Teenagers were watching the Olympics

The XXX Summer Olympics played out in London this summer. While the world was watching the games, the United States’ teens also got involved in the spectacle.

According to MediaPost, NBC saw a large growth in teen viewers during these Olympics. After the first week of the games, the whole 12-17 demographic had an increase of 29% from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

More specifically, the female 12-17 demographic had a 54% spike compared to 2008. To put it into context, the number one prime-time program for females 12-17 is FOX’s “Glee.” The Olympics scored ratings that were 89% higher than the hour-long program.

Some reason this growth comes from the successful performance of the women’s gymnastics team in which all members are teenagers.

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Pinterest is gaining ground

Amid social media powerhouses like Twitter and Facebook, another has come into the spotlight recently. New research reports that Pinterest has begun to impact the time spent on other social media.

According to the Center for Media Research, Compete’s Online Shopper Intelligence Survey shows that about one in four users are spending less time on other social media in order to spend time on Pinterest. Apparently, Facebook has seen a 3% decline in time spent in the month of June. About 39% of social media users have adjusted how he/she uses social networking because of Pinterest.

Over the last year, Pinterest has grown from 700,000 unique monthly visitors to 20 million. Part of the growth is gaining an audience that otherwise is not on social media at all. Approximately 15% of Pinterest users claim to not use any other social media.

The social site has also influenced purchase behavior among users, who purchased a product/service after seeing it on Pinterest. About 25% of respondents fell into this group.

Overall, it behooves advertisers to know what their audience is doing in their spare time.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

Americans spend how much time in a car?

Out of home media is the general term that encompasses every message a person sees or hears while not in his/her home. Arbitron has some statistics that can be helpful for advertisers in choosing media vehicles.

Fact one, the average American traveled 306 miles in a vehicle of some kind in the past week.

Fact two, 46 minutes is the average commute for a working American.

Fact three, 96% of Americans have said that they have traveled in a vehicle within the past seven days.

Fact four, the average American has traveled 1,771 miles in the past four weeks.

Therefore, if you are looking to get brand messages out to the average working American, then looking at out of home media like outdoor bulletins or radio may be a sound choice.

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MetroCard Gold will now be an ad vehicle in NYC

In an effort to bring in more revenue for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City, it was just announced that MetroCard Gold will now have advertising on the front of the card.

According to both The New York Times and MediaPost, this is the first time that the front of the MetroCard Gold will have an ad placed on it since its introduction in 1997. However, the backs of subway cards have allowed advertisers since 1995.

It has been reported that the earliest the new cards could be put into circulation is October of this year.

The price tag for the front of the card has not yet been released; however, the pricing for the back of 50,000 cards is $25,500 and for 2.5 million is $450,000.

There have not been any reported advertisers moving forward with this concept yet, but representatives have mentioned that many are interested.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

A new trend report focuses on men and media

Advertisers must constantly stay current with how their potential audience views different media. According to Advertising Age, Ad Age Insights and GfK MRI have partnered up to release the trend report “Dudes to Dads: US Men’s Attitudes Toward Life, Family, Work.” The majority of the report goes into detail about how different male generations vary from each other.

A portion of the report focuses on how media is viewed and valued by men. While 54% of respondents stated that television advertisements provide helpful information about new products and services, 63% also stated that TV ads are repeated too often.

As far as generational differences, it may be suggested that the younger age groups, the millennials prefer the internet, and the older age groups, Baby Boomers and Gen X, prefer older media. While there is some truth to that, it’s an over generalization. Millennials reported that they find print ads in magazines entertaining. One thing that the majority of men, 65%, agree on is that cell phone ads are annoying.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

17% of mobile internet users use the phone over a computer

Over the last few years, Americans have had more choices on how to access the Internet. Researchers recently focused on mobile Internet usage. According to the Center for Media Research, Pew Research found the following results.

§        As of April 2012, 88% of American adults have a cell phone of some kind.

§        Of those 88%, 55% utilize their cell phones to go online. In April 2009, the percentage was 31.

§        Approximately 17% of users stated that they use their mobile phone as their primary option for going online. Of those users, the most popular reason for using it over a computer is that it is more convenient.

§        About 51% of African American cell internet users reportedly do most web surfing on their cell phone. For Latinos, that percentage goes down to 42%, and only 24% white non-Hispanic users primarily use the Internet on their phones.

§        The age group that has the highest numbers of smartphones and internet usage are people 25-34 years old. Close behind them are the age groups of 18-24 and 35-44.

§        People are more likely to utilize the mobile internet in urban areas versus suburban or rural areas.

§        Of people who have smartphones, the predominate group are college-level educated and have a high household income.

Overall, advertisers need to stay up-to-date on new research in all media vehicles. It can aide in creating the campaign message and sending it to the target audience.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

YouTube is losing its views?

Living in a digital consuming society has helped people gauge how things are successful. For example, YouTube, it used to be the more views a video received the better. Recently, YouTube has adjusted the mechanics of the site and has noticed something occurring- less views.

According to AdvertisingAge, the website has dropped 28% of views since December. The reason behind this drop is that YouTube is attempting to transition from views to engagement. Meaning, they want viewers to spend more time engaged in longer format and quality videos and spend less time clicking around and bouncing out of the site.

Switching directions appears to be working in that the minutes viewers spend watching content has grown about 57% from last year to more than 61 billion minutes in March. Also, the average video length view has increased from one minute to four.

What does this mean for advertisers? This could be a very good change in that a more engaged audience in the content may be more accepting of brand messaging. With longer format videos, it allows YouTube to insert video ads prior to content launching or in the middle like a broadcast commercial break.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...