Ad Operations Online » Advertising Reports and Studies

Consumers Responding to Social Call-to-Action in Online and TV Advertisements

Otilia Otlacan — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:00:17 +0000

Consumers, specifically women, are interacting on social media via advertising cues to show support for favorite brands

BURLINGTON, MA - Burst Media, (http://burstmedia.com), a leading online media company and wholly owned subsidiary of blinkx PLC (LSE AIM: BLNX), released the results of a survey revealing how and why web users interact with brands via social media. Conducted in March among 2,577 U.S. online adults aged 18 or older, the study found that the effectiveness of social cues in advertisements varies by the medium the ad appears in. Among respondents who recall social media prompts in advertising, digital ads (61.0%) and television ads (58.7%) are most effective at driving interaction with a brand’s social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. These are followed by print ads (52.4%), radio ads (41.5%) and outdoor ads (39.4%).

Notably, two-thirds (67.6%) of 18 to 34 year-old respondents—including 73.9% of 18 to 34 year-old women—say digital ads that feature prompts to social media assets are effective at inspiring them to take action.

“We found that marketers who use social sharing and action prompts within advertisements create authentic interactions that drive further engagement,” said Mark Kaefer, marketing director, Burst Media. “On the digital front especially, display, mobile and sponsored online content campaigns that include social media prompts can virally and exponentially extend campaign reach through consumer status updates, likes, tweets, pins and more.”

Survey Highlights

Web users interact with brands on social media for a variety of reasons.

· More than one-half (53.8%) of women and 44.1% of men who interact on social media via cues in advertising cite “to show my support for a brand that I like” as a reason for doing so.

· The gender divide is even wider with the next most-cited reason, which is to access special offers, coupons and/or promotions: 53.2% of women versus just over one-third (35.5%) of men cite this as a reason.

· Notably, two-thirds (66.7%) of 35 to 44 year-old women cite the access to offers/coupons as a reason to interact with a brand’s social assets.

The majority (65.4%) of all survey respondents have at least one social media account set-up for personal use.

· Facebook—at 53.0%—is by far the leading provider. Google+ follows a distant second, with one-quarter (25.6%) of respondents reporting they use the up-and-coming platform.

· Three-fifths (58.6%) of respondents with social media accounts use them at least once a day, and another one-fifth (22.3%) check accounts at least once per week.

Interestingly, Pinterest and Instagram—as image and photo-driven social platforms—skew towards a female audience.

· One-fifth (21.9%) of all female respondents have a Pinterest account, versus only 4.8% of men. The disparity of Pinterest use between the sexes is even greater among 18 to 34 year-olds: 1-in-4 (25.5%) women in this segment have a Pinterest account, versus just 3.6% of men this age.

· Instagram’s audience also skews more female than male—10.4% versus 5.8%, respectively. Again, the gender gap is biggest among respondents aged 18 to 34, as 20.8% of women this age have Instagram accounts, versus 8.4% of men.

Download the full “Expanding the Conversation: Leveraging Social Media for Brand Interaction” Online Insights report (PDF) at http://burstmedia.com/pdf/burst_media_online_insights_2013_04.pdf.

About Burst Media
Founded in 1995, Burst Media represents thousands of independent web publishers. Through a select group of vertical channels, built around areas of specific interest, Burst connects advertisers with audiences across the web’s most dynamic communities in a social, engaging way. A wholly owned subsidiary of blinkx PLC (LSE AIM: BLNX), Burst is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, with sales offices throughout the United States and in the UK.

Visit us at http://burstmedia.com or call +1 (781) 852 5200 for more information.

Martini Media Study Reveals 95% of UK Marketers Will Increase Digital Marketing Spend in 2013

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:00:45 +0000

Luxury Marketers Will Specifically Increase Use of Video and Rich Media to Engage Customers

SAN FRANCISCO, CA and NEW YORK, NY and LONDON - Martini Media, a global media and advertising company, released findings of its UK brand marketer study, which was conducted in conjunction with iMedia UK. The study, which took place during March and April 2013, surveyed 226 marketing professionals, including both brand advertisers (43%) and agencies (57%). The survey aimed to determine where brands are prioritizing marketing efforts in 2013 and beyond — particularly those marketers targeting affluent consumers.

Key findings include:

95% will increase their digital marketing spend in 2013
84% agree they can research consumers by aggregating niche sites to target their ideal audience
75% of marketers believe high impact ads can breakthrough as much as TV and print
71% use digital for building brand awareness
63% will increase social media efforts
48% of total budget will go to digital

Nearly half the marketers surveyed represented a product or service geared to high net-worth audiences. Of these marketers, 69% were focused on targeting general consumers, 43% on high-income consumers, another 43% business decision makers and 32% were targeting CEOs or other executives. Those brands that identified themselves as targeting high-income consumers anticipate spending more than twice as much on video and nearly twice as much on rich media, compared to mass-market brands.

“Our UK study revealed results that are right in line with what we’re seeing at Martini — luxury brands need a big, beautiful canvas to showcase their products and they’re turning to digital as the medium for delivering these highly engaging ads,” said Skip Brand, Martini Media’s CEO. “As digital investments increase, it’s clear that standard display just isn’t cutting it. We can expect to see standard display spending continue to decrease as brands turn to rich media, social, video and mobile to effectively connect with their audience.”

According to recent research from Forrester, Britons will lead innovation in brand marketing, particularly since many marketers have display advertising in excess of EUR 1 million. UK marketers are also more concerned about brand awareness than other marketers in Europe, and as a result “favor opportunities for reach and interactivity.”

This is consistent with findings in Martini Media’s study. While traditional DR objectives like customer acquisition remain a top priority for nearly three-quarters of the marketers surveyed, branding efforts are close behind. Building positive brand association (71%) and building awareness of specific products/services (60%) are key goals trying to be achieved through digital marketing initiatives.

“Brands across the board see the value of digital, not just as a direct response mechanism but as a brand building tool,” said James Drake-Brockman, Head of EMEA – Digital Marketing, DMG. ”The fact that 71% of respondents use it for this purpose shows the continuing shift in attitudes of advertisers and agencies, which ties in with the increase in platforms and opportunities available for them to target consumers. It’s clear the market is continuing to grow in strength and importance with nearly all respondents expecting to increase their digital marketing spend in 2013.”

To review key findings from the study, click here to view the infograph.

About Martini Media:
Martini Media is the digital media and content platform for engaging the audience with the most money and influence online. With more than 1,000 publishers organized across multiple lifestyle and business verticals, Martini Media has helped the world’s leading brands reach over 125 million consumers across the globe that invest in their passions at work and play. Martini Media’s full-service marketing capabilities encompass display, video, mobile, social, and audience targeting to effectively engage the most valuable audience online at scale. Since 2008, Martini Media has been the premier media destination where influence meets affluence. Headquartered in San Francisco, Martini Media has offices in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and London. Visit www.martinimediainc.com to learn more.

InsightExpress Research Supports Tablets as Promising Advertising Channel for Digital Campaigns

Otilia Otlacan — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:00:54 +0000

STAMFORD, Conn. - InsightExpress, a leading marketing research and data analytics firm, released research that indicates great promise for tablets as a powerful advertising channel. The InsightExpress analysis found that campaigns running on tablet devices are extremely effective at delivering their message and motivating purchase, and either match or outperform established mobile channel norms.

“InsightExpress launched Tablet AdInsights™ in 2011 as the first research solution to measure campaign performance across tablet devices. Since then we have been compiling tablet normative averages to benchmark the brand communications effectiveness of this quickly growing medium”

The findings detailed below were drawn from InsightExpress’ Tablet InsightNorms™, a normative database containing results across 43 campaigns comprised of 83 ad executions that show the branding effectiveness of advertising placed on tablet devices.

Thanks in great part to InsightExpress’ involvement in a 14-month long research study conducted by VivaKi’s The Pool, an ongoing initiative to uncover advertising solutions of the future that revealed best practices and key findings for ads placed on tablet devices, InsightExpress is able to offer one of the most robust portraits of tablet advertising effectiveness in the industry.

This Tablet InsightNorms analysis, which incorporated the 74 individual custom ad executions from The Pool’s tablet lane, explored advertising performance across key brand metrics (unaided awareness, aided awareness, advertising awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase intent). The following key findings were revealed:

		1.			Significant increases in all brand metrics indicate that tablet campaigns are extremely effective, especially when it comes to advertising awareness.
		2.			To date, tablet campaigns either match or outperform the established mobile channel advertising effectiveness norms. This pattern was also seen with early mobile campaigns outperforming online.

Tablet Campaigns Drive Strong Brand Metric Performance

As shown in Chart 1, significant increases across all brand metrics indicate that tablet campaigns are highly effective. The striking increase in advertising awareness (41 percentage points) suggests that these ads are both noticeable and memorable to viewers. The ability of tablet campaigns to drive lower funnel metrics such as message association, brand favorability and purchase intent signifies that these ads are also quite persuasive. However, it is not surprising to see strong results like these for a new advertising channel.

Tablet vs. Mobile Performance

InsightExpress is able to benchmark these tablet norms against the Mobile InsightNorms database, which contains over five years of aggregated mobile campaign effectiveness results. As shown in Chart 2, to date tablet campaigns either match or outperform the established mobile channel norms. Tablets’ strong advertising awareness performance illustrates that they are currently far more successful at getting noticed than mobile ads. Aside from the “novelty factor,” larger displays and enhanced browsing experience likely enable viewers to better notice and absorb tablet creative executions.

The favorability and intent data also show that tablets are also slightly more effective than mobile phones at guiding consumers down the purchase funnel. As the tablet market matures and becomes more saturated, these strong deltas are likely to stabilize on par with our mobile normative data.

While tablet campaigns are excelling in many areas, others remain on par with mobile. The tablet campaign brand awareness results do not outperform mobile campaigns yet. Thanks to a larger screen, tablet ad creative to date can offer more flexibility than just a logo but additional information in the form of images or text may compete with the brand’s logo for the consumer’s attention.

“InsightExpress launched Tablet AdInsights™ in 2011 as the first research solution to measure campaign performance across tablet devices. Since then we have been compiling tablet normative averages to benchmark the brand communications effectiveness of this quickly growing medium,” said Drew Lipner, Co-Chief Executive Officer at InsightExpress. “As we have learned through our collaboration with VivaKi, tablets are helping to accelerate share shift across screens and have had a transformative impact on digital advertising.”

“We have a wealth of tablet data and research available at our fingertips that clearly shows the power of the device when it comes to reaching and engaging with consumers,” said Tracey Scheppach, VivaKi EVP, innovations director and founder of The Pool. “As an industry, we need to work towards harnessing the magic of the tablet and move the industry forward.”

About InsightExpress

InsightExpress is an industry leading marketing research and data analytics provider specializing in the measurement of brand communications. The company’s proven approaches include message evaluation, advertising effectiveness, creative development and cross-media optimization. With vast industry expertise, proprietary methodologies and an exclusive platform, InsightExpress helps agencies, media and advertisers optimize marketing initiatives across all media channels. Founded in 1999, InsightExpress is headquartered in Stamford, CT, with offices in San Francisco and New York. For more information, please visit our corporate Web site at www.insightexpress.com or our InsightfulAnalytics blog athttp://blog.insightexpress.com/; you may also call 203.359.4174.

About VivaKi

Part of Publicis Groupe (Euronext Paris Exchange: FR0000130577; and part of the CAC 40 index), the world’s third largest communications group, VivaKi was established in 2008 to propel the digital transformation and expertise of the Groupe and its agencies. Today we are the global leader in digital advertising solutions, working with the world’s leading organizations to help them navigate the evolving and chaotic media landscape. VivaKi is organized across four distinct pillars: Products and Solutions includes Audience on Demand, a market-leading addressable media buying practice recognized as the first, best and most secure solution of its kind in the world; the Emerging Opportunities practice transforms new partnerships into digital marketing products and services. A well-known global component of this practice is The Pool, which explores and surfaces next generation ad models for emerging media platforms; Operational Consulting is a global process automation and standardization practice that streamlines systems, process and workflow for an open and networked world; VivaKi Exchange is a trading operation that leverages the scale of the Groupe’s combined media clout in 16 markets around the world, negotiates the most efficient and effective opportunities for our clients. Across the globe, VivaKi employs more than 300 engineers, technology experts, product designers, analysts and digital marketing professionals. Visit us online at www.vivaki.com or follow us on Twitter: @VivaKi.

About The Pool

Part of VivaKi’s Emerging Opportunities pillar, The Pool exists to uncover new and improved advertising solutions – ones supported by consumers, advertisers and media companies. It is designed to bring together the leaders, pioneers, and the futurists to help scale and monetize evolving media platforms. Since launching in 2008, The Pool has expanded its reach across the globe, attracting more than 100 companies to its cause in 14 lanes, or areas of focus, across seven countries. Its efforts have tackled everything from online video to cross-media metrics to tablets and IPTV.
www.vivaki.com/the-pool

45 Million Viewers Per Month Watch Original Professional Digital Video Programming, According to New IAB Research

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:00:45 +0000

Ad-Receptivity Ratings on Par with Primetime Television

NEW YORK – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released “45 Million Reasons and Counting to Check Out the NewFronts,” an in-depth research study focused on the growing reach and impact of digital video – revealing that original professional online video (OPOV) captures the attention of 45 million U.S. viewers per month.

“It is very exciting to have the opportunity to benchmark viewing levels to original professionally produced online video as the ad marketplace is evolving”

“Consumers are rapidly turning to digital video for entertainment, news and information, and advertiser demand to reach this growing audience is expanding in kind,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “The wealth of original professional digital programming being presented at the Digital Content NewFronts is evidence of the public’s hunger for new, compelling content available online. It is a watershed moment. And, this study provides valuable insights that can help marketers take advantage of this momentum, and effectively tap into the evolution of the digital video platform as a central hub for must-watch original programming.”

The study was conducted in partnership with GfK and surveyed over 2400 people, representing the U.S. adult population, in order to identify and question over 1000 avid video viewers that screen programming across various platforms. The results clearly demonstrate that original professional online video programming is hitting strong benchmarks when compared to traditional television. Receptivity to marketing messages during OPOV was directly in line with consumer ad receptiveness while watching primetime television programming on a regular TV set. Plus, those surveyed who view both primetime TV and OPOV cited viewing new, unique content and flexible screening times as preferable aspects of OPOV over primetime television viewing.

“It is very exciting to have the opportunity to benchmark viewing levels to original professionally produced online video as the ad marketplace is evolving,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics and Measurement, IAB. “It is particularly telling that this kind of programming is attracting a large following – 45 million already – while also bringing viewing experiences and ad receptivity that compare favorably with regular TV.”

The demos also speak to the appeal of original professional online programming, with younger adults 18-34 (31%) and males (24%) exhibiting markedly higher OPOV monthly viewing levels.

When it comes to which digital device consumers use to watch this type of video, laptops (used by 50% of monthly OPOV viewers) were far and away the favorite pick, followed by:

Desktop computers (39%)
Internet connected TVs (27%)
Smartphones (26%)
Tablets (23%)

No matter which device consumers choose for streaming purposes, the majority (89%) of OPOV viewing happens at home. The same goes for the viewing of user-generated content (UGC) and traditional TV programming online (88% vs. 93%).

Looking at how social media channels are leveraged during viewing, the research finds that OPOV and UGC viewers (41% vs. 56%) tend to integrate social media much more within their online video experiences in comparison to those watching TV online (35%).

To download the entire “45 Million Reasons and Counting to Check Out the NewFronts” study, go to: www.iab.net/DigitalVideo45

Methodology

For this study, GfK screened 2,425 people from the general U.S. population, age 18+, as monthly+ viewers of online video and “ever” users of “TV online,” “UGC” or “original professional online video” (OPOV). Full surveys were ultimately completed with 1,005 monthly+ viewers including: TV online – 705 ever users/495 monthly+ users; UGC – 913 ever users/724 monthly+ users; and OPOV – 727 ever users/441 monthly+ users. The study was conducted March 19 – 24, 2013, via a 23-minute online survey using GfK KnowledgePanel®. KnowledgePanel is the only online research panel recruited using an address-based probability sample, offering higher quality and more reliable results than volunteer, opt-in samples.

About GfK

GfK is one of the world’s largest research companies, with more than 12,000 experts working to discover new insights into the way people live, think and shop, in over 100 markets, every day. GfK is constantly innovating and using the latest technologies and the smartest methodologies to give its clients the clearest understanding of the most important people in the world: their customers. In 2012, GfK’s sales amounted to EUR 1.51 billion. To find out more, visit www.gfk.com/us or follow GfK on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GfK_en.

About the IAB

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 500 leading media and technology companies that are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive’s share of total marketing spend, and of its members’ share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Founded in 1996, the IAB is headquartered in New York City with a Public Policy office in Washington, D.C. For more information, please visit www.iab.net.

4 in 10 Marketing Executives Unprepared to Meet Objectives Due to Lack of Funding and Internal Inefficiencies, Accenture Study Finds

Otilia Otlacan — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:00:34 +0000

Investment in digital marketing and analytics set to rise

NEW YORK - Four in 10 top marketing executives say they are not well prepared to meet their objectives, citing a lack of funding and inefficient business practices as the main impediments to improved performance, according to global research by Accenture (NYSE:ACN). The research also reveals a growing commitment to digital marketing and analytics capabilities to tackle an increasingly complex customer environment.

“However, improved performance will require more than new digital and analytics talent. The challenge of digital transformation is how to implement beyond marketing and across the entire enterprise.”

According to the Accenture Interactive report, Turbulence for the CMO, 70 percent of the executives believe that corporate marketing will undergo a dramatic overhaul within the next five years and that their organizations must create a digital direction that will help them achieve higher revenue and increase market share.

“Marketing executives are growing increasingly concerned that tight budgets and the lack of a clear strategy for implementing digital technologies – are hurting their company’s ability to compete in the digital age,” said Brian Whipple, global managing director of Accenture Interactive. “There is a clear performance gap between the demands of the marketplace and the ability of marketing organizations to apply the digital technology talent required to be more effective.”

The report shows that the need for change is being driven by increasingly demanding customers who expect more relevant interactions with brands. According to survey respondents, consumers’ expectations for relevant, targeted experiences are having the greatest long-term impact on marketing strategy (65 percent).

Rising Investment in Digital Capabilities

As a response to these issues, significant steps are being taken to close the digital performance gap. The survey results show that two-thirds (66 percent) of marketing executives will be allocating at least one quarter of their budget to digital marketing next year, and nearly one-quarter (23 percent) say that more than half of their spend will be on digital marketing.

The survey shows that marketing executives also plan to invest more in their analytics capabilities, which are especially useful as the demand for multichannel marketing continues to increase. To help retain and grow their customer base, nearly half (48 percent) of the executives say they will spend more on managing customer data, 40 percent will increase budget spend on web analytics and 39 percent will spend more on marketing analytics. They are also taking a closer look at their use of marketing channels, ranking in-person contact with front-line employees, corporate website, media coverage and social media as the most important channels.

In order to obtain the greatest results, marketing executives say they are looking for more innovators – both by adding to their full-time staffs. Half of the executives said they would begin an internal reorganization to become more digitally focused, and more than half said they would be hiring more people with the necessary digital skills (52 percent) or providing their existing staff with digital training (55 percent).

“The growing investment in digital capabilities will help marketing executives improve their understanding of changing consumer needs and manage multiple channels,” said Whipple. “However, improved performance will require more than new digital and analytics talent. The challenge of digital transformation is how to implement beyond marketing and across the entire enterprise.”

Improved internal and agency collaboration

While a majority (55 percent) of marketing executives said they were satisfied with the level of collaboration with their outside agencies, there is a disconnect between their expectations and results. Only one-third (36 percent) of marketing executives said that their agencies execute flawlessly, and 36 percent said that the agencies are not able to deliver what they promised. Additionally, only 44 percent said that agency partners help marketing executives transform their marketing organization, which is a clear goal for marketing executives in 2013.

The study indicates that for many marketers, improving collaboration between business units can help them achieve their targets. Nearly one in five executives (19 percent) said that inefficient business practices currently hinder their ability to improve marketing performance and return on investment, while 17 percent said a lack of funding hurts these efforts.

Learn more at: www.accenture.com/cmo_insights.

Methodology

The 2012 CMO Insights Survey is the third in a series of global surveys sponsored by Accenture aimed at understanding the opinions, challenges and points of view of senior marketing executives from around the world. The results are based on 405 surveys across 10 countries with senior marketing executives. All respondents are from companies with at least $1 billion in annual revenues, with companies in France Australia, Singapore and Brazil all having an annual revenue of at least $500 million. Accenture conducted an online survey in August and September of 2012.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 261,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$27.9 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2012. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

Accenture Interactive helps the world’s leading brands drive superior marketing performance across the full multichannel customer experience. Working with over 4,000 Accenture professionals dedicated to serving the marketing function, Accenture Interactive offers integrated, industrialized and industry-driven marketing solutions and services across consulting, technology and outsourcing powered by analytics. Follow @AccentureSocial or visit Accenture Interactive.

PunchTab Study Reveals Secrets to Motivating Moms with Rewards

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:00:19 +0000

Survey shows 81 percent of moms respond positively to brands when offered rewards; more than one-third are motivated by non-financial rewards such as elite status or early access to products

Palo Alto, Calif. – Loyalty and engagement platform PunchTab today shared results of a survey of over 600 moms that offers new insights into what works to motivate engagement and purchase from this high-value audience segment. The data shows that 81 percent of moms will engage more with a brand when offered some type of reward, and that rewards can work to increase a brand’s social following, boost positive word-of-mouth and to driving more sales. The study also reveals that some non-financial incentives – such as elite status or early access to products – can be very effective behavior motivators.

“Moms are the most critical demographic segment for many brands. They are the primary decision makers when it comes to household purchases and influence $2.4 trillion in spend every year. Everyone wants to engage this audience segment. The question is: what motivates moms to take action?” said Angela Sanfilippo, CMO at PunchTab. “This study offers definitive evidence that providing moms with the right incentives can boost word-of-mouth and drive sales across a company’s entire brand portfolio.”

Key findings of the survey include:

1. Moms will engage more with a brand when offered a reward.

PunchTab’s survey shows that 81 percent of moms will engage more with a brand when a reward is in place. Rewards are most effective at driving participation in surveys and polls, with 72 percent saying they would take a survey or poll if provided with an incentive. Rewards can also help with building a customer database: 59 percent of respondents say they would sign up for regular email updates when a reward is offered, and 41 percent say they would share personal details and purchase behavior.

PunchTab data also shows that rewards can be effective at driving word-of-mouth amongst moms. According to the study, 41 percent of moms will post a review when offered a reward, and 50 percent of moms on Facebook say they would be willing to share brand content on Facebook. Increasing positive word-of-mouth through rewards can lead to more sales: studies show that more than half of moms rely significantly on the online recommendations when making purchase decisions.

2. Rewarding moms for following your brand on social channels can boost sales.

The study shows that rewards can motivate moms to follow a brand on social channels. Over half (57 percent) of moms on Facebook say they will “Like” a brand’s page on Facebook when offered a reward; 50 percent of moms will follow a brand on Pinterest and 52 percent of moms will follow a brand on Twitter when offered a reward.

Social followers will take a number of other social actions to promote your brand when incentivized. 92 percent of moms who say they would be willing to “Like” a brand on Facebook when offered a reward, say they would also be more likely to share brand content, post reviews or purchase additional brand products if incentivized. This number jumps to 98 percent for Twitter and 93 percent for Pinterest.

3. Moms are motivated by more than just financial rewards.

The study shows that while financial rewards are highly valued by moms, the VIP treatment can also be a strong motivator. 67 percent of respondents say they would be interested in receiving perks associated with elite status, such as free shipping or branded merchandise. More than one-third of moms indicate they would value incentives that offered them exclusive access to a brand, such as being able to buy new products ahead of the general public (39 percent), being able to influence a brand’s future products (38 percent) or getting advanced notification of new products (36 percent).

When it comes to financial rewards, some are more highly valued than others. Free products and services from the brand are the most popular incentives, with 83 percent of respondents saying these would be effective motivators, followed closely by receiving gift cards from popular retailers (82 percent). Discounts and coupons are also valued by moms, with 60 percent saying they would take an action in return for a discount or coupon to use on the future purchase of a brand product.

Doing good is also a strong motivator, with 58 percent of moms saying that they would want a brand to make a donation to charity on their behalf as a reward.

While gamification strategies such as leaderboards and badges have historically been popular, the data shows these types of “social recognition” programs are the least effective at motivating behavior. Only 6 percent say they would be interested in being rewarded with badges, and less than one-quarter (23 percent) says they would appreciate recognition for their contributions.

4. Umbrella loyalty programs can be effective at increasing trial and purchase.

While many companies focus their loyalty programs on single brands, the data shows parent companies of brands would be wise to consider developing umbrella loyalty programs that take advantage of moms’ loyalty to specific brands to increase purchase of other products in the company’s portfolio. 73 percent of respondents say that they would be interested in a loyalty program for a parent company, with 59 percent of all moms in the study saying they would buy other products from the parent company if doing so resulted in more loyalty points.

More than half (52 percent) of moms would also be willing to take a social action in return for a discount or coupon to use on a future purchase from a brand’s broader family of products.

Almost half (46 percent) say they would switch from a competitor’s product to a brand or parent company product in order to earn loyalty points, assuming equivalent product quality.

Digitally Engaged Moms Research Methodology

The Digitally Engaged Moms study was conducted by PunchTab, a multi-channel loyalty and engagement platform that enables agencies, brands and enterprise organizations to incentivize user behavior. This survey was fielded online, between April 18, 2013, and April 22, 2013, and sent to a random sample of moms between the ages of 18-44. There were 647 total responses from moms across the United States. 54% percent of respondents were moms who also work full-time outside of the home, with another 18% also working part-time outside of the home. The household income of 57% of respondents was greater than $50,000, with 21% between $25,000 and $50,000 and 22% less than $25,000. PunchTab asked what channels moms use, what actions they would take in exchange for earning loyalty points, and what rewards they would like to receive for points earned in the program. In addition, PunchTab combined secondary research from multiple sources around channel usage and various motivations for interacting with brands.

About PunchTab, Inc.

Founded in January 2011, PunchTab is a multi-channel loyalty and engagement platform that enables agencies, brands and enterprise organizations to incentivize user behavior and drive business success. PunchTab’s customers use the company’s flexible solutions to deepen audience engagement and build awareness by leveraging everything from social sharing and UGC and awareness campaigns to sophisticated B2E and B2B programs. PunchTab offers both an out-of-the-box product and a fully customizable, white-labeled solution that can reward any action with virtual, social and real-world rewards. For more information, please visit www.punchtab.com.

Mobile Bot Traffic on Pace to Waste Nearly A Billion Dollars of Advertising Budgets in 2013

Otilia Otlacan — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:00:27 +0000

Solve Media Q1 Market Advisory Update Shows Bots Continue to Impact the Effectiveness of Online Advertising Campaigns

NEW YORK - Solve Media (www.SolveMedia.com) issued its latest Bot Traffic Market Advisory update, revealing an increase in bot traffic during the first quarter of 2013. The company identified that suspicious activity remained above 40 percent in Q4 2012 and Q1 2013. Further analysis showed that 29 percent of the suspicious activity in Q1 was the result of bot traffic, up from 25 percent in Q4.

“It is up to publishers to implement anti-bot solutions and up to advertisers to seek out partners that take a real stance against bot traffic.”

Mobile bot traffic is also on the rise. Solve Media’s authoritative anti-bot security platform revealed that 29 percent of mobile traffic acted suspiciously in Q1 2013, 14 percent of which was confirmed as bots.

Not all of the traffic identified as mobile is in fact from a mobile device. Malicious hackers are increasingly writing code to masquerade as mobile users in order to take advantage of the lower security levels imposed on mobile users. Regardless of the true origin of the user, mobile bot traffic is an increasing concern for the advertising community. At the current level of mobile bot traffic, the industry is on pace to waste close to a billion dollars in ad spend in 2013.

“The barrier to entry for fraud and bots in mobile is almost nonexistent,” said Justin Somaini, Chief Trust Officer at Box, and the newest member of Solve Media’s Security Advisory Council. “The mobile bot levels reported by Solve Media should serve as a wake up call to both publishers and advertisers. Marketers will continue to demand a human audience.”

A geographic analysis revealed that Singapore and the United Arab Emirates have the highest levels of suspicious mobile traffic, at 71 percent and 67 percent respectively. In the US, suspicious web activity in Q1 reached 44 percent, and suspicious mobile activity reached 19 percent.

“With the increase in mobile advertising spending this year, it has become incredibly important for advertisers and agencies to be aware of the inefficiencies associated with serving mobile ads to bots,” said Ari Jacoby, CEO of Solve Media. “It is up to publishers to implement anti-bot solutions and up to advertisers to seek out partners that take a real stance against bot traffic.”

Solve Media runs advertisers’ campaigns on its network, consisting of more than 6,000 publishers, and uses its proprietary TYPE-IN™ technology to prevent bot traffic, improve user experience, and guarantee human engagement. Solve Media’s anti-bot security platform specifically addresses bot traffic affecting publishers, ad agencies and advertisers by authenticating that audiences are, in fact, human. Solve Media is the market leader in the space, and has been monitoring and deterring bot traffic for more than three years.

Bots crowd web and mobile traffic and cause advertisers to pay for impressions and clicks that are not being engaged with by people. Malicious bots undermine the security of the web and cause harm, including stealing publisher content, creating spam assets and phishing.

About Solve Media

Solve Media (www.SolveMedia.com) was founded by veteran entrepreneurs and technologists focused on innovative Internet advertising and security solutions. The company’s proprietary online advertising platform, the TYPE-IN™, was designed to create highly effective opportunities for brands to engage online. With the platform, Solve Media guarantees brand message delivery, brand lift and return on investment for advertisers. Additionally, the platform creates new revenue opportunities for publishers, and saves time for consumers. Backed by First Round Capital, New Atlantic Ventures, AOL Ventures, Bullpen Capital and prominent angel investors, Solve Media is based in New York City and Philadelphia.

The Rubicon Project Releases New Forrester Report on Mobile Advertising

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Analysis Shows That Automation Can Help Drive Mobile Adoption and Growth

LOS ANGELES - Rubicon Project, which operates the advertising industry’s largest, fastest and easiest-to-use independent real-time trading platform for buying and selling digital ads (www.rubiconproject.com), today released a Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper, “Selling Mobile: It’s About The Industry, Not Just The Inventory.”

“Selling Mobile: It’s About The Industry, Not Just The Inventory.”

The report found that “although publishers and marketers are still becoming acclimated to the mobile channel today, advanced management such as that offered by an automation platform can help drive mobile advertising toward maturity.”

In addition, Forrester’s new study on mobile advertising yielded these key findings:

Publishers are well aware of the importance of mobile to their businesses, but they’re having difficulty monetizing the channel.
Understanding mobile is a challenge for publishers, but many are plagued by issues that run much deeper than simply learning a new channel.
Lack of expertise on the sell-side and lack of established standards and performance metrics have made media buyers hesitant to put money behind this still-emerging channel.

Three Key Insights on Monetizing Mobile

Commenting on the Forrester report, Frank Addante, the Rubicon Project’s Founder and CEO, says:

“Automation will help drive mobile advertising adoption and growth for years to come, but there are three key insights to keep in mind as the industry tries to figure out how to monetize mobile.

First, you can’t copy and paste what we’ve done in display. You have to rethink things and come up with the right model, right format, right ad pricing units, and right method of buying and selling. It’s about creating something new here.

Second, automation will come to mobile faster than it has in other markets. In financial services, it took 100 years for NASDAQ to emerge; in the travel industry, it took 50 years for Sabre systems to be born; in search, it took 10 years for automation to take hold; and, in display, it took five years. My best estimate is that it will now take just 2.5 years for mobile automation to become mainstream.

Third, mobile is alarming for publishers; their audience is rapidly embracing this platform, but they don’t have the knowledge, data and experience to move in this direction right now. Advertisers, on the other hand, have choices. They can spend money on TV and on the Internet, and mobile is just another category. So, there’s a real disconnect between publishers and advertisers in terms of mobile. We need to rethink the mobile model so it can effectively bridge this gap. And, until we do, we have to face facts – advertisers aren’t going boost their mobile spending in super-significant ways.”

The Benefits of Mobile Automation

The growing importance of mobile today is clear, and sellers and buyers of advertising recognize that as consumer time and attention shift to mobile, their ad dollars must too. And that’s why Forrester forecasts that mobile marketing spend will grow significantly over the next few years, reaching more than $8 billion by 2016.

“Automation offers several core benefits that are helping drive mobile ad spend,” explains Josh Wexler, General Manager of the mobile business at Rubicon Project. “It incorporates third-party data, which enhances customer targeting. It increases transparency and helps establish pricing standards. It offers publishers the opportunity to manage buys across channels more effectively and efficiently. And it reduces manual labor, allowing salespeople to spend more time on the high-touch, high-value relationship-building that generates most revenue.”

The Rubicon Project’s Success With Mobile Automation

Last July, Rubicon Project launched the Mobile Project, which is the best practices solution using the REVV platform to enable publishers to sell mobile ad inventory through both direct and indirect sales channels.

The Mobile Project builds on REVV, Rubicon’s real-time trading platform, so now there’s a single platform and marketplace for the buying and selling of both display and mobile ad inventory.

One of the reasons that the Mobile Project has been so successful – in the last two quarters alone, it’s gained 65 new customers – is the fact that it takes the complexity out of buying and selling mobile advertising.

The Mobile Project, for example, includes the integration of Rubicon’s proprietary mobile ad-server, which automatically delivers impressions across iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows devices.

“This is how we solve the device-diversity problem, which causes audience fragmentation,” says Rubicon Project’s Wexler. “We also deal with the proliferation of un-cookied iOS devices, which make it harder to capture value from advertising. In addition, we address the management of multiple SDKs, which create unwieldy operational overhead. And we compensate for inconsistent rich media formats, which impede scale and complicate implementation. In the end, customers understand that we’re attacking all the tough issues with our mobile platform.”

About Rubicon Project

Purchasing advertising has been a very complicated manual process for more than 100 years. But now Rubicon Project is automating advertising like NASDAQ did for stock trading, Sabre systems did for travel, and Amazon is doing for retail.

Rubicon Project’s automated advertising platform is used by more than 500 of the world’s premium publishers, including 40 percent of the top 500, to transact with more than 100,000 advertisers across a massive marketplace.

Rubicon Project’s customers include: eBay, Time, ABC News, the Wall Street Journal, Tribune Company, Virgin Media, People, Universal and legions of other Fortune 500 companies.

In terms of metrics, Rubicon Project powers over 180 billion ad trades per month; and more than 97 percent of U.S. Internet users, as well as 650 million global users, interact with the company’s system every month. According to comScore, Rubicon Project is ranked #1, meaning no other company in the world reaches more users.

To obtain a copy of Rubicon Project’s newly released Forrester report on mobile advertising automation, please visit http://www.rubiconproject.com/insight-reports/forrester-report.

Krux: Significant Volume of High-Risk Consumer Data Collection Seen Across Content, Commerce and Marketer Websites

Otilia Otlacan — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:00:11 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO and NEW YORK, May 7, 2013 –Third-party data collection across many leading websites continues at very significant levels while data collection via social media/sharing widgets is growing rapidly according to the third-annual Cross Industry Study (CIS) of web data collection activity from Krux (www.krux.com).

The Krux study is the only research project solely focused on ‘data leakage,’ consumer and website data collected by companies other than the site owner, often without compensation or consent. This year, in addition to the top 50 ad-supported content sites, Krux expanded its analysis to also include data from the top 100 e-commerce and marketer sites, as well as 50 smaller content sites. Krux is the global technology leader in cloud-based consumer data management solutions.

“Though the increase of third-party data collection has moderated due to better data governance by website operators, there’s still a great deal of unknown and unwanted data harvesting happening out there,” said Tom Chavez, Krux co-founder and CEO. “Given Krux’s role in the data ecosystem, we understand that not all collection is bad. However, when 46 percent of this collection comes from higher risk intermediaries and market middlemen, it raises questions as to which companies are mining the data, if that collection is fully sanctioned and how that data will ultimately be used.”

Study highlights include:

Data collection activity that is within the website owners’ control dropped by 40 percent. This illustrates a concerted effort on the part of many web operators to implement better data governance practices and exert greater control over what’s happening on their pages.
The number of third parties observed participating in data collection continued its rise, from 168 individual companies in 2011, to 300 in 2012 and 328 in 2013.
Collection from higher-risk categories rose as well, from 40 percent in 2012 to 46 percent in 2013. Collectors are considered ‘higher-risk’ if there is the potential that they will use the data they collect to power competitive market activity.

“Data will be one of the core drivers of our business,” said Mark Howard, senior vice president of digital advertising strategy, Forbes Media. “Our work with the Krux platform is one of the major reasons we’re comfortable entering into the data business, to help ward off data leakage and ensure that all of our media and data transactions are conducted in a secure and policy-controlled manner.”

When digging into the data collection dynamics this year, Krux uncovered a number of interesting trends:

Data collection volume from social media/sharing widgets, including mainstream social media principals like Twitter, Facebook and Google+, as well as intermediaries such as AddThis, grew almost 30 percent from 2012 to 2013. Data collection from social media/sharing widgets now represents 20 percent of all third-party data collection. This growth reflects both more aggressive collection activities by the social players as well as increased reliance on social/sharing tools by websites to grow their consumer reach.
Data collection from advertising Supply Side Platforms (SSPs) dropped 70 percent from 2012 to 2013. This reflects a significant drop in volumes from AdMeld since its acquisition and integration into Google. It may also reflect increased frequency capping, server-to-server cookie synching and other techniques harder to observe at the page level.
Like their content counterparts, e-commerce and marketer sites experience a similarly high proportion of third-party collection activity that is beyond their control, 60 percent and 54 percent respectively.

“In expanding the scope of this year’s report, we uncovered one of our most compelling findings: everyone is a publisher,” stated Krux President Gordon McLeod. “For commerce and marketer sites, much of the data collection stems from the same types of media and technology players we see on content sites. And on commerce sites specifically, we saw a prevalence of higher-risk collectors, not surprising given the relative value of consumer purchase and intent data. Ultimately, this underscores the fact that first-party data is extremely valuable. If not, why are so many third-parties so intent upon collecting it?”

Survey Methodology

Krux used the proprietary, cloud-based data scanning capabilities of its platform to analyze data collection activity across more than 50 top ad-supported websites in the U.S. Krux selected a representative set of pages from each site, emulated individual browser sessions for each of those URLs and precisely measured the resulting data collection events within those browser sessions. This year’s study also analyzed the top 100 commerce/marketer sites plus an additional 50 smaller content sites. The study defines a data collection event as any instance when a cookie is set, referenced or modified on a user’s browser.

Krux’s cloud-based infrastructure helps companies protect, manage and monetize the consumer data created across all their screens and sources. The 2013 Krux Cross-Industry Study is available as an infographic and is downloadable from the Krux website at www.krux.com/CIS2013.

About Krux

Founded in 2010, Krux delivers data fabric for the consumer web. Krux’s data management platform helps companies protect, manage, and monetize data across screens and sources. With Krux, companies give their consumers cooler, safer, faster, smarter web experiences. With Krux, consumers gain confidence that their favorite websites are operating under the plain light of day. Companies across the US, Europe and Asia have adopted Krux technology, including The New York Times, NBC Universal, Forbes Media, Triad Retail Media, Wikia, Financial Times, NBCNews.com, Apartments.com, and The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. Find out more at www.krux.com.

Aggregate Knowledge’s Q1 Media Intelligence Report Unlocks Key Media Buying Insights for Advertisers

Otilia Otlacan — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:00:12 +0000

SAN MATEO, CA – Aggregate Knowledge (AK), a media intelligence company that brings an exact science to the art of media buying, today released its Q1 Global Media Intelligence Report. Leveraging the AK Media Intelligence Platform that combines media and audience data, the latest report identifies seasonal trends and insights for Fortune 500 brands, advertisers and agencies to reach more customers and drive increased revenue.

“We’re witnessing the end of advertising as we know it,” said David Jakubowski, AK chief executive officer. “Brands are starting to realize the importance of digital marketing and using analytics to inform media buying decisions across all channels – these insights resulted in more than $120 million media buys in Q1 alone.”

According to Accenture Interactive’s latest survey, CMOs are beginning to address the gap in digital measurement and performance by making decisions based on actionable insights.

AK’s Global Media Intelligence Report analyzed more than 27 billion impressions across Q1 to uncover key insights into customer engagement and reach, such as why marketers should advertise on one digital channel over another. With this data, brands can increase the efficiency of their multimillion dollar media budgets, resulting in better reach and more sales.

The report looks at cost, reach efficiency, user quality and funnel attribution indices across the four most prevalent channels in the digital marketing world – exchanges, networks, portals and social. Key highlights for 2013 Q1 include:

• Exchanges continue to be cost effective. Coming off the high season of Q4, portals delivered the lowest cost at 2.5 times below the indexed industry average

• Portals and social continue to drive reach efficiency, with portals improving 5 times quarter over quarter

• Social continues to deliver the highest quality users, performing 65 percent better than the industry overall and 33 percent better than the next best channel

• Social influence in the attribution funnel increased 61 percent from Q4 highlighting its value when looking at all customer touch points

“AK’s quarterly report has illustrated the power of using Multiple Touch Attribution (MTA) as a measurement lens [over Last Touch Attribution],” said David Carrel, Senior Vice President at Digitas. “This is consistent with Digitas’ use of MTA enabling our clients with a competitive advantage in driving increased revenue.”

Download the full report and infographic here. Connect with AK on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

About Aggregate Knowledge
Aggregate Knowledge (AK) is the only media intelligence company that offers advertisers and agencies an exact science to pinpoint where to reach highest performing customers in a single platform. AK’s patented Media Intelligence Platform™ (MIP) is the only data management solution that combines both media and audience data, enabling marketers to most effectively allocate media dollars, resulting in increased reach, higher sales and dramatically improved media spend efficiency. To learn more, visit www.aggregateknowledge.com.

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