, the heaviest mobile video viewers are within the age range of 12-17 years old. They watch 7 hours 13 minutes of mobile video a month (Q4 2010) which is an increase from the general population’s 4 hours 20 minutes. Teens are more receptive to mobile advertising than their seniors by more than half (58%) admitting in September of 2010 that they ‘always’ or ‘sometimes’ look at the mobile ads.

Teens are hands-down out-texting all other age groups surveyed in Q1 2011. Those between the ages of 13-17 sent an average of 3,364 mobile texts per month which is more than double the rate of the next most active texting demographic, 18-24 years old (1,640 texts per month sent). As far as talk time, besides seniors, teens surprisingly use less talk time per month; using an average of 515 minutes per month (Q1 20111) versus more than 750 minutes used by those 18-24 year olds. Since Gen Z has been growing up in the age of a social media boom, 78.7% of the 12-17 year olds visit social networks or blogs regularly. They spend less time watching television than the general population. The average U.S. citizen watched 34 hours and 39 minutes of TV per week in Q4 2010 (which is a year-over-year increase of 2 minutes). Today’s teens watch the least amount of TV on average of 23 hours and 41 minutes per week.

Finally, according to Nielsen, teens spend less time on their computers. The average American 18 year old averaged 39 hours and 50 minutes online from their home computers. More than 5 ½ hours were spent watching streaming videos. From earlier studies, Nielsen busted the myth that teens are too busy texting and Twittering to be engaged with traditional media and gives a best practice strategy on how to develop around teens and media focus on the macrolevel trends of media and preferences for the segment.

Twitter has greatly impacted the marketing world after just being
in operation for 5 short years. According to the survey, its users are
more apt to engage with the service through a mobile device while users of other
social media platforms are not as mobile friendly.

The following information is from Complete’s survey:

-     43% of Twitter
users access the service via a mobile device compared to only 34% for Facebook
and 9% from Linkedin.  As consumers
increasingly embrace mobile devices, Twitter will become an even more
attractive marketing platform.  This is
especially true internationally, where mobile adoption is already much higher.

-    19% of Twitter users choose to follow a
brand.  It’s plain to see that Twitter
isn’t just a way to communicate with friends or learn the latest celebrity gossip;
it’s also used to stay in touch regarding brands or company news.  In fact, of those who “follow” a brand
on Twitter or “like” a brand on Facebook, Twitter followers are much
more likely to cite “receiving updates on future products” (84% to
60%) as a key reason for doing so.  Savvy
marketers will therefore start using Twitter as a primary channel for product
updates and promotions.

-     56% of those who
follow a brand on Twitter indicated they are more likely to purchase a product
from that company; compared to 47% of those who “like” a brand on Facebook.
There you have it; Twitter can effectively drive ROI by engaging followers through
use of compelling content and gives a  very attractive marketing platform.

-    17% of Twitter
users tweet about a TV show while watching the show. Clearly this illustrates
that many consumers interact with multiple forms of media at the same time. It
presents an opportunity for marketers to create compelling TV campaigns, as
these commercials not only reach the direct TV audience, but also have the
opportunity to scale once tweeted. See chart below for details on Twitter usage
by activity. Twitter drives integration across consumer media channels.

If you want to read more about this or view the charts,
visit Compete.com.

A few months ago, Google introduced the +1 button to its’ English google.com search results. This new tool was designed for those who really like a website’s content and would like to recommend it on Google search. On June 27th Google announced that its’ +1 button will start appearing on Google search pages globally. On June 29th Google released reports of just how the +1 button affects traffic to websites. Within Google’s Webmaster Tools page you can improve your site’s visibility in Google search. The page lets you diagnose problems, discover your link and query traffic and share information about your site.

On June 28th, Google presented its’ Google+ project, a social networking service that resembles Facebook but has a bit of a twist. The new service is currently only available to a small group of users and invitees. Much like Facebook, it will allow users to post status updates, share links and upload photos. What sets this service apart from it top competitor is that it easily enables users to create “circle” or groups of friends or colleagues or family members. The user can communicate separately with each group. It also has a feature called “Hangouts” where users can meet up with their friends online by way of multi-person video. Google+ even makes uploading pictures easier from your smartphone. It will allow a user to give Google the permission to take the photos right from your phone’s camera and store them in the cloud so you can easily move them onto any of you devices. The internet buzz is that Google+ may, in time, surpass Facebook’s popularity.

Another new tool to the web is Google’s wdyl.com which stands for “What do you love?”. Just type in the subject that you are interested in getting more information on and wdyl will display query results in 20 widgets containing Google’s different types of searches such as, blogs, news, YouTube and Picasa for photos.

Google swiffy converts Flash SWF files to HTML5 which will allow you to reuse Flash content on devices without a Flash player. And finally, Google takeout will let you download a copy of data you have stored within a Google product making it easier to import that data into Google+. The tool creates a ZIP file that users can download and import into other programs.

No matter how you look at it, Google has certainly made great strides in internet innovation since its birth and it keeps growing and improving technology with passing year.

Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB commented, “The consistent and considerable year-over-year growth we’re seeing demonstrates that digital media is an increasingly popular destination for ad dollars, and for good reason. As Americans spend more time online for information and entertainment purposes, digital advertising and marketing has emerged as one of the most effective tools businesses have to attract and retain customers.”

David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP stated, “The year-on-year 23 percent increase in first quarter revenues is not just impressive in its own right, but especially so when you take into account the fact that 2010 was a record-breaking year itself for internet advertising revenue. These numbers indicate that the interactive advertising field hasn’t simply bounced back since the recession; it’s growing with dynamic energy.”

Today’s consumers are value conscious and want more for their hard earned dollars. They will seek out the most penny-wise method to purchase the goods and services they desire. In an age of consumer pricing power, we need to remember that advertising plays a crucial role in building consumer demand while also creating the willingness for consumers to buy a more posh “premium brand” rather than a lower priced alternative, or a generic, or private label brand.

Investing in a better brand experience is a strong way to distinguish your product/service and create value. What the brand does, how it talks, what it looks like, where it appears and what it stays away from are important factors. If you want your product to stand-out in the masses, contact us here at Remnant Media Network with your ideas and our team of experienced professionals will work with you to develop the most profitable campaign for you needs.

1. Begin by establishing the goals of your survey. Make a list of what information you want to extract from your demographics. Examples: Why are they not buying our products? Do they own their own business? What is the level of their SEO knowledge? Be mindful to steer away from presenting bias phrased questions.

2. Identify your target audience. Who do you want to aim your survey at? Examples: People who visit our home/product page. People who read our newsletter or people who visit our physical store location.

3. Choose a method of survey delivery. List the options according to relevance to your product/service and then sort best to least cost effective. When weighing the options consider the following: Do we have the personnel that can conduct a street/mall interview? Or perhaps an interview via telephone would be best. Direct mail or online may reveal less bias results than a face-to-face questionnaire.

4. Plan, plan, plan… Now that you know the what, who, where, and how, your next step should be to create a timeline taking you from your design of the survey right through to evaluating the data collected. Include a cost estimate with a step-by-step breakdown.

5. Design. Create a simple form that includes a standard set of questions prepared specifically for your audience. When developing your questions, use a multiple choice or yes/no/why format. The questions should be brief, kept to one subject matter and have the ability to be clearly understood. Mixing up the multiple choice questions with the yes/no/why questions may be a tad more labor intensive to tabulate the results but will allow you to get a better perception of the consumer’s needs. Remember to keep the survey design easy on the eyes by double or triple spacing the text.

6. Set up a mini pretest with a few people on the outside of your business office to gauge whether the survey’s design is reasonably understandable or if it needs any rewrites.

7. After you become confident your survey is ready for the public, roll it out.

8. Set up your form to help you analyze the results.

Jeff Haley, RAB President and CEO, says “… this growth, indicative of confidence in Radio’s platforms, is echoed across multiple categories and leading marketers… the double-digit gain in Radio’s Digital sector reflects advertisers growing interest in tapping the power of exciting interactive capabilities… ”

The following are the top five radio categories based on Spot spending in Q1:
1. Communications/Cellular – $338M
2. Auto Dealers/Dealer Groups/Manufactures – $333M
3. Television/Networks/Cable Providers – $295M
4. Restaurants – $262M
5. Financial Services – $212M

The leading advertiser growth category in 2011 is:
1. Automotive Dealers/Dealer Groups/Manufacturers – $333.2M
2. Insurance Companies – $184.8M
3. Professional Services – 125.8M
4. Concerts/Theater/Movies – 112.5M
5. Casinos Lottery – 101.6M

Finally, the Q1 Television/Networks/Cable Providers Spot spending ranks as follows:
1. Comcast Cable – 83.8M
2. Fox Television Network – 37.5M
3. Time Warner Cable – 20.6M
4. USA Network – 13.3M
5. BET Entertainment TV – 11.0M

To review all the statistics on this go to http://www.rab.com

“How much, if anything, would you be willing to pay per month in order to read a daily newspaper’s content online?” This was the online Harris Poll survey question which drew 2,105 U.S. adult responses between March 29, 2011 and March 31, 2011. The Adweek/Harris Poll study revealed that 80% of those polled would not pay any money at all to gain access to a newspaper’s internet material. Additionally, only 14% (one out of every five) admitted that they would be willing to pay between $1 and $10 per month for the privilege while only 4% would agree to a charge between $11 and $20 and only 2% expressed that they would pay more than a $20 per month fee. These findings indicated an increase in readers reluctant to pay access fees from those polled in December 2009. At that time, 23% of those asked the question said they would be willing to pay for a daily newspaper’s online content compared to 20% of those asked in last month’s poll.

It’s possible that advertising revenue could very well fill in the rift between what companies want to charge and what readers are willing to pay. According to a report from eMarketer, U.S. digital ad spending is expected to reach $28.5 billion by the end of this year and projects it to climb 9.9% by 2015 reaching $44.5 billion.

Intrinsically, what the media companies are suggesting is that you get what you pay for; high quality journalism content is well worth championing the paywall.

An article posted by Harris Interactive listed the following additional discoveries:

 Younger adults are more likely than those older to pay for a daily newspaper’s content online-over a quarter of adults aged 18-34 say they would (26%) compared to between 15% and 18% of all other age groups;
 Men are more willing to pay than women are-a quarter of men say they would (25%) with 18% saying they would pay between $1 and $10 per month, while only 15% of women say they would pay anything to read a daily newspaper’s content online; and,
 The more education a person has the more likely they are to be willing to pay to read a daily newspaper’s content online-over a quarter of college graduates say they would pay (28%) compared to one in five people who have attended some college (19%) and just 15% who have not attended any college at all.

Last December, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had announced their support for a Do Not Track List. The list is similar to the Do Not Call List and would allow consumers the opportunity to opt-out and deny advertisers to track their online activities. As a result, companies would only be allowed to collect relevant data necessary for the website or online service to function and be effective. The bill would also set a legal requirement for the online company to destroy or provide anonymity to the information once it’s no longer needed. The FTC would then be given the authority to take action against any company that violates the consumer’s request to privacy.

“Consumers have a right to know when and how their personal and sensitive information is being used online—and most importantly to be able to say ‘no thanks’ when companies seek to gather that information without their approval,” said Rockefeller. “This bill will offer a simple, straightforward way for people to stop companies from tracking their every move on the Internet.”

Just last month Senator John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, and Senator John McCain, Arizona Republican, introduced new Bi-Partisan legislation. The Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011 would establish a standard code of conduct for how personally identifiable information gathered by web-based companies is used and shared.

“Every single day each of us produces a staggering amount of personal information on the Internet,” Mr. Kerry said in a news conference with reporters. “That journey can be tracked, it can be stored and it can be shared on an almost unimaginable scale.”

The bill would require consumers to opt-in before online companies would be allowed to collect data regarding the individual’s medical condition or religious affiliation and does not offer a do not track tool.

On a similar note, Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, presented a discussion draft of a bill to extend, enhance and revise the provisions related to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information of minors and would require online companies to obtain parental consent before collecting children’s and teen’s personal information. The “Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011” would permit parents and children to demand that the children’s personal data which is held by online companies be deleted and prohibit advertisers from targeting minors.

NAA President and CEO John Sturm stated, “They are an opt-in media in an opt-out world, making newspaper advertising an ideal and effective choice for advertisers who want to reach consumers ready to shop and spend.”

The survey revealed that 4 out of 5 adults, or 79%, of those interviewed admit they “took action” as a result of newspaper advertising in the past month. The “actions” were defined as the following:

Clipped a coupon – 54%
Bought something – 46%
Visited Web site(s) to learn more – 37%
Tried something for the first time – 20%

Additionally, advertising on a local online edition newspaper ranked second amid web advertising choices. Nearly 72% of all adults surveyed said they read newspaper preprints and the figure rises to 90% for Sunday inserts. Over the course of 30 days, 79% acted on newspaper preprint advertising. 52% of the adults acknowledged that newspapers are the medium they use to assist in planning their shopping trips or making purchase decisions. Furthermore, 38% of the adults who claimed to be newspaper “non-readers” admitted they had used other forms of engagement in the past week such as checking local store sale ads, clipping coupons, comparing prices, researching movies or TV listings and classified ads, in conjunction with various forms of editorial content leaving this unofficial exposure to add an extra 13% points to the newspapers’ weekly reach.

The report disclosed a ranking of the primary medium for checking advertising:
1. Newspapers – 35%
2. Internet – 28%
3. Ads received via direct mail – 12%
4. TV – 9%
5. Catalogs – 7%
6. Magazines – 3%
7. Radio – 1%
8. None of these

Finally, the study found additional benefits stemmed from newspapers that ranked higher than other media such as:

Checking for regular shopping – 41%
Supplying ads from stores normally shopped – 36%
Being most trustworthy – 36%
Rated the best in bringing attention to sales – 38%
Being most valuable in planning shopping trip – 36%
Preferred for receiving advertising information – 36%
Look forward to this form of advertising – 30%

Despite the reduced circulation in newspaper print publications, online editions are on the rise. The NAA reported that an average of 105.3 million people per month visited a newspaper web site during the 4th quarter of 2010 spending 3.4 billion minutes per month browsing the pages. That equals to an astounding 32.3 minutes and 38.9 page views per individual per month. The sites reach 58% of adults age 25 – 35 and 73% of individuals living in households with incomes of $100,000+.