Yahoo yielded the No. 1 spot to Google in June for the first time in eight months, according to comScore's latest ranking of the top 50 Web properties. The search giant drew 182.5 million unique visitors last month, compared to 178.3 million for Yahoo, whose traffic slipped about 6% from May. Google's audience increased slightly from 180 million. The Web rivals have been in a virtual dead heat for much of the year in traffic, but Google has not held the top slot outright since last October, when it edged out Yahoo 180.6 million to 179.6 million in monthly visitors. The comScore report comes on the heels of Yahoo reporting second-quarter results that fell below Wall Street's expectations, due to softening display ad sales. Yahoo's June swoon reflects a fall-off after traffic spikes in April and May, likely as a result of big stories, including the royal wedding and the killing of Osama bin Laden. These are the kind of news events that Yahoo has long relied on to boost monthly traffic and user engagement. In June, the Web portal's audience dropped back to the level where it has been for most of the year: around 180 million. Whether early interest in Google+ had anything to do with Google's uptick in June is unclear, especially since the much-heralded new social-networking service did not launch in beta until the very end of the month. But comScore separately reported Friday that Google+ had gotten often to a fast start, attracting 20 million visitors worldwide in 21 days. The rapid embrace of the new social network to date suggests Google's hold on the No. 1 audience spot may last beyond June. Among other top sites, Microsoft, Facebook and AOL again rounded out the top five -- with traffic of 179.7 million, 157.2 million, and 115 million, respectively. The top-gaining Web properties in June included ABC Family, American Express, Dish Network Corporation, the Mozilla Organization and ImageShack. Just behind was Groupon, which replaced group-buying rival LivingSocial among the top 10 fastest-growing sites. Groupon's monthly audience increased 20% to 14.5 million.
Not all ad impressions are created equal. That, in essence, is the key takeaway from new research scheduled for release today by Casale Media. Above-the-fold ad placements displayed within the first screen of a user's browser window were found to be the most effective. In fact, they are almost seven times more effective at generating a click-through than ads delivered below the fold. Based on analysis of nearly 2 billion ad impressions in the first quarter of the year, Casale also found that users were three to four time more likely to act on an ad if it was the first or second one they saw during their session. From there, ad effectiveness plummeted as the user progressed through their online viewing. Casale also noted that repetition does work -- to an extent. For example, ads shown five times or more to a user were 12 to 14 times more effective than ads shown less than five times. However, marketers needed to apply frequency capping to prevent over-saturation. "Relying on singular indicators, such as reach or hyper-targeting, does not tell you the full story," Joe Casale, CEO of Casale Media, said of common ad placement practices. "Vigilance on the part of marketing managers and accountability from their advertising partners are vital to executing a successful campaign." Furthermore, Casale's findings indicated that advertisers -- and particularly those focused on brand penetration with consumers -- should take into account a number of factors when considering the environments in which their ads will be running. Campaigns often suffocate from reduced share of voice on cluttered Web pages. They are ignored when surrounded by engaging content like photo galleries. They may not even be seen by their audience when displayed on a Web site that inflates impressions through auto-refresh mechanisms. All impressions sampled during the research period went to performance-based campaigns running Flash-based creative. All creative clicked through to simple, one-step actions like newsletter sign-ups.
The preferred "can't-live-without" method to view videos and watch and search for entertainment remains for 68% of males ages 18-34, according to a recent Frank N. Magid Associates study sponsored by Metacafe. Consumer behavior continues to integrate more video in everyday life. It turns out that 23% of survey respondents watch daily, up from 13% in 2010. Overall, 57% of Internet users watch online videos weekly, up from 50% last year. Males ages 18 to 34 watch 7.8 hours of online video weekly, compared with 5.6 hours per week among all viewers ages 8 to 64. Many participants in the survey expect to watch 10% more online video within the next year. Short-form video content gets the views. About 66% of online video viewers regularly watch premium short-form content, such as music videos, movies trailers and clips, TV previews and clips, sports highlights, video game content, comedy sketches and original Web series. The percentage of online video viewers for each genre has remained the same since 2008, except for a few exceptions during the past few years. For example, consumer-generated videos uploaded to sites such as YouTube rose from 33% to 46%. Full-length TV rose from 25% to 30%. Full-length movies rose from 10% to 22%. Emerging technologies have begun to show promise when it comes to connecting with entertainment and video content. About 30% of online view viewers watch content on a mobile phone, Internet-connected television or wireless tablet. Internet TV continues to grow in acceptance, with 25% of online video viewers accessing the Internet through their TV set and an additional 34% interested in hooking in at a later time, according to the Frank N. Magid study. About 158.1 million U.S. Internet users will download or stream video at least monthly via any device in 2011, representing 68.2% of Web users -- up to 76% by 2015, according to eMarketer. It's not clear whether the device type can have an influence on recall of the video or the topic, but studies note the type of video ad unit does. In fact, the type of ad unit and the frequency with which consumers see a specific type of ad in a unit has a major influence on recall, according to eMarketer. The research firm said 35% of viewers in a recent study could recall seeing a common static banner advertisement, but only 13% of viewers remembered seeing a more eye-catching video banner advertisement. Interestingly, it's not that the static banner ad proves to have a greater impact than the video banner ad, but rather the frequency with which consumers see them. The ad consumers are more commonly exposed to will have a higher impact on recall. > Exposure influencing recall can also be found in streaming ad units. Pointing to stats from Break Media, eMarketer notes that 47% of respondents said they remembered the brand or product advertised after viewing a pre-, mid- or post-roll video ad unit.
A jury's decision that a peer-to-peer user should pay the record industry $1.5 million for sharing 24 songs on Kazaa is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled on Friday. "Such an award is so severe and oppressive as to be wholly disproportioned to the offense and obviously unreasonable," U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis in Minnesota wrote. He slashed the award to $54,000 or $2,250 per track -- a figure that he called "punitive and substantial." The federal copyright law provides for damages ranging from $750 to $150,000 for each piece of infringed content, with the exact figure to be determined on a per-case basis. Last November, a jury decided that Jammie Thomas-Rasset should pay $1.5 million for sharing 24 tracks on Kazaa. Davis on Friday rejected that finding, writing that the jury's award was "appalling." He said that in this case, which involved a "first-time willful, consumer infringer of limited means who committed illegal song file-sharing for her own personal use," any award more than three times the statutory minimum was unconstitutional. "Thomas-Rasset was not a business acting for profit. Instead, she was an individual consumer illegally seeking free access to music for her own use," Davis wrote. "There is no doubt that a multimillion-dollar penalty is overkill to deter a private individual from obtaining free songs online." At the same time, Davis acknowledged in his opinion that the figure he arrived at might seem "somewhat arbitrary" -- which could make it vulnerable if the record industry appeals. "Why is an award of $2,251 per song oppressive, while an award of $2,250 is not?" he asked. Answering his own question, he wrote: "The Court must arrive upon a tangible dollar amount. Having carefully weighed all of the relevant factors, the Court concludes that in this case, setting the limit at three times the minimum statutory damages amount is the most reasoned solution." A spokesperson for the Recording Industry Association of America said: "We disagree with this decision and are considering our next steps." Thomas-Rasset's lawyer, Kiwi Camara, said he was happy the judge agreed the $1.5 million award was unconstitutional, but also believes that $54,000 in damages is too high. "We think both sides will appeal and the 6th Circuit will sort it out," he said. Friday's ruling marks the latest twist in lengthy legal proceedings that have resulted in three separate jury verdicts against Thomas-Rasset. In 2007, a jury found that she had infringed copyright by sharing 24 tracks on Kazaa and ordered her to pay $220,000 total. Davis later set that verdict aside because he had incorrectly instructed the jury about a key component of copyright infringement. A second jury trial resulted in a finding that she had infringed copyright and a decision that she pay $1.92 million. Davis slashed that verdict to $54,000, but didn't rule that it was unconstitutional. Because he didn't address whether the award was constitutional. The record industry was able to reject his decision and seek another trial solely to assess damages. (The RIAA offered before that trial to settle with Thomas-Rasset for $25,000, but she rejected the deal.) That third proceeding resulted in a jury verdict that Thomas-Rasset should pay $1.5 million. Thomas-Rasset is one of only two defendants sued by the RIAA to have a jury trial. Many of the other 18,000-some people accused of infringing copyright on peer-to-peer networks agreed to four-figure settlements. The other Web user to go to trial, Joel Tenenbaum, also lost. In his case, a jury ordered damages of $675,000 for sharing 30 tracks. But U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner in Boston slashed that award to $2,250 per track, ruling that the figure imposed by the jury was unconstitutional. The RIAA has appealed that case to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, which is still considering the matter. The RIAA stopped filing new lawsuits against noncommercial users in December of 2008.
The average amount of data created by a human being on our planet has more than quadrupled in the last six years. Our lives have become increasingly impacted by data-driven decision-making, as algorithms and recommendation engines make their way into the household lexicon. In the marketing industry, data has become our frenemy -- we sink or swim in a new era of real-time and predictive analytics. 2010 was the year of acronyms, with RTB, DSPs, DMPs and SSPs dominating the headlines. 2011 will no doubt spawn new three letter acronyms and new businesses dependent on data as the connective tissue driving competitive advantage. The hottest topic last year was real-time bidding (RTB) and the rise of the demand side platform (DSP). The ability to target and acquire audiences in real-time, as opposed to buying media based on contextual relevancy or panel based research has proved its cost efficiency to advertisers and agencies. This all began with display advertising that has the benefit of a relatively simple taxonomy for graphical display ad units and a huge supply of unsold biddable inventory. Online video and mobile were not far behind display as new real-time targetable media channels. In 2011, we're seeing publishers responding to the audience-buying trend by finding new ways to generate value from their inventory. Supply-side platforms (SSPs) offer publishers the ability to manage their inventory more effectively to maximize inventory yield. Private exchanges or links have also emerged as new trading mechanisms between publishers and agency trading desks looking for exclusivity and transparency. For real-time media buying to become truly successful and scalable, the supply of biddable inventory needs to continue to grow and better industry standards need to be established for exchanges and bid technologies (DSPs). That's a process that requires dialogue and transparency with publisher partners and industry bodies. Data-driven, real-time acquisition of online media is a major area of opportunity for our advertisers to drive improved efficiency in the display marketplace. Growth we have seen in this area in the last two years will continue, and as we see more success in mobile and video, this will become a truly multichannel opportunity. The unstoppable production and consumption of digital data has also created a challenge in the industry to draw out true insights from the "noise." The mountains of information we now manage as marketers have expedited the critical need to organize and optimize data from multiple sources. Media agencies and marketers need to tackle the challenge of "big" data head-on and take pro-active steps to change thinking within their organizations: put data driven thinking at the core. Technology is key in this mind-shift and the Data Management Platform (DMP) may be the next critical advertising technology development agencies and marketers need to put on their investment-shopping list. As offline CRM databases, shopper purchase data and online campaign data need to be integrated and analyzed, a single data currency needs to be established. It is crucial that we as an industry start trials and build such technologies. Within months, addressable TV in the US will become a more viable household level targeting opportunity, changing the stakes for multi-channel targeting. Now is the time to get ahead of solving complex data problems as an investment for the future. What of the remainder of 2011? Well, the digital advertising industry is in the midst of a land grab for access to and control of audiences. The days of picking up the phone to negotiate a media buy already seem like a distant memory to some as automated technologies facilitate access to audiences at scale in minutes. The challenge for marketers in 2011 is to bring together display, video, mobile search and potentially even addressable TV in a single data driven decision-making platform. The growing connectivity of data allows us to understand the contribution of individual media in far greater detail and in almost real time. This means our decisions can be more accurate and more instantaneous. We can now look at the impact of a particular TV ad, its relation to an online display ad, the search term a consumer used and what they subsequently bought at a retail store to evaluate campaign success. This interconnectivity of data allows greater visibility and faster decision making with data available and acted upon in hours or days, not weeks or months. Those agencies and advertisers that reinvent themselves as data-driven organizations can deliver on this promise.