Pinterest may be the darling of the social media world, but it has not been widely embraced by agencies. A new survey by the Creative Group finds that only 7% of advertising and marketing executives said their firms are using the visual social network for business purposes and 44% have no interest in adopting Pinterest. Another 18% had never heard of the site, and 17% said it caught their eye but they were hesitant about using it for work. Just 10% said they planned to start using Pinterest as a business-related tool. Staff at larger agencies were more likely than those at smaller agencies or companies to be on Pinterest. Among those with more than 100 employees, almost a quarter (24%) used the virtual pin board as part of the marketing mix, compared to 19% at those with fewer employees. But a higher proportion of smaller firms planned to go on Pinterest -- at 30%, compared to 6% of large firms. The findings were based on more than 500 phone interviews with 375 marketing executives randomly selected from companies with 100 or more employees, and 125 ad executives from agencies with 20 or more. Pinterest enjoyed meteoric growth earlier this year, becoming the fastest stand-alone site to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark, according to comScore. As of July, it had 23 million monthly visitors. Its rapid rise also made it the next big thing on the shifting social media landscape and a new marketing vehicle for brands from fashion e-commerce site Bottica to home improvement chain Lowe's. Still, the vast majority of agencies and companies are still on the sidelines. “While Pinterest has attracted a large following recently, it’s still a relatively new site,” said Donna Farrugia, executive director of The Creative Group, which provides staffing services for design and advertising professionals. "Agencies, or any organization for that matter, may be hesitant to join the social network until they determine how best to use it given their businesses’ goals and needs.” Among the large agencies on Pinterest are Digitas, Saatchi & Saatchi, Edelman, Wunderman, and JWT. The Creative Group also emphasized that the visual nature of Pinterest makes it a natural platform for agencies or individuals to showcase their creative work.
Among the explosion of social TV apps from IntoNow to Shazam to Viggle, TV Guide is hardly a new name. The brand dates back to the earliest days of television, decades before the arrival of mobile phones. Still, TV Guide has established itself in the smartphone era through an app launched in 2009, which has had 7 million downloads to date on the iPhone and other platforms. Building on its goal of one-stop-shop for TV listings and content cross-platform, the company launched a revamped version of its app for iOS devices Thursday. Features are geared toward greater personalization and social sharing. The centerpiece of the updated app is the Watchlist, an interactive tool extended from the TVGuide Web site that allows users to customize listings on a single screen by adding favorite shows, sports teams, actors and movies they want to track. The feature will show how to watch preferred content, whether on TV, on-demand, streaming or DVD. People can also share what they are watching via social networks and link directly to streaming services from ABC, Hulu Plus, HBO Go, iTunes and others. The 500,000 people who have already created Watchlists on TVGuide.com will be able to port over their accounts to the new app. Christy Tanner, EVP and general manager of TVGuide.com and TV Guide Mobile, said the focus on giving users a personalized directory stemmed from internal research showing that people need a way to keep up with all the different viewing choices. Among other new features, the app has also added a hot list dubbed "New Tonight Trending," based on social check-in activity about what people are watching, along with Watchlist filters for news and "new tonight." Users can check in to share and discuss what they are watching via the app. When it comes to advertising, Tanner says TV Guide focuses in on “beyond-the-banner” formats. She said the company has already sold 100 sponsorships since last year around check-ins (on TVGuide.com) and will add the ability to sponsor the “Add to Watchlist” button and content channels in the new app as well. By doubling down on discovery and original content, TV Guide wants to set itself apart from the growing pack of social TV apps. “It's really about a bond between fans and the shows they love,” she said. How does that translate into usage? Tanner said the TV Guide app currently has 1.5 million active users who spend 15 minutes on average each month using it. The company also says its 7 million downloads puts it ahead of other TV apps, including HBO Go, Xfinity, and GetGlue, based on various data sources. As far as ratings, the TVGuide app has earned three out of five stars in the iTunes App Store based on input from 35,320 users. That's better than HBO Go and Xfinity, for example, but not as good as four-star rated GetGlue. The new TV Guide app for Android devices will roll out this fall.
With its stock price plummeting after missing second-quarter revenue expectations and news of venture investors heading for the exits, things aren't looking so good at Groupon. Whether the once high-flying daily deal rebounds, it's clear that mobile will play an increasingly central role in its fortunes. The same goes for Groupon rival LivingSocial. Mobile traffic for both sites now exceeds that on the desktop, according to an analysis published today by comScore. Including traffic from both its mobile site and Groupon Now app, Groupon in July drew 17.8 million unique visitors compared to 12.4 million on the PC-based Web. Likewise, LivingSocial had total mobile traffic of 8.8 million versus 7.3 million on the desktop. During Groupon's second-quarter conference call this month, CEO Andrew Mason highlighted the growing role of mobile in its overall business. In April, for instance, nearly 30% of transactions were completed on mobile, up from a quarter four months ago. “We’ve seen our mobile users drive more incremental revenue and purchase activity than our Web-only customers, with each mobile customer spending over 50% more,” said Mason. That suggests that if mobile use continues to expand for Groupon, it could also lead to higher conversion rates and higher spending per customer. The mobile contribution in the second quarter still wasn't enough to help Groupon meet analysts' revenue expectations of $575 million. But if the company's mobile transactions increased to half the total — on par with the 50% penetration of smartphones in the U.S.— it could bolster the revenue picture, or at least help offset slowing overall demand for daily deals. The comScore post also looks more broadly at what factors position some companies, including Groupon and LivingSocial, to make gains in m-commerce. One key is winning a place among the handful of mobile apps people turn to regularly for shopping. “For many consumers, Groupon and LivingSocial check that box,” wrote Andrew Lipsman, VP, industry analysis, at comScore. When a transaction is time-sensitive, as on a daily deal site or auction site like eBay, that helps ensure that consumers will want to remain keyed in on an app to capitalize buying opportunities. Inputting payment or account information on a small mobile screen, however, isn't easy. Any business where customers have already entered their personal information on the Web is at an advantage when it comes to m-commerce. People are more likely to purchase via mobile if they don't have to go through a registration process. Mobile also lends itself to getting local information and local commerce, benefiting locally oriented sites like Groupon, Foursquare and Yelp. The Groupon Now app, for instance, allows users to search for deals within a certain radius of their current location, creating greater incentive to use it on the go. Mobile transactions are still only a small proportion of overall e-commerce, but are growing steadily. The share of online sales from mobile devices in the second quarter increased to 15.1% from 13.3% in the first quarter, according to an IBM benchmark report. A wave of mobile payments initiatives, including Google Wallet, the recently announced Merchant Customers Exchange, and those from companies like PayPal and Square, are also expected to accelerate m-commerce growth.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a method to aggregate and organize fragmented information from across the Web, something Google has been working on for years through a project called Knowledge Graph. MIT Sloan Professor Cynthia Rudin and colleagues Benjamin Letham and Katherine Heller developed the crowdsourcing algorithm to aggregate and process big data collected from across Web sites, blogs and social sites, as well as automate the continuous cycle of entering a keyword to query information. Rudin said the algorithm competes directly with a Google product called Google Sets. MIT's algorithm makes sense of posts from a variety of content across the Internet, based on the author's expertise and Web site's authority. It builds and reads many Web sites simultaneously, while pulling in information directly and indirectly related to the initial keyword. For example, if the searcher used the keyword "Barack Obama" and "Scott Brown," the algorithm also constructs a search for "Nancy Pelosi" and "John McCain," while constructing its list of politicians. The algorithm designs return queries instantly, with unrestricted access to a search engine, according to Rudin. "At the moment, Google prevents anyone from doing more than a few search queries a minute; but it is an artificial restriction that they can remove," she said. How much information does the Internet hold? The global Internet population represents more than 2.1 billion people. With each piece of data shared, it leaves a digital footprint. An infographic from Josh James, DOMO founder, breaks down the amount of data generated per minute. As of June 2012, the mobile Web received 217 new users per minute, YouTube uploads 48 hours of video, Facebook users share 684,478 pieces of content, Instagram users share 3,600 photos, and Tumblr sees 27,778 posts published. Rudin said search relies on explicit social signals, not implicit ones. "The explicit social signal we use: If someone lists an item on the Webpage in a similar way to the seed items, they are telling us that it is a potentially useful piece of information that might go on the list we construct," Rudin explains. "There's definitely a possibility to put the implicit social signals directly into the algorithm." There are challenges. While this is Rudin's first iteration, Google has been working on search for years and has access to more implicit information than MIT researchers. For example, the algorithm cannot guess age and gender of the searcher.
Using dramatic scenes from “Glee,” Fox and the Ad Council are illustrating the risks of texting while driving to teens nationwide with a new series of PSAs produced in partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and all 50 state attorneys general. The PSAs will run in donated TV airtime as well as online. “Glee” fans can probably guess which episode the PSAs draw on: the cliffhanger at the end of the last season, in which Quinn Fabray, played by Dianna Agron, gets into a car wreck because she takes her eyes off the road for only a few moments to send a text message. The scene highlights, in vivid fashion, the message that even five seconds is too long to take your eyes off the road. According to the NHTSA, a car traveling 55 miles per hour can traverse a football field in that amount of time. The PSAs also direct viewers to visit the campaign’s dedicated Web site, StopTextsStopWrecks.org. The new PSAs capitalize on the popularity of “Glee” to reach the crucial target demo for the anti-texting campaign: young adults ages 16-24. Studies have shown that young drivers suffer a disproportionate number of accidents due to distracted driving, including texting and talking on the phone. Over 3,000 people were killed and 416,000 injured due to distracted driving in 2010, per the NHTSA. The Ad Council has been working with state attorneys general to stop reckless driving by teens since 2006, and the “Stop the Texts. Stop the Wrecks” campaign alone has received more than $20 million in donated media so far, according to the organization.
Social's influence on consumers continues to increase, depending on the network. Males seem to flock to tech-oriented sites like Slashdot at 87%, followed by Hacker News at 77% and Stack Overflow at 76%. Females like Pinterest, 79%; Goodreads, 70%; and Blogger, 66%. Facebook and Twitter have the same gender user percentage, with 40% being male and 60% female. That's according to findings released Wednesday. Pingdom used DoubleClick Ad Planner to mine demographic data in the United States and create the study across numerous social sites. The findings analyze data across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit, Hacker News, Slashdot, Github, Stack, Overflow, Orkut, Quora, WordPress, Blogger, Flickr, MySpace, Tagged, Hi5, LiveJournal, Yelp, deviantART, StumbleUpon, Googdreads, and Last.fm. Ironically, Pingdom omitted Google+ information from the study for lack of data accessible in the Google DoubleClick platform. When averaging the age of social users across all the sites in the survey, 26% are between 25 and 34. Those ages 35 to 44 make up 25%; 45 to 54, 19%; 18 to 24, 16%; 55 to 64, 6%; 0 to 17, 5%; and 65 and older, 2%. There are substantial differences in the age demographics of individual sites. Marketers looking to target brand messages to social users ages 25 to 34 might want to use Orkut, Hi5, Stack Overflow, Blogger and Hacker News. Those ages 35 to 44 more often flock to Stack Overflow, Quora and Slashdot. LinkedIn attracts users 35 to 54. Those 65 and older tend to like LinkedIn, Yelp, Flickr, and WordPress. Breaking the numbers down further, when it comes to Twitter users, 55% of tweeters are 35 and older, compared with 63% at Pinterest; 65% at Facebook; and 79% at LinkedIn. Some sites tend to attract younger uses. Some 58% of Reddit users are under 35, compared with 60% at Github, 63% at Hi5, 69% at both Hacker News and deviantART, and 83% at Orkut. Based on the sites in this survey, the estimated age of the average social media user is under 37, according to Pingdom's data. LinkedIn supports the oldest user base, with the average member being 44, compared with Facebook at almost 51 years old and Twitter at 37 years old. The age of the average Facebook users rose two years, while the average age of Twitter users declined by two years since Pingdom's last study 2.5 years ago.
Lindt & Sprungli USA is introducing a second ad for Lindor truffles starring Lindt’s global brand ambassador, world tennis champion Roger Federer. The 30-second spot debuted Aug. 23 on YouTube (the video link is also featured on the brand’s Facebook page), and will begin airing on ABC, CBS, NBC and cable/syndicates on the morning of Sept. 3. The first tongue-in-cheek ad (“Airport,” from 2010) conveyed the irresistibility of Lindor truffles (and Federer) by showing female airport security guards confiscating his bag filled with the chocolates and threatening to strip-search the tennis star just for the fun of it. The new 30-second spot, “Lost” -- also from Gotham Inc. -- picks up the story where “Airport” left off. This time, two female airline customer service reps refuse to admit that a clearly ID-ed, “lost” bag full of the truffles is Federer’s (apparently planning to keep the goodies for themselves). In conjunction with the new creative, Lindt and Federer are hosting a “Perfect Match” sweepstakes on the brand’s Facebook page. Through Sept. 9, fans can enter to win a grand prize trip to the Sony Ericsson Open in March, Federer-autographed items, and a variety of Lindor products. Lindt is also releasing a limited-edition Roger Federer Lindor Tennis Tube, filled with the truffles, available while supplies last at the Lindt Chocolate Shops in New York City’s Rolex Building and the Peninsula Hotel (suggested retail: $22).
Vespa USA has created a digital lifestyle and community-focused Web site, www.LaVespaVita.com, that combines style, blogs, products, and user content. The point is to make the brand shareable. The program mirrors, to some extent, sibling brand Moto Guzzi's new lifestyle-centric, consumer content social platform, Moto Guzzi Originals. The site's name references the great Fellini film starring Marcello Mastroianni, who rides one, as does Gregory Peck in "Roman Holiday." Among other things, the site has a "Vespa Mosaic," where owners can post photos via Flickr or Instagram by using the hashtag #VespaVita; a Vespa Style Book, which is meant to be a user-generated review of people's sartorial inclinations -- with or without their scooters via the hashtag #VespaStyle; and a "La Vespa Vita Blog" where community members can submit posts about the Vespa lifestyle around trends, personalities, history, culture and adventures. One can also be a contributor by submitting content for the La Vespa Vita blog at www.lavespavita.com/blog. The site also has the 2012 model lineup and a promotion dangling $1,000 in Vespa gear. Melissa R. MacCaull, VP of marketing at Piaggio Group Americas, tells Marketing Daily that the new site isn't just a loyalty driver for current owners. "It's for riders and aspiring riders, or folks who like the brand," she says. "The site was created because there are so many great photos and content about Vespa on the digital landscape, so we wanted a place to match it. It's a site that conveys to people what Vespa is about with stories and photos." MacCaull says the site will be largely self-promotional via its links with Vespa's U.S. Facebook and Twitter pages, and other complementary social platforms. "Most of it will be viral; we will also reach out to other, like-minded networks whether fashion or entertainment, or music." Vespa, will, for example, have a presence at SXSW next year, around music. Meanwhile, she says, the company has been simplifying its traditional consumer site, www.VespaUSA.com to focus on products. "Our strategy has been to build the consumer Web site as a clear and simple place to go for product information and special offers, and to find dealers and drop personal data." The company has, in recent years, also been executing a marketing campaign with a slightly more pragmatic bent. It promotes Vespa as a way to reduce oil consumption, pollution and traffic congestion. "We will continue to do that," she says, "but Vespa also about travel as fun and freedom."
Pinterest may be the darling of the social media world, but it has not been widely embraced by agencies. A new survey by the Creative Group finds that only 7% of advertising and marketing executives said their firms are using the visual social network for business purposes and 44% have no interest in adopting Pinterest. Another 18% had never heard of the site, and 17% said it caught their eye but they were hesitant about using it for work. Just 10% said they planned to start using Pinterest as a business-related tool. Staff at larger agencies were more likely than those at smaller agencies or companies to be on Pinterest. Among those with more than 100 employees, almost a quarter (24%) used the virtual pin board as part of the marketing mix, compared to 19% at those with fewer employees. But a higher proportion of smaller firms planned to go on Pinterest -- at 30%, compared to 6% of large firms. The findings were based on more than 500 phone interviews with 375 marketing executives randomly selected from companies with 100 or more employees, and 125 ad executives from agencies with 20 or more. Pinterest enjoyed meteoric growth earlier this year, becoming the fastest stand-alone site to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark, according to comScore. As of July, it had 23 million monthly visitors. Its rapid rise also made it the next big thing on the shifting social media landscape and a new marketing vehicle for brands from fashion e-commerce site Bottica to home improvement chain Lowe's. Still, the vast majority of agencies and companies are still on the sidelines. “While Pinterest has attracted a large following recently, it’s still a relatively new site,” said Donna Farrugia, executive director of The Creative Group, which provides staffing services for design and advertising professionals. "Agencies, or any organization for that matter, may be hesitant to join the social network until they determine how best to use it given their businesses’ goals and needs.” Among the large agencies on Pinterest are Digitas, Saatchi & Saatchi, Edelman, Wunderman, and JWT. The Creative Group also emphasized that the visual nature of Pinterest makes it a natural platform for agencies or individuals to showcase their creative work.
Among the explosion of social TV apps from IntoNow to Shazam to Viggle, TV Guide is hardly a new name. The brand dates back to the earliest days of television, decades before the arrival of mobile phones. Still, TV Guide has established itself in the smartphone era through an app launched in 2009, which has had 7 million downloads to date on the iPhone and other platforms. Building on its goal of one-stop-shop for TV listings and content cross-platform, the company launched a revamped version of its app for iOS devices Thursday. Features are geared toward greater personalization and social sharing. The centerpiece of the updated app is the Watchlist, an interactive tool extended from the TVGuide Web site that allows users to customize listings on a single screen by adding favorite shows, sports teams, actors and movies they want to track. The feature will show how to watch preferred content, whether on TV, on-demand, streaming or DVD. People can also share what they are watching via social networks and link directly to streaming services from ABC, Hulu Plus, HBO Go, iTunes and others. The 500,000 people who have already created Watchlists on TVGuide.com will be able to port over their accounts to the new app. Christy Tanner, EVP and general manager of TVGuide.com and TV Guide Mobile, said the focus on giving users a personalized directory stemmed from internal research showing that people need a way to keep up with all the different viewing choices. Among other new features, the app has also added a hot list dubbed "New Tonight Trending," based on social check-in activity about what people are watching, along with Watchlist filters for news and "new tonight." Users can check in to share and discuss what they are watching via the app. When it comes to advertising, Tanner says TV Guide focuses in on “beyond-the-banner” formats. She said the company has already sold 100 sponsorships since last year around check-ins (on TVGuide.com) and will add the ability to sponsor the “Add to Watchlist” button and content channels in the new app as well. By doubling down on discovery and original content, TV Guide wants to set itself apart from the growing pack of social TV apps. “It's really about a bond between fans and the shows they love,” she said. How does that translate into usage? Tanner said the TV Guide app currently has 1.5 million active users who spend 15 minutes on average each month using it. The company also says its 7 million downloads puts it ahead of other TV apps, including HBO Go, Xfinity, and GetGlue, based on various data sources. As far as ratings, the TVGuide app has earned three out of five stars in the iTunes App Store based on input from 35,320 users. That's better than HBO Go and Xfinity, for example, but not as good as four-star rated GetGlue. The new TV Guide app for Android devices will roll out this fall.
With its stock price plummeting after missing second-quarter revenue expectations and news of venture investors heading for the exits, things aren't looking so good at Groupon. Whether the once high-flying daily deal rebounds, it's clear that mobile will play an increasingly central role in its fortunes. The same goes for Groupon rival LivingSocial. Mobile traffic for both sites now exceeds that on the desktop, according to an analysis published today by comScore. Including traffic from both its mobile site and Groupon Now app, Groupon in July drew 17.8 million unique visitors compared to 12.4 million on the PC-based Web. Likewise, LivingSocial had total mobile traffic of 8.8 million versus 7.3 million on the desktop. During Groupon's second-quarter conference call this month, CEO Andrew Mason highlighted the growing role of mobile in its overall business. In April, for instance, nearly 30% of transactions were completed on mobile, up from a quarter four months ago. “We’ve seen our mobile users drive more incremental revenue and purchase activity than our Web-only customers, with each mobile customer spending over 50% more,” said Mason. That suggests that if mobile use continues to expand for Groupon, it could also lead to higher conversion rates and higher spending per customer. The mobile contribution in the second quarter still wasn't enough to help Groupon meet analysts' revenue expectations of $575 million. But if the company's mobile transactions increased to half the total — on par with the 50% penetration of smartphones in the U.S.— it could bolster the revenue picture, or at least help offset slowing overall demand for daily deals. The comScore post also looks more broadly at what factors position some companies, including Groupon and LivingSocial, to make gains in m-commerce. One key is winning a place among the handful of mobile apps people turn to regularly for shopping. “For many consumers, Groupon and LivingSocial check that box,” wrote Andrew Lipsman, VP, industry analysis, at comScore. When a transaction is time-sensitive, as on a daily deal site or auction site like eBay, that helps ensure that consumers will want to remain keyed in on an app to capitalize buying opportunities. Inputting payment or account information on a small mobile screen, however, isn't easy. Any business where customers have already entered their personal information on the Web is at an advantage when it comes to m-commerce. People are more likely to purchase via mobile if they don't have to go through a registration process. Mobile also lends itself to getting local information and local commerce, benefiting locally oriented sites like Groupon, Foursquare and Yelp. The Groupon Now app, for instance, allows users to search for deals within a certain radius of their current location, creating greater incentive to use it on the go. Mobile transactions are still only a small proportion of overall e-commerce, but are growing steadily. The share of online sales from mobile devices in the second quarter increased to 15.1% from 13.3% in the first quarter, according to an IBM benchmark report. A wave of mobile payments initiatives, including Google Wallet, the recently announced Merchant Customers Exchange, and those from companies like PayPal and Square, are also expected to accelerate m-commerce growth.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a method to aggregate and organize fragmented information from across the Web, something Google has been working on for years through a project called Knowledge Graph. MIT Sloan Professor Cynthia Rudin and colleagues Benjamin Letham and Katherine Heller developed the crowdsourcing algorithm to aggregate and process big data collected from across Web sites, blogs and social sites, as well as automate the continuous cycle of entering a keyword to query information. Rudin said the algorithm competes directly with a Google product called Google Sets. MIT's algorithm makes sense of posts from a variety of content across the Internet, based on the author's expertise and Web site's authority. It builds and reads many Web sites simultaneously, while pulling in information directly and indirectly related to the initial keyword. For example, if the searcher used the keyword "Barack Obama" and "Scott Brown," the algorithm also constructs a search for "Nancy Pelosi" and "John McCain," while constructing its list of politicians. The algorithm designs return queries instantly, with unrestricted access to a search engine, according to Rudin. "At the moment, Google prevents anyone from doing more than a few search queries a minute; but it is an artificial restriction that they can remove," she said. How much information does the Internet hold? The global Internet population represents more than 2.1 billion people. With each piece of data shared, it leaves a digital footprint. An infographic from Josh James, DOMO founder, breaks down the amount of data generated per minute. As of June 2012, the mobile Web received 217 new users per minute, YouTube uploads 48 hours of video, Facebook users share 684,478 pieces of content, Instagram users share 3,600 photos, and Tumblr sees 27,778 posts published. Rudin said search relies on explicit social signals, not implicit ones. "The explicit social signal we use: If someone lists an item on the Webpage in a similar way to the seed items, they are telling us that it is a potentially useful piece of information that might go on the list we construct," Rudin explains. "There's definitely a possibility to put the implicit social signals directly into the algorithm." There are challenges. While this is Rudin's first iteration, Google has been working on search for years and has access to more implicit information than MIT researchers. For example, the algorithm cannot guess age and gender of the searcher.
Using dramatic scenes from “Glee,” Fox and the Ad Council are illustrating the risks of texting while driving to teens nationwide with a new series of PSAs produced in partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and all 50 state attorneys general. The PSAs will run in donated TV airtime as well as online. “Glee” fans can probably guess which episode the PSAs draw on: the cliffhanger at the end of the last season, in which Quinn Fabray, played by Dianna Agron, gets into a car wreck because she takes her eyes off the road for only a few moments to send a text message. The scene highlights, in vivid fashion, the message that even five seconds is too long to take your eyes off the road. According to the NHTSA, a car traveling 55 miles per hour can traverse a football field in that amount of time. The PSAs also direct viewers to visit the campaign’s dedicated Web site, StopTextsStopWrecks.org. The new PSAs capitalize on the popularity of “Glee” to reach the crucial target demo for the anti-texting campaign: young adults ages 16-24. Studies have shown that young drivers suffer a disproportionate number of accidents due to distracted driving, including texting and talking on the phone. Over 3,000 people were killed and 416,000 injured due to distracted driving in 2010, per the NHTSA. The Ad Council has been working with state attorneys general to stop reckless driving by teens since 2006, and the “Stop the Texts. Stop the Wrecks” campaign alone has received more than $20 million in donated media so far, according to the organization.
Social's influence on consumers continues to increase, depending on the network. Males seem to flock to tech-oriented sites like Slashdot at 87%, followed by Hacker News at 77% and Stack Overflow at 76%. Females like Pinterest, 79%; Goodreads, 70%; and Blogger, 66%. Facebook and Twitter have the same gender user percentage, with 40% being male and 60% female. That's according to findings released Wednesday. Pingdom used DoubleClick Ad Planner to mine demographic data in the United States and create the study across numerous social sites. The findings analyze data across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr, Reddit, Hacker News, Slashdot, Github, Stack, Overflow, Orkut, Quora, WordPress, Blogger, Flickr, MySpace, Tagged, Hi5, LiveJournal, Yelp, deviantART, StumbleUpon, Googdreads, and Last.fm. Ironically, Pingdom omitted Google+ information from the study for lack of data accessible in the Google DoubleClick platform. When averaging the age of social users across all the sites in the survey, 26% are between 25 and 34. Those ages 35 to 44 make up 25%; 45 to 54, 19%; 18 to 24, 16%; 55 to 64, 6%; 0 to 17, 5%; and 65 and older, 2%. There are substantial differences in the age demographics of individual sites. Marketers looking to target brand messages to social users ages 25 to 34 might want to use Orkut, Hi5, Stack Overflow, Blogger and Hacker News. Those ages 35 to 44 more often flock to Stack Overflow, Quora and Slashdot. LinkedIn attracts users 35 to 54. Those 65 and older tend to like LinkedIn, Yelp, Flickr, and WordPress. Breaking the numbers down further, when it comes to Twitter users, 55% of tweeters are 35 and older, compared with 63% at Pinterest; 65% at Facebook; and 79% at LinkedIn. Some sites tend to attract younger uses. Some 58% of Reddit users are under 35, compared with 60% at Github, 63% at Hi5, 69% at both Hacker News and deviantART, and 83% at Orkut. Based on the sites in this survey, the estimated age of the average social media user is under 37, according to Pingdom's data. LinkedIn supports the oldest user base, with the average member being 44, compared with Facebook at almost 51 years old and Twitter at 37 years old. The age of the average Facebook users rose two years, while the average age of Twitter users declined by two years since Pingdom's last study 2.5 years ago.
Lindt & Sprungli USA is introducing a second ad for Lindor truffles starring Lindt’s global brand ambassador, world tennis champion Roger Federer. The 30-second spot debuted Aug. 23 on YouTube (the video link is also featured on the brand’s Facebook page), and will begin airing on ABC, CBS, NBC and cable/syndicates on the morning of Sept. 3. The first tongue-in-cheek ad (“Airport,” from 2010) conveyed the irresistibility of Lindor truffles (and Federer) by showing female airport security guards confiscating his bag filled with the chocolates and threatening to strip-search the tennis star just for the fun of it. The new 30-second spot, “Lost” -- also from Gotham Inc. -- picks up the story where “Airport” left off. This time, two female airline customer service reps refuse to admit that a clearly ID-ed, “lost” bag full of the truffles is Federer’s (apparently planning to keep the goodies for themselves). In conjunction with the new creative, Lindt and Federer are hosting a “Perfect Match” sweepstakes on the brand’s Facebook page. Through Sept. 9, fans can enter to win a grand prize trip to the Sony Ericsson Open in March, Federer-autographed items, and a variety of Lindor products. Lindt is also releasing a limited-edition Roger Federer Lindor Tennis Tube, filled with the truffles, available while supplies last at the Lindt Chocolate Shops in New York City’s Rolex Building and the Peninsula Hotel (suggested retail: $22).
Vespa USA has created a digital lifestyle and community-focused Web site, www.LaVespaVita.com, that combines style, blogs, products, and user content. The point is to make the brand shareable. The program mirrors, to some extent, sibling brand Moto Guzzi's new lifestyle-centric, consumer content social platform, Moto Guzzi Originals. The site's name references the great Fellini film starring Marcello Mastroianni, who rides one, as does Gregory Peck in "Roman Holiday." Among other things, the site has a "Vespa Mosaic," where owners can post photos via Flickr or Instagram by using the hashtag #VespaVita; a Vespa Style Book, which is meant to be a user-generated review of people's sartorial inclinations -- with or without their scooters via the hashtag #VespaStyle; and a "La Vespa Vita Blog" where community members can submit posts about the Vespa lifestyle around trends, personalities, history, culture and adventures. One can also be a contributor by submitting content for the La Vespa Vita blog at www.lavespavita.com/blog. The site also has the 2012 model lineup and a promotion dangling $1,000 in Vespa gear. Melissa R. MacCaull, VP of marketing at Piaggio Group Americas, tells Marketing Daily that the new site isn't just a loyalty driver for current owners. "It's for riders and aspiring riders, or folks who like the brand," she says. "The site was created because there are so many great photos and content about Vespa on the digital landscape, so we wanted a place to match it. It's a site that conveys to people what Vespa is about with stories and photos." MacCaull says the site will be largely self-promotional via its links with Vespa's U.S. Facebook and Twitter pages, and other complementary social platforms. "Most of it will be viral; we will also reach out to other, like-minded networks whether fashion or entertainment, or music." Vespa, will, for example, have a presence at SXSW next year, around music. Meanwhile, she says, the company has been simplifying its traditional consumer site, www.VespaUSA.com to focus on products. "Our strategy has been to build the consumer Web site as a clear and simple place to go for product information and special offers, and to find dealers and drop personal data." The company has, in recent years, also been executing a marketing campaign with a slightly more pragmatic bent. It promotes Vespa as a way to reduce oil consumption, pollution and traffic congestion. "We will continue to do that," she says, "but Vespa also about travel as fun and freedom."
Social TV -- in all it’s forms -- is on a roll. More apps, more cross-platform promotion and apparently, more engagement. This USA TouchPoints analysis looks at what share of TV viewing is concurrent with social media use and vice versa.With TV still far and away the dominant medium in terms of the time the general population spends with it, the small slice of total TV time that accounts for concurrent use of social media isn't a surprise. Despite the increased activity in and excitement around the space, Social TV is still small, though rapidly growing, in the larger picture of TV consumption. (This 2% slice is not solely constrained to social activity that relates to onscreen TV content; it encompasses all use of social.)However, when looking at the question from the other end of the telescope, we see that the share of social media time that is spent concurrently viewing TV, the picture is very different: The share is 15-times larger at 30%. In part, this is because of the relative total volume of time compared to TV. But it is also likely to be due to the social currency that TV provides for interaction between friends, as well as the efforts of broadcasters and content owners to increasingly promote viewer interaction across social platforms.While a superficial view of this data may suggest that TV benefits social more than social benefits TV, such a conclusion would be simplistic. The benefits are inevitably flowing both ways. The slice of TV viewing that is concurrent with social media use is only likely to grow in the future, as the sector crystalizes the underlying models and consumer behavior continues to evolve.
A new analysis by BIGinsight, from the Hispanic InsightCenter, shows that Hispanics (18+) tend to be more digital-savvy than their Non-Hispanic counterparts. In addition to face-to-face communication, they are using social media and mobile technology to give and seek advice about products and services, effecting the allocation of media when marketing to this consumer group. In general, Hispanic consumers tend to be early adopters and are more likely to own smartphones and tablets than Non-Hispanics. iPad ownership specifically is up among Hispanics from 4.2% in June 2010 to 21.3% in 2012. (14.6% of Non-Hispanics report having an iPad in 2012.) Viewing on Mobile Devices % of UsersMobile Used to ViewHispanicsNon-Hispanics Email 48.1% 29.2% News 26.6 17.5 Sports 15.2 10.2 Video/TV 15.5 9.6 Source: BIGinsight, August 2012 Hispanics’ regular usage of social media also largely outpaces that of their Non-Hispanic counterparts. Usage among Hispanics indexes higher across all sites tracked in the InsightCenter. Regular Use of Social Media/Online Communities – Index (Hispanics 18+ vs. Non-Hispanics 18+) Media Index vs. Non-Hispanics Facebook 109 Foursquare 166 Google+ 133 Hulu 144 LinkedIn 127 MySpace 155 Pinterest 109 Twitter 141 YouTube 133 Source: BIGinsight, August 2012 Word of Mouth in the digital age is no longer neighbors talking over the fence, and Hispanics appear to be embracing digital means. While face-to-face remains the #1 way for them to give or seek advice about products and services, things like email, text and mobile are making their way on the list. Top 10 Ways Hispanics Seek and Give Advice about Products and Services (% of Respondents; Hispanics 18+) % of RespondentsGet/Give InformationSeek AdviceGive Advice Face-to-Face 75.1% 83.2% Product Reviews 34.6% 8.7% Email 24.8% 35.4% Text Messaging 23.7% 28.6% Mobile Device 23.3% 24.3% Friends on Facebook 20.1% 16.2% Blogs 16.2% 4.2% Telephone (Landline) 15.1% 19.6% Instant Messaging 11.3% 13.5% Facebook Retailer/Brand Pages 8.4% 10.6% Source: BIGinsight, August 2012 It’s noteworthy that there are differences among advice seekers and givers within this group. One big distinction is product reviews; 34.6% of Hispanics who seek advice read them, while only 8.7% who give advice write them. So, less than 1 in 10 are providing information in product reviews to more than three times as many people who are taking that information in to make product decisions. Considering that digital technology is aiding in the evolution of traditional word of mouth, it’s interesting to look at media allocations that consider social media, mobile, instant messaging and blogging in the WOM equation, especially among digital-savvy Hispanic consumers. This “new” Word of Mouth dwarfs traditional medias in comparison when weighted by influence and consumption. Allocation Model for Electronics Purchases (% of Respondents; Hispanics 18+; WOM includes: Face-to-Face, Social Media, Mobile, Text, Instant Messaging and Blogging) Purchase Influence% of Respondents WOM 30.6% Trade Promotion 19.0% Direct Marketing 11.7% TV 11.0% Radio 10.6% Internet Advertising 6.6% Magazines 5.9% Newspaper 4.7% Source: Prosper MediaPlanIQ, June 2012 (Media influence is weighted by consumption) For Hispanic digital behavior for specific services, in PDF format, please visit here, and for viewing the information from BIG insight, visit here.
Some 17% of respondents participating in the SEOmoz 2012 survey spend more than $1,000 per month on tools and software. The largest segment -- at 17.5% -- spends $101 to $300 per month, followed by 10.5% at between $301 and $500. The SEOmoz 2012 results looks at salaries, spending and budgets, paid and free tools, tactics, and more. The top five tactics that individual respondents said they spend time doing include 24% for SEO; 11, on-page optimization; 10% link building; 8%, social media marketing; and 6%, copywriting and blogging. When it comes to working in teams, the percentage changes. Some 18% spend time optimizing content and sites, 14% build links, 12% write copy and blog, 11% spend time doing on-page optimization, and 10% support social media marketing. Social media tops the list of services in demand, as it becomes more influential on rankings. The report states that "the fate of newer networks, like Google+ and Pinterest, may be uncertain, but it's clear that there's room at the table for more than just Facebook and Twitter." When asked which tasks SEO professionals spend time doing overall, 76% said they set up and run Facebook business pages; 74% analyze, track site speed and page-load times; 69% analyze competitors' backlinks; 64% analyze competitors' content; 64% set up and manage Google+ business profiles; 63% analyze data in Google Analytics; and 59% blog. SEO is becoming more complicated. Some 58% use rel="canonical" to control duplicate content, with 25% admitting they have used the even more obscure rel="prev"/"next" tags for pagination. Also, 57% manage conversion tracking to improve return on investments; and 55% focus on local SEO. About 41% of respondents have implemented schemas or micro-data, 30% have fought Panda and declared victory, and nearly as many said they continue to fight Panda. How much do SEO professionals make? SEOmoz broke down the salary chart in four categories: Agency, Consultant, In-house, and Owner. Those running their own business make the most, on average. When it comes to in-house marketers, only 2% make $250,000, and 6% make between $150,000 and $250,000. Eighteen percent of in-house marketers make a salary of between $45,000 and $60,000; followed by 17% at between $75,000 and $100,000; 16% make between $30,000 and $45,000; 13% make between $60,000 and $75,000; 12% between $100,000 and $150,000; and 9% would rather not say. Consultants and freelancers had the widest range of salaries, with the highest percentage, 22%, falling into the $30,000 to $45,000 range. Some 1% take home $250,000; and 3% earn between $150,000 and $250,000. The survey data includes the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
Your company’s sustainability commitments can be some of the toughest stories to tell. There’s often no “hard news,” very few reporters actually cover the topic as a dedicated beat and initiatives often take place thousands of miles away, far from the backyards of the average consumer. So how are people engaged? Obviously, a company’s website is often the sole source, but sometimes a blog entry or a blurb on product packaging can invite readers in. Obviously, event marketing, cause marketing and creative partnerships can make a much bigger impact, but why not try something more subtle: Pinterest. I like to think of the fastest-growing social channel as the marketing equivalent to sneaking spinach into your mac & cheese because it’s not a place where consumers are likely to be seeking CSR information, but rather are apt to stumble across it. What is Pinterest? If you haven’t already succumbed to the hullaballoo, Pinterest exploded onto the social networking scene and has already attracted more than 10 million users. Essentially a virtual pinboard, it’s a website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections based on events, interests and hobbies. Users can browse other users’ pinboards for inspiration,re-pin images to their own collections or simply like those images. Pinterest's mission – so says its website – is to "connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing.” Whereas Facebook is a place where users document life experiences, Pinterest is more aspirational. On Facebook, people share “what I did.” On Pinterest, people share “here’s what I wish I could do.” Connecting Your Sustainability Story Sustainability commitments run the gamut of green building, green energy, certified sourcing (e.g., Fair Trade), nonprofit partnerships and more. The key is to make your story visual and link what you’re doing with a broader lifestyle. Depending on your sustainability programs, there are plenty of opportunities to intersect with what people already care about. Right now, the most popular and shared categories on Pinterest are food, style and fashion, home, arts and crafts, and inspiration and education. Savvy brands are using visuals on Pinterest to educate, share behind-the scenes information about their culture, while connecting with these popular categories. Making the Connection Here are just a few examples of how to bridge what you do, with how people are already searching. • Purchase only organic ingredients? Start a board on backyard gardening and homesteading under “Grow Your Own” and classify under the popular Home category. • Care about sourcing? Pin exotic pictures of your countries of origin under “Places We Love” and categorize under travel. • Want to share about your green operations? Pin beautiful green architecture and sustainable design under “Build Green” and categorize under style. • Want to tout the relationship with the people who grow your ingredients? Start a “We Love Farmers” board, and show pictures of the people and places behind your brand and categorize under inspiration. Pinterest is certainly an emerging versus established communication channel, but you can’t deny that it’s the fastest-growing social network. If you haven’t already done so, reserve your brand name on Pinterest today. Identify your board themes and get creative with naming your pin boards. Find like-minded accounts and boards to follow. And develop content guidelines that will ensure that you always practice ethical pinning (e.g., attribute your content to the original creator or owner). Lastly, don’t forget to integrate. Add “Follow us” and “Pin It” buttons on your website, incorporate the Pinterest app on Facebook, tweet links to pins, add social links to your Pinterest profile, and share your boards. Yes, it’s more work for you and your team. But the benefits of Pinterest are its power to bring life to your sustainability story through images in our highly visual society. Not only that, it will help amplify efforts on your other channels, increase referral traffic to your website and help with SEO. Not too shabby for a picture. Might just be worth a thousand words after all.
In 2008 Barack Obama's biggest day for fundraising was triggered by a message to followers from a 20-year-old campaign worker on social media (I'm not clear if they were paid, or an intern, or a volunteer), according to Thomas Gensemer, co-founder and managing partner, WPP's Blue State Digital. Following Palin's speech at the GOP convention, in which she took a swipe at Obama's previous experience as a community organizer, the indignant message triggered an outpouring of grassroots donations. I hope s/he got a sweatshirt or something.
And they were standing in a farm field next to a barn emblazoned with a really big Obama campaign logo. It was one of the slides shown by Obama digital shop Blue State Digital’s Thomas Gensemer, who said that the No. 2 big secret of the campaign was, “crazy people.” In this case, the crazy person was a farmer who contacted the campaign to inquire what the “correct Pantone colors” were for the campaign’s logo, because he wanted to paint it on his barn. “And he had a very photogenic cow,” Gensemer quipped, without explaining exactly what the cow’s KPI was, but implying that it somehow contributed to Obama’s social media success. (See Cathy, they really did come home.) Gensemer said Blue State seized on the passion of Obama’s fervent “ag” base, and worked with other farmers with barns in fields as the campaign was heading into the key Super Tuesday primaries in such agricultural states as Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania. I guess they figured out it was a strategy worth milking. As is this bovine metaphor.
Once again, that’s not my line, but it came from Budd Media co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Jeff Ragovin on the opening panel on Day One of the Social Media Insider Summit. It reminds me of a post I did the other day during the Mobile Insider Summit about prediction that people who don’t get with the program will ultimately die, but not quite as fatal. Ragovin’s point is that social is entering its “2.0” phase, and with that maturation, is a maturing of marketing perspectives. “It’s not just about launching pages anymore. It’s about being across all the social channels,” he said. “It’s about tying in customer profiles and tying in a better understand of who they are, what they’re doing, how influential they are.” Ragovin said its really morphing from an advertising and branding medium into a conversational and interrogative medium that is really about “customer relationship management.” “We know that social has obviously changed the way every brand is doing [things],” Ragovin asserted, adding, “At this point in time, if you’re not doing social, it’s kind of a fireable offense.” Of course, Ragovin, whose company was recently acquired by Salesforce.com for a pretty high multiple -- and presumably a pretty high earn-out agreement -- has a vested interest in you doing social. And if you don't, he may be the one getting fired.
That’s what Buddy Media’s Jeff Ragovin told social summit attendees that the ill-fated photo sharing platform Ofoto actually was. “Who remembers Ofoto?,” he asked to a crickets-chirping audience response. Undeterred, Ragovin said it was “the beginning of social before we knew what social was.” Then it’s beginning came to a sudden end, he said, when it was acquired by Kodak. (Who remembers Kodak? Chirp-chirp!) “Kodak destroyed the,” Ragovin recalled, adding, “Now we aer seeing things like Instagram being bought for $1 billion with no business model. That is crazy.”
Mike Bloxham, marketing chief of the Media Behavior Institute, just shed a startling stat with the Social Media Insider Summit crowd in Tahoe. Drawing on MBI’s USA Touchpoints analysis of how people really use media – including their concurrent usage of mediums – Bloxham pointed out that for all the talk about “social TV,” you know people using social media while watching television. It’s actually a “teeny weeny” slice of total time spent watching television: 2%. “That’s amazing,” Bloxham exclaimed, adding, however, that if you look at the “other end of the telescope” – the time people spend using social media in while they are watching television, it’s actually pretty significant: 30%. Based on this finding, I’m going to suggest we change the industry buzz term “social TV” to “TV social.” Or something better than that, if you’ve got any suggestions.