Nielsen//NetRatings reported that the first week in October is the busiest time online to prepare for Halloween, with Halloween-related sites peaking during the week ending October 9th. Buycostumes.com grew 48 percent week-over-week from October 2nd to October 9th, drawing 700,000 unique visitors in the first week of October, while the following week saw a seven percent drop off in unique audience traffic.

A deeper drill-down into music sites, demographics, ad types, sizes and delivery

According to a white paper by the Winterberry Group, and a summary report by the Direct Marketing Association, acquisition mailing made up 70% of the $52.5 billion marketers spent on direct mail during 2004. The overall trend in direct mail use is growth, though sources disagree about the rate of increase. The Direct Marketing Association anticipates a conservative 5.2% growth rate, while the Winterberry Group, which sponsored the study, predicts 7.5% growth in direct mail, all direct response advertising through the mail, including postcards, catalogs and letters, which represents over 23 percent of total United States direct response advertising spending.

In a recent release from Forrester, compiling information from several reports and a survey of young US and Canadian consumers age 12 to 21, the summary concludes that to reach the youth market, one needs to reach young consumers on their terms and, more importantly, speak a dialect that they understand. The report addresses reaching these 73 million people under the age of 18 in the US, as well as those in the Canadian markets.

The recent ShopperScape survey, from Retail Forward Inc., reports that a fifth of consumers who shop online increased their buying as the result of higher gasoline prices in September. 6.7% of consumers who shop online said they are shopping online much more as a result of high gas prices, while 15% said somewhat more. A previous survey, by Shopzilla.com, showed 40% of consumers increasing their online shopping as the result of higher gasoline prices.

As a follow on to last week's reports about local newspapers online, here's another perspective on local advertising Online, and the availability of a complete report... According to a recent study by Borrell Associates Inc., through the participation of advertising experts in a quarterly panel, local online advertising is enjoying a bonanza year, with many site operators reporting revenue increases of 50 percent or more.

Nielsen Media Research reported that the average American home watched more television the past TV season vs. any previous season. During the 2004-05 TV season (September to September), the average household in the U.S. tuned into television 8 hours and 11 minutes per day. This is 2.7% higher than the previous season, 12.5% higher than 10 years ago, and the highest levels ever reported since television viewing was first measured by Nielsen Media Research in the 1950's.

According to results of the 2005 Shop.org/BizRate Research Online Holiday Mood Study, this year's most popular online promotion will be free shipping, which 79 percent of online retailers plan to offer during the holiday season. This promotion is in line with consumers' desires, as almost four out of five online shoppers said that free shipping offers are an important factor when deciding where to buy.

In the metropolitan markets surveyed by The Media Audit From 2002 to 2004, the Hispanic adult population increased by 16 percent while the number of Hispanic college graduates increased by 22 percent. Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, Inc., said "The number of Hispanic college graduates increased by 806,000 from approximately 3.6 million to 4.4 million."

A new report from Nielsen//NetRatings and eMarketer indicates that that readers in almost every city in the top 10 local markets have been loyal to their top hometown paper. Local newspapers claimed an average of 19% of the local Internet readership, and held the top spot among the city's online readers for online newspaper sites.