Teenagers digital activities shift from 2012 to 2013

With the integration of mobile and tablet devices, US teenage usage has increased over the recent years. According to eMarketer, a new study was released by Family Online Safety Institute and Hart Research Associates.

From 2012 to 2013, Americans between the ages of 13 and 17 went from 43% of mobile users having smartphones to 64%. Tablet use also showed a steep increase from 45% in 2012 to 67% in 2013.

Of those teenagers polled, digital activities slightly changed from the previous year to today.

·        In 2012, 86% of teens sent or received text messages. In 2013, it increased to 87%.

·        About 90% of teens sent emails in 2012, and that number decreased in 2013 to 81%.

·        Online social networking saw a small dip from 88% to 81% of respondents in 2013.

·        Again online instant messaging saw a decrease like social networking. Approximately 78% of respondents utilized instant messaging in 2012; this decreased to 71% in 2013.

·        In 2012, 0% of teens polled posted video or posted/received comments on Vine. Activity increased to 23% in 2013.

Overall, teenage mobile and tablet use has increased. The digital activities may have changed since last year, so it’s very helpful for advertisers to stay current on media usage.

A few tips for writing a good subject line for eblasts

Be honest, are you guilty of scanning the subject line of an email and don’t bother opening it? You are not alone, and researchers are working to decipher what words work best in increasing marketing email open rates. A new study conducted by MailChimp has given advertisers a few tips on creating eblast subject lines. The Center for Media Research summarizes:

Tip #1: Personalize the subject lines.

The study results showed a higher open rate with emails that have a personalized subject line. The highest open rates were emails with a first and last name listed in the following industries: government, creative/agency, and politics. Personalization hurt open rates with the legal industry emails.

Tip #2: Label emails as urgent when applicable.

Words that elicit a time-sensitive urgency tend to be attention-grabbing. This can lead to a higher open rate. Results show that words like urgent, breaking, important, alert, etc. can be beneficial to subject lines as long as they are appropriate to the subject matter.

Tip #3: Acknowledge your recipient with thanks.

Results show that thanking your readers can positively impact the open rates. Specifically, the wording “Thank you” has had a strong response.

Creating a marketing email can be tricky. The main goal is to stay true to your brand and true to your audience. After that, it’s up to the consumer to navigate the next steps.

Post-millennial media consumption on the rise

How much media are post-millennial viewers actually consuming? MediaPost reports from a new study conducted by Nickelodeon that kids born since 2005 are viewing more media than historically measured.

Here are some of the research highlights:

·        Media consumption is now at 35 hours a week, which calculates a growth of 7% within the last four years.

·        About 27% of the daily media consumption is from gaming consoles and computers.

·        Gaming is the number one activity for all devices. Approximately 96% of kids use computers for playing games with tablet following at 88% and smartphones at 86%.

·        TV usage is up by 12% compared to Nielsen data from nine years ago.

·        Tablet usage is about 8% of kids’ daily consumption.

Digital boards react in real-time as British Airways planes pass overhead

A major benefit to outdoor bulletins transitioning from vinyls to digital is the immediacy in which creative can be changed. MediaPost reported on a British Airways digital outdoor campaign that reacts to planes flying above the displays.

The outdoor company, Clear Channel, has a new “Storm” digital network in London. It launched in October and has been positioned along the busiest streets and highways in London.

British Airways’ campaign utilized the boards so that when a plane flies overhead, creative of a child pointing at the plane is displayed along with a detailed message with the flight number and destination. MediaPost gives the illustration of “Look, it’s flight BA430 Amsterdam.” Following this message are other creative displays that list facts or attractions of that certain destination. This campaign is possible by using surveillance technology and flight schedules to anticipate when a flight is above the outdoor board.

Being able to reach consumers in real-time can be a challenge for advertisers. By utilizing new technology and thinking outside-the-box, surprise your audience and give them something to talk about. 

Does high TV viewership automatically mean a favorite show?

Have you ever began watching a new TV show, start to really enjoy it only to have it cancelled due to low ratings? Well, it’s safe to assume that has happened at least once in your lifetime. If it hasn't, consider yourself lucky. A new “sentiment” survey conducted by the media buying and selling software Strata attempted to find a correlation between TV viewership and emotionally positive ratings. Results showed that high viewership does not always mean a high positive response from viewers.

MediaPost reports that the CBS show “The Millers” had about 13.3 million Nielsen viewers for the premiere episode. However, the Strata poll showed that only 3% of those surveyed listed “The Millers” as a favorite new show. In contrast, the NBC program “The Blacklist” had similar viewership with 12.6 million, but it pulled a 15% mark for favorite new TV show.

The study also reveals that some shows have lower viewership numbers but a high positive score. “The Michael J. Fox Show” was like this with an 11% positive score and 7.5 million viewers.

Overall, the “sentiment” survey had CBS and NBC tied for best new programming with ABC in third, FOX in fourth, and AMC in fifth.

What can advertisers glean from this? A favorite show of a viewer, whether a high ratings program or not, can help cultivate a positive relationship with your brand. If the show has a long run, place your ads in it. If the show is cancelled, and you have the budget, why not hire the actors to reprise their roles in your commercials? If it makes sense for your brand and your audience, it can be a strong media relationship.

Do people seek out news from Facebook?

Whether a person actively or inactively pursues news, it’s readily available in different media channels. Pew Research Center did a study back in September to see how the social media site Facebook acts as a news conduit. eMarketer reported the results.

The study reviewed how the respondents consume news. According to the results, the top two ways people seek out news is watching local TV news and national evening network TV news programs.

Where does Facebook fit? More of the study showed that only a small percentage 16% of respondents go to Facebook for news. The majority log on to see what friends and family are up to at 68% and looking at videos and photos of family and friends at 62%.

Even though the main intention is not to get caught up on current events, it happens. Entertainment news, local, sports, national, political, etc. can creep up into a persons’ news feed. This can lead to people reading or scanning the news while scrolling around the social media website. Research shows that about 80% of Facebook users interact with news stories whilst interacting with other features.

The takeaway from this is that Facebook users do not seek out breaking news, but rather, the intention is to stay caught up with friends and family. Some news may passively be received, but that’s not a guaranteed active audience.

Cinema Advertising Council commissions research to measure ROI

Not only do advertisers have to be constantly versed in new research to help make sound media judgments, vendors have the same responsibility. This is especially important since there are so many choices for audiences to consume media. In fact, many vendors commission research to accurately depict the media landscape.

The Cinema Advertising Council recently did just that by having the research director for the New York University Stern Center for Measurable Marketing observe the Return on Investment (ROI) of a campaign consisting of theater ads, national broadcast television, cable, local television, and syndication. MediaPost reports that the two most prominent theater advertising networks, Screenvision, and NCM MediaNetworks were both part of the campaign.

The study observed the link between budget spent and incremental sales. This showed cinema ads as having a 37% higher ROI than similar ads on TV. Having this information can help cinema companies better champion the product to advertisers.

While there are a variety of factors that can help increase sales like creative, audience targeting, geographic targeting, day-parting, the base of every campaign is know the target audience. That knowledge comes from research.