Media buyers and planners hoping to take advantage of Campaign 2012, take note: cable news leads the pack among sources, with local TV in second place, but on the decline. A surprising second-to-last, the Internet. The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press’ 2012 campaign news survey discovered the trends in a January survey of 1,507 adults nationwide.
Pew reports that fewer Americans are closely following the campaign than four years ago, which has caused long-term and sharpening declines in the number of people tuning into local TV and network news.
Cable tops the sources in 2012, at 36%, but is only treading water. That despite the fact that cable nets have hosted most of the Republican debates, which are among a campaign year’s strongest draws. Almost half of Republicans (47%) watched a Republican debate during this campaign, up from 32% during the 2008 campaign.Still, cable news “reaches a substantial number across age and partisan lines,” reports Pew. Republicans tune into Fox News, Democrats into CNN and MSNBC.
Only 20% of Americans “regularly learn something” about the campaign or its candidates from local daily papers, a plummet from 31% in 2008. Local TV is down as well.
It is easy to blame it all on the Internet, but not so fast: the Internet as a source has gained only 1% since the 2008 campaign. The Internet had jumped from 13 to 24%, from campaign 2004 (Bush/Kerry) to campaign 2008 (McCain/Obama). Pew speculates that the Internet is the key source for a younger demographic, who are less likely to be Republican. Just 20% of those younger than 30 followed the campaign closely, down from 31% in 2008.
Upfront Digital: Super Bowl Internet Dip | Google’s Groupon Answer | eReader Malaise
- Internet usage in the U.S. dipped about 20% during the Sunday night Super Bowl broadcast, reports Multichannel News. That compared with an average Sunday, and despite the "Social Super Bowl" hype. NBC’s online video feed of the game took 6.2% of all downstream broadband traffic at 9 p.m.
- Google Offers, the Internet giant’s answer to Groupon, has just launched in its 40th major city. With this week’s launch in Oklahoma City, Okla., and Omaha, Neb., plus ten cities in the two weeks prior (including Boston and Washington, DC), Google Offers has aggressively expanded in just six months. As WebProNews describes, Groupon turned down an acquisition offer from Google.
- Barclays Capital is guessing that an Apple HDTV, priced at $1,500, could quickly take 5% of the HDTV market—bringing with it the accompanying Apple ad platform. As MobileMarketingWatch describes, the Apple TV would be less of a television, than a delivery vehicle for gaming, video, content delivery and apps, all of which presumably will be funded in part by iAds.
- The Washington Post yesterday launched free iPhone and apps for its Facebook-powered Social Reader app, reports the Poynter Institute. With the apps, users have “mobile-optimized access” to articles that participating Facebook friends have read, not just from the Post but from more than 30 participating publications. The Post claims 11 million people are using the app on Facebook.com.
- Digital magazine publishers may see a plateau on eReaders, eMarketer forecasts, and based on stats from Verso Advertising and Burst Media. While almost 16% of U.S. Internet users surveyed in December, 2011, owned an eReader, those who plan to buy one is declining. The good news—for marketers anyway—is that eReaders are losing ground to tablet computers, with their larger screens and higher processing capacity. Tablets are expected to see double-digit growth, reaching 89.5 million users in 2014. However the eReader/tablet horserace ends, the mobile ad opportunity is still a powerful one.
Upfront Digital: Sports Piracy | Google Underwhelms Subcommittee | Honda Wins with Bueller
- Sports piracy brings harsh justice, and from on high. The LA Times reports that federal authorities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have “blitzed” 16 websites illegally streaming sports events, and have brought criminal charges against the owner of nine of them. Police arrested Yonjo Quiroa, 28, of Comstock Park, Mich., and charged him with criminal copyright infringement. Quiroa live-streamed NFL, NBL, NHL and World Wrestling Federation events.
- Google’s talks with House lawmakers over privacy concerns “don’t seem to be going well at all,” reports AllThingsD. Two high-ranking Google officials met with members of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Wednesday, to discuss a new policy that unifies 60 Google services under a single user name. “[Google] danced around actual details, and instead spoke in generalities, highlighting their efforts to ‘enhance the user experience’,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. The proposed privacy changes would grant Google greater license to share user account information between services, outside of the users’ control.
- More grist for the Apple iOS versus Android mill: comScore reported that the Google Android platform took 47.3% share of the smart-phone platform market in December, versus Apple iOS at 29.6%. comScore believes Android’s popularity is the driving force behind Samsung’s 25.3% smart phone market share. That compared to That compared to Apple’s 12.4% share. Apple gained slightly Q3 to Q4, with a 2.2% bump while Samsung held steady.
- Honda proved cross-media value this week. As AdAge Digital reports, Honda’s Ferris Bueller-themed Super Bowl spot (one of the many leaked beforehand) collected 4.4 million views last week, on outlets led by YouTube. The company Visible Measures charted the top 10 ad views, most of them Super Bowl leaks. Second at 3.09 million views was Volkswagen’s “The Bark Side” ad, in which a bunch of dogs bark the Darth Vader theme from “Star Wars.”
- The Twitter Peek has died, reports Engadget. This toy-like Twitter-and-email-only handset, released by Peek in 2009, never caught fire. Its value proposition was $299 for a bare-bones device with lifelong mobile service. But the devices ceased to work on Monday, complained users. Peek CEO Amol Sarva, confirmed the death, and has no plans to replace the devices: Peek will stick to aftermarket software.
Millennials Trust Digital Word-of-Mouth Over Advertising
Perhaps Facebook’s estimation of its buying influence is not exaggerated after all. eMarketer reports that “Millennials,” who are now aged 18 to 34, widely use and create online content to recommend or dissuade each other in brand, product or service purchases. Fully 49% of millennials will rely upon anonymous, user-generated content from third-party websites (51%) to influence a buying decision, and presumably, will not question the source of that content. The remaining 49% relies upon friends and family, while 67% of baby boomers (aged 47 to 65) do the same.
What millenials rely upon far less is advertising, branding, or a company’s website. The upshot for brands is that they need to be transparent, says Lisa Pearson, VP of global marketing at Bazaarvoice, the company that provided the data. They need to understand that “There’s a huge group of consumers right now who just don’t trust them.”
As to where they relate their own positive experiences, 42% prefer to do so on social media, versus just 17% among baby boomers. Sixteen percent of boomers will call a company directly, versus just 4% of millennials.
Facebook Releases Ad Revenue: Huge and Growing, Arguably Justified
As required in its IPO filing, Facebook has released its ad revenue, for 2009-2011. Ads brought in $3.2 billion in 2011, a year-over-year (YOY) growth of 69% from $1.9 billion in 2010, leading Business Insider’s Jim Edwards to declare, “Wow. This is a massive ad sales business.”
In terms of volume, there was a 42% increase in the number of ads delivered in 2011, and, an 18% increase in the price of ads.
In its prospectus, Facebook described its value to advertisers: “Advertisers can engage with more than 800 million monthly active users (MAUs) on Facebook or subsets of our users based on information they have chosen to share with us such as their age, location, gender, or interests. We offer advertisers a unique combination of reach, relevance, social context, and engagement to enhance the value of their ads.” In terms of growth, Facebook claims those 845 million MAUs as of December 31, 2011, is a YOY increase of 39% as compared 2010. Facebook went on to describe how it creates value for advertisers, with—
- Relevance, as ”Advertisers can specify [user subsets by] demographic factors and specific interests that they have chosen to share with us on Facebook or by using the Like button around the web.”
- Social Context, which highlights a user’s friends’ connections with a particular brand or business (e.g., that a friend Liked a product or checked in at a restaurant). We believe that users find marketing messages more engaging when they include social context."
- Engagement, as the shift to the more social web “creates new opportunities for businesses to engage with interested customers. Any brand or business can create a Facebook Page to stimulate an ongoing dialog with our users.”
The Economist summed it up this way in a poll: “It collects huge amounts of data about its 800m plus users, can serve up creepily well-targeted ads.”
But does it work?
Advertisers use Likes as a kind of social media “Nielsen rating,” but the ratings can be disappointing. In terms of engagement, only slightly more than 1% of Facebook users who “Like” brands like Procter & Gamble or Coca-Cola actually engage with the brands, according to research. And engagement can include reposting a clever ad from YouTube—good for branding, but without measurable sales.
Earlier this month, TBG Digital (TBG) in its Global Facebook Advertising Report observed “considerable savings” were possible in cost-per-clicks (CPCs), up 45%, for advertisers on Facebook. But, those advertisers must keep the clicker within Facebook: directing a visitor away from Facebook and onto the advertiser’s own website drives up the CPC.
So the ad revenue is impressive, as are the claims. But as an effective ad platform, Facebook still defies analysis. Likely it will have to come up with more solid figures for its annual investor calls.
WSJ Live Launches YouTube Channel
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) today launched its dedicated YouTube channel, reports Investors Business Daily. First among its advertisers visible to YouTube viewers: the Ron Paul campaign (with a banner ad and 13-minute streaming infomercial), the United Arab Emirates and Boeing.
Key among the on-demand content is its “Off Duty” lifestyle show, based on the section of the same name in WSJ’s Saturday editions. WSH reporter Wendy Bounds will host “Off Duty,” airing every business day at 6pm EST, then available on demand. WSJ is treating YouTube as another distribution channel for its WSJ Live, which offers four hours of live programming per day. WSJ Live is available already on the iPad and Smart TVs. The WSJ Live app is also broadly available, via Apple TV, Google TV and Roku. WSJ claims its Live app for iPad has been downloaded more than 160,000 times since launch in September 2011. A quick check of the Apple iTunes store reveals a five-star rating for the app.
While the “Off Duty” segment is new, it joins several existing segments including Digits, Mean Street, Markets Hub and Opinion.
Twitter “100% Focused on Advertising” Says CEO
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said yesterday that while the company is tempted to pursue e-commerce and brand-sentiment analytics, it is focused near-term on its ad products, reports Ad Age.
Costolo was speaking at All Things D's media conference on Monday night. As tempting as it is to produce a slew of related products, Costolo said the company does not need to add more components to its business. Rather, “We just need to scale it up" he said, referring to the ad business. He went on to describe the company’s strategy of increasing the number of advertisers, and expansion into geographic markets.
At present, Twitter offers a streamlined ad inventory, which has most of that functionality. The portfolio includes:
- Promoted tweets that appear in search results, and in target geographies
- Promoted trends, currently in beta, placing advertisers alongside discussion strings
- Promoted accounts, which appear at a premium in Twitter’s “Who To Follow” suggestions
- Enhanced profile pages, visible without logging into Twitter; in use by just a few invited companies (like Coca-Cola and Virgin Atlantic, depicted below), but reportedly available to all brands as of February 1
- And Advertiser Analytics, three dashboards depicting campaign metrics like total impressions, retweets, replies and follows.
Costolo ducked the question about the Enhanced Profile price—is it truly $25,000? But with prompting by a reporter/interviewer, Costolo described the price as seeming “Perfectly reasonable.” Enhanced profiles enable rich background graphics, embedded video and guided promotions, versus the simple 140-word "micro-blogs" available at no cost.
Upfront Digital: Sundance on YouTube | Jeep Crashes Funeral | H&M’s Facebook Furor
- Twitter will launch its enhanced brand ads on February 1, according to Business Insider. The Facebook-like functionality has been available to a few select brands, including Coca-Cola, but now will be generally available—at a pricetag of $25,000.
- ESPN and Jeep caught heat from Digiday, which named the network and automaker in its Bad Ad of the Week.”ESPN covered the memorial service of former Penn State head football Joe Paterno. A rich-media ad for Jeep had a Jeep Wrangler “crash through” the computer screen, as well as Paterno’s casket, which sat dead center.
- The Sundance Film Festival and YouTube have cut a deal to rent out Sundance titles, reports Streaming Media. Most Sundance titles will rent for $2.99 to $3.99 for a 48-hour rental--$1 or more cheaper than from Comcast. The Sundance Film Festival wrapped over the weekend.
- Consumer-goods maker Procter & Gamble will “throw caution to the digital wind,” reports AdExchanger. Chairman and CEO Bob McDonald in an earnings conference call said the company would eliminate 1,600 non-manufacturing jobs, and invest heavily in its digital marketing. "In the digital space, with things like Facebook and Google and others, we find that return on investment of the advertising when properly designed, when the big idea is there, can be much more efficient."
- Angry consumers used Facebook to storm the gates of clothing retailer H&M last week. They accused the company of lifting a designer’s ad idea, reports Adweek. The company has begun marketing goods with the simple tagline “You look nice today,” with a red heart shape. Atlanta artist Tori LaConsay created the tagline—complete with red heart—for a sign in her neighborhood, in 2008. She was unpaid for the sign. Supporters have since deluged H&M’s Facebook site with hate messages. H&M at first attempted to dismiss the similarities as a “coincidence,” but is now seeking a resolution with LaConsay.
Study: Facebook “Likes” Weak on Brand Engagement
Advertisers use Facebook Likes as a kind of social media “Nielsen rating,” but the ratings are disappointing. Only slightly more than 1% of Facebook users who “Like” brands like Procter & Gamble or Coca-Cola actually engage with the brands, finds marketing researchers Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. Engagement can include viral marketing, like posting a clever ad from YouTube.
As AdAge describes, the Institute used one of Facebook’s metrics, “People Talking About This,” to track likes, posts, comments and so forth about the brands. The Institute tracked the metric for 200 top brands over six weeks. What they found is that 1.3% of those who like a brand bother to discuss, share or otherwise engage with the brand. They click the Like button for the brand, then largely forget it.
The numbers get worse. Subtract new Likes from the figures, and only .45% of those who Like a brand actively engage with it.
The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute concluded that Facebook engagement preaches to the choir; those users who do engage were largely sold on a brand to begin with. Facebook branding is poor at converting light buyers into loyal fans. The Institute cautions against "putting a disproportionate amount of effort into engagement and strategies to get people to talk about a brand, when you should be spending more time getting more light buyers."
Perhaps a better use of Facebook is its "Featured" advertisements, that sit above the right-column ticker. The ads use polls, videos and so forth for immediate, opt-in engagement.
Interestingly, eMarketer reported today that 97% of marketers agree that social media provide value and benefits to their businesses. “We’re trying to get people out of the mindset that social media is just for pushing your messages out," said a spokesperson, "It is about communicating, but it’s also about listening.” With financial services, a Charles Schwab engagement is far more high-touch than is a retail engagement. In sharp contrast to the Ehrenberg-Bass findings, 44% of marketers in the eMarketer report find Facebook fans valuable in recruiting other customers, and 18% said Facebook fans have higher conversion rates and make more frequent purchases.
Nevada GOP to Bypass AP and Release Caucus Results on Twitter, Google
The Nevada Republican Party will release real-time caucus results on February 4 via Google and Twitter, reports The Poynter Institute. The Iowa Republican Party also worked with Google earlier this month for its caucus, and Google released the rolling counts—the way the Associated Press (AP) usually does. Google will release the results on a Google Map on the Nevada Republican Party’s website.
Starting at 8pm EST, the Nevada GOP will also tweet statewide totals from @nvgop, and will release precinct-level results that developers can access via the Twitter API.
As Poynter describes, the AP has “prided itself” on being the source for immediate polling results in every state and national election, but this is the second instance in a month that “a new publishing platform is upending the old order.”
That said, the AP is more practiced, and there is something to be said for less immediate results. In Iowa, news outlets using Google results versus AP’s were slightly ahead in reporting the results and declared Mitt Romney the winner; but AP held off releasing results until it was certain every precinct had been counted in the tight race. Rick Santorum took the race in a recount.
AP spokesman Paul Colford said the organization welcomes Google and Twitter to the political-reporting arena, but welcomed them guardedly. Colford wrote, “AP has assured its members and subscribers that we will strive to exercise the quality control with the Nevada numbers that is the hallmark of our election services and work with the GOP and Twitter to help ensure the accuracy of the results as we report them.”