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Social Media Excites Marketers, but Doesn’t Yet Generate Revenue

Social media engagement is the most exciting digital opportunity for global marketers this year, cited by 54% of company respondents to a survey[download page] released in February 2012 by Econsultancy, in partnership with Adobe. Social media is far ahead of other top 3 opportunities company marketers are passionate about, including mobile optimization (38%), content optimization (37%), conversion rate optimization (31%), brand building/viral marketing (27%), and video marketing (24%).

Social Also a Top Priority

Marketers also indicated social media engagement to be among their top 3 digital-related priorities this year. The area topped the list, cited by 39% of company respondents, on par with the proportion who indicated content optimization to a be a top priority. Other areas marketers will be focusing on this year include conversion rate optimization (34%), brand building/viral marketing (32%), and mobile optimization (29%). And although content marketing (29%) matches mobile optimization as a priority, it is far less stimulating for marketers: only 18% cited the area as among their top 3 most exciting opportunities this year.

Passion Does Not Revenue Make, Though

Although social media marketing clearly is both a priority and a stimulating topic, marketers paint a less encouraging picture about its effectiveness as a revenue-generating channel. Among company and agency respondents, almost half said that social media has added many more programs and goals, but not the revenue to support new hires, indicating this to be a key challenge. By contrast, just 20% of companies and 13% of agencies said that this was not an issue for them.

Indeed, according to an Awareness survey released in December 2011, few marketers are tying social media marketing initiatives to lead generation (38%) and sales (26%), with a far greater proportion using soft metrics such as social presence (76%), measured by number of followers and fans, and website traffic (67%) to determine the success of their campaigns.

Engagement More Fun Than Analytics

This trend may not be changing soon, at least when looking at the areas marketers want to place their priorities this year. Data from Econsultancy’s “Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing: Digital Trends for 2012″ indicates that companies and agencies are placing far more emphasis on social media engagement than social media analytics. For example, when asked about their digital priorities this year, companies were about twice as likely to cite engagement as analytics (39% vs. 19%), while the disparity among agencies was even higher (54% vs. 19%). Similarly, when asked what excited them the most, companies were far more likely to cite social media engagement than social media analytics (54% vs. 27%), as were agencies (47% vs. 27%).

About the Data: The Econsultancy/Adobe results are based on an online survey of more than 600 client-side and agency respondents. 27% are based in North America and about two-thirds are based in Europe. 42% are exclusively focused on B2C, 32% are B2B-focused, and 26% are focused on both B2B and B2C.

QR Code Scanners Likely Male, Young

Although men and women report equal awareness of QR codes (77%), men who are aware of them are 75% more likely than women to have used one (28% vs. 16%) to access product information,according to survey results released in February 2012 by BrandSpark International, in association with Better Homes and Gardens. Looking at age groups, 18-34-year-olds (85%) display the highest awareness of QR codes, with 30% of those having used one. 35-49-year-olds are next, with 80% having heard of QR codes, and 23% of those respondents having used one.

These findings align with results from an August 2011 study released by comScore MobiLens, which found that a mobile user that scanned a QR code during June 2011 was more likely to be male (60.5% of code scanning audience), and skew toward ages 18-34 (53.4%).

According to the BrandSpark survey, overall, 77% of respondents are aware of QR codes, and of those, 19% have used one.

Smartphone Owners Interested in Coupons

Data from the “2012 American Shopper Study” indicates that 54% of smartphone owners are interested in using their device to download or scan coupons, while 32% would be interested in using an application that finds and categorizes mobile coupons. A significant proportion of smartphone owners are also interested in using their devices to make or store shopping lists (46%), make instant purchases/transactions (38%), use an app that informs them about new food, beauty/grooming, and household products (36%), and participate in a contest or other type of promotion (34%).

In fact, only about one-quarter of the respondents expressed no interest in performing any of those activities.

Women More Interested in Coupons

Female smartphone owners are 19% more likely than their male counterparts to say they would be interested in downloading or scanning coupons on their device (57% vs. 48%), and 55% more likely to say they would be interested in using an app that finds and categorizes mobile coupons (34% vs. 22%). Additionally, they are more interested in making instant purchases/transactions on their devices (39% vs. 29%).

Youth More Curious, Too

Breaking down the data by age groups, 18-34-year-olds (66%) are the most likely to be interested in downloading or scanning coupons, ahead of 35-49-year-olds (48%), and those over 50 (43%). The groups fall in the same order of preference when it comes to interest in using an app that finds and categorizes mobile coupons (35%, 28%, and 25%, respectively), and making instant purchases/transactions on their device (43%, 33%, and 28%, respectively).

About the Data: The BrandSpark International survey was conducted across the US, Canada, and Mexico from November 7, 2011 to January 26, 2012. The total North America sample size was almost 130,000. The sample size for the data on awareness and usage of QR codes was 2,933, while the sample size for the data on smartphone activities was 1,542

Facebook Ad Revenue Grew 69% in ‘11, Now Over $3B

Facebook advertising revenue reached $3.15 billion in 2011, representing an increase of almost 69% from $1.87 billion in 2010, and more than tripling from $764 million in 2009,  according to the February 2012 prospectus it filed in conjunction with its initial public offering (IPO).

The $3.15 billion in advertising revenue equaled 85% of the social network’s $3.71 billion in 2011 revenues, with the remaining $557 million derived from payments and other fees revenue, more than quadruple the $106 million derived from those sources in 2010. The proportion of 2011 revenue accounted for by advertising was down from 95% (of $1.97 billion) in 2010 and 98% (of $777 million) in 2009.

Notably, Zynga accounted for approximately 12% of the company’s revenue last year.

Fan Engagement Low, Though

Despite these impressive figures, brands using Facebook likes as a rating could be disappointed. In terms of engagement, only slightly more than 1% of users who like big brands such as Procter & Gamble or Coca-Cola actually engage with those brands, according to Ehrenberg-Bass Institute research, as reported by AdAge. The research, which measured Facebook’s “People Talking About This” metric relative to overall fan growth for the social network’s top brands during a 6-week period in 2011, found the proportion of the metric to overall fans to be 1.3%. Removing new likes from the equation, the proportion was even more minimal, at 0.45%.

Users Continue Growing at Rapid Pace

Even so, Facebook’s reach continues to grow at leaps and bounds. According to its prospectus, it had 845 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of December 31, 2011, representing growth of 39% from 608 million a year earlier, and 135% from 360 million at the end of 2009.

The amount of daily active users (DAUs) also increased 48% from an average of 327 million in December 2010 to an average of 483 million December 2011.

According to Socialbakers analysis from January 2012, Facebook grew 7 users per second in 2011.

Elderly, Adolescents Show Most Rapid Growth

Data from Socialbakers’ analysis shows that the amount of Facebook users aged 65 and older grew 52% in 2011 to reach 19 million, matched by the 52% growth among users aged 16-17, who numbered 66 million. Adults aged 18-24 made up the largest demographic on Facebook, at 248 million, but grew a relatively smaller 32% in 2011.

Meanwhile, the top 10 countries accounted for 55% of all Facebook users, led by the US, with 157 million MAUs, up 7% in 2011. Indonesia (42 million) and India (41 million) followed, although India displayed the higher growth in 2011, at an impressive 139%. Among the top 10 countries, Brazil showed the greatest growth, tripling its users to 35 million.

Other Findings:

• According to its prospectus, Facebook had more than 425 million MAUs who used Facebook mobile products in December 2011.
• There were more than 100 billion friend connections on Facebook at the end of 2011.
• Facebook users generated an average of 2.7 billion likes and comments per day during the 3 months ending December 31, 2011.

Source: MarketingCharts.com

CPG Brand Website Visitors Buy More In-Store

Visitors to CPG brand websites buy 37% more in retail stores than non-visitors to the brand website, and complete 41% more transactions,  according to a comScore, Accenture, and dunnhumbyUSA study released in January 2012. Website visitors are also heavier buyers within a brand’s product category, spending 53% more category dollars than non-visitors. And they have more purchase occasions than non-visitors for both the brand and the category, making 35% more purchase trips for the brand, and 39% more in the overall category (3.2 vs. 2.3).

Specifically, CPG brand website visitors spend an average of $2.86 per household, $0.72 more than non-visitors. Engagement with the brand does not translate to exclusivity, as these visitors are also highly engaged in the category: compared with non-visitors, they also purchase 58% more units in the category.

These results on consumers’ cross-channel shopping behavior come on the heels of findings from ForeSee showing that mobile shopping satisfaction positively impacts other channels: satisfied mobile customers report being 40% more likely than dissatisfied mobile customers to consider the same company when purchasing from other channels such as a traditional website or store (88% vs. 63%).

Site Visitors Pay Less Per Unit, Though

comScore’s study indicates that despite greater engagement with the brand and the category, website visitors pay 8% less per unit than non-visitors. According to the report, it is likely that these visitors were visiting websites to download coupons, thus reducing their net price paid. For the 2 CPG brand websites (of the 10 studied) where visitors paid 2% more per unit than non-visitors, the web content strategy focused on “brand value messaging” rather than “coupon downloads.”

Coupon Seekers Don’t Stay Long

The study measured the online behavior of consumers who buy CPG brands in retail stores (”Brand Buyers”) in relation to the average US internet user across 4 variables: website reach (”Reach”); minutes per visitor (”Time”); number of pages viewed per visitor (”Pages”); and Reach multiplied by Pages, divided by the same metric for the average user (”Intensity Index”). Among the categories examined, some key findings emerged. For example, the Coupon category over-indexed on Reach, but under-indexed on Time and Pages, suggesting that the deal-seeking segment tends to quickly depart a property when no coupons or relevant coupons can be found. The Beauty/Fashion/Style website category exhibited by far the strongest Intensity Index among the website categories, while the Politics category was also of great interest to Brand Buyers, with these consumers spending over twice as much time with this category than the average internet visitor.

Time Most Important Purchase Determinant

Data from “Are Your CPG Brands Maximizing the Return on Your Digital Investment” indicates that the length of time that visitors spend on a brand’s website was the key determinant of their likelihood to purchase that brand in the store, although the presence of a social cause on the brand site also increased the likelihood of in-store brand purchase.

Meanwhile, the attribute that most influenced whether visitors spent more time on a site was fresh content updated frequently. The presence of brand value messaging, a click-to-buy feature, and value-added tools such as product ratings, user-generated content, and recipes all increased length of stay.

Overall, 4 website attributes correlated most closely with a higher brand purchase index (greater brand spending in-store for website visitors than non-visitors): a compelling brand value message; fresh content updated at least weekly; content that creates an engaging online experience such as a pulse survey on the home page; and well designed site navigation.

About the Data: The study was based on an integrated panel of 1 million US Internet users who have given comScore explicit permission to have their online activities continuously measured and matched to their in-store brand buying behavior provided by dunnhumbyUSA. This integrated panel provided a single-source, privacy-protected data mart containing each panelist’s online activities and their in-store buying behavior. Using the comScore-dunnhumbyUSA database, the study examined 10 individual food and household product brands with annual sales between $40 million and $3 billion. These brands had at least 100,000 unique visitors to their websites and as many as 2.3 million per month. The study covered the time period from September 2010 through February 2011. Leveraging comScore’s knowledge of the digital user, dunnhumby’s shopper understanding, and Accenture’s experience in operating and maintaining consumer packaged goods websites, the study quantified the linkage between CPG brand buying at retail and digital behavior by comparing the in-store purchase behavior of website visitors and non-visitors and identifying the common components of successful CPG brand websites. For website performance scoring criteria, the Accenture Web Evaluator was used for this survey. The Accenture Web Evaluator provides a comprehensive assessment of how well companies use their websites to attract and retain customers, support and reinforce their brand, deliver services and generate sales.

Retailers See E-Commerce as Main Digital Platform Across Channels

The vast majority (89%) of retailers with comparable store/channel sales growth of over 4% (”winners”) agree that their e-commerce platform will ultimately serve as the central point of all digital activity across channels, and 94% agree that the future of online commerce lies more with cross-channel or merged channel capabilities, according to a report released in January 2012 by RSR Research. Those with comparable store/channel sales growth of less than 4% (”laggards”) also agree, but to a lesser extent: 62% see their e-commerce platform as ultimately becoming their digital platform across all channels, and 70% agree that the future of online lies more with cross-channel.

In fact, 34% of retailers report being in pilot to extend their e-commerce platform as a mobile platform, with a further 38% budgeting or planning to do so. And 21% plan to one day use their e-commerce platform at their point of sale, while 36% have already taken steps to do so.

Digital Channels Grow, as do Expectations

Data from “eCommerce 2012 – Back to the Future” indicates that 84% of the retailers surveyed in 2011 operated an online channel, up 17% from 72% in 2010. Along with an increased presence in the online channel, retailers’ expectations for what digital channels can contribute to their business continue to grow. While just 13% cited the percentage of sales coming from their online channel today to be 25% or greater, one-third said it would be so in 3 years.

Channel proliferation spread into mobile also, with 44% engaged in mobile commerce, up 76% from one-quarter the previous year. Retailers’ best be careful to optimize their mobile experiences, though: according to a report released in November 2011 by Limelight Networks,2 in 5 mobile shoppers penalize retailers for unsatisfactory site experiences. 20% of mobile shoppers respond to a bad shopping experience on their mobile device by completing their research and/or purchase but vowing to never return to the site in the future if they can avoid it, with a further 18% saying they abandon the site and seek alternative brands using their device.

Meanwhile, according to RSR survey results, retailers presence in traditional channels is falling as they expand into digital channels. The only 2 channels to show a decline in respondents reporting a presence were catalog (from 27% to 24%), and stores (from 84% to 80%).

Consumer Engagement Among Top Biz Challenges

The top 3 e-commerce business challenges most cited by winners included keeping up with evolving consumer shopping patterns, getting consumers to engage more online, and maintaining growth rates (all at 54%). These were also cited as the top challenges by laggards, although they gave top billing to online consumer engagement and growth rates (both at 64%). More than twice as many winners as laggards said that providing more ways for consumers to connect with each other through their brand was a top 3 challenge (46% vs. 21%).

Customer Engagement Also Top Operational Challenge

Understanding and accommodating how different customer segments engage with them is the most widespread top 3 operational challenge for both winners (65%) and laggards (75%), followed by difficulty coordinating with other channels to create a seamless cross-channel experience (48% of winners, and 58% of laggards). Laggards appear far more uncertain about what makes for a differentiated online experience than winners: three-quarters said they had not yet defined what a differentiated experience looks or feels like for their brand, compared to just 13% of winners.

About the Data: RSR conducted an online survey from September to December 2011 and received answers from 94 qualified retail respondents across the world. 31% had 2010 revenue of less than $50 million, while 41% had 2010 revenue of over $1 billion.

Women Take Note of Price, Quality Info in Advertising

January 26, 2012

The top elements of advertising that make women “take notice” are an easily found price (45%) and proof or details of quality (43%), according to [pdf] a white paper released in January 2012 by Fleishman-Hillard in partnership with Hearst Magazine. A relevant message (39%) closely follows, while advertising that is easy to remember (28%), provides comparisons to competition (26%), or offers something free or highly discounted (26%) also earn women’s attention. Testimonials from actual users (21%) and appealing graphics (20%), by contrast, are less significant elements.

Price, Quality Info Helps Purchase Decisions

Price is by far the most popular type of information that companies could provide to help women’s purchase decisions, cited by 74% of respondents. Women also clearly want to know about quality information, including quality of materials (38%), quality of craftsmanship (29%), and quality of service (22%). Meanwhile, ratings or reviews from actual users and owners are more important than from experts in helping women make purchase decisions (33% vs. 19%).

Partners Top Factor, Though

Although expert opinions (39%) and third-party endorsements (30%) are significant factors for women in making purchase decisions, spouses and partners (66%) are easily the leading factor. Of note, though, more respondents reported that information found online (40%) was a highly important decision factor to them than their parents (30%), friends (27%), and children (24%). Additionally, information found online was also more significant than information in magazines (17%), newspapers (17%), or on the TV (16%).

More Men Have the Final Say

Data from “Game Changers: Women Defining the New American Marketplace” indicates that women are twice as likely to say they share decision-making equally with their spouse or partner than to say they have the final or primary say (67% vs. 32%). By contrast, men are as likely to say they have the final say as to say they share their decision making (50% vs. 49%).

For purchases of smaller-ticket items, though, women’s influence is greater: just 31% say they share the decision-making process with their spouse or partner for purchases under $100, compared to 45% of men. For purchases over $100, most women and men agree that the buying decision should be jointly made, although a greater proportion of women view the decision that way.

According to a report released in September 2011 by Nielsen, women see themselves as the primary drivers of a variety purchases in the African-American consumer demographic. The largest gap in whether women see themselves or men as the primary purchase drivers was health/beauty, with 77% of women saying they were the primary drivers and only 1% saying men were the primary drivers. There were few categories where a large percentage said men and women have equal influence on purchase decisions. Those were locations for social activities (women 50% and men/women equally 47%), personal electronics (women 47% and men/women equally 41%) and automobiles/other transportation (women 49% and men/women equally 31%).

Other Findings:

• According to the Fleishman-Hillard report, women are more likely than men to wish their spouse or partner would help make more of the decisions for the household (56% vs. 52%).
• Men are less likely than women to say that being the primary decision-maker is stressful (62% vs. 70%) or tiring (55% vs. 66%).

About the Data: The Fleishman-Hillard results are based on a 20-minute online survey conducted from Sept. 8-15, 2011, among 1,270 women in the US aged 25-69 with an annual household income of $25,000 or more. For comparison purposes, 263 men were also surveyed.

Ad Targeting Voted Leading Data-Driven Marketing Activity

Ad targeting (placement/content) is projected to be the leading focal point of future data-driven marketing activity, with respondents to a Winterberry Group survey released in January 2012 rating it an average of 4.4 on a 5-point scale of data use significance. Other use cases closely following ad targeting in terms of future significance include market research/customer behavior analysis and offer optimization (both at 4.3), as well as content optimization and cross-channel touchpoint optimization (both at 4.2). Ad inventory forecasting and ad verification (both at 3.5) are projected to be the least likely activities to be significant for future data utilization.

In terms of current data-driven marketing activities, ad targeting (4) and market research/customer behavior analysis (3.9) are also rated the most significant.

Prior Marketing Campaigns Provide Best Data

Data from “From Information to Audiences: The Emerging Marketing Data Use Cases” indicates that advertising and marketing thought leaders are realizing the most value from utilizing data from prior marketing campaigns (i.e. for retargeting), rating this source a 3.7 on a 5-point scale. Web analytics providers (3.4) are rated the next-most valuable sources, with social media and/or mobile applications (3.3) close behind. Search engines (3.1), data originators, such as market research providers (3), and commercial data compilers (3) are also valuable third-party marketing data sources, while data exchanges (2.6) and list brokers and managers (2.5) are rated least valuable.

According to a comScore and ValueClick study released in November 2010, retargeting is the online targeting strategy that offers the most lift, although it has low reach.

Interest Driven by Insights, Hindered by Talent

Meanwhile, respondents to the Winterberry survey indicate that the growing ability to derive insights from deep first-party data assets, along with a growing understanding of the tactical needs of multichannel integration, are the leading reasons driving deeper interest and investment into marketing data, rating each an average of 4.1 on the 5-point scale of significance. Pressure from the “C-suite” to exploit the high-ROI potential of direct and digital channels (4) and to deliver quantifiable performance or performance improvement (3.9) are also significant factors.

Marketers appear to be affected by a talent shortage, though, rating a shortage of data-savvy marketing talent (4) as the top hindrance to their interest and investment in marketing data, closely followed by siloed collection and management of data within the company (3.9). Marketers are also struggling with poor insight among sales teams (or media buyers) into the relative value of data, and an insufficient data strategy (both at 3.8).

Quality Beats Recency

Meanwhile, quality and accuracy of a data set is far and away the most critical attribute in driving its value, rated a 4.4 on the 5-point scale, beating recency/”freshness” of the data set, insights into online /digital marketing interactions, and scale/coverage of the data set (all at 4.1). The length of the data history (3.7) was voted the least important in driving the data set’s value.

About the Data: Developed in research partnership with the IAB, the Winterberry Group’s findings are based on the results of an intensive research effort that included in-person, phone and online surveys of more than 175 marketers, agency executives, data compilers, technology developers and other industry thought leaders around the globe, 54% of whom best describe their job role or function as executive management.

Source: MarketingCharts.com

Online Revenue Better for Local Media Cos. With Digital-Only Reps

A “one-staff-fits-all” strategy may not be the best approach for local media companies, according to a January 2012 report from Borrell Associates, which finds that sites with dedicated digital account executives (AEs) outperform those without by a factor of 2.5. In fact, gross online revenue per sales representative (online dollars divided by all representatives selling digital products) is roughly $186,000 for sites with digital AEs, compared to $73,300 for those without any dedicated AEs.

Among TV stations the disparity is even greater: those with sales representatives dedicated exclusively to selling online advertising average almost 3 times the gross revenue of those without ($208,200 vs. $70,300).

Online-Only AEs Hiring Down

46% of local media respondents reported having an online-only AE, down from 60% in 2009. Radio sported the lowest average of digital-only sellers, with just 11% of radio companies employing at least one. Only 2 in 5 local TV stations had at least one online-only AE, although the majority of newspapers (55%) did.

Digital AEs Perform Well With Consultative Sales Approach

Overall, sales managers seemed pleased with their representatives’ performance using the consultative approach, with the majority rating their performance good to outstanding. However, there was a clear difference between companies working with dedicated digital AEs and those without: managers with digital AEs reported an excellent to outstanding rank at a rate of 56%, while those without a dedicated digital staff reported that satisfaction level at a rate of 32%.

Similarly, managers whose staff included digital AEs were far more likely than those without to rank their staff’s understanding of digital products as excellent to outstanding (58% vs. 11%).

Other Findings:

• 15% of managers who had no digital-only AEs on staff rated their staff’s motivation to sell digital products as poor.
• Less than half of managers without digital-only AEs said that their sales representatives had a good to outstanding level of understanding of the basic business trends for their advertising customers.

About the Data: Borrell’s analysis was derived from: an online survey of 345 local media sales managers that yielded 230 usable responses, conducted November 2011 to January 2012; Borrell’s database of online revenue and number of dedicated sales representatives at more than 5,100 local media companies in the US and Canada; and a survey of 7,805 local businesses conducted January to December, 2011.

Source: marketingcharts.com