One in 10 American Adults is a ‘Tweeter’

Source: MarketingCharts

More than one in ten (11%) online adults in the US say they have used Twitter - or a similar service – to share updates about themselves or view updates about others, and those who use Twitter have a greater affinity for mobile devices, according to new research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The most recent Pew study on the topic found that the number of tweeters, which was gauged in December 2008, appears to be growing quickly. In contrast to December’s 11%, only 9% said they had used Twitter in November 2008, and 6% of internet users responded yes to a similar question in May 2008.

Younger Users Tweet More

The research also found that, not surprisingly, younger internet users lead the way in using Twitter and similar services. Nearly one in five (19%) online adults ages 18-24 have used Twitter and similar services, as have 20% of online adults age 25-34.

Use of these services drops off steadily after age 35 with 10% of 35 to 44 year olds and 5% of 45 to 54 year olds using Twitter, Pew said. The decline is even more stark among older internet users; 4% of 55-64 year olds and 2% of those 65 and older use Twitter.

Given the youth of most Twitter users, it is not surprising to find that online Americans who live in lower-income households are more likely to use Twitter than more affluent Americans, said Pew. Some 17% of internet users in households earning less than $30K annually tweet and update their status, compared with 10% of those earning more than $75K.

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Alcohol, sex ads get prime TV time

Source: LA Times
By Alana Semuels

The airwaves are getting more grown-up, and it's not just the shows.The Absolut Vodka commercials that aired in Los Angeles and 14 other cities during Sunday night's Grammy Awards marked the first time in years that liquor ads ran in prime time on network-owned stations.Also crowding the airwaves during heavy viewing hours are infomercials once reserved for the middle of the night and ads touting extramarital affairs and the intimate uses of K-Y Jelly.

the recession takes its toll on firms that rely on advertising, TV stations aren't the only companies running ads once considered inappropriate.In recent months, the NBA rescinded a ban on courtside advertising by liquor companies. Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. did the same for ads they run on their websites. Billboard operators have allowed more strip clubs to hawk their establishments on roadside signs.

"Given the economy, there are publishers and media outlets that are doing what they have to to survive," said Steve Hall, an ad-industry veteran who publishes the website AdRants.Standards for advertising have been changing for decades, just as they have for the TV shows they accompany.

For example, the number of distilled-spirits commercials on cable TV tripled from 2001 to 2007, said David Jernigan, associate professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. But marketing experts say the trend has accelerated since the financial crisis began."When you have the evaporation of advertising revenue, you have to look for new and creative ways of getting sellers in the door," said Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council. "It's coming in the way of adult-themed products and content."

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Microsoft To Open Retail Stores

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

Microsoft is getting into the retail business. The company announced today that it's hired David Porter, a 25-year Wal-Mart vet, as vice president of retail stores. He will head up Microsoft's "efforts to create a better PC and Microsoft retail purchase experience" through its own stores.
This is a risky move. Microsoft (MSFT) will be competing with its vast retail channel, which ranges from Best Buy (BBY) to Costco (COST). And last we checked, the retail industry is in the garbage. Even Apple is suffering.

If done right, Microsoft might be able to show consumers the benefits (if any) of having a Windows computer, Xbox 360, Windows Mobile phone, and Zune, all in one place. At very least, they could do a better job than Best Buy at showing off PCs. (We're not sure how well the gurus Microsoft hired last fall to do that at other big-box stores worked out.)

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MySpace Founder: Facebook Has Already Won

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Rupert Murdoch will not be happy but the co-founder of MySpace's parent company before it was sold to News Corp in 2005 says the global battle against Facebook is over.
Facebook, said Los Angeles-based Brett Brewer, will dominate MySpace in worldwide user numbers.

Facebook and MySpace between them have around 280 million active users while Microsoft claims to reach about 500 million users a month worldwide through it various online networks and gaming ventures.

In an interview with the Herald this week from Los Angeles, Mr Brewer, who co-founded InterMix Media, which sold MySpace to News Corp, said MySpace would still grow strongly but not as fast as Facebook.

But Mr Brewer, who has left the company to set up an online ad network that deals with both companies, also warned that Facebook is likely to be usurped as the king of social networking sites within two years by another entrant which will most likely pop up with better user functionality for mobile phones.

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Twitter User Base Continues To Grow

Source: MediaPost

Despite the potential for information overload, short-message sharing services like Twitter appear to be taking hold with an ever-larger share of U.S. consumers.

By last December, 11% of Web-equipped U.S. adults said they used such a service to put out updates about themselves or follow the updates of others, according to a report released Thursday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Pew's findings are based on data from telephone interviews with 2,253 U.S. adults conducted late last year by Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

Perhaps demonstrating the rapid rise in short-message sharing services, just a few weeks earlier, in November of last year, 9% of Web users reported using a Twitter-like service, while in May of last year, 6% reported using the service.

What's more, Twitter -- which Pew deems "the most well-known" such service -- has only been around since August 2006.

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How To Rehabilitate Your Name On Google (GOOG)

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

Ever looked up your own name on Google (GOOG)? Sure you have -- and if you haven't, you should start: For an employer, googling a job applicant is just due diligence.
But what if you don't like your results?

That's what happened to the WSJ's Julia Angwin, whose top hit on the leading search engine was a story she wrote in 2005 that had a correction appended to it. How embarrassing.

So Julia set out to discover: How can individuals game Google to take back control of their own name? Here's what SEO (search engine optimization) experts told her:

Don't bother asking Google for help. The company will almost always refuse to intervene except in cases of identity theft, and even then they'll try to defer responsibility.

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Thinking Big Takes Audi From Obscure to Awesome

Strategy to Stand Out While Others Scale Back Delivers Big for Brand

Source: AdAge

Charlie Hughes drives an Audi. The veteran auto consultant is most closely associated with Mazda and Land Rover but now owns an A4. "It's becoming smart to show up in an Audi, and that was far less true two years ago," he said.

Audi CMO Scott Keough Though Audi of America's sales slipped in 2008, they fell far less than those of competitors amid a calamitous year for the auto industry. Audi's brand awareness, brand opinion and buyer consideration are all up substantially in the past two years. During that time, the brand's gains in that all-important last measure outstripped those of BMW, Mercedes and Lexus. And for the first time in 28 years, Audi outsold Volvo in the U.S. last year. In short: Audi might be the hottest auto brand on the market right now.

So how did the carmaker, which CMO Scott Keough admits has historically "been nichey and quirky and only a subset of a subset of a subset knew about us," change its fortunes so fast?

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Upside: Optimedia Offers Coping Strategies For Downturn

Source: MediaPost

Marketers are always under pressure, but it's amplified in a recession, as companies cut back on advertising budgets and consumers cut back on spending, squeezing them from two directions. Times are tough, but Optimedia CEO Antony Young has a blueprint for survival.

He is offering marketing execs his tactical strategies in a new white paper titled "Strategies in a Downturn."

Young is not trying to gloss over economic worries, stating up front that "demand is falling. As a result, there is a higher level of scrutiny for marketers and their agencies." Indeed, some of his 25 suggestions deal with the internal coordination of marketing and other disciplines within corporate organizations, especially the fiefdom of CFOs.

He also addresses research; for example, noting that modeling tends to be less effective at predicting consumer behavior in times of economic dislocation.

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Heinz Changes Label to Emphasize Tomato

Source: AdAge

Maybe change really is sweeping the nation. Heinz has changed the look of the label on its iconic ketchup bottle for the first time since the 1940s, replacing the gherkin below the product's name with a tomato dangling from a vine. The result: a more-healthful perception.

According to Heinz's consumer research, the new 'grown-not-made' label confirms the 'wholesomeness of Heinz tomato ketchup' for 68% of consumers. "With all due respect to the pickle, which has served Heinz dutifully for 110 years, it's time to shift the focus on the tomato," said Noel Geoffroy, director-Heinz ketchup. According to Heinz's consumer research, Ms. Geoffroy said, the new "Grown not made" label confirms the "wholesomeness of Heinz tomato ketchup" for 68% of consumers.

Heinz is the latest in a slew of marketers in recent weeks to underscore the fruits or vegetables from which their products are derived. Consumers have been recently reminded that Classic Lay's come from potatoes, that Tostitos are made from corn, and that Tropicana orange juice is 100% orange. According to Mintel International, "natural" was the most common claim made about new food and beverage products launched in 2008, with one in four bearing that distinction.

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House Approves Financing for Rural American Broadband Network

Source: MarketingVox

The House Appropriations Committee just approved financing up to $6 billion to develop broadband networks in rural America.

"For every dollar invested in broadband, the economy sees a 10-fold return on that investment," the Committee preached.

The $6 billion-for-broadband is part of an $825 billion stimulus package that was posed to Congress.

Advocates for the bill remain cautiously celebratory.

"Let's make sure the details are right," said Policy Director Ben Scott of Free Press. "You want to spend money on networks that aren't obsolete by the time you build them."

Policy-makers were admonished to ensure the new networks are fast, affordable and compliant with net neutrality principles (which posit that internet should not be terraced or filtered, especially based on the interests of a broadband company or advocates for morality).

"Tax dollars should not be used to fund closed, proprietary networks that shut out content providers, control consumer behavior, and encourage anticompetitive activity," Free Press wrote in a letter to chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

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Study: LinkedIn Beats Facebook In Adding Useful Services

Source: MediaPost

While both Facebook and LinkedIn continue to make inroads with the business community, LinkedIn appears to be moving more rapidly to address the unique social computing needs of its users, according to new research by independent analyst firm CMS Watch.

"Both platforms are increasingly important to professionals worldwide, but LinkedIn is beginning to make more progress towards services that can support enterprise-oriented social computing," said CMS Watch analyst Jarrod Gingras.

Overall, LinkedIn outperformed Facebook in CMS Watch's "Professional Networking" and "Community of Practice" use-cases.

From a functional standpoint, the report found that LinkedIn surpasses Facebook in Information Filtering and Discussion--although neither platform provides the broader blog, wiki, and project tracking services that support broader enterprise collaboration.

The findings are part of an update to CMS Watch's Enterprise Social Software & Collaboration Report 2009, which evaluates 26 social computing platforms against 11 potential enterprise use-cases.

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Media in the 21st Century: The Great Melding Pot

Source: Ketchum

As Americans buy products, seek information, plan their social lives, and make personal and business decisions, the lines between media channels in the 21st century have become increasingly blurred, according to the third annual U.S. Media Myths & Realities survey.

This melding of media means the content deliverables that were once owned by a specific medium are now found on nearly all platforms – a shift that has helped create an increasingly participatory and fragmented media landscape.

The survey, conducted in late 2008 and released today by Ketchum and the University of Southern California Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center, revealed, for instance, a steep rise in the use of shopping Web sites among consumers, doubling from 2006 to 2008 (17% to 35%). More revealing still, about half of those (44%) who visit shopping Web sites read consumer reviews and comments found on the site, demonstrating that these sites have transformed into virtual social gathering places and information destinations, rather than merely being a place to purchase goods. Consumers are placing more trust in the experiences of their online peers than they are on the retailer’s product descriptions, which is one example of the broadening definition of a social networking site.

This burgeoning participatory media landscape means media audiences are having just as much influence, if not more, than the content providers themselves.

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Madison Avenue Coalition To Focus On Behavioral Marketing, Consumer Protection

Source: Mediaweek

In an effort to stem potential regulation that would curtail new, sophisticated forms of online user targeting, four of Madison Avenue's leading trade groups have formed a task force to develop new self-regulatory rules for online behavioral advertising. The coalition, which includes the Association of National Advertisers, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and the Direct Marketing Association, is also being supported by the Council of Better Business Bureaus.

The initiative, announced this morning, is believed the first cross-industry self-regulatory initiative to develop industry guidelines for new forms of interactive advertising that tap consumer behavioral data, and to lobby government regulators and policymakers on the benefits to consumers.

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Newsstand Sales Slip 9%

Source: Mediaweek

Magazines’ second-half ’08 circulation reports aren’t due out for a few weeks, but the single-copy picture isn’t looking good. At a time when consumers are cutting back on discretionary spending, single-copy magazine sales declined 8 percent to 244 million in the third quarter from 266 million in the year-ago quarter, according to MagNet, which compiles magazine newsstand sales data. Magazines’ dollar sales of $1.2 billion were down less so (2 percent) from the year-ago period, before several celebrity weeklies raised their cover prices.For the first nine months of 2008, unit sales declined 9 percent to 718 million, with dollar sales off 2.7 percent to $3.4 billion.

Final figures aren’t in yet for the fourth quarter of last year, but sales are trending worse than the third quarter, even with a sales bump for newsweeklies’ commemorative election editions, said Gil Brechtel, president and CEO of MagNet, which represents about 98 percent of single-copy magazine sales in the U.S. “I think it’s higher gas prices, fewer visits to retailers, the economy in general,” he said.

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Recession Offers Opportunity To Boost Market Share

Source: Los Angeles Times

Raj Manufacturing, which makes swimwear, has added international accounts, launched an in-house luxury line and built 10,000 additional square feet of warehouse space while competitors cut back, David Pierson reports.

So far, the gamble is paying off.

Its popular, one-piece Animal Instinct's suit ($124 at retail) has tripled sales expectations despite the economic slump. There is, of course, sizable risk, Pierson points out. Even companies that finance their own expansions, such as Raj, can quickly spiral into debt if they miss their sales projections. "The challenge is having contingent sources of cash," says Al Osborne, senior associate dean and management professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

There is also the risk of overexpansion, as Starbucks will attest. But that's not stopping retailers Forever 21 and Kohl's, which recently bid $6.25 million to move into 46 Mervyns stores left vacant by the chain's Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Walt Disney is spending $1 billion to make over its California Adventure park. And pizza chain Shakey's is opening new locations for the first time in 15 years.

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Palm unveils new phone and operating system

Source: MercuryNews.com

Palm on Thursday showed off its long-delayed new operating system running on a brand-new phone, its much-anticipated effort to revive its business and reclaim relevance in the fast-changing mobile industry.

At a press event here, company Executive Chairman Jon Rubinstein, in one of his first public appearances since taking control of the company in 2007, introduced the new phone, dubbed the Pre, and the software, called Palm webOS. The combined effort represents the first fruits of the vision Rubinstein, who previously worked at Apple, has for Palm.

The new device and software take their cues from Apple's popular iPhone but have features aimed at making the Pre easier to use.

"Palm's positioned to create the best mobile device in the industry," Rubinstein said.
But the Sunnyvale company, whose Treos launched the smartphone business, faces some tough challenges, ranging from a poor economy to entrenched competitors to the logistics of launching a new phone and platform. And Palm left plenty of questions unanswered, not least of which are how much the phone will cost and exactly when the company will get the device in consumers' hands.

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U.S. Mobile Broadband Users To Surpass 140 Million By 2013

Source: MediaPost

More than 140 million U.S. consumers will be paying for mobile broadband services in 2013, up from 46 million in 2008, according to a new study by Parks Associates.

The research firm also predicts in its "Mobile Broadband: Beyond the Cell Phone" report that the number of smartphones sold in five years will more than triple to 60 million as multimedia devices go mainstream.

"Consumers will grow more comfortable with mobile broadband, and the service will become part of their daily lives, as they will be able to surf the Web, play games, share pictures, and connect via social networks from anywhere," said Anton Denissov, a research analyst at Parks Associates.

He noted that the smartphone sales have remained strong this year despite the recession, underscoring their allure as both status symbols and utilities. "We haven't seen the slowdown," said Denissov. "The smartphone market is either a lagging indicator or is more recession-resistant."

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Boy Scouts Get 21st-Century Makeover

Source: AdAge

The Boy Scouts of America are coming into the 21st century. The 100-year-old organization has adopted a branding department and a marketing group; is working with PR shop Fleishmann Hilliard on a centennial campaign; and is trying to make the scouting experience more relevant with moves such as adding GPS systems to the traditional compass for hiking trails. But in what looks to be the biggest marketing shift for the organization, the Boy Scouts are now targeting Latino youths -- a particularly sparse segment of membership in a traditionally Caucasian-dominated institution.

The dearth is especially large considering the slice Latinos claim in the national population pie chart -- one in five juveniles under 18 identifies himself or herself as Hispanic, according to the latest U.S. Census. Yet when matched up against Scout membership, the number shrinks to 3%.

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Why Your Facebook Profile Isn't Really Yours

Source: AdAge
By Abbey Klaassen

Facebook has ticked off various constituencies over the years with its various new-product introductions and policies, but recently it has pushed the button of one group that advertisers have learned are a force to be reckoned with: online moms. Specifically, in this case, lactivists -- or breast-feeding advocates.

The group, "Hey Facebook, Breastfeeding Is Not Obscene," was formed in the summer of 2007 to protest Facebook's deletion of photos of breast-feeding moms and has spawned MILC -- or Mothers International Lactation Campaign. The Facebook group totaled 61,000 members on Dec. 22 but added 25,000 members in the past week after several mainstream news outlets picked up on a virtual protest MILC had planned. The protest, held last Saturday, involved nursing moms staging a "virtual nurse-in" outside Facebook's Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters and moms changing profile pictures to photos of women or animals nursing. According to the Facebook group, more than 11,000 people participated.

It's worth noting that 11,000 out of Facebook's 50.5 million November unique visitors, according to ComScore isn't much in terms of sheer numbers. Of course, neither was the number of Twittering moms that caused Johnson & Johnson to change its Motrin ads after its mom-focused ad offended them (though that could have just as well been a case of the marketer taking the quickest path to silence). Facebook may be less easily swayed -- it has yet to change its terms of service, which state that pictures exposing a full breast will be taken down.

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The Web's Six Most Important Innovations Of 2008

Source: Wired
By Michael Calore

Every year, we see scores of innovations trickle onto the web — everything from new browser features to cool web apps to entire programming languages. Some of these concepts just make us smile, then we move on. Some completely blow our minds with their utility and ingenuity — and become must-haves.

For this list, we've compiled the most truly life-altering nuggets of brilliance to hit center stage in 2008: the ideas, products and enhancements to the web experience so huge that they make us wonder how we got along without them.

Nitpickers will notice that a couple of these technologies arrived two or three years ago. Others aren't even fully baked yet. But each innovation on our list reached a level of maturity, hit the point of critical mass, or stepped in to fill a burning need during 2008 that resulted in it significantly changing the landscape of the web.

Here's to the technologies currently making the web a better place than it was 12 months ago.

Identity Management
Few things carry more value than your digital identity, and yet most web users have only a tenuous grasp of it. That's because on the social web, identity is no longer just who you are. It's who you know, how you know them and how much you want them to know about you. On the web, your identity is explicitly tied to your relationships, both with your friends and with the websites you visit.

Three great technologies came to fruition this year to help you manage these complex interdependencies: OpenID, Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect.

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Blinkx Debuts 'Un-Roll' Streaming Video Ad Unit

Source: MediaPost

In the ongoing pursuit for the killer Web video ad, video search engine blinkx has introduced a new ad unit that allows users to engage with a brand continuously throughout the duration of a streaming video.

The Un-roll unit, as the company has dubbed it, was developed in-house by blinkx in response to the industry's need for an alternative format to traditional pre- and post-roll ads.
Available through blinkx AdHoc, the company's contextual ad platform for online video, the Un-roll integrates a brand with professionally-produced programming on the Web and serves up multiple touchpoints, including contextual overlay ads and logos, throughout the viewing experience.

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HubSpot Releases State of the Twittersphere Q4 2008 Marketing Report

HubSpot today released the first "State of the Twittersphere" report for Q4 2008. The report is a comprehensive analysis of Twitter trends based on real data pulled from hundreds of thousands of Twitter profiles accessed through the reports generated by HubSpot's Twitter Grader.

Specifically, the report analyzes data regarding Twitter user and traffic growth, twitter user base statistics, tweet statistics, statistics on followers and following, and geographic information.

The following are a few key findings from the report
- Twitter is dominated by newer users - 70 percent of Twitter
users joined in 2008
- An estimated five to ten thousand new accounts are opened
per day
- Thirty-five percent of Twitter users have ten or fewer followers
- Nine percent of Twitter users follow no one at all
- There is a strong correlation between the number of followers
you have and the number of people you follow

HubSpot's State of the Twittersphere report is inspired by Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2008, which reviewed survey data taken from a few hundred bloggers.

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Optimizing A Lead Generation Marketing Budget In Tough Times

Source: MediaPost

By David Dowhan

In 2009, we're all going to hear more talk than ever before about what constitutes "quality" online leads. And there will be plenty of accompanying disagreement about what the word quality means as lead buyers try to squeeze the most out of their pressured budgets.

In some markets, it may take days or even months before a buyer can truly assess the quality of a given lead. Moreover, quality can be volatile month to month, even from the same lead source. If you can't reliably measure quality, how do you know if you're paying the right price for leads? How can you effectively manage your call center when lead quality goes up and down?

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New Study Reveals What a Client Wants in an Agency

Source: Adweek

Clients said "having an understanding of their marketplace" was the most important criteria for selecting an agency, according to a new survey that probes how clients view agencies from consultancy Reardon Smith Whittaker.

Grasping the company's strategic direction as well as the creative work presented were tied for the second-most important factors cited in the report titled, "A Client's View of Agency Performance." This was followed by "offering something fresh and new."

This year the Cincinnati-based company polled 184 client marketing and brand executives from the likes of AT&T, Dunkin' Brands, Merck, MetLife and Revlon via an online questionnaire that was distributed in November.

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10 Advertising Words to Avoid in 2009

Source: Entrepreneur.com

The economy, unemployment, companies folding, people losing their homes--2008 has left consumers wary of businesses. And that lack of consumer confidence requires straightforward, honest advertising messages to regain marketplace security. In 2009, perhaps more than ever, the words you use in your copywriting can determine whether you make a sale or lose a customer.

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