Integrated/Cross-Media/Convergence

Although they watch less TV during the day, wealthy households (income of more than $100k per year) still make up more than one-fifth share of primetime viewing, virtually unchanged from last year (20.6%) and the year before (22.2%). The data is part of Nielsen's "Advertising & Audiences" report [download page], which analyzes the distribution of primetime TV viewing by income and education level, also finding that primetime viewing among homes headed by a college graduate remains steady at about one-quarter share. Read more »

Marketers plan to split their online advertising between direct response and brand advertising initiatives, with 18% of marketers focused on each, and the remaining 64% employing a mix, according to [download page] results from the "2013 Online Advertising Performance Outlook," a survey fielded by the CMO Council, with findings developed by Vizu. But those advertising dollars look like they're shifting from direct response to branding initiatives: 61% said they are re-allocating budgets away from direct response to brand advertising initiatives. Read more »

A new study from GfK has found that network content streaming now tends to cannibalize regular TV viewership of those programs, but does it have an effect on pay TV subscriptions? In other words, is the availability of network programs online contributing to cord-cutting and/or cord-slicing? According to separate results from the GfK survey, the answer is probably no. That is, 19% of streamers and downloaders in 2012 reported decreasing service ("cord-slicing") in the past year, as opposed to 10% who reported increasing service ("cord-splicing"). But, those numbers are not significantly different from the general population. Read more »

49% of US consumers believe the best thing that retailers can do to improve the shopping experience is to better integrate in-store, online and mobile shopping channels, details a survey conducted by Accenture. That notion is shared by 48% of consumers in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden and Brazil, and 38% in China and Japan. The results point to a desire for an increasingly seamless cross-channel experience, where personalized experiences are provided across every engagement channel. Read more »

34% of US internet users (and 30% of all consumers aged 13-54) surveyed in December 2012 reported having watched streaming video content that originated from a network since the beginning of September, a figure relatively on par with earlier years (32-37% between 2008 and 2011), per results from a GfK survey. What has changed over the past few years, though, is the self-reported effect of that streaming behavior. Whereas from 2006 to 2008, a greater proportion of streamers said that they watched regular TV programs more often rather than less, that net "benefit" became neutral between 2009 and 2011, before turning negative last year. Read more »

78% of Americans have watched TV "on [their] own schedule," and 62% of those have watched multiple episodes of a TV show at a time ("binge viewing"), according to survey results from Harris Interactive. Binge viewers are engaging in this activity more often than last year, particularly younger viewers. Interestingly, though, Americans are more likely to expect their binge viewing to decrease (24%) rather than increase (9%) over the next year. The researchers note that binge viewing has big implications for the TV industry, particularly as advertisers struggle to reach viewers who are watching on alternative platforms such as Netflix. Read more »

The number of mobile activations in the US' top 100 magazines by circulation has grown from just 352 in Q1 2011 to 2,252 in Q4 2012, details Nellymoser [download page] in a new report. Besides the growth in action code use, the study also reveals some interesting shifts in their deployment, growing editorial engagement and use of image-based technologies. For example, roughly 17.6% of mobile activations appeared on editorial pages during 2012. In December 2011, there were 25 advertising codes for each editorial code. Read more »

Consumer magazine ad revenue (print only) grew by 0.5% year-over-year in Q1 2013 to reach $4.13 billion, according to recent data from the Association of Magazine Media (MPA). While ad revenue for Sunday magazines declined by 3.7%, that was not enough to offset the increase for consumer magazines, leading to overall ad revenue edging up by 0.2%. The increase came despite pronounced ad page declines of 4.8% for consumer magazines and 8.2% for Sunday magazines. Read more »

Celtra has taken a look at video content in mobile rich media ads, researching 151 such ads viewed by more than 730,000 people running on AdCreator in Q4 2012, using a "balanced sample of different ad formats run across different publishers and networks." The study finds that despite theories of short attention spans on mobile, completion rates for very short videos (less than 30 seconds), which were almost all re-used classic TV commercials, had the lowest completion rate (35.8%), behind even the longest ads (150 seconds and longer), which had a roughly 50% completion rate. Read more »

Using another device while watching TV has become a widespread activity (something discussed here and here) and while that has the potential to distract viewers, it also provides them with the possibility of enhanced engagement with the content they're watching. Although research suggests that most multi-screening activities are unrelated, new data from the NPD Group takes a look at what types of related activities are most popular among second-screeners. Among the most common is shopping for a product seen in an ad, by 19.4% of TV watchers who engage in second-screen activities. Read more »