Email Increasingly Viewed on Mobile Device, Not PC Internet advertising sets Q1 record

“Traditional ideas about what is opinion and what is news, what is advertising and what is editorial, is evaporating each day,” quipped New York Times media columnist, David Carr earlier this week. But, we can assure you if it’s advertising, and it’s digital, it just keeps growing.

Internet Advertising Revenues Set First Quarter Record 

Internet advertising revenues for the first quarter of 2012 set a new record for the reporting period at $8.4 billion, according to the latest IAB Internet Advertising Report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC U.S. It is the highest first-quarter revenue ever measured by the IAB and PwC and a $1.1 billion–or 15 percent increase–over the $7.3 billion figure reported in the first quarter 2011. The growth comes on the heels of 22 percent growth in 2011according to IAB's Annual Internet Advertising Revenue Report.

Mobile Email Viewing Taking Over

Here’s another milestone for you. By the end of this month, more people will be reading their email on mobile devices than on personal computers, according email marketing company Return Path. Mobile email views have increased over 82 percent in the past 12 months and Apple iPads and iPhones now account for 85 percent of mobile email that’s opened. Guess we don’t have to tell you which platform to optimize for.

Tablets Gain Mobile Video Viewers

Meanwhile, a new comScore study of the U.S. tablet market found that the devices have reached a critical mass in the U.S. with 1 in every 4 smartphone owners now using tablets. Smartphone owners are also three-times more likely to watch video on their devices compared to smartphone users, with 1 in every 10 tablet users viewing video content almost daily on their devices.

In April 2012, one in six (16.5%) mobile phone subscribers used a tablet, representing an 11.8 percent increase in the past year. Growth in market penetration was even more apparent among the smartphone population with nearly 1 in 4 using a tablet device in April, up nearly 14 percent in the past year. A lower 10.4 percent of feature phone owners use a tablet, suggesting that smartphone ownership is highly predictive of tablet adoption in the current market.

Internet Video to Surge by 2016

Internet video will play a major role in the quadrupling of the Internet over the next four years. That traffic growth from 2011 to 2016, according to Cisco’s latest report, will be driven by a proliferation in devices. Cisco projects that by 2016 the number of network connections will reach nearly 19 billion -- up from 10 billion last year, due to the growth in tablets, mobile phones and other smart devices. Video will drive the growth. Cisco said to expect about 1.2 million video minutes to travel the Internet every second by 2016. “Globally, there are expected to be 1.5 billion Internet video users by 2016, up from 792 million Internet video users in 2011,” Cisco said. 

Last year, computers accounted for 94 percent of Web traffic, and that share should drop to 81 percent by 2016 as more traffic rides on devices like tablets and smartphones. That figure underscores how quickly handheld devices are becoming the gateway to the Web for many consumers.

Macro view (with a Twist)

A few signs of optimism on the economic front for you. Single family home starts rose 3.2 percent in May and according to the U.S. Commerce Department, builders requested more permits for homes and apartments last month than they have in three and a half years.

U.S. Federal Reserve officials extended through the end of the year a program meant to drive down long-term interest rates and signaled that they were "prepared to take further action" if needed amid heightened worry about the economy's performance. By continuing the program, known as "Operation Twist," the Fed will buy $267 billion in long-term Treasury bonds and notes while it sells short-term Treasurys. The Fed said it still had big concerns about the economy as  the growth in employment "has slowed in recent months, and the unemployment rate remains elevated," with household spending rising at a “somewhat slower pace than earlier in the year."

Conclusion

We’re in a slow growth mode, with more emphasis on “growth” than on “slow.” For the short-term, technological advances have allowed companies to get by with fewer people than before, but those short-term productivity gains (including metrics such as revenue-per-employee) will begin to fade as human fatigue and disenchantment with “The Man” will eventually take over.

Pick your spots carefully when marketing to B2B prospects, but you do have to spend in order to stay in the game. Make sure mobile and video are an essential part of your marketing mix.

VCRGD6XDXT3T

TAGS: David Carr, Cisco, IAB Internet Advertising Report, mobile view of email, smartphones, tablets, online advertising growth, Operation Twist, comScore

Why B2B Marketers Care About TV Upfront Week

LinkedIn preferred by the financial elite (see below)

Broadcast television—emphasis on “broad”—still has merit for mass consumer advertisers pushing cars, consumer staples, travel and movies. There will still be plenty of buzz this week when the advertising “up front” season kicks off. But, the live ratings for networks programs have declined for 14 straight quarters, according to media buying firm, Horizon Media. Meanwhile, Horizon says online viewing is up more than 46 percent year-over-year and Nielsen estimates there will be 350 million Web-enabled TV devices in use worldwide by 2015.

NY Times media pundit, David Carr quipped today, “it isn’t just the early adopters that legacy television has to be concerned about: there is a whole cohort of consumers on the way who are non-adopters of TV as we have historically conceived it.”

Our take: It’s not only that “appointment TV” continues to drop precipitously (i.e. American Idol ratings off 30 percent), but viewers want to consume their favorite content when they’re good and ready to do so. That same DVR mindset is affecting how they engage with your email newsletters, alerts, podcasts, videos and white papers.

Don’t worry about your clicks, opens, views and Likes the first 12 to 24 hours of a digital campaign. In the same way that your target buyers TiVo their favorite shows for later viewing, they’re archiving their “must-read/must view” work-related content and plowing through it over the weekend or late at night when they’re more relaxed and less distracted. We see this trend again and again with our clients.

Next week we’ll talk about using the metrics that matters—not the McMetrics that are easiest to collect.


LinkedIn preferred by the financial elite

According to the latest quarterly study by Janrain Engage, people use Facebook to interact with friends and family, Twitter to follow influencers and share opinions, LinkedIn for their professional network, and Gmail, Yahoo! or Hotmail to communicate directly with contacts.  Combined, these networks boast over 1.5 billion accounts. 

However, it’s a little different for financial advisors and high net worth investors (HNWI) of more than $100,000 in investable assets. A new commissioned by LinkedIn released late last week at the Financial Services Summit in New York identified some important takeaways:

1.For about one third of advisors (30%), social media plays a role in marketing and researchers expect it to be used by over half over advisors in 2013. Nearly three fourths of financial advisors have used at least one social network for business in the past year. Researchers also found that many advisors are not taking advantage of the platform. About 5 million high net worth individuals (HNWIs in industry parlance) use social media to inform financial decisions, and of those who consult a financial advisor regularly, more than half (52%) would value interacting with that person via social media -- but only 4 percent do so today.

2.LinkedIn says about two-thirds of U.S. online adults with an investment account have at least one social network profile, and Forrester Research says nearly all households with more than $1 million in investable assets are now online.

3.Social media adopters are more demanding. More than half (53%) of HNWIs expect relevant and timely content, 48 percent want greater transparency of information and 45 percent value real-time interactive conversations.

4.Among advisors who have used at least one social network for business, 91 percent have used LinkedIn; 32 percent, Facebook; 28 percent, Google+; and 22 percent, Twitter.

Our Take: Great stats, but now LinkedIn starts to push it over the top. For instance, the study also found social media improves brand perception of a financial company, labeling it as "innovative." Researchers claim “Not only do investors expect finance companies to advertise on LinkedIn, but doing so improves consumer brand perception toward the financial company by 7 percent. That same financial company advertising on another social platform could result in an 11 percent net decrease in favorability,” according to LinkedIn's findings.

Conclusion

Whether you’re in mass consumer, financial services or nuts-and-bolts B2B, your target customers—not you—decide if and when they’ll spend time with your offering. That’s the world we live in. Just as “mass” is fading from the lexicon of mass media, “blast” is fading from the world of B2B.

VCRGD6XDXT3T

TAGS: LinkedIn, Forrester Researcher, Horizon Media, Janrain Engage, Financial Services Summit, Nielsen, David Carr