According to a recent release by Nielsen, online video usage in the U.S. is up considerably from the same time last year, as time spent viewing video on PC/Mac/laptops from home and work locations increased by 45%. Although the number of unique online video viewers only increased by 3.1% from last January, level of activity was up as viewers streamed 28% more video and spent 45% more time watching. Total video streams also saw significant year-over-year growth, up 31.5% to 14.5 billion streams

According to The Retail Consumer Report, commissioned by RightNow and conducted online by Harris Interactive in January 2011 among 1,605 online US adults who shopped online during the most recent holiday season, consumers who have a bad experience, will not come back. And more than ever, unhappy consumers are turning to the social web to share their complaints. However, retailers have an opportunity to fight back and use social media to turn unhappy customers into brand advocates, says the report that shows how retailers are using social media to win back customers and drive buying decisions.

According to The Retail Consumer Report, commissioned by RightNow and conducted online by Harris Interactive in January 2011 among 1,605 online US adults who shopped online during the most recent holiday season, consumers who have a bad experience, will not come back. And more than ever, unhappy consumers are turning to the social web to share their complaints. However, retailers have an opportunity to fight back and use social media to turn unhappy customers into brand advocates, says the report that shows how retailers are using social media to win back customers and drive buying decisions.

According to NRF's 2011 St. Patrick's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, an estimated 122 million Americans planning to celebrate St. Patrick's Day this year with parties or celebrations. 52.4% of Americans will celebrate the Irish holiday, up from 45.2% last year and the most in the survey's eight year history.

According to a new study from Scarborough, the 6.2 million American adults over the age of 65 who are employed fulltime or parttime are financially sound, philanthropic, enjoy the arts. and have robust investment portfolios. These "Retired for Hire" consumers are slightly more likely than the average adult to have an annual household income of $150K+ and are 51% more likely to live in a home valued at $500K or more. Trending upward in technology adoption, the Retired for Hire tune into local news and have a passion for keeping up their homes.

According to a new study by Luminosity Marketing, almost 2/3 of Boomerang consumers make independent decisions about their needs, but are more conservative about influencing "the folks." In addition, the findings show that 56% buy on impulse, or planned to get it "today." Boomerangers are college graduates, between the ages of 22 and 29 who are single, have full-time jobs and live at home with their parents.

According to the comScore 2010 Mobile Year in Review report, mobile media adoption has continued to grow throughout the past year as consumers are increasingly turning to their mobiles for many other uses beyond just talking or even texting. Since December 2009 the number of mobile media users has grown significantly in the U.S. as 109 million U.S. mobile subscribers accessed mobile media in December 2010, up 7.6 percentage points versus year ago.

MerchantCircle, the largest online network of local business owners in the nation, today shared results of its quarterly Merchant Confidence Index survey of over 8,500 small and local business owners across the U.S. The data reveals that local merchants, who have very limited time and money for marketing, are gravitating towards simple, low-cost online marketing methods such as Facebook and other social media, as well as towards tried-and-true methods such as search and email marketing.

According to a new analysis from Starch Advertising Research, the use of celebrity endorsers provide significant lift to print advertising readership, despite the risks from those like Brett Favre, Charlie Sheen or Tiger Woods. On average, the ads that contained a celebrity endorser produced 9.4% higher consumer readership than ads without a celebrity endorser, in an analysis of more than 81,000 print ads that appeared in consumer magazines between December 2009 and September 2010.

According to a new MarketTools study, juxtapositioned with Employee Appreciation Day on Friday, March 4, nearly 50% of employees surveyed have considered leaving their current jobs, and 21% have applied for another job in the past six months. According to the study, salary was by far the leading cause of employee dissatisfaction, cited by 47% of the study participants. Other leading causes of dissatisfaction cited include workload (24%), lack of opportunities for advancement (21%), and the employee's manager or supervisor (21%).