According to sports fan research firm Scarborough Sports Marketing, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), a sport combining boxing and martial arts, is attracting young, well-established, high-tech consumers. The study reveals the shopping patterns, demographics and lifestyles of Mixed Martial Arts fans and found that these adults are 51% more likely than the average American to be ages 18-24, 25% more likely to have a household size of three or more people, and 67% more likely to be male. Mixed Martial Arts fans are defined as those adults who watched MMA on broadcast or cable television during the past year. And, …

According to a new report from Borrell Associates monitoring the pulse of local ad spending by U.S. auto dealers, dealer associations, and manufacturers, US auto manufacturers will increase their online local ad spending by 14% in 2010, while new- and used-car dealers will increase their ad spend online by 8.6%. The total effect will result in an 11.4% increase in new-vehicle online ad spending next year.

According to recent survey data from Experian, while the recession has caused consumers to stay closer to home this year, the observance of this holiday is more significant to consumers than ever before. 31% of US consumers say they are less willing to take on travel expenses because of the economic crisis and plan to celebrate this year's Thanksgiving holiday closer to home, and 38% plan to travel only 1-25 miles to celebrate the holiday. 37% of consumers said they do not plan to travel for their Thanksgiving meal because they are hosting the celebration.

According to an analysis of BIGresearch's Simultaneous Media Usage Survey of over 22,000 consumers, there's good news and bad news for marketers who are wading into the mobile marketing wars. The good news, says the report, is that the audience for mobile marketing is growing. The bad news is that the audience is still relatively small and confined to a limited segment of the market. Marketers who employ mobile marketing to the wrong consumer group risk turning them off, not on.

According to the American Express Spending & Saving Tracker, The "joyful" outlook for this holiday season might surprise you, as this brighter consumer mood translates into buying behavior. When given the choice of describing their attitude going into the holiday season as joyful or gloomy, 41% of the general population say they are "joyful". 42% are even-keeled, saying they are "neither joyful nor gloomy," and only 13% have a "gloomy" attitude. 69% of young professionals and 53% of the affluent report a joyful outlook

According to the latest Integrated Newspaper Audience finding from Scarborough Research, in its recently released Scarborough USA+ Study, 74% of U.S. adults, or nearly 171 million people, read a newspaper, in print or online, during the past week. The study examined newspaper readership, which captures media patterns and other consumer behaviors of adults across the country. Newspapers are still read in print or online by a critical mass of adults in the U.S. on a daily and weekly basis, says the report

As a complement to the annual Mendelsohn Affluent Survey, Ipsos Mendelsohn recently released another of its regular online Affluent Barometer surveys among affluent adults. In the most recent survey, 1,000 people with household incomes of $100,000 or more were asked to candidly assess and share their current concerns and opinions about the changing world around them. The three biggest concerns of 16 potential issues measured in October according to all Affluent households surveyed were: The Economy (40%); Health care (38%); Unemployment and jobs (34%).

Findings from the CTAM Pulse report, that includes data from the Life Stages & Life Styles Study, show that seniors aged 65 and older ("Matures") have made the Internet an integral part of their everyday lives. In a recent study, 77% report that they shop online. Matures lead all other generational groups when it comes to online activity, 94% regularly using email, 71% go to the Internet to look up health and medical information, 70% read news, and 59% manage their finances and banking. In addition, 47% of online Matures regularly play free online games.

A new study, entitled "Marketing to the Post-Recession Consumers," by Decitica, addresses the lasting effects of the recession in the way American consumers have internalized the recession experience. It's particularly relevant in developing "positioning" and marketing/merchandising/advertising strategies. Dr. Val Srinivas, Principal at Decitica, says, "This research... decisively shows that marketers need a fresh lens through which to view consumers in the post-recession world..."

According to the findings of a new Adweek Media/ Harris Poll, looking at celebrities and their persuasiveness, 21% of Americans say they find athletes to be most persuasive when they endorse a product, followed by 18% who say television or movie stars are most persuasive, 14% who say singers or musicians and 10% who say former political figures are most persuasive. On the other hand, speaking of celebrities ranking in the category of least persuasive, 23% of the survey respondents say television or movie stars are least persuasive, while 14% say business leaders are least persuasive. 13% of Americans say …