July 2009 Archives

'Connect' to Customers Through Facebook

by Aaron Strout, Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 7:02 AM

It’s hard to ignore Facebook these days. With its member base eclipsing the 200 million mark earlier this year, it’s understandable why mainstream media -- and now marketers -- are starting to pay attention. Even more tantalizing to marketers is the fact that the fastest growing demographic within the Facebook membership base is people 35 years old and older.

Here’s where things get a little trickier for marketers, however. Not many companies have figured out how to make money from Facebook. Yes, there are the Coca Cola fan pages with north of three million members, and certainly Victoria Secret’s “Pink” fan page has drawn a lot of attention, but really where is the ROI? Social advertising also seems to be missing its mark as many of the ads in Facebook go largely unnoticed.

That’s where Facebook Connect comes in. For anyone unfamiliar with this, Connect is Facebook’s version of “Open ID” or the ability to authenticate on third party sites using Facebook credentials. To be clear, Facebook Connect has been around for nearly a year but to date, nobody has made a big deal out of it.

Where the story starts to get good is when you start to think about the power of Facebook Connect for Web sites and online communities that are rich in useful content like CNN.com. Rather than just reading/commenting on an article, I can now let my friends on Facebook see that I commented on the article because Facebook Connect allows that event to flow into my news feed -- with my consent of course. Then, if some of my friends decide to click on that link and perhaps comment -- voila! That goes in their news feeds as well.

This phenomenon can really gain momentum when you think about a large consumer brand that has created an online community rich in lifestyle-centric content. Think of a discount retailer that provides short tutorials on topics like “decorating on a dime” or “accessorizing with flare” that members could rate, review and discuss. And imagine that all of those conversations take place as members are logged into the discount retailer’s site via Facebook Connect. All of the participating members’ activity “could” be flowing into their respective news streams.

What is really powerful about the above scenario is that with 200 million plus members, the viral effect can be fast and powerful. If the average person on Facebook has 120 friends, it doesn’t take long before even a percentage of those people clicking on a link in someone’s news feed reaches thousands of other folks. These are all folks that are potential customers. And better yet, those clicking are passively endorsing the company -- thus making it ripe for referrals -- by allowing the brand content to flow through their Facebook pages.

Although Facebook Connect still has a long way to go in terms of mainstream adoption, it’s encouraging to see sites like online video provider Joost report that since implementing Facebook Connect in December, the average Facebook user has watched 30% more videos and has entered 15% more comments. When it does hit mainstream, assuming it’s done in conjunction with great content, the results are going to be amazing.

Study: Who's On Which Social Nets

by Laurie Sullivan, Yesterday, 3:58 PM

Marketers that are frustrated with targeting specific age groups or demographics in Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn could glean insight from a recent study by Anderson Analytics.

The study suggests that Twitter has become more popular than LinkedIn, more than half of U.S. consumers who tap social networks belong to more than one, and that those who belong to a social net are four times more vocal about products and services than those who don't.

Anderson Analytics CEO Tom Anderson says the biggest surprise from the study reveals that Twitter has become more popular than LinkedIn among social network users in the United States.

Aside from posting tweets, Twitter users tend to blog frequently. In fact, more than 20% have their own blog, many of which trumpet social causes. These consumers make good evangelists for brands, he says.

Anderson's study aims to help marketers understand the type of people who frequent each social network. For example, it debunks the myth that Facebook attracts only kids. In fact, the Anderson study suggests that the ideal age group for Facebook spans from 15 to 34, but 44% of 35- to 44-year-olds and 30% of 45- to-54-year-olds say they have profiles, too.

And while more people are experimenting on social networks, only 10% of users report having ever created a duplicate or experimental profile. More than half of social network users have associated their profiles with a brand, company or product. While much has been written about negative nature of Web 2.0 and blog posts, social network users are more likely to say positive things about brands, companies or products.

The average user logs into a social network account about four times daily, five days a week, and spends about one hour per day on the network. About 31.8% are business users; followed by 26.3%, fun seekers; 21.8%, social media mavens; and 10.1%, leisure followers.

"Baby Boomers and the World War II generation are getting on Facebook, mostly prompted by their kids or younger relatives," Anderson says. "These folks tend to buy things online more often, as well."

About 90% of those surveyed from the WWII generation on a social network say they use Facebook; compared with 23% on MySpace; 17%, Twitter; and 4%, LinkedIn. Females comprise 63%, compared with 37% men.

The study suggests that advertisers looking to connect through social networks will likely find consumers ages 15 to 24 on MySpace, versus 18 to 34 on Facebook, 15 to 34 on Twitter, and 18 to 44 on LinkedIn, according to Anderson.

The Anderson Analytics study tracked U.S. user behavior for 11 months. In May, the firm surveyed 5,000 users, and then conducted a 15-minute survey of more than 1,000 users and 250 non-users, age 13 and older. Users were defined as signing on to a social network within the past 30 days.

'Connect' to Customers Through Facebook

by Aaron Strout, 1 hour ago

It’s hard to ignore Facebook these days. With its member base eclipsing the 200 million mark earlier this year, it’s understandable why mainstream media -- and now marketers -- are starting to pay attention. Even more tantalizing to marketers is the fact that the fastest growing demographic within the Facebook membership base is people 35 years old and older.

Here’s where things get a little trickier for marketers, however. Not many companies have figured out how to make money from Facebook. Yes, there are the Coca Cola fan pages with north of three million members, and certainly Victoria Secret’s “Pink” fan page has drawn a lot of attention, but really where is the ROI? Social advertising also seems to be missing its mark as many of the ads in Facebook go largely unnoticed.

That’s where Facebook Connect comes in. For anyone unfamiliar with this, Connect is Facebook’s version of “Open ID” or the ability to authenticate on third party sites using Facebook credentials. To be clear, Facebook Connect has been around for nearly a year but to date, nobody has made a big deal out of it.

Where the story starts to get good is when you start to think about the power of Facebook Connect for Web sites and online communities that are rich in useful content like CNN.com. Rather than just reading/commenting on an article, I can now let my friends on Facebook see that I commented on the article because Facebook Connect allows that event to flow into my news feed -- with my consent of course. Then, if some of my friends decide to click on that link and perhaps comment -- voila! That goes in their news feeds as well.

This phenomenon can really gain momentum when you think about a large consumer brand that has created an online community rich in lifestyle-centric content. Think of a discount retailer that provides short tutorials on topics like “decorating on a dime” or “accessorizing with flare” that members could rate, review and discuss. And imagine that all of those conversations take place as members are logged into the discount retailer’s site via Facebook Connect. All of the participating members’ activity “could” be flowing into their respective news streams.

What is really powerful about the above scenario is that with 200 million plus members, the viral effect can be fast and powerful. If the average person on Facebook has 120 friends, it doesn’t take long before even a percentage of those people clicking on a link in someone’s news feed reaches thousands of other folks. These are all folks that are potential customers. And better yet, those clicking are passively endorsing the company -- thus making it ripe for referrals -- by allowing the brand content to flow through their Facebook pages.

Although Facebook Connect still has a long way to go in terms of mainstream adoption, it’s encouraging to see sites like online video provider Joost report that since implementing Facebook Connect in December, the average Facebook user has watched 30% more videos and has entered 15% more comments. When it does hit mainstream, assuming it’s done in conjunction with great content, the results are going to be amazing.

Extremely or Very Innovative CPG Category (% of Global Consumers)

Category

% Saying Innovative

Computer equipment

60%

Electronic media

58

Cameras & video equipment

54

Household products

34

Pharmaceuticals

32

Personal products

28

Food & Beverage

26

Financial institutions

18

Source: Ipsos Marketing, July 2009

Consumers Interested in Trying New (% Global Consumers)

Product Category

% Very or Somewhat Interested

Foods

89%

Household products

86

Personal products

81

Source: Ipsos Marketing, July 2009

Pew: Mobile Web Use Growing Fastest Among African-Americans, Hispanics

by Mark Walsh, Yesterday, 4:29 PM

·                                  

African-Americans have long trailed the national average in Internet access at home, but a new study suggests the so-called digital divide disappears when it comes to the mobile Web.

The latest report from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project finds that African-Americans are the most active mobile Internet users, with nearly half (48%) having at one time accessed the Web on a handheld device. And almost one-third (29%) typically use their cell phones to go online each day.

Both figures are 50% higher than average, indicating that blacks are more likely than whites to go online via mobile rather than home computer.

"Overall, it seems clear that white Americans and African-Americans have somewhat different outlooks on the meaning of online access. For white Americans, online access is likely to occur on a broadband connection at home with a laptop or desktop computer," states the Pew report on wireless Internet use released Wednesday.

The survey found that overall, 56% of Americans now go online wirelessly via laptop, mobile device, game console or MP3 player. Access via mobile has grown especially quickly, with 32% now doing so on a handset compared to 24% in December 2007, when the previous corresponding study was conducted. Nearly one-fifth (19%) go on the mobile Web daily, up from 11% from 19 months ago.

More people are also turning to their handheld for things other than calling, from text messaging to taking photos to playing games and listening to music. In 2009, 44% do at least one non-voice activity regularly on their phones, compared to 32% in 2007.

Nearly half (46%) say mobile access is important for getting information on the go, and one in six say they value it for sharing online content while away from home or work. "Six or seven years ago, mobile was for back-stop voice communications or emergencies -- now it's about seeking information, and for 17%, also about sharing information," said John Horrigan, associate director of the Pew Internet Project and principal author of the report.

But the study's findings of African-American use were the most intriguing. Horrigan pointed out that home broadband adoption for blacks has remained relatively flat over the last two years at 46%, even as mobile Web use on an average day has grown nearly threefold. "That's a bit of a puzzle," said Horrigan.

He said the disparity is likely the result of "budget constraints" that make mobile Internet access a more economical option than having to make an upfront payment of several hundred dollars for a PC along with a $40-a-month broadband connection. In that sense, the mobile phone to some degree substitutes for home Internet access.

So, 65% of whites and 68% of Hispanics have home broadband connections, compared to 46% of blacks. But only 28% of whites have ever used the mobile Web, compared to nearly half of blacks and Hispanics.

Among whites who have gone online with a handheld device, 88% have broadband at home. That figure drops to 64% for blacks. "For the majority of African-Americans, the mobile device is a supplemental access mode, but for a substantial number it is taking the place of the broadband connection at home," said Horrigan.

Study: Social Media Pays

by Mark Walsh, Yesterday, 5:31 PM

One of the major hurdles to increased spending on social media has been lingering skepticism about what kind of payoff companies actually get from conversional marketing. In short, is it worth it? A study released Monday says "yes," drawing a link between brands' social media efforts and revenue growth.

The new research from social media platform Wetpaint and digital consulting firm Altimeter Group found that companies with the highest levels of social media activity on average increased revenues by 18% in the last 12 months, while the least active saw sales drop 6% over that period.

Among the top 100 brands reviewed, Starbucks came out on top with a score of 127, followed by Dell (123), eBay (115), Google (105), and Microsoft (103). Companies were scored based on the level of interaction across 10 social media channels including blogs, Facebook, Twitter and wikis.

The study found that social media efforts tend to build on themselves. "There is an exponential growth in the depth of engagement as the brand extends itself into more and more channels," according to the report, titled www.engagementdb.com.

Companies that scored well generally had dedicated -- if small -- teams focused on social media initiatives. The most successful of these evangelized across the entire organization to gain broad-based support and cooperation. And instead of taking a traditional communications approach based on messaging and talking points, they embrace a conversational mode.

The report sorted companies according to four categories, with "mavens" being the most aggressive brands in social media and "wallflowers" sitting on the sidelines. In between are "butterflies" -- companies that are spread to thin across social properties, and "selectives" -- those that excel by focusing on just a few channels.

Among industries, media and technology companies tend to be "mavens" while financial, food and beverage, consumer products and apparel brands were on the other end of the spectrum -- "which is expected given that companies in these industries are just beginning to experiment with social media," the report states.

Starbucks was the obvious exception in the food and beverage industry, beating out advanced media and tech brands. Among its most prominent social media efforts was last year's launch of MyStarbucksidea.com, a community site allowing users to submit, comment on, and vote on their favorite ideas for improving the company.

At the same time, Starbucks' financial performance over the last year does not seem to support the connection between a brand's social media activity and revenue. In its most recent fiscal quarter, the coffee chain's revenue dipped to $2.3 billion from $2.5 billion a year ago. It reports third-quarter earnings Tuesday, with analysts expecting revenue to range from $2. 3 billion to $2.5 billion.

A Wetpaint spokesperson said the revenue growth figure cited in the study is an aggregate of all the "mavens," and not a reflection of just one company.

Runner-up Dell gained wide attention for ramping up its social media programs to combat the "Dell Hell" label applied by critics to its customer service operation. The computer company now boasts a more than 40-person social media team that runs blogs, a video channel and other forums as well as tracking what people are saying about Dell.

In conjunction with the study, brands can also find out how their own social media efforts rate through the new engagementdb.com site. After taking a brief survey, companies will get an email evaluation telling them how they rank against the brands covered in the report.

Verizon To Put Facebook, Twitter On Your TV

by Aaron Baar, Friday, July 17, 2009, 9:46 AM

·                                  

Coming soon to a television near you (if you're a Verizon FiOS subscriber, anyway): Facebook, Twitter and an App Store-like marketplace.

"People of all ages and demographics are living their lives on social networks," Verizon representative Bobbi Henson tells Marketing Daily. "And the more they do that, the more they want to experience it wherever they are."

Though still in a very basic stage, the service will allow people to view Facebook status updates and view friends' photo albums and pictures. Users will not immediately be able to update their status beyond having it reflect what program they're watching, but "it will evolve as we go along," Henson says. "People are very tethered to those services."

With Twitter, users will be able to continue watching whatever program they were tuned to while also viewing tweets and other feeds applicable to the show (or participants in a sporting event, if such is the case).

"It's really about bringing these Internet capabilities to the television, the biggest screen in their house," Henson says.

The Facebook and Twitter access will come via widgets available through a new Widget Bazaar (as will an ESPN Fantasy Football widget) through the service's Interactive Media Guide. Through an open development platform, the company is hoping the Widget Bazaar will turn into an App Store-like marketplace where users can download free and transactional applications for their TVs. "Ultimately, when it gets up and running, it will have a broader range of applications that consumers can ad to their dashboard," Henson says.

Later this summer, DVR users will also have access to an Internet Video feature allowing them to search and view user-generated videos from sites such as blip.tv, Dailymotion and Veoh. Henson wouldn't disclose marketing plans for these new services, but said it was likely there would be "some direct marketing and adding these features into advertising campaigns, just as we're doing now with other features."

by Tanya Irwin, Friday, July 10, 2009, 12:28 PM

U.S. consumer participation in rewards programs is on the rise across all demographic segments, according to Colloquy, the Cincinnati-based loyalty marketing consultancy. The study reports a 19% participation growth by the general population since 2007.

Participation by Millennials (ages 18-25) has climbed 32% since last measured in 2007. Women as a demographic are up 29% in the same time period, according to the consultancy's white paper, "After the Meltdown: Consumer Attitudes and Perceptions About Loyalty Programs in the Post-Recession Economy."

With the economy still depressed, it makes sense that consumers are leaning on loyalty programs to stretch household budgets further by earning rewards for their purchases. The retail category demonstrates the highest positive impact in reward program attitudes, with 75% of 2,152 surveyed reporting a net neutral or positive effect on their program participation as a result of the economy. The financial services sector remained relatively flat, with 52.7% reporting "no difference" in the impact of the recession on program participation.

The study examined trends in six consumer segments: "General Population" representing a statistically distributed sample of the U.S. overall; "Affluent" (heads of household with annual incomes of $125,000 or greater); "Millennials" (any respondent 18 to 25 years of age); "Seniors" (any respondent 60 years or older); "Core Women" (any female respondent age 25 to 49 with an annual income between $50,000 and $125,000); and "Emerging Hispanic" (any respondent age 21 or older of Hispanic origin with an annual household income of $40,000 or less.

Loyalty participation by Millennials has increased significantly since the last benchmarking study in 2007. Recalled participation rates in this demographic stand at 58%, a 32% increase from two years ago. Nearly half (46.4%) of responding Millennials rate retail rewards programs as "more important" during the recession. This outpaces the general population, at 32.3% for the same category. Furthermore, 27% of Millennials are actively seeking to enroll in new programs to help expand their budgets. Not surprising given their affinity for new technology, Millennials are far more likely to enjoy engaging with programs through new media channels than the general population. Over 55% appreciate communicating through social networking sites (39% for general population), and 52% enjoy communication via cell phone or text message (38% for general population). "Millennials represent a golden opportunity in a time of economic darkness for loyalty marketers," says Kelly Hlavinka, Colloquy partner and co-author of the white paper. "This demographic is receptive to the wish-list of loyalty initiatives -- eager to join programs, eager to build relationships with their favorite brands and eager to engage with new media channels. This shows a powerful opening for loyalty marketers to build sustainable loyalty with the next generation of American consumers."

Point-of-View

by Sacha Carton, Yesterday, 6:17 PM

The goal of any ad campaign should be to make money for the advertiser. Be they measured in clicks, conversions, or brand awareness, it comes down to making money. So what is the role of relevance?

In comparing the performance metrics of an average contextual advertising campaign with a standard run of network display ad campaign, we see that relevance really does make a difference, often in hundreds of percentage points. Thus it appears that relevance can substantially improve the efficiency of an ad campaign.

It therefore stands to reason that the goal of any ad targeting system should be to display the most relevant ad in front of the user when they are reading relevant content. Catching them while they are ‘in the zone’ should mean that there is a higher chance of converting the interest into a click for a particular campaign. As result, the companies behind the contextual, behavioural or semantic targeting systems are all constantly attempting to tweak their technologies to enhance the user experience by delivering ads in ‘true’ context with the page content. So, just how is relevance to be improved?

The notion of relevance is slippery, because it always means 'relevant to an individual's needs', and these alter according to circumstances. Different clients will have different views of what is relevant on a given page; even within a single small group, what may be relevant to one person may not be relevant to another; and even for an individual, what may seem relevant today may not be so tomorrow. Absolute notions of relevance are therefore chimerical and any ad targeting system which does not allow for this inherent relativity is bound to fail.

Relevance is related to a user's sense of what a page is 'about'. But there is a complication: it is not always clear – especially in a lengthy passage of text – what the content is about. Moreover, our ability to sense what a document is about is affected by many variables, such as fatigue, stress, attention span, motivation, and knowledge of a field.

What tends to happen is that readers are swayed by the writer's perception of what a document is about, as seen through the headline or other heading. However, it is the nature of headlines to be selective so that sub-themes within a page may not figure there. This is the main reason why a simple keyword-based targeting system built on a simplified analysis of text for bidded keywords may appear somewhat alarmingly out of context. It is also the reason why people should not judge the context of an article solely by the headline. Using an example from our own work to illustrate my point, there was a news article about a tennis tournament champion that was given a classification of 'tennis' and 'race cars'. The latter seemed anomalous unless you read the whole page and found that halfway through the author included a section about the tennis player's husband, who was a successful race car driver.

Another reason I deem relevance as slippery is because most web pages or documents are multi-thematic. While it is of course possible to find some restricted to a single theme, the vast majority of everyday documents seen in the world's online news channels, travel guides, scientific reports, entertainment reviews, etc. contain more than one theme – often three or four.

But even if knowledge is present, other factors will interfere. Ask two people to identify all the themes in a document and they are unlikely to come up with the same set. For example, a webpage on outsourcing call centers will probably contain thematic elements relating to domains within economics, sociology, politics, and technology, as well as locational domains such as India. These elements will not be clearly distinguishable.

Given the above, it is easy to see why the concept of relevance in advertising terms has been extremely loose in its interpretation up until now. Advertising targeting systems seeking to apply relevance have extremely variable results, from the wildly inaccurate to the eerily precise. So just how is relevance applied?

In its most basic form, relevance is identified from an overall categorization at site level. A given travel site can leverage its theme and promote all possible campaigns relating to this subject. However, the classification of the content often takes place at site level and misses the mother lode of highly specific content and the commercial opportunities that lie within.

An improvement was made with the introduction of ‘contextual’ targeting. By identifying specific advertiser keywords within a page, corresponding ads can be placed alongside the content. Relevance is achieved but only in relation to the keywords and not the article as a whole. Without a systematic analysis of context of the page, the true sense of the keyword cannot be identified – and with more than 2.4 senses for each word in the English language, the ad’s relevance to the page cannot be guaranteed.

Relevance is a stated aim for behavioral targeting systems. By identifying a reader’s inferred traits as a result of a series of attributes such as what they read, what they click on and everything relating to their navigation around a site, behavioral targeting can get quite granular in delivering relevance. However, it is a different kind of relevance – relevance to the reader through their inferred behavior, not necessarily specific to the type of content that they are viewing. Unfortunately such relevance does come at a cost, with the methods of aggregation of such relevance forcing the reader to compromise on privacy as their web usage is tracked through cookies. Surely relevance can be found without having to resort to such tactics.

Genuine relevance can only ever be achieved with the identification of the granularity of content present on each and every webpage. Such a system requires the following:
•    Ability to understand the usage of a word based upon analysis of all of the words on a page
•    Identification of whether or not it would be prudent for an advertiser’s brand to be associated with the type of content found on a webpage
•    Permits readers to maintain their inalienable rights to privacy

Does such a comprehensive system exist?

With the development and progress of semantic targeting technology, yes, such systems are now available. The study of meaning, semantics offers the opportunity for each nuance of a page to be identified and exploited for online advertising purposes.

Semantic targeting technology analyzes not only bidded keywords, but all of the words upon a webpage. In turn, this delivers a more detailed categorization of page content, as well as identification of the specific sense of a word in true context.

These linguistics-based solutions analyze the lexical content of pages and link it with a more granular level of advertising. And from the language used, they can gauge the sentiment of a page. It is therefore possible for advertisers to request which context they want their advertisements to be placed with and for them to only to be placed where their product/company is discussed in a positive light.
 
Relevance does matter and can make the difference between successful and mediocre online advertising campaigns. Through semantic targeting, we believe that true ad relevancy can be achieved and represents the next major development in online advertising, adding value to content by making every page a relevance-rich opportunity.

Study: Brands Must Do Better in Social Media

by Mark Walsh, Yesterday, 7:00 PM

Social media sites aren't where most people go to get recommendations on products and services. Even so, marketers must still try to reach consumers through social media since that's where conversations about brands are increasingly taking place.

That's one of the key conclusions of a new study on social influence marketing by interactive agency Razorfish. The report released today also includes a new index developed by the firm which scores brands based on how they're being discussed online.

For the study, Razorfish surveyed 1,000 consumers split evenly between active social network users and a broader sample of the general population. Overall, 80% belonged to at least one social network and 40% were active in two.

The findings revealed a paradox, though, in that 62% say they don't seek out brand opinions via social media but 71% share recommendations on products and services on social sites at least once every few months.

What gives? The study suggests people are influencing each others' purchase decisions even when they're not consciously asking for purchase advice.

For that reason, brands have to participate directly in these online discussions or face growing irrelevance, says Razorfish. But they have to bring credible voices that "need to be more engaging, personal, humble, authentic and participatory than traditional advertising images," advises the report.

Establishing an authentic presence in social media is where many marketers fall down, according to Shiv Singh, vice president and global social media lead at Razorfish. "Most brands aren't doing it successfully," he said in an interview last week.

Among the exceptions he points to is "Dunkin' Dave," aka Dave Puner, communications manager for Dunkin' Brands Inc., who has become the company's voice on Twitter. He's created a genial, informal persona through the microblogging service that marks a departure from traditional top-down marketing.

At the same time, Singh acknowledged it can be difficult for a corporation to entrust individual, sometimes junior, employees with such a direct role in shaping its brand. Not Pizza Hut. The restaurant chain gained attention this spring when it announced it was looking for a summer "Twintern" to be its voice on Twitter.

Razorfish advises that all brands should at least grasp how social media plays into purchase decisions. The study indicates that "social influencers," people active on social platforms, tend to hold the most sway during the consideration phase leading up to a purchase. Close family and friends play by far the biggest roles at the initial awareness and final "action" stages relating to a purchase.

Corporate bloggers typically rated at or near the bottom among influencers at each stage of the process.

When it came to specific industry sectors that appealed to users in social media, music and entertainment topped the list among categories that also included auto, retail and apparel, travel, home and garden, automotive and financial services. Only 14% were likely to interact with a financial brand compared to 46% for an entertainment one.

"Our data suggests that brands need to do a much better job engaging consumers on social platforms, as witnessed by the lukewarm reception and high level of indifference consumers have about brands in social media," states the report.

To that end, Singh said brand pages on sites like Facebook should be part of a company's overall marketing strategy and not treated as an afterthought. "If not, it's a recipe for disaster," he said. The study found that 29% of survey participants associated themselves with specific brands on social networks. And among "fans" of brand pages, 57% visited every few months or weeks.

To help brands gauge their social media standing, Razorfish also introduced the SIM (Social Influence Marketing) Score. Developed with TNS Cymfony the Keller Fay Group, the index attempts to measure a brand's reach and "likeability" based on how it's being discussed on social networks like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube. Offline word-of-mouth is also factored in.

The basic formula for deriving a brand's SIM Score involves dividing "net sentiment" for a brand by the net sentiment for its industry group. (Net sentiment = positive + neutral conversations - negative conversations/total conversations.)

Looking at several companies in the auto industry using this method Ford came out on top with a score of 31, beating out Honda (30), Toyota (18), Nissan (15) and GM (5). Ouch.

Razorfish also used the same formula to rate the auto, finance, pharmaceutical and media industries overall. Auto came out way ahead with a score of 92, compared to 6.3, 0.96, and 0.33 for the other sectors respectively, mainly as a result of simply being discussed online far more than the rest.

There were 2.1 million auto-related conversations compared to only about 200,000 for the other categories combined. "This is surprising considering the fact that the financial services space underwent immense upheaval in the last six months of 2008," noted the Razorfish study.

Forms of Advertising in Which Consumers Trust "Somewhat" or "Completely" (April, 2009)

Advertising

Percent of Respondents Trusting

Recommendations from people known

90% 

Consumer opinions posted online

70% 

Brand websites

70% 

Editorial content (e.g. newspaper article)

69% 

Brand sponsorships

64% 

TV

62% 

Newspaper

61% 

Magazines

59% 

Billboards / outdoor advertising

55% 

Radio

55% 

Emails signed up for

54% 

Ads before movies

52% 

Search engine results ads

41% 

Online video ads

37% 

Online banner ads

33% 

Text ads on mobile phones

24% 

Source: Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, April 2009 

User Age of iPhone & iPod Owners (January thru May, 2009, % of Users)

Age Group

User Group

13-17

18-24

25-34

35-49

50-54

55-64

65

iPhone

6%

20

27

31

7

7

2

iPod Touch

46

23

12

12

2

3

2

Source: admob/comScore, July 2009

User Media Consumption Patterns, iPhone and iTouch (January thru May, 2009, % of Segment)

Use mobile web more than they:

iPhone Users

iPod Touch Users

Use Web from computer

43.0%

43.9%

Watch TV

32.7

33.9

Read magazines

53.0

47.2

Read print newspapers

58.1

50.9

Listen to radio

45.7

40.9

Source: admob/comScore, July 2009

TV Upfront: Budgets Stay Conservative

by Wayne Friedman, 1 hour ago

As this year's TV upfront market finally begins to churn this week, there is one benefit to the expected weak and late TV advertising bazaar: down-to-earth TV budgets.

"Fiscal conservatism based on the economy means we are looking at more realistic numbers," says Rich Goldfarb, senior vice president of media sales for National Geographic Channel.

"We'll have better information in July than we would have had in May and June," says Mel Berning, executive vice president of advertising sales for A&E Networks.

In quicker-moving markets, marketers estimate more of their budgets and make adjustments later. In such cases, programming mixes are decided later in the process -- typically in late July and August -- following up on initial deals made in early June.

Media sales executives say there is always some gamesmanship that goes on during the upfront process, where budgets are adjusted higher or lower to take advantage of moving price fluctuations. A&E's Berning did caution there is always some level of revision in TV advertisers' budgets.

Gary Carr, senior vice president and director of national broadcast for TargetCast, believes some tweaks come from more companies' marketing executives seeking approval of their financial officers before committing to long-term TV and media budgets.

Such realities will be of little solace to some TV programming sales executives, with upfront revenue estimates said to be anywhere from 10% to 15% below that of overall upfront volume last year. Credit Suisse, for example, expects the broadcast part of the upfront to be down 15% to $7.9 billion and the cable market flat or slightly down at $7.6 billion.

Rumors -- still unconfirmed -- say NBC Universal and GroupM have finished their upfront process at 7% reductions in cost per thousand viewers on the NBC network and 3% lower CPMs price on their cable networks.

In 2007, NBC and Group M struck an $800 million to $900 million upfront deal across the NBC network and its cable networks, with an estimated 7% increase on cost per thousand viewers.

At that time, executives estimated that $600 million went to the NBC network; about $200 million for the USA Network cable group; approximately $20 million for Telemundo; and $10 million for all NBC's digital platforms.

A 2009 deal would be drastically different. Plus, a decline of 7% in CPMs would be sharply less than what media agency executives have been expecting. They said their clients were demanding double-digit percentage pricing cuts across the board from broadcast, cable and syndication programmers.

More than a few media executives called the potential NBC Universal/ Group M "an island." NBC is unique because it is the fourth-place-rated network and is making a major programming change to prime time -- moving Jay Leno to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday.

"ABC, Fox and CBS might look at that deal and say this has nothing to do with us," says one network sales executive.

At the same time, if indeed the NBC network is only rolling back deals at 7%, this would be good news for the other big broadcast networks. ABC, CBS and Fox should then expect more modest rollbacks in the 2% to 3% range, according to another cable network sales executive.

Key to the NBC/Group M deal, say executives, is what NBC cable networks bring to the table. USA Network has grown substantially -- 15% to an average 3.2 million overall viewers in the second quarter and 9% among 18-49 viewers to 1.4 million. Sister cable network Bravo has also made ratings gains.

Making USA Network even more attractive, according to media-buying executives: its pricing is somewhat less than what other cable networks are charging.

Study: M&A Market Indicates Convergence

by Gavin O'Malley, Yesterday, 2:31 PM

Despite a "definite uptick" in recent weeks, mergers and acquisitions in the broader media markets continued to decline during the second quarter of the year, according to new analysis from Jordan Edmiston Group. During the period, the investment bank recorded 171 announced transactions valued at $4.1 billion across the media, information, marketing services and technology sectors.

JEGI attributed the recent signs of life to sellers adjusting their expectations, along with buyers regaining some modicum of confidence.

While "swinging from defensive positions," strategic buyers are "looking for opportunities to accelerate growth and tap into new business models," according to JEGI. To gain market share and keep more revenue in-house, global media companies are focused on building integrated solutions across multiple media channels.

"We believe the [business-to-business] media world is coalescing around a multi-product strategy, creating vertical branded media properties that embed multiple touch points in the customer's workflow," said Phil Siegel, general partner at Austin Ventures.

During the period, online media and technology accounted for 84 transactions valued at $1.3 billion. Both major media companies and financial firms were active in acquiring online media content, social networking, gaming, job portals, e-commerce, and enabling technologies.

On the strategic side, Walt Disney Company acquired a 27% stake in Hulu and also acquired Kaboose, while AOL acquired two local online content players, Patch Media and Going.

On the financial side, Spectrum Equity and Bain Capital acquired Survey Monkey, which provides enabling technology for survey solutions, and Florida Merchant Capital acquired WorkTree.com, a job portal.

The marketing and interactive services sector, meanwhile, saw 66 transactions valued at $877 million during the first half of the year. Total deal value, however, was a small fraction of first-half 2008 levels, as there were no multi-hundred million-dollar transactions.

A few of the noteworthy transactions in the second quarter included ZM Capital and Palladium Equity's acquisition of Canella Response Television, Sapient's $50 million acquisition of Nitro Group, and Microsoft's $40 million sale of Greenfield Online's Internet Survey Solutions to Toluna.

Activity rose 46% in the mobile media and technology sector -- an increasingly active M&A market according to JEGI -- with a dynamic and growing group of companies.

Media analyst Jack Myers predicts that mobile advertising will grow 28% in 2010 and 30% in 2011, and JEGI has completed two recent transactions in this segment.