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 »

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 »

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 »

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.
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57% of consumers who have completed a customer satisfaction survey said they did so in order to share a good experience, while half did so to improve the company, according to [download page] a survey released in February 2012 by Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB). And although a significant proportion have more selfish motives, such as obtaining discounts (45%), entering into a raffle or sweepstakes (40%), or receiving a free gift (28%), many also complete surveys to praise a specific employee (39%) and to receive better service or products from the company (37%). Read More »

The average US consumer celebrating Valentine’s Day this year will shell out $126.03 on traditional merchandise, up 8.5% from last year’s $116.21, and marking the highest average in the NRF Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey’s 10-year history, according to the February 2012 survey, conducted by BIGinsight.

Total spending for the day is expected to reach $17.6 billion, up 12% from $15.7 billion last year.
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31% of North American retailers remain unable to identify their customers at the point of sale (POS), according to [download page] a survey released in January 2012 by Boston Retail Partners (BRP), which also found that no retailers identify customers by mobile device. The most common customer contact information available at the POS includes telephone numbers (38%), customer/identification number (34%), email address (34%), name and address (31%), and member/club number (28%).
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73% of Super Bowl viewers say they look at Super Bowl TV commercials as entertainment, by far the leading opinion cited by respondents to an NRF survey conducted by BIGinsight, released in January 2012. The proportion of viewers who say that advertisers should save their money and pass the savings on to them (18.5%) is roughly matched by those who say the ads make them aware of advertiser brands (16.9%). Similarly, although 8.9% complain that the commercials make the game last too long, a similar proportion report that they influence them to buy products from the advertisers (8.4%). Read More »

80.6% of consumers reported using coupons sometimes (33.2%), very often (34%), or always (13.4%) in 2011, with a further 14% saying they used them, but rarely, according to a study released in January 2012 by NCH. The proportion reporting using coupons at least sometimes in 2011 represents 3% growth from 78.3% in 2010, and has risen every year since 2007, when it was 63.6%. By contrast, the 5.4% of consumers in 2011 who said they never use coupons is the lowest since 2007, when it stood at 10.6%. Read More »