According to the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month period ending March 2010 compared to the preceding three-month period, Samsung, Motorola and LG separated by a mere fraction of a percentage point of market share among handset manufacturers, while Verizon led among mobile operators with 31.1% market share. In the 3 month average ending in March, 234 million Americans age 13 and older were mobile subscribers, with device manufacturer Samsung ranking as the top OEM at a 21.9% share of U.S. mobile subscribers, inching out Motorola by a fraction …

A new report, "Improving Ad Performance Online," by the Online Publishers Association (OPA), found that advertising effectiveness scores on original content sites (represented by the group's member sites) were numerically higher than on the Web, portals or ad networks. Sarah Barry James, reporting from SNL, quotes Stuart Schneiderman, director of research for the OPA as saying "One of the biggest questions we get from the marketers and agencies is not only about whether online advertising is an effective branding mechanism or medium, but whether environment matters... "

According to the BrightRoll survey of executives and media buyers at advertising agencies, online video advertising is poised for continued growth, as 94% of respondents plan to spend more in the category in 2010 than they did in 2009. In a positive sign for the industry, targeting capabilities, a point of concern for 28% of last year's respondents, were cited by agencies as the most valuable attribute of online video.

A new study, conducted by the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda (ICMPA) and students at the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, "24 Hours: Unplugged," asked 200 students at the College Park campus to give up all media for 24 hours. After their 24 hours of abstinence, the students were then asked to blog on private class websites about their experiences, to report their successes and admit to any failures. The 200 students wrote more than 110,000 words, about the same number of words as a 400-page novel.

According to the "State of Inbound Marketing Report" from Hubspot, as reported by Marketing Charts, inbound marketing is continuing to grow in importance at the expense of outbound marketing, As a percentage of the overall lead generation budget, inbound marketing expanded slightly from 2009 to 2010, while outbound marketing contracted more significantly. The net effect is that the gap widened from inbound marketing, which had a 9% greater share of the overall marketing budget than outbound marketing in 2009, to a 15% greater share in 2010.

Normally, this column reports facts, figures and forecasts from published research from which discerning readers find a heads-up for the next meeting, support for a selected strategy, or an "... aha, I didn't know that." Today's Brief deviates slightly from its mission in that the "research" precipitating the discussion is admittedly semi-professional, partially anecdotal and somewhat limited. But it points in a direction that's not frequently discussed, and a recent article provides some insight into the subject matter.

The comScore monthly analysis of U.S. Web activity for March 2010 reports that auto manufacturers ranked as the top-gaining site category in March, growing 23% to more than 30 million visitors, as potential buyers researched vehicle options online. Automaker discounts and incentives compelled millions of Americans to visit auto manufacturer sites to seek information and investigate possible purchases.

According to the e-tailing group 9th Annual Merchant Survey, given the e-commerce essential role for today's retailers, 59% are planning to invest somewhat more in e-commerce than the 36% who did so in 2009. With a recovering economy and shifting channel priorities, 92% anticipate 2010 Internet revenues to increase over '09 with significant growth in the 6-15% range; just 8% report a flat or downward trend in their e-commerce business vs. 34% last year.

A recent joint study from Nielsen and Facebook, titled "Advertising Effectiveness: Understanding the Value of a Social Media Impression," analyzed survey data from more than 800,000 Facebook users with regard to more than 125 Facebook ad campaigns from 70 brand advertisers. The report provides quantifiable data that can be mapped to trusted advertising benchmarks: Ad Recall, Brand Awareness, and Purchase Intent.

According to the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council's latest State of Marketing Report, corporate marketers expect to become less dependent on agencies and more self-sufficient with their own internal digital marketing infrastructures, talents and go-to-market capabilities. 46% of those surveyed said that investing in digital demand generation and online relationship building ranks among the top initiatives being taken to maximize the impact and value of marketing in 2010. 38% say they are exploring alternative media and new routes to market; 62% will be crunching customer data to improve segmentation and targeting. Most of this will be done in-house or by …