Thursday, January 26, 2012

US Mobile Ad Spend $2.61 Billion in 2012

Great summary below by eMarketer on the growth in mobile ad spend. Smartphone penetration, tablet growth, and geo-targeting driving spend.



US Mobile Ad Spending Soars Past Expectations

JANUARY 26, 2012 

Advertisers will spend $2.61 billion on mobile this year


  
The US mobile advertising market is growing far faster than expected, driven by the rapid ascension of Google’s mobile search advertising business, advertisers’ growing attraction to display inventory on tablet and smartphone devices, and the growing roster of mobile ad networks such as Google’s AdMob, Apple’s iAd and Millennial Media.

eMarketer estimates mobile advertising spending in the US reached $1.45 billion in 2011, up 89% from $769.6 million in 2010. This year, US mobile ad spending will grow 80% to $2.61 billion.

US Mobile Ad Spending, 2011-2016 (billions and % change)

eMarketer previously forecast US mobile ad spending would grow 47% to $1.8 billion in 2012, up from $1.2 billion last year. The significantly higher revision is the result of several factors, most notably a stream of new market data made available in the past few months from major advertising publishers and research firms.

“Right now there are many researchers out there basically looking at nearly the same empirical data about the mobile marketplace and drawing completely disparate conclusions,” said Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst.

Comparative Estimates: US Mobile Ad Spending, 2011-2016 (millions)

“In order to form the most complete picture possible about the mobile ad market, we think it’s essential to evaluate multiple information sources, rather than a single set of survey data—especially as the market remains immature,” added Elkin.

eMarketer estimates US mobile search advertising more than doubled in 2011, when spending grew to $652.5 million, up from just $253.2 million in 2010. This year, advertisers will spend $1.28 billion on mobile search ads in the US, eMarketer estimates. eMarketer previously forecast mobile search advertising would reach $349.4 million in 2011 and $594.8 million in 2012. The revisions have helped put search in first place among mobile formats, with 49% of total mobile spending this year.

US Mobile Ad Spending Share, by Format, 2011-2016 (% of total)

eMarketer estimates US mobile display ad spending, which includes spending on banner and rich media ads, will grow 93.5% to $861.7 million in 2012, after reaching $445.4 million in 2011. Spending on mobile video advertising will grow an estimated 122% to $151.5 million this year, up from $68.2 million in 2011.

eMarketer forms its forecast for mobile advertising spending through a meta-analysis of estimates from research firms that track mobile ad spending and impressions, reported data from major mobile advertising publishers, and other sources. eMarketer also conducts interviews with executives at agencies, brands and mobile advertising publishers who provide perspective on the development of the mobile advertising business as a whole, as well as the revenues for individual companies.

Inforgraphic: Optimize Your Tweeting for Click-thrus

Useful infographic via ReadWriteWeb and methods to optimize your tweets for retweeting.



HubSpot's resident social media scientist Dan Zarella released a new report on how to get the highest number of click-throughs for your tweets.
Some of the information (presented below in a handy infographic) is stuff we already knew: Tweets between 120 and 130 characters tend to get retweeted more often than longer and shorter tweets and tweeting links at a slow rate gets more clicks, for example. But other findings - including click-through rates for tweets containing the word "daily is out" by paper.li users - were surprising.
ctr_infographic.jpg

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Facebook IPO: Morgan Stanley's Deal Trophy

Great Wall Street Journal article on Morgan Stanley's big coup: to lead the Facebook IPO.



Hunting for Big IPO Game

Already-Dominant Morgan Stanley Tech Team Sets Sights on Facebook Deal





Last year, Morgan Stanley's technology bankers got wind that some directors of Pandora Media Inc. were wary of hiring the bank to lead the online radio company's public offering.
Michael Grimes, co-head of global tech banking at Morgan Stanley, and his team wore concert T-shirts of their favorite bands from their Pandora profiles, including the Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath, under blue blazers when making their pitch. A person present at the meeting said Mr. Grimes assured Pandora that his team only makes suggestions to clients and doesn't dictate what they should do. The bank got tapped for the deal.
[MSFACE]Bloomberg News
Michael Grimes of Morgan Stanley
Now, with the chance to lead the much-anticipated IPO of Facebook Inc., Morgan Stanley's tech team is going after a much bigger prize. The offering is expected to raise as much as $10 billion in what could count as one of the largest U.S. public debuts ever.
For the past year, Morgan Stanley and rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have been viewed as leading contenders for the coveted "lead left" spot in Facebook's IPO prospectus, which goes to the bank with the most responsibility for the offering. Goldman was presumed to have an upper hand after arranging a private offering of Facebook shares last year, though its odds were seen as declining amid a flub in that process that led the bank to limit the deal to non-U.S. investors. After that, executives at the social-networking company became less enamored with the bank, according to people familiar with the matter.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
Often referred to as a boutique inside a big bank, Morgan Stanley's tech team helped take public roughly half of the 23 Internet companies that listed in the U.S. last year, according to Dealogic. It ranked tops for global and U.S. Internet and technology initial public offerings last year.
The $115 million it made in fees for U.S.-listed Internet IPOs last year was nearly twice the amount earned by its nearest competitor in terms of fee revenue, Deutsche Bank AG.
Facebook is expected to file initial documents for its offering soon. Bankers—who help companies decide how to price shares, tell the company's story and allocate shares to investors—have been waiting for word that they will get a role. Together, these financial advisers are expected to reap fees of as much as $220 million from the Facebook deal, though the company could negotiate lower fees because the deal is such a trophy.
The tap from the social-networking company to lead the deal could prove a boost for Morgan Stanley, which, like many of its rivals, has been struggling amid an upheaval in the trading operations and new regulations that have crimped profits.
The tech team's importance to Morgan Stanley came through during the bank's recent cost-saving moves. Though the firm laid off 1,600 employees in recent weeks and slashed bonuses for many others, its tech bankers are largely going to be spared, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Beyond fees, a thriving IPO business can help a bank attract brokerage clients and win business advising on mergers.
A lead role in a deal can put a bank in a prime position to get wealth-management business from newly enriched company employees.
For Morgan Stanley, a Facebook coup also could prove a boon for retail brokers and clients of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, the brokerage joint venture Morgan Stanley owns with Citigroup Inc.
Clients say one plus for Morgan Stanley's team, based in Menlo Park, Calif., is that it has been largely unchanged since the mid-1990s, after veteran deal-maker Frank Quattrone left for a rival shop in 1996, taking with him a team of bankers. The 45-year-old Mr. Grimes, who had joined a year earlier, helped rebuild Morgan Stanley's tech team through the dotcom boom and bust.
In 2005, Mr. Grimes was appointed a co-head of global tech banking, along with Paul Chamberlain, 48, another veteran of the bank.
"They've been in the same jobs, not leaving for other firms, not moving to New York, they've decades of experience and seen every tech cycle… that carries a lot of weight with clients," said Egon Durban, a managing partner at private equity firm Silver Lake Partners.
While Wall Street banks often group coverage of telecommunications, media and technology together, Morgan Stanley breaks out tech separately, which clients say gives the Morgan Stanley team focus.
At Qlik Technologies Inc., Lars Bjork, chief executive of the business-software company, said two Morgan Stanley bankers came calling on Qlik about five years before the company's 2010 IPO, long before their rivals. "There was no shortage of bankers," so when it came to choosing the lead underwriter, it boiled down to "who is spending enough time with you and knows you so well that they can tell your story as well as you can," Mr. Bjork said.
Morgan Stanley's track record isn't perfect. LinkedIn Corp. shares more than doubled on their first trading day, raising questions whether the bank had underpriced the company's stock. The opposite question has hovered around online game developerZynga Inc., whose stock price has largely remained below its $10-a-share initial offering price.
Mr. Grimes, a fast-talking and energetic California native with a degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences, is known to clients and colleagues as being passionate about technology—someone who Is never too busy to drive over to meet a young client for coffee, according to a former colleague. "He has a love of the game, and it comes through," the person said.
Clients say they appreciate the personalized attention they get. Early last year, Mr. Grimes flew around the country with Michael Smerklo, chief executive of software company ServiceSource International LLC, to meet potential investors before the company's IPO, said Mr. Smerklo, himself a Morgan Stanley banker a dozen years ago. When the stock popped 22% on the first trading day, "we were thrilled," he added.
—Aaron Lucchetti and Randall Smith contributed to this article
Write to Anupreeta Das at anupreeta.das@wsj.com

Monday, January 23, 2012

4 Billion Per Day: YouTube Views

Wow. Video streaming growth undeniable in this The Next Web article below. Opportunities to monetize will only grow with time.  


YouTube hits 4 billion daily video views, a 25% increase in the past eight months 
23RD JANUARY 2012 by PAUL SAWERS


YouTube is now streaming more than four billion online videos each day, representing a 25% increase in the past eight months, reports Reuters.


This figure is across all platforms, including PC and smartphones, and the company has said that around 60 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute, compared to 48 hours a minute last May.
Whilst that’s an impressive figure, most of the 4 billion videos streamed each day don’t make Google a lot of money, with only three billion YouTube videos monetized in any way each week. YouTube, however, does offer a valuable opportunity for Google to drive revenue outside of Search, and it is looking to ramp up its efforts to broadcast more professional-grade content.
The video-streaming site is now beginning to showcase specialized “channels” based on different kinds of content, and in late 2011 YouTube announced one hundred original video-programming deals with media partners including Madonna, Jay-Z, Deepak Chopra, Tony Hawk and Rainn Wilson. Women’s interest channel KinCommunity was one of the first to be given a makeover:
kin network 520x256 YouTube hits 4 billion daily video views, a 25% increase in the past eight months
Back in May 2011, we reported that YouTube was seeing two days worth of video uploaded every minute to the service, resulting in 3 billion views per day. The figures coincided with YouTube’s sixth birthday, and represented a 37% increase on the previous six months and 100% on the previous year.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Digital Coupon Innovation




Digital coupon innovation is progressing at light speed.  I help lead innovation efforts at Valpak (that familiar blue coupon envelope that arrives in your mailbox each week). Some of the the more interesting innovations Valpak has already brought to market include augmented reality campaigns with Martha Stewart and leveraging the Junaio app to feature Valpak local savings offers via mobile devices.  


Additionally, Valpak has launched several QR code sweepstakes promotional campaigns and now integrates QR codes as a mobile engagement mechanism for advertisers that utilizes print media to drive to mobile. 


Future innovations in the space by a host of large and niche players in the space include: gesture-based sharing, nearfield communication (NFC) tie-ins, leveraging gamification modeling, increased LBM (location-based marketing) reliance, social commerce, deep social graph integration, markerless (natural object) augmented reality,  interactive video and media platforms, and touch-screen technology to distribute savings offers and engage consumers looking for coupons and deals, just to name a few. 


Below is a Mashable article that speaks to some shorter term opportunities for the digital coupon space.


What’s Next for Digital Coupons?



Couponing had seen unprecedented growth in the past decade due to a combination of factors — one of which was the economic recession in the U.S., combined with an increased consumer interest in mobile technology and devices.
Because of this, marketers began to heavily fund digital platforms. The coupon industry, specifically, saw record growth within the digital realm, and by 2010, SavingStar estimated that “49 million people used printable or digital coupons.”
The benefits digital interactions offer coupon companies are vast. For starters, online couponing allows for great promotion and wider distribution for brands. It also provides companies with better reach and the ability to track consumer preferences and patterns. Data from Leo J. Shapiro and Associates determined that the digital coupon consumer base was primarily comprised of young married couples with disposable income. Grouponhas targeted this demographic, lending digital couponing a social reputation.
Daily deal couponing continues to be a popular tool among consumers and marketers, and many major companies have implemented their own version of the trend.

What Business Owners Need to Know About Daily Deal Couponing


Although intriguing for consumers, daily deal platforms like Groupon have not always been beneficial for business owners, who often see a spike in business but little customer retention.
A Rice University study found that 66% of the 150 businesses surveyed reported that Groupon promotions were profitable. However, more than 40% of the organizations said that they wouldn’t run a Groupon offer again.
Daily deal platforms have revealed the social nature of contemporary couponing. For example, Cornell University reported that many Groupon users see themselves as “marketing mavens,” and “on the front edge of market trends and price information.”
Additionally, users claimed in the survey that they would not have tried a restaurant or store without a coupon offer. Contemporary couponing has highly influenced social branding, greatly increasing the popularity of daily deals.
1. Social Leads to Social Sharing
The social, daily deal strategies made popular by sites such as Groupon and Living Social have certainly spawned many copycat initiatives within the digital couponing realm.
One such example is SocialTwist, a platform that states it “allows users to share in order to receive a better bargain.” Basically, consumers can turn a $1 coupon into a $4 coupon simply by sharing it with four other people.
This method will likely continue to increase in popularity in 2012 — we already saw evidence late November 2011, when Foursquare announced it would incorporate a new “social sharing” button on its site.
2. Getting Mobile-Ready
Given these newer strategies, companies are mobilizing their virtual and physical platforms to better reach and retain these social, mobile customers. Most companies are aware that their mobile presences have to be dynamic and user friendly. With roughly 91% of the population using mobile devices and 26.3% accessing the Internet, it is important to have a mobile site for on-the-go reading and utilization.
Additionally Google reported that 95% of smartphone users have searched for local information, proving that location-based, deal searching is vital to digital couponing.
The same study found 38% would use a mobile device to find a store location, 34% to compare prices, 28% to research deals and coupons, and 27% to find a product review.
3. Resolving Mobile Couponing’s Redemption Pitfalls
Mobile couponing, an obvious extension and result of digital distribution, has been popular despite its “mechanical” issues. With the rise of digital coupons, there was also a surge in consumers who used their mobile devices to reference coupons visually on their smartphones. Unprepared for this development, the redemption process, such as the scanning of digital coupons on mobile devices, has proven difficult until recently.
“Mobile coupon redemption has always struggled with ensuring a seamless experience at the point of sale,”says reporter Steve Smith. So, business giants like Walgreens are “retraining salespeople to handle the process and equipping stores with hardware that can recognize 2D codes on LCD displays.” This nationwide initiative was just launched and underwent testing during the 2011 holiday season.
Walgreens released an app for iOS, BlackBerry and Android, which includes a new coupons section that issues up two to three new exclusive weekly deals for customers using the mobile apps.
Rich Lesperance, head of digital marketing and merging media for Walgreens, told Media Post that “the program is the largest deployment of in-store mobile coupon scanning of which he is aware.”

Looking Ahead to the SoLoMo Strategy


In short, the “social-local-mobile” trend is the next cutting edge move for digital businesses, and a necessary consideration for coupon brands. SoLoMo gets specific when it comes to targeting your ideal market and allows your ideal consumer to find you. The combination is a win for both parties, as well as the logical next step for consumer activity based on current digital engagement.
Image courtesy of iStockphototrekandshoot, Flickr, Joe Pemberton

Digital Ad Spend in US

Digital ad spend growth continues its march...

US Online Ad Spending, 2011-2016 (billions and % change)

US TV vs. Online Ad Spending, 2011-2016 (billions)

US Online Ad Spend Set to Exceed Print (Update)





emarketer-print-online-ad-spend.jpgUS online ad spending will exceed the total spent on print magazines and newspapers this year for the first time, according to a January 2012 eMarketer estimate that projects $39.5 billion in online ad spending, $19.4 billion in newspaper ad spending, and $15.4 billion in magazine ad spending. eMarketer estimates that online ad spending will continue its dramatic growth to reach $62 billion by 2016, while the print total will continue to decline to $32.3 billion that year.
US online ad spend is expected to grow by 23.3% this year, with double-digit growth continuing through 2014 before slowing to 8.9% in 2015 and 7.8% in 2016.

TV Growth Unaffected

As online ad spending grows, so will TV, albeit more slowly, notes eMarketer, which estimates that US TV spending will reach $72 billion in 2016. At that point, the gap between TV and online ad spending will be $10 billion, compared to the $28.7 billion gap seen in 2011.
Overall, eMarketer projects total media ad spending to grow 6.7% this year to $169.5 billion, boosted by national election campaigns and gains in mobile spending. Growth will remain between 3-4% through 2016, with spending reaching almost $200 billion by then. And while online will be a major driver of that growth, traditional ad spending will for the most part stagnate during the period.

Q1-Q3 ‘11 Ad Spend Up 1.5%

kantar-percent-change-in-measured-ad-spend-2010-2011-dec11.gifTotal US advertising expenditures in the first 9 months of 2011 increased 1.5% from the previous year, finishing the period at $104.7 billion,according to December 2011 data from Kantar Media. Spending growth slowed during Q3, up 0.4% compared to 2010, after rising 4.1% in Q1 and 2.8% in Q2. Spending among the 10 largest advertisers in the first 9 months of 2011 was $11.8 billion, representing a 1.4% decline compared to the previous year. Procter & Gamble maintained its top-ranked position with spending of $2.1 billion through September, down 5.6% compared to 2010, although its Q3 spending was flat compared to the previous year.
Meanwhile, expenditures for the 10 largest categories grew 3.1% in the first 9 months of 2011, to $59.5 billion. For Q3, the aggregate increase was 1.8%, although quarterly growth rates for 7 of the 10 categories trailed their year-to-date average. Automotive was the top category with $9.9 billion of spending during the 9-month period, up 7% from 2010. However, the bulk of the gain came early in the year, and from April through September automotive budgets grew just 1%.

TV Ad Spending Rises

Most forms of TV displayed spending gains in Q3 2011: expenditures on cable networks rose 6.5% during Q3, while year-to-date outlays grew 9.9%. Network TV registered its first quarterly gain of the year, as Q3 expenditures inched up 0.2%, although year-to-date expenditures remained down 5.7%. Kantar insight suggests higher budgets from movie studios and consumer package goods marketers accounted for the Q3 increase for network TV, while the year-to-date decline can be attributed to the loss of marquee college football and basketball programming to cable networks in Q1.
Meanwhile, ad spending in Spanish Language Television jumped 18% during Q3 2011 compared to Q3 2010, while syndication TV was also up 14.8% for the period. The only TV segment to lose ground was spot TV, where spending fell 5.7% year-over-year in Q3, and was also down 2.7% for the year-to-date.
Overall, compared to the corresponding periods in 2010, TV ad spending grew 2.3% for the year-to-date, and 3.2% for Q3.
The top 10 TV advertisers, led by Procter & Gamble, spent $7.3 billion in the medium during the first 9 months of 2011, up 0.1% from a year ago. The group accounted for 15% of total TV expenditures by all advertisers.

Most Other Media Also Post Gains

Outdoor spending slowed during the third quarter, but still registered gains of 3.2% for Q3 and 8.6% for the first 9 months. The pace of spending in radio media was more muted, but remained steady, up a modest 1.1% in Q3 and 1.2% for the year-to-date, driven by over 2% growth in local radio and network radio advertising.
Magazine media spending declined 1.2% for Q3, but rose 1.5% for the year-to-date. The top 10 magazine advertisers invested $2.7 billion in the medium for the year-to-date, a decrease of 2.8%. As a proportion of total magazine ad spending by all advertisers, the top 10 accounted for 17.1%.
Although the internet sector posted a Q3 2011 drop of 2.9% compared to last year, overall expenditures for the year-to-date were up 2.8% compared to a year earlier. Display ad expenditures soared 15.8% in Q3 and 10.1% for the year-to-date, offsetting paid search drops of 14.4% and 2.1%, respectively. The 10 largest internet advertisers, led by General Motors, invested a total of $1.8 billion in paid search and display campaigns, up 11.1% versus a year ago, and accounting for 10.8% share of all internet ad dollars.

Newspapers Fare Poorly

The newspaper sector posted the worst figures of all media, experiencing a 3.7% decline in spending in Q3 2011 compared to Q3 2010, and 3.8% decrease for the year-to-date. Local newspapers, despite robust budgets from local auto dealers and an uptick in financial advertising, saw a 4.4% spending decline in Q3, and were down 3.9% year-to-date.

Print Media Get Spending, Lack Consumption

emarketer-time-spent-ad-share.jpgMeanwhile, according to December figures from eMarketer, although newspapers accounted for 15% of all US ad spending in 2011, they held just a 4% share of adults’ daily media time. Magazines also held a much larger share of ad spending than daily media time, at 9.7% and 2.8%, respectively.
By contrast, eMarketer estimated that mobile accounted for 10.1% share of adults’ media time each day, but less than 1% of ad dollars. TV (42.5% vs. 42.2%), internet (25.9% vs. 21.9%), and radio (14.6% vs. 10.9%) all also displayed a higher share of adults’ daily time than share of US ad spending.
eMarketer notes that time spent with the internet excludes internet access via mobile, but online ad spending includes mobile internet ad spending. As such, the total of the ad spending share for all the media adds up to more than 100%.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

2.1B Internet Users

Great CNET article on the number of Internet users. 2.1 Billion users means still 70% aren't on the Internet, although with the emerging and growing economies of serious countries like China, India, Brazil and Indonesia whose infrastructure doesn't necessarily support hard wire connectivity, mobile/wireless will likely be the path to Internet connectivity via smartphone. This is something tech writer and colleague Jim Buckley has been saying (his blog: Buckley on Technology).



Internet now active with 2.1 billion users

by  


You're one of the 2.1 billion people actively using the Internet.
Looking at the state of the online world throughout 2011, traffic site Pingdom found that the number of Internet users has jumped from a mere 360 million at the end of 2000 and now accounts for 30 percent of the planet's population.
Sweeping across the continents, Asia holds 922 million Internet users, Europe has 476 million, and North America is in third place with 271 million. Drilling down to individual countries, China is on top with 485 million people using the Internet, more than 36 percent of its total population.
(Credit: Pingdom)
Revealing other data from different third-party sources, Pingdom discovered 3.1 billion e-mail accounts worldwide in 2011. Microsoft Outlook proved the most popular client with a 27 percent market share, while Hotmail was the most popular service with 360 million users. 2011 also marked the 40th anniversary of the first e-mail ever sent.
The number of global Web sites shot up to 555 million in December, with 300 million of those added just last year. And the number of registered domains reached 220 million in last year's third quarter. Domain names with a .com address were the most prevalent at 95.5 million. Social media and mobile traffic continued to skyrocket, according to Pingdom's information.
By the end of 2011, Facebook had more than 800 million users, 200 million of which joined the service just last year. The number of Twitter accounts rose to 225 million, with 100 million active users in 2011. Lady Gaga ended 2011 as the most popular person on Twitter, currently followed by 18.1 million people, while #Egypt was the top hashtag on the site last year. Overall, 2.4 billion social network accounts flooded cyberspace in 2011.
By the end of the year, the number of mobile subscriptions was estimated at 5.9 billion in a world of 7 billion people altogether. Active mobile broadband accounts numbered 1.2 billion. And with more mobile phone users hopping onto the Internet, 85 percent of all handsets shipped in 2011 included a Web browser.
So, what's up for this year?
"For 2012, there's every reason to think that the Internet, by any measure, will keep growing," said Pingdom in a blog post. "As we put more of our personal as well as professional lives online, we will come to rely on the Internet in ways we could hardly imagine before. For better or worse, the Internet is now a critical component in almost everything we do."