Only 55% of marketers state they would consider using their primary agency again if they were to put their account up for review. In 2008, 62% of marketers rated this question an "8-10" and in the 2009-2010 survey, 69% of marketers rated this question an "8-10", suggesting there was a higher likelihood of the marketer considering their current agency again.

According to a comScore overview of the U.S. online display advertising market for Q1 2011, based on data from comScore Ad Metrix, nearly 1.11 trillion display ads were delivered to U.S. Internet users during the quarter. Facebook accounted for 346 billion impressions, nearly double the number it delivered in Q1 2010, and accounting for nearly one third of all display ad impressions delivered.

According to Retrevo's Technology Life Cycle analysis, a new study, 62% of U.S. smartphone owners perceived their phone to be obsolete now or will be obsolete before their contract runs out. And, the phone carriers don't want the old phone and don't want to subsidize a new one sooner than every two years. When the study asked smartphone owners whether they would consider changing smartphones before their contract was up, 48% said they would if the terms were favorable while 20% said a two year contract on their device was fine with them. Others were not sure or might …

According to a new study from Adobe Systems, almost three-quarters of businesses plan imminent investments in website redesigns or significant site enhancements to improve ROI. The study, "Digital Marketing in the Next Decade," found the most-deployed tactic to date, used by 55% of respondents, was analytics tools for measuring and optimizing website experiences. 82% say they plan to adopt the enhancements this year, up 8% from a year ago.

According to a recently released report, a collaboration between Forrester Research and GSI Commerce, social media rarely leads directly to purchases online. Less than 2% of orders were the result of shoppers coming from a social network during the holiday shopping period between November 12 and December 20, 2010. Addressing social marketing, Fiona Dias, executive vice president of strategy and marketing for GSI Commerce, says "... buying things from retailers is maybe 10th on the list of things they want to do on Facebook... from a retail and commerce perspective, social media seems to have no effect..."

Since "Testing" was a significant subject at last week's Conference by Mediapost Communications, this timely report from Marketing Sherpa about Case Study #CS31905: Landing Page Testing and Optimization, the Intuit Quick Books' success, in a recent "battlefield testing" atmosphere, may be a useful add-on for the readers of the Research Brief. Reported by David Kirkpatrick, he says at the outset, "... find out how one B2B marketer went through a cycle of four tests on its main landing page to optimize revenue-per-visitor, found a winner, and continued to test to refine those results. This advanced look at optimization includes …

According to Simba Information's latest report from David Goddard and the editors of Simba Information, "Yellow Pages Market Forecast 2011," after shrinking 25.2% since 2003, the industry will finally stabilize in 2013 with a 2.5% gain in revenues to reach $12.1 billion. The report notes that total usage of the yellow pages has remained unchanged since 2006 at 16.7 billion; the difference is that the internet now holds a 30% share as of 2010, gaining 10% in four years. The yellow pages have remained a reliable source for local information as the original search engine, says the author, with restaurants, …

According to Trends in TV Viewing from the Nielson Company, new and enhanced technologies are fueling the demand for video content. The average American watched 34 hours 39 minutes of TV per week in Q4 2010, a year-over-year increase of two minutes. The heaviest users of traditional TV are adults 65+ (47 hours 33 minutes per week), followed by adults 50-64 (43 hours per week). Trailing all other age groups, teens age 12-17 watch the least amount of TV (23 hours 41 minutes per week).

A new study, from Lucid Marketing with Moms.com, "How U.S. Moms Share & Spread Health Information," finds that 84% often share things via Email and 69% often share via Facebook, their top choices. Email and Facebook are also the places where they most often hear about the new things. Email (83%) and Facebook (76%). Only 65% choose Television.

According to the American Express OPEN Small Business Monitor, more small business owners cite growing their businesses as their top priority over "keeping/maintaining my current business and sources of revenue". 37% are expecting to grow and 56% of them are willing to take a financial risk to do so. 65% believe growth will be slow and steady and 16% are planning for aggressive growth.