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.
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Cable news networks rank as the top source of political campaign information among Americans, with 36% saying they regularly get their political campaign news from this source, ahead of local TV news (32%), network news (26%), the internet (25%), and the local paper (20%), according to [pdf] a survey released in February 2012 by the Pew Research Center. 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.
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The top elements of advertising that make women “take notice” are an easily found price (45%) and proof or details of quality (43%), according to [pdf] a white paper released in January 2012 by Fleishman-Hillard in partnership with Hearst Magazine. A relevant message (39%) closely follows, while advertising that is easy to remember (28%), provides comparisons to competition (26%), or offers something free or highly discounted (26%) also earn women’s attention. Testimonials from actual users (21%) and appealing graphics (20%), by contrast, are less significant elements. Read More »

The quadrennial boost provided this year by political advertising, and to a lesser extent, the Summer Olympic broadcasts, will help generate year-over-year US ad revenue growth of 3.7%, according to an updated forecast released in January 2012 by MagnaGlobal. Without the influence of political advertising and the Olympics (”P&O”), core media advertising revenues would grow by 2% in 2012 to $149.8 billion, a slowdown compared to 2011’s like-for-like growth of 4.5%. However, the company forecasts P&O to add an extra 1.7% points, meaning that those two influences alone will drive more than 45% of this year’s ad revenue growth.
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54% of global IT and business professionals say that their iPad has partly replaced their laptop, while a further 16% say it has completely replaced their laptop, according to [download page] a survey released in January 2012 by IDG Connect. Adoption of the iPad has also curtailed usage of other devices: 43% say it has partly replaced their smartphone, while about one-third say it has partly replaced their PC, TV/DVD player, and MP3 player. Just 28% say the iPad has partly replaced their games console. Read More »

A “one-staff-fits-all” strategy may not be the best approach for local media companies, according to a January 2012 report from Borrell Associates, which finds that sites with dedicated digital account executives (AEs) outperform those without by a factor of 2.5. In fact, gross online revenue per sales representative (online dollars divided by all representatives selling digital products) is roughly $186,000 for sites with digital AEs, compared to $73,300 for those without any dedicated AEs. Read More »

US online ad spending will exceed the total spent on print magazines and newspapers this year for the first time, according to a January 2012 eMarketer estimate that projects $39.5 billion in online ad spending, $19.4 billion in newspaper ad spending, and $15.4 billion in magazine ad spending. eMarketer estimates that online ad spending will continue its dramatic growth to reach $62 billion by 2016, while the print total will continue to decline to $32.3 billion that year. Read More »

Note: The Experian Hitwise data featured is based on US market share of visits as defined by the IAB, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from the Experian Hitwise sample of 10 million US internet users. Experian Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique... Read More »

9% of Americans have cut their pay TV connection because they can watch all their favorite shows online, while a further 11% are considering doing so, according to a Deloitte survey released in January 2012. An additional 15% say they will most likely watch movies, TV programs, and videos from online digital sources (via download or streamed over the Internet) in the near future. Read More »