Television's prime time is video games' prime time. Television viewer erosion is the result of a fractionalized viewership -- which is due, in large part, to cable viewing and Internet usage. But a lot of video game usage is also contributing, especially in the evening hours between 7 and 11 p.m. A new study by the Nielsen Games measuring division says Xbox 360 usage, for example, hits nearly 25% between 7 and 11 p.m, with men around 23% and women's usage at around 17%. Xbox 360 users are comprised of 45% 18- to-34-year-olds, 31% 12- to-17-year-olds, 13% 2- to-11-year-olds, 7% 35- to-44-year-olds and 3% 45- to-54-year-olds. Nielsen also looked at Xbox 360 popular live game "1 vs 100" -- which comes in two versions -- one with a live host; the other where players could practice among themselves. The live-host version play averaged 87 minutes, while the practice verison was 71 minutes. That's equal to about one TV drama and one sitcom. Both types of Xbox play offer advertising integration during the "game breaks" after each set of 10 questions. Carolyn Fuson, senior audience and analysis manager for Xbox Live advertising, said in a Nielsen Wire blog: "In one specific case, an advertiser who placed ads within the games saw notable brand recall and lift. Our ability to learn more about the audience can only be a positive to those brands looking to make an impact on the growing gaming community."
New online advertising research has again shown what other studies have suggested: Online commercials get better recall than television messaging. In every recall measure -- general recall, brand recall, message recall, likability -- online proves superior. Online video ads have a 65% general recall, compared to 46% general recall for TV ads. Brand recall online is at 50% to TV's 28%; message online recall comes in at 39% to TV's 21%; and online likability is 26% to TV's 14%. The study of 14,000 surveys was originally presented by Dave Kaplan, senior vice president of product leadership at Nielsen IAG, and Beth Uyenco, director of global research at Microsoft, at the Advertising Research Foundation. They evaluated 238 brands, 412 products and 951 ad executions to get these results. A deeper brand impact was felt higher among young viewers 13-34. What accounted for the positive results? Internet video viewers are more engaged and attentive. The research also said curiosity is a factor, as online video is still relatively new compared to existing media. One of the biggest reasons for the attentiveness: The inability of the user to skip ads versus that of traditional TV, where about one- third of U.S viewers have the ability to fast-forward through messaging. There is also reduced advertising clutter -- about four minutes for an hour of programming. This is against 10 minutes of national ads for traditional TV, and around 15 minutes overall when including local ads and TV promos. There are growing trends to increase commercial load, however. The research says online advertising's "sweet spot" is between six and seven minutes per hour.
Hulu now enters the world of creeping media charges. It moves stealthily because few users will mind -- initially. And it's "creeping" because, in short, it's the distance between what subscribers paid a cable operator for monthly programming in 1989 -- and what they pay in 2010. Hulu looks to charge for older episodes of current TV series -- but not more-recent episodes, which it'll keep free. So you'll be able to get the last five episodes of "House" for free - just not the season premiere from last September, or last season. For consumers, the marketing of Hulu has been successful; usage is up for the video digital destination. It has positioned itself as premium TV next to YouTube's more everything-to-everyone TV. Now Hulu is looking to speed up its goal toward profitability. And this may be only the start. Those four minutes of advertising time per hour to watch the likes of "Heroes" could soon turn into six or even 10 minutes -- similar to the messaging totals of traditional TV. A big piece of Hulu users are those consumers who miss the initial showing of TV shows through traditional TV platforms. So the five-show rule would seem to work. Interestingly, right now a number of Hulu shows don't have many episodes beyond the five to begin with. Hulu will continue to add to its library. Surely, that will be the big selling theme to consumers, something on the order of: "We are getting bigger and will give you more choice." All media companies have used that line before -- just before they raise rates. Cable companies have worked that angle for years. For many, the real failure is that Hulu hasn't gained as much from advertisers as they anticipated. Some TV producers say they haven't gotten much either from the Web site -- money they need to make up for losing fees in other areas. This means executives at News Corp/NBC Universal/Walt Disney -- partners in Hulu, who have been floating the consumer fee idea for months -- will finally get to see if the next business phase of Hulu brings digital quarters, not just digital pennies.