Beginning with this week’s issue, The Economist will run a section devoted entirely to China. This is only the third time in 170 years that the magazine has created a country-specific section. But as Editor in Chief John Micklethwait told Audience Development, “China is getting so large that trying to constrain it in a section like geo-politics was difficult.”
China is a broadly-interesting topic, Micklethwait believes, affecting the magazine’s entire global readership. The British-born magazine took the same stance during WWII with its still-existing U.S. section.
Circulation of The Economist within China is a miniscule 3,740, and Micklethwait is not counting on it growing; rather, he is counting on it increasing readership long-term in the U.S., among “That group [that] wants to know more about China than what they’re being told.”
In addition to mainstream business and politics, The Economist has reporters on the ground to cover rural life, social changes and emerging trends.
The Economist claims a 2011 circulation of 1,486,838, and a modest year-over-year growth of 3.03%. But Omniture clocked the digital edition with a swift 7,610,593 unique visitors in December 2011, and 34,124,539 page views.
Research: Facebook Ads Offer 45% Cost-Per-Click Savings
Facebook enables advertisers to make “considerable savings” in online marketing, found TBG Digital (TBG) in its latest Global Facebook Advertising Report.
As a Facebook advertising firm, TBG is certainly vested in proving great results. But, it had its methodology and findings vetted by the UK’s University of Cambridge, and drew data from its own heavyweight client base, including JetBlue, CapitalOne, Dell and Heineken.
The report, which was based on 326 billion impressions in 205 countries, and from 256 TBG clients. It reveals these findings:
- Strong incentives for advertisers to stay within Facebook, with potential 45% reduction in cost-per-clicks (CPCs)
- Stabilizing Facebook growth in US created an increase in advertising costs
- Facebook earned 23% more in ad rates since Q1 2011
- Ad performance improved by 18% in 2011
- The top five Sectors comprised almost 70% of total impressions
- The financial sector accounted for more than 60% of impressions in offsite campaigns
- CPCs increased from Thanksgiving to Saturday December 17
TBG discovered reductions in CPCs for advertisers that run campaigns to recruit fans or that require users to install applications. Savings reached 45%, in contrast with those that direct traffic away from Facebook. That is a strong incentive for companies to build presence within Facebook. For example, financial services firms often direct users back to their own websites to complete a quotation or sign up, but tailored applications that perform the same functions within Facebook drives down advertising costs.
Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM) rates, the other core cost comparator which indicates how much Facebook earns every time an advert is shown to a user, increased by 8% on average over Q4, for a total increase of 23% in 2011.
Click-Through Rates (CTRs) also increased by 18% during for the entire year2011. This, believes TBG, indicates that ad output is resonating with users more, and indicates a greater that Facebook advertisers have a better understanding and use of targeting methods like time of day, demographics and user interests.
TBG assessed 18 “bellwether industry sectors” for volume and effectiveness. The top five sectors, ranked by volume, were finance; retail; food and drink; games; and entertainment, which accounted for nearly 70% of total impressions on Facebook. TBG Digital CEO Simon Mansell commented that “Users are increasingly discerning about what they view on social media networks, so it is in all advertisers’ interests to ensure that their content resonates with their target audiences and fits with their usage habits. Food and drink recorded the highest CTRs, largely due to successful fanning campaigns in that sector.
Device’s Screen Size May Determine Conversion Likelihood
While search advertisers experience higher click-through-rates for mobile phone and tablet search campaigns than for desktop search campaigns (at 166% and 137% respectively) according to a November 2011 report from Macquarie Group, those clicks are less likely to convert to sales in a direct relationship to screen size. The report employed Efficient Frontier advertiser data. Efficient Frontier found that mobile conversion rates were at just 31% of the average desktop campaign’s, while tablet conversion rates were much more on par (96%). Meanwhile, the average cost-per-click (CPC) on mobile phone search campaigns was slightly higher (108%) than for desktop search campaigns, although CPCs for tablet campaigns were on average 85% of desktop search campaign CPCs.
Chart: U.S. Finance Sector Data, Q2 2011
About this chart: Source: Efficient Frontier / Context Optional, "Global Digital Marketing Performance Report," July 2011. The analysis was completed based on data from Efficient Frontier search engine marketing customers and the resulting Efficient Frontier’s Customer Index. The Efficient Frontier Customer Index represents a subset of Efficient Frontier clients who have spend data for six consecutive quarters or more whose resulting SEM metrics are then normalized to average industry category contributions established by multiple third party data providers.
Report: First-Half Magazine Ad Spending Grows 4%
Total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue for the first six months of 2011 closed at $9,639,726,960, posting a +4.0% increase versus the same period in 2010, according to Publishers Information Bureau (PIB). Ad pages during the first half totaled 79,426.11, a +1.3% gain compared to January through June, 2010.
During the second quarter of 2011, magazine PIB revenue closed at $5,345,919,282, generating a +2.4% increase against the same period last year. PIB recorded 43,671.20 ad pages in the second quarter, a gain of +0.3% compared to April through June, of 2010. This marks the fifth consecutive quarter that magazines have posted increases in both PIB ad revenues and pages, beginning with the second quarter of 2010.
PIB ad revenue and pages grew in seven major advertising categories January through June, 2011: Apparel & Accessories; Automotive; Drugs & Remedies; Financial, Insurance & Real Estate; Retail; Technology; and Toiletries & Cosmetics.
Chart: Top 10 Least Effective Ads, Q2 2011
About this chart: Source: Ace Metrix, “Quarterly Top 10 National Ads,” July 2011. Definition: Ace Score is the measure of ad creative effectiveness based on viewer reaction to national TV ads. Respondents are randomly selected and representative of the U.S. TV viewing audience. The results are presented on a scale of 0-950, which represents scoring on creative attributes such as relevance, persuasion, watchability, information, attention, and others.
Study: Local Broadcasting Generates $1.17 Trillion in Annual GDP
Television and radio broadcasting contributes to 7% of the nation's GDP, or $1.17 trillion annually, according to an NAB-commissioned study conducted by Woods & Poole Economics, with support from BIA/Kelsey. The report, “An Analysis of the Importance of Commercial Local Radio and Television Broadcasting to the United States Economy,” which was released on Tuesday, also finds 2.52 million jobs attributable to the industry every year.
The study focused on local commercial broadcast radio and television stations including locally owned and operated commercial stations, affiliate stations and independent stations. Noncommercial radio and TV stations and the operations of over-the-air broadcast networks were not part of the analysis, except for networks' owned-and-operated local television stations.
The study calculated that the local broadcast industry employs over 300,000 people directly and in support industries, creating $49.32 billion in GDP annually. Television accounts for almost 187,000 of these jobs, as well as over $30 billion in GDP, while radio employs 118,000 people and contributes a little over $18 billion to the GDP.
The study also examined the associated economic effects of direct employment by local broadcasting has through the consumption of goods and services by industry employees, and concluded that local commercial broadcasting generates almost $135 billion in additional GDP and more than 833,000 jobs nationwide.
The study estimates advertising on local broadcast television and radio stations as a stimulant generating an additional $986 billion in economic activity and supporting 1.38 million jobs.
Chart: Newspaper Ad Revenue, Select Verticals, Q1 2011
About this chart: Source: Newspaper Association of America. NAA makes every effort to have the most complete and up-to-date information available on the website at all times. New and revised figures for this data are posted approximately 3 months after the end of the quarter.
Chart: Top 10 Internet Advertisers, Q1 2011
About this chart: Source: Kantar Media. Kantar Media analyzes print, radio, TV, internet, cinema, mobile, social media, and outdoor worldwide, and tracks more than 3 million brands.
Chart: Outdoor Advertising Expenditures, Q1 2010 v. 2011
About this chart: Source: Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), May 2011 in association with Kantar Media.