Facebook grows...older
If you haven't already had to grapple with whether or not you should friend your Mom, you may well be facing that conundrum soon.
Women over 55 are the fastest-growing demographic on the social network, their ranks swelling a jaw-dropping 175.3 percent since late September, according to InsideFacebook.
Overall, users over 26 comprise the fastest-growing segment on the social network -- originally geared at college students, remember? Forty-five percent of Facebook's 45.3 million active US users are 26 years old or older.
Teens, meanwhile, comprise less than 12 percent of registered users.
While registration rates continue to rise in all demographics, there are almost double the number of 55+ women on Facebook than their male counterparts.
GoDaddy wins Super Bowl
Have you heard? Sex sells.
At least it invites repeat viewings. Which is how GoDaddy's "Enhanced" spot starring Danica Patrick and her pet beaver, ranked #1 as the most-(re)viewed Super Bowl spot on TiVo.
Ms Patrick and her beaver beat out the bells-and whistles contender, the first-ever 3D TV spot for "Monsters vs. Aliens," which didn't even crack the top 50. The ad did require consumers to snag a pair of free 3D glasses to get the full effect.
Beverage spots are always big on game day, and usual suspects Coke and Pepsi made the top 10 list, but Bud Light did so an impressive two times.
How recession-proof is online shopping?
Do online retailers have a better chance of beating the global recession than their bricks-and-mortar counterparts?
It's no secret that consumers are cutting back big time. Frugality is the new chic. Tight budgets and high fuel prices are leading to an increase in cocooning that can't be wholly attributed to bitter winter weather. Even New York City is reporting subway ridership has scaled back to levels not seen since the 1950s, as workers lose jobs and shoppers don't leave home to shop.
Hard to find bright spots in such scenarios, but grim economic times could bode better for online retailers than their beleaguered meatspace counterparts. A recent Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates survey finds 26 percent of consumers saying they'll shop more online if their personal financial situation worsens in the coming year.
These so-called "recession shoppers" aren't just buying online to save shoe leather and tire treads. They're hunting for rock-bottom prices, deep discounts and solid deals.
Most of all, recession shoppers love coupons.
Social Media Channels Ready For Biggest Ad Day of the Year
After nearly a decade of interactive marketers bemoaning the fact that the web didn't get its due on game day, the tide has definitively turned for Super Bowl advertisers. An interactive component to those $3 million :30 spots is now solidly de rigeur, rather than a nice-to-have.
"No one just runs a TV spot any more. Most people pair their spot with an integrated campaign that includes the Internet," Prof. Timothy Calkins, a clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, is quoted as saying on Google's Retail Blog. Calkins condusts an annual Super Bowl ad effectiveness study.
NBC, NYT go hyperlocal, hope ads follow
Local TV revenues are projected to drop over 15 percent this year, according to some analysts. Yet at the same time, hypertargeted local advertising is growing. Pinning its hopes on local online advertising, NBC Local Media just launched Neighborhood News Pages in nine O&O markets including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
The New York Times, itself no stranger to rapidly eroding ad revenues, has similarly partnered with EveryBlock to deliver more political news to the EveryBlock New York web site. Content pulled from the Times will notify users each time a local political representative is mentioned in the newspaper of record.
Amazon bows SMS shopping
262966 spells A-M-A-Z-O-N on your dialpad. It's the shortcode for TextBuyIt, the online retailer's new SMS shopping system.
Just type what you want - iPod Nano, for example, text it to that number and numbered search results appear on your handheld device's screen. Respond with the number of the item you want, respond to the prompt for your email address and postal code, and you'll get a call from Amazon to complete your purchase.
It's all so instantaneous, except for the waiting for it to arrive in the mail part.
US web use doubles
Americans are spending nearly twice the amount of time online as they did five years ago, according to a Gallup poll.
While only 26% of users spent over an hour online every day in 2002, now 48% do so. Usage has particularly spiked among older and less affluent users, a trend the pollsters believe will continue in the future.
NBC Swallows PETA's Vegetarian Bait
GoDaddy's ads are regularly banned from the Super Bowl. No reason, reasoned animal-rights org PETA, not to jump on that same bandwagon with a little vegetarian porn.
In a letter from NBC's Advertising Standards department, PETA was advised to remove the following from their spot before the network would sell the non-profit some $3 million worth of airtime (as if):
:12- :13- licking pumpkin
:13- :14- touching her breast with her hand while eating broccoli
:19- pumpkin from behind between legs
:21- rubbing pelvic region with pumpkin
:22- screwing herself with broccoli (fuzzy)
:23- asparagus on her lap appearing as if it is ready to be inserted into vagina
:26- licking eggplant
:26- rubbing asparagus on breast
Q&A: Sarah Fay CEO of Aegis Media North America
Sarah Fay, the chief executive of Aegis Media North America, is known for her smarts, a genuine warmth, and not incidentally, the fact that she's one of the most powerful women in advertising in North America, if not the world.
A 10-year veteran of Carat, Fay has steadily risen in the ranks until she ultimately achieved the top slot in 2007, when the company merged the digital and traditional media assets of Carat and Isobar into a single integrated operating unit.
We caught up with Sarah to ask about advertising in a recession, trends in media buying, and what's been surprising and inspiring her since she took up the reins at Aegis.
Surf's up for one billion (plus) web users
The online population has exceeded one billion users, and that's not even taking into account minors or mobile web users.
comScore's World Metrix audience measurement services found the online population of peope using home or work computers to access the internet broke the benchmark one billion barrier in December.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
