The vast majority (96%) of Americans watch TV in their homes, roughly double the number (48%) who now watch video online, according to [download page] a February 2012 report from Nielsen. Yet the proportion watching TV in their homes fell 0.2% year-over-year, while those watching video on the internet grew 4.9%. Mobile subscribers watching video online in Q3 2011 showed the fastest growth, jumping 37% year-over-year and 5% quarter-over-quarter to reach more than 10% of the population. Read More »

41% of tablet owners say they use their device to extend their TV experience to various activities such as looking up, posting, and chatting about what they are watching on TV, according to a January 2012 study from Discovery Communications, which surveyed over a thousand Discovery Viewers on their media habits. Additionally, 53% said they use their iPad while watching TV to find other content. In fact, 43% of the device owners surveyed said they watch TV and go online simultaneously either all the time (18%) or some of the time (25%), compared to 33% of the non-iPad owners surveyed. Read More »

57% of Americans who watch TV say they always notice advertising on the medium, while a further 40% say they sometimes notice ads, according to survey results released in February 2012 by BrandSpark International in partnership with Better Homes and Gardens. Magazines are next, with 30% of readers always noticing ads in this medium, and an additional 56% noticing them sometimes.
Read More »

Prices for primetime commercials on the Big 4 broadcast networks rose year-over-year during the second, third, and fourth quarters of 2011, according to February 2012 data from TargetCast. Using data from SQAD, the agency determined that the price of an average 30-second spot rose 2% in Q2 to $127,291, while in Q3, prices rose 4% year-over-year to $82,951. Pricing growth slowed in Q4 to 2%, with spots averaging $116,122. Read More »

22% of mobile owners used their device during the Super Bowl to watch a TV ad again, while 17% searched for more information about a product they saw advertised, according to a February 2012 survey from InMobi. Users performed a number of other activities directly related to the game or commercials, including downloading a Super Bowl application (27%), discussing the game (23%), and discussing commercials (16%). Read More »

Viewers enjoy online videos they discover from a recommendation more than ones they discover through browsing, according to a white paper released in February 2012 by Unruly Media. Examining 4 social video campaigns from leading brands in 2011, the study found that 65% of viewers who watched a recommended video enjoyed it, representing a 14% increase from 57% who enjoyed a video found through browsing. Additionally, those who arrived at a video through a recommendation were 41% less likely to say they did not enjoy the video than those who found the video through browsing (7% vs. 12%). Read More »

2 in 3 consumers say that their basic mobile or cell service is an untouchable item of their budgets, representing a 4.7% increase from 64% who responded that way in 2008, according to a survey conducted in 2011 for STORES Magazine by BIGinsight, released in February 2012. By comparison, 60% of respondents in 2011 said that their basic cable/satellite TV was untouchable, down slightly from 61% in 2008.
Read More »

The CPG channel was the leader in online video ad spending in 2011, according to [pdf] statistics from online ad server YuMe released in February 2012, which found that the channel accounted for 24% of spending in 2011 overall and 25% of spending in Q4 2011. Health/Pharma was the number two category in terms of ad spend in 2011, at 16%, although it challenged CPG for top billing in Q4 (23%). Other leading categories were telecom (13% in 2011, including 12% in Q4), financial services (7% in Q4 and 2011 overall), entertainment (6% in 2011, but just 3% in Q4), and retail (5% in 2011, and 6% in Q4). Read More »

Pinterest now drives more referral traffic (3.6%) than YouTube (1.05%), Google+ (0.22%), and LinkedIn (0.2%) combined, according to Shareaholic’s January 2012 Referral Traffic Report. Pinterest grew 44% from 2.5% of referral traffic in December 2011, after owning just 0.17% of the traffic in July 2011. Facebook remained the top referral source, growing 3% month-over-month from 25.6% to 26.4%. StumbleUpon also maintained its second ranking, though it dropped 22% from 6.5% to 5.07%.
Read More »

2011 saw a 300% growth in barcode scanning compared to 2010, and a 1000% increase over 2009, according to [download page] a report released in February 2012 by Scanbuy. In fact, Q4 2011 alone saw more scans than 2009 and 2010 combined. Mid-November through December proved a significant period of new user activation, serving as the driving force behind the more than 3 million new ScanLife users activated during the quarter, a 360% growth from Q4 2010.
Read More »