New report shows top valued brands in U.S.

Worldwide, consumers have been surveyed to find out what brands they value most. Havas Media put out the report “Meaningful Brands” which surveyed 134,000 consumers in 23 countries. The report focused on positive perceptions of brands like health, happiness, relationships, and financial well-being.

MediaPost reports that the brands with top marks across all surveyed were Google, Ikea, Dove, Nike and Walmart. In the U.S. exclusively, Amazon, Target, Johnson & Johnson, Campbell’s, and Google were the top five brands.

The survey reports there is an American shift to a demand in value. Consumer focus is more locked into family, savings, stability, health, and safety. Whereas, the American focus a few years prior was on luxury, entertainment and social status.

It makes sense to see the shift from luxury to stability in the U.S. With the economic crash a few years back, consumers had to rearrange priorities. That being said, there was a higher demand for products and companies to be more accountable. Knowing how brands are perceived and consumer priorities, advertisers should be able to use this knowledge to better align the campaign with the target audience.

Demographic breakdown of smartphone users

Mobile users in the United States are continuing to grow with the segment of smartphone users growing exponentially. A new study put on by Pew Internet & American Life Project, discusses the current demographic breakdown among smartphone users.

eMarketer reports that there is a very close race between smartphone users who own Androids and those who use iPhones. Meaning 28% of smartphone users have Android operating systems and 25% have iPhone. Results were released in May 2013.

About 31% of Android users are male and 26% are female. For iPhones, females have a slight edge with 26% and males at 24%.

A more significant difference from the two types of smartphone operating systems came from the age breakdowns. Of people in the 18-24 age group, about 43% have Androids while 31% have iPhones. Androids have higher user percentages up until the 45-54 age group (27% Android and 25% iPhones), in the older age brackets, iPhones take the lead.

When looking at annual household incomes, those making more than $75,000 a year tend to have an iPhone at 40% vs. an Android at 31%.

iPhones also have higher ownership among individuals with a college degree or higher at 38%. Android users, who have a college degree or higher, pull a 29%.

What does this tell advertisers? Android phones tend to be in the hands of the younger, middle class and educated user. iPhones trend towards upper class, educated, with a slight skew to older users.

Study shows that upscale Hispanics are on the rise in the U.S.

The Nielsen Company has recently conducted a study to measure the amount of upscale Hispanics in the United States. The Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies released the findings. To summarize, the upscale portion of the American Hispanic population is growing at a fast pace.

According to MediaPost, the study depicts the upscale population as Hispanics in households with an annual income between $50,000 and $100,000. To date, that subgroup is an estimated 15 million people, which translates to roughly three of 10 Hispanic homes. Or, in a broader context, this group is about 12% of all U.S. households. Nielsen further explains that about $500 billion of the total $1.3 trillion in Hispanic consumer spending is done by the upscale group, which is almost 40%. Researchers expect growth to about 18 million by 2015 and to 35 million by 2050.

From the study, it was ascertained that this group of individuals are typically bilingual. A little more than half speak most or all English the majority of the time, and also about 75% speak some Spanish. In addition, this group spends about 52% of the TV viewing time on Spanish-language networks and 48% on English-language networks.

In conclusion, this group within American consumers has the added bonus of being reachable in a variety of media platforms. It is the advertisers’ responsibility to acknowledge the growth of this group which will lead to the increased influence on the consumer culture as a whole.

Big cable network goes dark in order to promote radio

If you were planning to watch Comedy Central on Sunday, May 19^th, what you found was probably not what you expected. In a marketing blitz, the cable network went dark for the entire day in order to promote the new Comedy Central SiriusXM station with a sample of the content. The new radio station was set to launch at midnight the following Monday.

According to MediaPost, the only other time Comedy Central had gone dark before was in 1992 for Johnny Carson’s final “Tonight Show” broadcast.

The satellite station will include some of the network’s stand-up comedy specials, original content, etc.

Cross-promotion among different media platforms is nothing new; however, if done in a smart way, it can be very helpful to a campaign. Time will only tell if the blitz and good programming will keep the new Comedy Central radio station relevant and solid in listenership.