The latest US online adspend data shows continued strong growth as brands
continue to move budgets online. New research is also continuing to
identify online's specific strengths and role in cross-media campaigns.
Days away from the launch of Apple's new model iPhone it's no
coincidence that this month we have focussed on developments taking
place in the mobile phone sector. Recent trends and developments suggest
the mobile web is clearly on course to reach its tipping point -
mobile-based IM and social networking are set to make us more connected
than ever before. No surprise then that key players including Microsoft
and Vodafone are jockeying for position to give consumers and
advertisers the tools they didn't even know they needed a year ago.
Best from all @ Digital
Danny Meadows-Klue
Founder and Chief Executive
Digital Strategy Consulting
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Advertising |
US
online ad revenues reach $21.2bn during 2007
The latest IAB US / PwC online adspend report
puts total online ad revenues for 2007 at $21.2bn (£10.78bn) - up 26% on 2006's record
figure, writes eMarketer. Q4 2007 revenues reached $5.9bn (£3bn) - the
highest ever quarterly figure and a 24% increase year-on-year. The
study found that search, display, classifieds and lead generation all
continued to grow. Consumer advertisers remained the largest category
representing 55% of all 2007 revenues (from 52% in 2006).
From
eMarketer:
http://www.emarketer.com, 23/05/2008
IAB US:
http://www.iab.net
Source:
eMarketer
eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com
Source: Hitwise
eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com
Source: Hitwise
eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com
TV ads more effective in conjunction with online
A new joint study from the Internet Advertising
Bureau (IAB) and Thinkbox has found that consumers who see an advert
both online and on television are more likely to purchase products
than those who have only seen an ad on one of those media. The study
tested 3,000 people using six campaigns from car, FMCG and finance
brands which featured both TV and rich media advertising. Taken across
all six campaigns 40% of those tested said that they were likely to
use or purchase a brand in future after seeing an ad in one medium.
However this proportion rose to 61% when users had seen an ad in both
mediums. According to Thinkbox the research shows that online is best
used as a complementary tool to an existing TV campaign rather than as
an extension which is trying to reach a new audience.
From
Brand Republic:
http://www.brandrepublic.com, 07/05/2008
IAB UK:
http://www.iabuk.net
Ireland: offline sales influenced by online ads
The latest "State of the Net" report by AMAS
suggests that Irish consumers are highly influenced by online ads,
writes ENN. According to the study 67-87% of visitors to 18 sites
tracked went online to research offline purchases. AMAS also said that
Ireland is close to reaching the 1m broadband subscriber "tipping
point". The firm currently puts Ireland's broadband population at
900,000 - well above the OECD's estimate of 767,800 users from the
close of 2007.
ENN:
http://www.electricnews.net, 23/05/2008
AMAS:
http://www.amas.ie
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Companies |
MySpace opens up... Facebook follows suite
MySpace is to allow its users to share their
public profiles and data directly on other sites, writes ENN. Yahoo!,
eBay, Photobucket and Twitter have already signed up to the so-called
data availability initiative. Users will be able to have single
updates appear automatically across a number of sites. Users will also
be able to have their MySpace content directly linked to their Yahoo!
Instant Messenger service.
Last year MySpace also signed up for the Google-led OpenSocial project
which aims to build a common framework for social networking
applications to run.
Facebook is also preparing to open up its profiles with the coming
launch of Facebook Connect. In a similar vein to MySpace this will
allow users to "connect" their public profiles from other sites with
their Facebook profile. The announcement was followed by news that
Facebook had borrowed $100m to fund new servers and data centres.
Facebook remains the UK's most popular social networking site with
14.35m UK unique users during April (up 7.2% from the previous month).
Brand Republic:
http://www.brandrepublic.com, 09/05/2008
MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com
Google opens AdSense to third party ad serving and tracking
Google has opened up its AdSense content
network in the US to allow advertisers to serve and track ads using
approved third-party providers, writes Netimperative. Previously
advertisers had to use Google's own technology for managing ads
through AdSense as Google did not have a review mechanism in place to
ensure ads complied with its standards and policies. The list of
certified suppliers includes Mediaplex, Eyeblaster and Dynamic Logic.
Google aim to roll-out the changes in the UK and elsewhere in the near
future.
Netimperative:
http://www.netimperative.com,
20/05/2008
Google UK:
http://www.google.co.uk
Yahoo! partners with WPP in ad deal
Yahoo! has signed an ad partnership deal with
WPP which lets the latter firm buy ads on Yahoo!'s online ad exchange,
writes Brand Republic. Under the initial deal WPP-owned GroupM and
24/7 Real Media will develop a proprietary media trading platform
which will connect directly to Yahoo!'s Right Media Exchange.
Long-term the two firms will work to build a WPP marketplace to give
agencies and eventually outside publishers, direct access to
advertising inventory.
Brand Republic:
http://www.brandrepublic.com,
16/05/2008
Yahoo! UK:
http://uk.yahoo.com
CBS
buys CNET for $1.8bn
CBS is buying CNET Networks for $1.8bn
(£0.91bn), writes
Netimperative. The deal will propel CBS into the top 10 list of US
websites with 54m unique monthly users and roughly global 200m users.
CNET owns a stable of websites including ZDNet, GameSpot.com and
TV.com. CBS is actively trying to grow its share of the online
advertising market and expects the newly combined unit to reach
revenues of $1bn (£508m) by 2010 or 2011.
From
Netimperative:
http://www.netimperative.com, 16/05/2008
CNET:
http://www.cnet.com
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Trends |
Almost half of all Brits will use social networks by 2012
A new report from Datamonitor
estimates that nearly half the UK will be using social network sites
by 2012, writes The Telegraph. The UK already has the highest
levels of membership in Europe, with 9.6m Brits members of sites such
as Facebook and MySpace. By 2012 Datamonitor expect this figure to
have grown to over 27m.
France came second in the study with 8.9m users, followed by Germany
with 8.6m. Each country is expected to grow to 21.3m and 21.7 by 2012
respectively. In total European user numbers are forecast to reach
104.7m (from 41.7m).
The
Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk, 01/05/2008
Datamonitor: http://www.datamonitor.comAmericans spend the most time online
Americans spend more time on
the internet than anyone else according to new data from Nielsen
Online, writes The Telegraph. The average American spends
nearly 28 hours/month online, way ahead of France and Spain on 20 and
18 hours respectively. The study also confirmed China's position as
the leading online population: by February this year China had over
221m internet users, up from 137m at the start of 2007.
The
Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk, 09/05/2008
Nielsen Online:
http://www.nielsen-online.com
Source:
Nielsen Online
Nielsen Online:
http://www.nielsen-online.com
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Mobile |
Mobile Web 2.0 services to generate $22.4bn by 2013
A study from Juniper Research predicts that
global Mobile Web 2.0 services (including social networking, user
generated content (UGC), mobile search and mobile instant messaging)
will be worth $22.4bn (£11.39bn) by 2013, from $5.5bn (£2.8bn) in 2008, writes Telecoms.com. Social networking and UGC are predicted to drive
revenues growing from $1.8bn (£915m) this year to $11.2bn (£5.69bn) in 2013 as adoption
and availability of Location Based Services (LBS) becomes more
widespread.
From Telecoms.com:
http://www.telecoms.com, 15/05/2008
Juniper Research:
http://www.juniperresearch.com
44% of mobile Brits on social networks
Nielsen Mobile has found that 44% of UK mobile
phone subscribers are members of online social networks, writes
Netimperative. 25% of this
group now also use their mobiles for social-networking activities. Facebook comes top of mobile social networking sites, with visits from
557,000 UK users (9% of all UK mobile internet users).
From Netimperative:
http://www.netimperative.com, 21/05/2008
Nielsen Mobile:
http://www.nielsenmobile.com/
Monthly top ten French parent companies for March 2008
Source: Nielsen Online, UK, Q1 2008. E.g. On average 8.9 million
Britons visited Facebook via their PC (=28% of all Britons online)
each month in Q1, 2008. Facebook is also the most popular social
network on the mobile.
Nielsen Mobile:
http://www.nielsenmobile.com/
Most Popular UK Mobile Social Networking-related Activities
Source: Nielsen Mobile, Q1, 2008
E.g. 55% of Britons who use their mobile phone for social networking
activities send messages/mail
Nielsen Mobile: http://www.nielsenmobile.com
Vodafone shops for mobile social network service
Vodafone has bought social networking and online
management service ZYB for £25m. The service is targeted at mobile
users and allows users to back-up and share their contact and calendar
data. The service also allows PC-mobile communication using SMS,
pictures and IM.
Vodafone's purchase follows its revelation that the top two searches
on its mobile internet service are for social networking sites
Facebook and Bebo. Facebook has also become the site most visited by
Vodafone users. Vodafone subscribers are increasingly using their
phones for e-mail, IM and social networking. Vodafone has recently
changed its monthly price plans to include 500MB/month free internet
access - a £7.50 saving.
From Brand Republic:
http://www.brandrepublic.com, 19/05/2008
Vodafone: http://www.vodafone.co.uk
Microsoft launches mobile display ads
Microsoft has now enabled advertisers to run
banner ads on Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail, writes
Netimperative. The firm has launched the ads in the US, France, Spain and the UK. Microsoft also intends to roll-out keyword advertising on
Live Search Mobile outside of the US in the second half of this year.
From Netimperative:
http://www.netimperative.com, 21/05/2008
Microsoft Live Search Mobile:
http://livesearchmobile.com
New portal offers ad-funded mobile games
123play.com has launched offering over 40 mobile
phone games for free in exchange for receiving mobile ad messages,
writes Netimperative. The website has partnered with a number of games
firms including THQ Wireless, RealArcade and Vivendi Games Mobile.
Users are presented with an ad each time they launch a game on the
site. If they don't click the game starts after a few seconds.
29% of users regularly play games on their mobiles according to data
from M:Metrics.
From Netimperative:
http://www.netimperative.com, 21/05/2008
123play.com: http://123play.com/
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Broadcasting |
BBC iPlayer up 27% during April
1.4m people used the BBC's
iPlayer on average each week during April as traffic rose 27%, writes
Brand Republic.
Traffic has nearly doubled from January's weekly average of 750,000.
Driven by "Doctor Who" and "The Apprentice" total monthly requests for
April came to 21m downloads and streams - up from 17.2m in March and
11.2m in January. In total the service has now received over 75m
requests for streams and downloads.43% of iPlayer users are aged
between 35-54, 37% are aged between 16-34 and 21% are over-55.
In a further development Virgin Media has now fully implemented the
iPlayer via its cable set-top box. Viewers accessing the iPlayer
through Virgin will have direct full-screen TV access to all available
programmes without the need for downloading.
From Brand Republic:
http://www.brandrepublic.com, 20/05/2008
iPlayer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
Digital radio audiences crosses 30% threshold
Here in the UK, the latest
radio listenership figures (Rajar Q1 2008) give an upbeat tempo for
the radio industry with listening up one percentage point in a year.
45m adults tune into the radio each week and 31% now use digital
platforms to listen radio listening also grew to 31% of the UK.
Interestingly, 3.2% of audiences are now through digital TV and 2.1%
are online, suggesting convergence is happening slower in practice
than many in the digital industry expected. |
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Statistics |
Monthly internet usage statistics for France, March 2008
Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Home/Work Panel monthly statistics
Nielsen Online:
http://www.nielsen-online.com
Monthly top ten French parent companies for March 2008
Source: Nielsen/NetRatings Home/Work Panel monthly statistics
Nielsen Online:
http://www.nielsen-online.com
Top 10 popular websites in the UK, April 2008
This list features the most popular websites based on
UK Internet usage for April 2008, ranked by market share of visits
across all Hitwise industries.
Source: Hitwise Datacentre, April 2008, based on market share of visits
Hitwise:
http://www.hitwise.co.uk/datacenter |
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