According to a recent comScore monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at the top online properties for July 2008, the travel ground/cruise category jumped 10 percent to 12.7 million visitors, making it the top-gaining category for the month, while the travel-information category grew 7 percent to 47.6 million visitors.

According to a new report by the Online Publishers Association, local media sites hold a distinct advantage when it comes to delivering results for advertisers. The study finds that consumers trust advertising on local newspaper, magazine and television Websites, and are very likely to take action after viewing ads on these sites.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, 24 percent of mobile phone users surveyed online have responded to mobile marketing. The DMA quantitative mobile marketing research found that 70 percent of consumers who have responded to a mobile marketing offer say they’ve responded to a marketing text message, compared with 42 percent who’ve responded to a survey and 30 percent to email offers.

According to the Leichtman Research Group, the twenty largest cable and telephone providers in the US, representing about 94% of the market, acquired 887,000 net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the second quarter of 2008. These top broadband providers now account for 65.1 million subscribers, with cable companies having 35.3 million broadband subscribers, and telephone companies having over 29.7 million subscribers.

A new consumer segmentation analysis from Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) shows that nine percent of U.S. adults belong in the “Ads on Emerging Media Vehicles” segment, the group of consumers who say they are most interested in advertising delivered via such non-traditional media as mobile devices and product placement in video games, movies and in TV shows. The median age of this segment is 35.5, younger than the median age of the other five segments.

Because of higher gas and food price concerns, 71 percent of respondents in a new Deloitte survey said they plan to spend less on back-to-school items this year. Almost half (48 percent) plan to reduce their household spending by more than $100. In addition, consumers will change where and how they shop.

A new report from iProspect, conducted by JupiterResearch, says that 45% of search engine marketers do not integrate their search marketing efforts with offline channels. In addition, it uncovers a big disconnect between search engine marketer strategy and search engine user behavior.

According to a recent report fromTNS media intelligence, The Weighted Average Face Value (WAFV) for Free Standing Insert coupons across the Non-Food segment of the Consumer Packaged Goods industry increased 5.4 percent to $1.61, driven by the 17.7 percent increase within the Health Care area. WAFV across the Food segment increased 5.6 percent to $0.91, led by the 13.7 percent increase for the Dry Grocery area.

According to a new MDR report detailing the attitudes and buying habits of teachers, more than half of them have traveled abroad in the past few years, one-fourth of them are always buying the latest high-tech gadgets to hit store shelves, and 73% of them seek out stores that carry their favorite brand names.

According to the recent Arbitron Bar Media Report, nearly one-third of American adults age 21 or older are bar patrons and 43 percent of men age 21 to 34 have visited a bar or lounge in the past week. Since (says the study) fully one-third of bar patrons watch television programming at home using a DVR and three-quarters use software to block advertising online, bar-based advertising has the potential to reach not only a significant portion of adult consumers, but concentrate its message among those who actively avoid advertising delivered on television or the Internet.