According to the latest total radio listening estimates compiled by the radio network and national audience measurement service of Arbitron, radio retained its position as a mainstay medium over the past year, reaching demographics in all locations. Initial findings indicate that, over the course of a typical week, radio reached 95 percent of Persons 18+ who live in a household with an income of $75,000 or more. Ninety-five percent of college grads listened to radio, as compared to only 92 percent of people who did not go to college. Eighty-two percent of Persons 18+ listened to radio while in their …

A deeper look at Health and Fitness sites, visitors, advertisers and ad technology

Fry, Inc., and comScore Networks jointly released the results of the first Evolution of the Multi-Channel Consumer (EMC2) study based upon the attitudes, experiences and expectations of U.S. online shoppers. The study provides new details of consumers' migration to a more complex multi-channel experience that includes in-store pickup, gift registries, store kiosks, online coupons and many other resources.

A new study called "Understanding Expenditure Patterns in Retirement," published by the Boston College Center for Retirement Research, shows that typical married adults ages 65 and older have expenditures totaling $14,792. The top fifth in income have average expenses of $25,567 and the lowest fifth have average expenses of $10,111. Richard Johnson, co-author of the study, says the typical retired couple devotes 29 percent of their money on housing, 20 percent on health care, 13 percent on food, 2 percent on clothing, 12 percent on transportation, 10 percent on entertainment, 10 percent on gifts, and 4 percent on other things. …

Part of the BIGresearch January Consumer Intentions and Actions survey asked respondents to view commercials to determine if the commercial would motivate them to shop at the advertiser's store. Joe Pilotta, Ph.D. BIGresearch, summarized, saying "The consumer(s) are educated shoppers (and) have limited time for shopping the over-stored retail environment. Overall, the commercials that most motivated consumers to shop a store provided information of value which helped consumers decide to shop a particular store. This was even more true for the customers of the advertisers evaluated."

According to figures by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), December 2004 factory-to-dealer sales of DTV products hit 927,000 units, marking a 45 percent increase over December 2003. Total DTV sales for 2004 reached 7.2 million units, an increase of 75 percent compared to year-end 2003. With November 2004 holiday sales of 844,000 units, the 10 percent increase in December sales demonstrates that retailers know that an upgrade to a high-definition television (HDTV) is a priority to consumers before this year's Super Bowl," said CEA Director of Market Research Sean Wargo.

Nielsen//NetRatings recently reported that 69 percent of retail purchases transacted online were conducted via a broadband connection, compared to 31 percent transacted via narrowband or dial-up access during November 2004. This custom research from MegaView Online Retail found that broadband consumers spend on average $158.21 per person, 34 percent higher than the $117.89 average spent by narrowband users. In addition, the conversion rate for broadband users reached 26 percent, compared to the conversion rate of narrowband users at 21 percent.

According to a recent analysis of customers from the BIGresearch's December Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, "The idea of customer loyalty, where consumers shop exclusively at a particular retail store, ceased to exist long ago," said Gary Drenik of BIGresearch. Loyalty has been replaced by cross shopping. Your 'customers' are also your competitor's customers," he said.

A new report by Ofcom and compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers to define the TV advertising market in the UK, says that TV advertising revenues are set to achieve significant real growth over the next decade, but little, if any, of this growth will come from the traditional commercial channels. The report concludes that new, multi-channel services will drive growth, as they increase their share of viewing.