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...