Campaigns of Note

The personal lines insurance market (insurance sold to individuals, such as auto and homeowner) is fiercely competitive, as slow growth rates have forced carriers to poach customers from each other in order to gain market share, a difficult and expensive proposition. The leading carriers have shelled out billions in advertising dollars as part of their efforts. But what channels are insurers relying on to influence potential customers? A new report [download page] from MarketingCharts delves into the media weights employed by leading carriers and the strategies behind them. Read more »

New research finds [download page] that customers who participate in a brand's social community are likely to show higher transaction volume in the weeks following the event that spurred their engagement. Using Canada's AIR MILES rewards program as a case study, LoyaltyOne, which operates the program, combined 2-and-a-half years of social media interactions with actual transaction data for members identified by a disguised unique member ID, finding a "direct, positive, and tangible" link between social media activity and transaction volume. Read more »

National magazines are adopting mobile action codes at ever increasing rates, and it appears with good reason, according to new research from Nellymoser. Looking over 12 months at 7 titles that used its Companion App to both create the magazine's mobile application with scanner and the campaigns that were scanned in the magazine, the company found the median response rate to be 4.5-5.9%, with visitors keeping the app open for about an average of 10 minutes. Read more »

Magazine advertisers' use of mobile action codes, including all 2D barcodes, QR codes, Microsoft Tags, and watermarks, grew to new heights again in Q2 2012, details Nellymoser in an August 2012 study. The percentage of advertising pages with an action code, perhaps the most accurate measurement of mobile action code adoption, crossed the 10% threshold in May, at 10.4%, before dipping slightly to 10.19% in June. This is roughly double the rate from those months in 2011. Read more »

70% of likely voters claimed in June to have watched live TV in the previous week, per results [pdf] of a survey by SAY Media, conducted in partnership with Targeted Victory, Public Opinion Strategies, Chong & Koster and SEA Polling. That figure is up from 29% in May 2011, when likely voters were asked the same question. Read more »

Viewers of the Olympics may have had some confusion about who actually sponsored the Games, but recent survey results from YouGov indicate that many brands saw notable swings in public perception as a result of their sponsorship. Measured by "Buzz score" - which asks American adults if what they've heard about a brand in the past 2 weeks has been positive or negative - the study shows that 10 of the 13 US-facing brands saw a positive change in score through the first half of the Olympics. Read more »

Magazine advertisers' use of mobile action codes, including all 2D barcodes, QR codes, Microsoft Tags, and watermarks, continued to be solid in Q1 2012, according to a May 2012 study from Nellymoser. The percentage of advertising pages with an action code, perhaps the most accurate measurement of mobile action code adoption, remained above 8% each month during Q1 2012, for the first quarter since Nellymoser began tracking this metric in March 2011. The percentage of advertising pages with an action code reached a peak of 8.9% in January, before falling to 8.3% in February and 8.05% in March. Read more »

Crowdfunding platforms (CFPs) raised $1.47 billion in 2011, up 72% from $854 million in 2010, and almost tripling the $530 million raised in 2009, finds massolution in a May 2012 report. The study predicts worldwide funding volume to almost double this year to $2.8 billion, driven by a 300% growth in equity-based (for financial return) and reward-based (for non-financial rewards such as tokens) crowdfunding, with lending-based (75%) and donation-based (50%) funding also to experience solid growth. Read more »

Recent research has not been kind when it comes to examining the relationship between Facebook fans and engagement: April 2012 survey results from a group of professors show that almost 7 in 10 Millennials who like a brand on Facebook rarely or ever return to the page, while a February 2012 report revealed that just 1% of Facebook users who like big brands such as Procter & Gamble or Coca-Cola actually engage with those brands. Marketers looking to boost engagement might want to think about asking the right questions, says WaveMetrix [pdf] in an April 2012 report. In fact, by asking about personal preferences, appealing to fans' expertise, and making it aspirational, WaveMetrix says that marketers can achieve a profoundly positive impact on brand discussion. Read more »

Of the $72 billion spent on TV advertising in the US in 2011, almost one-fifth ($14 billion) was spent on 5 traditional prime time genres - drama, news, reality, sitcom, and sports - says Nielsen [pdf] in an April 2012 report. And among those genres, dramas appear to be the most popular with both viewers and advertisers, garnering 41% of prime time viewership and 35% of ad spend. Sports was the next-most popular genre, at 22% of viewership and 29% of ad spend, followed by reality shows (16% and 17%, respectively). Read more »