June 19, 2013
This year, many marketers' lead prospecting aims are focused primarily on finding new customers, while relatively few are looking only to retain current or reactivate former customers, according to Chief Marketer's 2013 Prospecting Survey [download page]. Marketers are ramping up their use of prospecting tools across the board, and while email remains the most common prospecting channel (86.7% using this year), some of the biggest changes are reserved for content marketing, retargeted ads, and website registration/opt-in. Read more »
June 19, 2013
Experian Marketing Services has released a new report [download page] on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) Americans, analyzing among other aspects their annual income and spending. The report shows that household discretionary spend among gay men trails their heterosexual counterparts ($15,100 vs. $17,400), and the same is the case with lesbian women ($15,000 vs. $16,000). However, on a per capita basis, discretionary spend is higher among gay men ($6,794) than heterosexual men ($6,041). Read more »
June 19, 2013
More than 9 in 10 college students claim to use their smartphone, tablet or computer at the same time as they're watching TV, including 49% who do so every day, according to a study from re:fuel. The study, which finds college students' Netflix use (63%) to be almost as prevalent as their pay-TV subscriptions (73%), indicates that multi-screening activities tend to be unrelated to TV content, much as with the general population. Read more »
June 19, 2013
The biggest change in how small businesses go about their work this year as opposed to 5 years ago is through their use - or increased use - of online marketing tools, according to results from a survey sponsored by Constant Contact. Indeed, compared to 5 years ago, the adoption of various online marketing tools has soared: 98% of survey respondents now use email marketing (up from 64% saying they used them 5 years ago), while 87% use social media marketing (up from just 10% 5 years ago). And while finding new customers remains the chief concern for small businesses today, among those who are finding this task easier, a leading 53% say that's due to more affordable online marketing tools. Read more »
June 18, 2013
Marketers on Twitter are warming to Vine, and it appears that consumers are too. TechCrunch recently pointed out that Vine climbed past Instagram on the Google Play charts to take the mantle as the top social application, and has also noted that Vine shares on Twitter have surpassed Instagram shares. Now, new data from Socialbakers indicates that tweets containing Vine uploads have a 0.031% engagement rate, not far behind tweeted YouTube videos' rate of 0.048%. Read more »
June 18, 2013
The portrait of the tech-obsessed college student may have some grounding in reality. According to the latest College Explorer study from re:fuel, the average 18-34-year-old college student owns 7 tech devices (6.9 to be precise), up from 6.4 last year. The laptop computer is the most commonly owned device, by 85% of the college student population, with smartphone penetration nearing 70% and tablets (36%) more widespread than cell phones (33%). Video game consoles are also popular, owned by roughly two-thirds of the representative sample of college students. Read more »
June 18, 2013
Online ad spending around the world is projected to grow by 13.4% to reach $113.6 billion this year, according to a revised forecast issued by MAGNA GLOBAL that takes a more bullish view of online spending this year than its previous forecast. Another new forecast, from ZenithOptimedia, projects a 15% annual increase in online spending between this year and 2015. Both groups see strong growth for social and mobile advertising around the world. Read more »
June 17, 2013
Media and entertainment executives from around the world feel that digital is about to become their primary source of revenue, details Ernst & Young in a new report. Digital's share of top-line revenue is expected to grow from 47% on average this year to 57% by 2015, a more bullish forecast than given recently by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which also noted a shift to digital spending and revenues. In order to digitally transform their organizations, most respondents cite the creation of a culture of innovation as one of their top strategic priorities. Read more »
June 14, 2013
Asked what they would do if they saw a friend like a product on social media or a social networking site, around 3 in 10 consumers from around the world said they would check out the product themselves, according to results from a survey from Adobe and Edelman Berland. The figures range from a low of 22% in the UK to a high of 39% in South Korea, with US respondents somewhere close to the mid-point of that range, at 29%. A friend's product like would also cause upwards of 1 in 10 respondents to visit the product's website or social media page. Read more »
June 13, 2013
A recent study from Arbitron found that when it came to mobile commerce, the top web domains tended to have higher reach than the top applications, but that users tended to spend far more time with the apps. New data from Nielsen [download page] supports that latter finding on a broader level, revealing that in March 2013 both smartphone and tablet (limited to iPad) owners spent far more time with apps than on the mobile web. Overall, smartphone users spent just 13% of their time using the mobile web, and iPad users a relatively larger - but still minor - 24%. Read more »
