Myth-bashing Research – With Stats That Do Not Lie

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Maybe Run of Network Is More Effective After All?

Tacoda Systems and iVillage conducted a study earlier this year regarding online audience management targeting and found that simply placing relevant  ads in a content group on iVillage was not as effective as placing the same ads throughout the site according to visitor behavior.

Results indicate that those visitors targeted outside a specific content channel with advertising displayed more positive reactions than those targeted within the channel as follows:

Does it serve advertisers better to have their ads featured in specific content groups, or to track visitors according to their online activity? This study suggests following visitor paths is highly effective, but many companies continue to play it safe by only going as far as relating their creative to specific content.

(Excerpted from a 5/17/04 article in e-marketer)

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Who uses FREE (natural, organic) search?

The latest installment of iProspect's Search Engine User Attitudes Survey indicates disparities among various demographic groups in terms of the types of search results each deems most relevant. Conducted by the search marketing firm in conjunction with WebSurveyor, Strategem Research there are interesting findings.

64.8 percent of college graduates chose natural search results as more relevant, 56.2 percent of non-college graduates chose natural listings. Web user experience and usage frequency were also measured.

Over 60 percent of participants who have been online at least four years clicked on an organic result listing, as compared to 54 percent of users with less than three years of Web experience.

In addition, more than 65 percent who use the Internet four or more times daily picked a natural search result, while 56.3 percent of those who use the Web less than four times a day opted for a natural listing.

Marketing Tip: Keep optimizing your search listings, it just might outperform paid placements.

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What Do Consumers Think of Rich Media?

The May issue of Doubleclick’s Smart Marketing Report had some interesting answers. "If you ask consumers about different formats of online advertising, reaction varies widely. Standard banners and smaller units have only a 20% "very" negative rating, while pop-unders and pop-ups exceed 60% "very" negative ratings. Marketers, of course, take this information with a grain of salt—for example, just because consumers don't love snail-mailed credit card offers doesn't mean they don't act on them or make related purchases in the future.

"Just as all consumers are not alike, the same holds true for underdog formats like pop-ups and pop-unders. Orbitz, which has made tremendous strides in establishing a brand through dynamic online ads like pop-unders, has found that the games their ads feature are so popular that their site now includes an archive of pop-under ad games.

Two recent studies show users enjoy rich media more and are clicking more on email they’ve opted in for …..

Spotlight on Youth: Teen Girls and Young Men.

Girls Lead Online Activity: Survey

JupiterResearch found after surveying 1,800 teens online that surprisingly, girls go online at a younger age and are slightly more influential than boys. Girls are more active online at 14 than boys are at 17, per Jupiter. Teen girls spend about 22% more time online than boys-but teen boys spend 150% more time playing games online.

The most active kids (averaging eight hours per week online) account for about 17% of all online teens. These "teen influencers" are popular with peers, style-conscious, and influential with family and friends. They undertake the broadest array of online activities and tend to be older and wealthier than average. Fully 53% of influencers are girls, reports Darien, CT-based Jupiter.

Teens spend an average seven hours a week online versus 10 hours watching TV. Seventy-one percent regularly use instant messaging; 30% use personal pages and Weblogs. Teens go online for games, music and movies more often than adults, but seek less online about sports and TV than adults do.

(Direct Newsline 5/14/04)

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Young Male Viewers – Do They Watch TV? Ongoing Debate

Young men are either watching less TV, or they are watching more. Or they are simply watching TV at different times. Or maybe they are playing video games instead. At least those are the contradictory findings of two new studies released recently, which are adding to the confusion surrounding the mystery of missing young male viewers. According to a new survey from New Media Strategies, gamers--primarily young males-- say that TV is on the outs. (MediaPost, 5/112/04)

http://www.mediapost.com/dtls_dsp_news.cfm?newsId=250818

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Spending for online content rises in 2003 - Reuters

A new study released by the Online Publishers Association and comScore Networks shows that spending by U.S. consumers on online content increased by 19% in 2003, to $1.56 billion. The two leading categories are personals/dating ($449.5 million) and business/investment spending ($334 million), both of which reported sizeable year-over-year increases. Other top categories include: entertainment/lifestyle ($214 million), personal growth ($91.1 million) and sports ($38.2 million). The findings, however, do not include paid content transactions from non-browser Internet applications (e.g. Apple iTunes). Subscriptions accounted for 89% of online content spending, with one-time payments (games, greeting cars, news) accounting for the other 11%.

http://www.corante.com/internet/redir/46384.html

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New Study Shows Big Drop in Book Sales (AP)

Not even Harry Potter could prevent a big drop in book sales in 2003. With a struggling economy and competition for time from other media, 23 million fewer books were sold last year than in 2002, according to a report issued by the Book Industry Study Group, a non-for-profit research organization. "We believe this is due to a variety of factors, the biggest being the used book market," said Albert N. Greco, an industry consultant and a professor of business at the graduate school of Fordham University. - 

Read the whole story...
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PUBLISHING_DECLINING_
SALES?SITE=CTBRP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

(05/17/04)

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