Corporate Eye

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Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius

8 out of 10 Brands Will Increase Mobile Ad Spending in 2013

technoratimedia 2013 digital influence reportThe TechnoratiMedia 2013 Digital Influence Report has been released, and according to the results, brands have taken their digital messaging to the social web. However, there is a lot of room for improvement.

Nine out of 10 brands surveyed for the study indicated that they have a presence on Facebook, and nearly 7 out of 10 brands reported that they participate in online influencer marketing. Across the board, digital ad budgets are increasing with mobile being a key focus for brands in 2013.

Taking a closer look at the data from the study, you can see where brands are spending time on social messaging. The following data shows the percentage of brands with presences on some of the most popular social sites:

  • Facebook = 91% of brands
  • Twitter = 85% of brands
  • YouTube = 73% of brands
  • Pinterest = 41% of brands
  • LinkedIn = 33% of brands
  • Blogs = 32% of brands
  • Instagram = 29% of brands
  • Google+ = 26% of brands

The data gets more interesting when you look at where brands are spending digital budgets. Nearly 75% of brand digital budgets are being spent on display advertising, search, and producing video. Only 10% is spent on social, and that includes influencer outreach. Breaking the social spending down further, more than half goes to Facebook while YouTube and Twitter each get 13%. Only 6% is spent on influencer outreach, and just 5% is spent on blog advertising.

Considering that consumers surveyed in this study cited blogs as the third most likely online service to influence their purchase decisions (behind brand sites and retail sites but above Facebook, YouTube, and all other social sites), it’s evident that brands are missing a significant opportunity to connect with consumers when they’re making purchase decisions.

When asked where brands planned to increase spending in 2013, 59% plan to increase social advertising and video spending while fewer brands plan to increase search, display advertising, and programmatic buys (37%, 31%, and 21%, respectively). The big winner in terms of higher budget in 2013 will be mobile, which 79% of brands plan to increase.

However, there is more to the data than the percentage of brands that plan to increase budgets in specific channels and areas. While most brands plan to increase mobile ad spending, the actual dollar amount increase for mobile is expected to be just 37% versus 73% for display and 52% for search. Like mobile, social spending will also increase by just 37% when you look at actual dollars being spent. Video spending will increase by 30% and programmatic buys will increase by only 17%.

So while the world is becoming more and more mobile and people are spending more time on social sites and blogs than ever, traditional display advertising is still the primary focus for brand marketers. What do you think? Missed opportunities?

Showrooming Grows and Brick-and-Mortar Retailers Cringe

best buy showroomingIn recent years, the term “showrooming” has taken on a negative meaning for brick-and-mortar retailers as more and more consumers visit physical stores to research products but then go online to purchase those products at a lower price.

Some consumers even visit a brick-and-mortar retailer with their mobile devices to price check products in the store and through online sellers. They can instantly purchase the item they want based on their showrooming research from the online seller with the best price before they even leave the store.

What’s a brick-and-mortar retailer to do?

According to research from Gartner and Placed (a mobile analytics company), showrooming is poised to become a much bigger problem, as you can see in the infographic published by AdWeek below. Here are a few highlights to get you thinking:

  • 60% of consumers deliberately visited a brick-and-mortar store to gather information on a product while knowing they planned to buy that product from another outlet.
  • 90% of consumers who showroomed a product at a brick-and-mortar retail location did not purchase the item from that retailer online.
  • The top five stores that consumers are likely to visit before going online to purchase the products they showroomed at a brick-and-mortar location are: Bed Bath & Beyond, PetSmart, Toys ‘R Us, Best Buy, and Sears.

The top reasons consumer cited for showrooming are:

  1. Better prices online
  2. The store was out of stock
  3. The store didn’t carry the product
  4. Online shopping is more convenient/free shipping

showrooming infographic

The challenge for retailers is finding a way to increase in-store sales. So far, retailers have fought back with price-matching, faster checkout, same day free shipping on orders placed from the brick-and-mortar store, and in-store wi-fi access that enables mobile scanning so consumers can instantly purchase popular items and have them shipped to their homes for free. Each of these tactics aims to help consumers get the lowest price and bypass the checkout line.

For brick-and-mortar retailers, it’s more important than ever to have the right products stocked at the right prices. Bargain hunting and comparison shopping is at consumers’ fingertips, so retailers need to make sure consumers can get what they want, when they want it. If brick-and-mortar retailers fail, those consumers will head directly to Amazon or another online retailer to make their purchases.

What do you think?

Image: Alton Jefferson II

How Consumers Use Social Media in Purchase Decisions

online searchMost brand marketers still invest more of their marketing budgets in traditional marketing activities than they do on social media marketing activities. Even digital marketing budgets are skewed more heavily towards traditional online marketing activities than they are towards social media marketing activities. According to new research from Radius Global Market Research, this is a good strategy.

The study found that consumers are much more likely to get information and share information via traditional online channels than social media channels. In fact, traditional online channels were used 50% of the time or more depending on the category of the product or service being researched for possible purchase.

Don’t count social media out though. The study found that social media influences anywhere from 9% to 39% of purchase decisions depending on the category of the product or service being researched.

As you might expect, big ticket purchases and emotional purchases are the ones that drive consumers to seek out online information before they make their purchase decisions. Consumers seek out online information most frequently for:

  1. Travel purchases = 76%
  2. Electronics purchases = 73%
  3. Automobile purchases = 67%
  4. Baby care equipment purchases = 66%
  5. Household appliances purchases = 64%

Social networking sites were consulted most often for:

  1. Baby care equipment purchases (39%)
  2. Electronics purchases = 35%
  3. Automobile purchases = 28%
  4. Toys and games purchases = 25%
  5. Household appliances purchases = 23%

Also as you might expect, the survey found that consumers of all products and services across all categories are more likely to search for information online before they make a purchase than they are to share information about their purchase or their experience with the product or service after they’ve purchased it.

However, Radius Global Market Research found two categories where consumers are more likely to seek out information and share information after they’ve made a purchase than they are to gather information before they make the purchase — personal care and makeup products. Also, people who purchase smartphones are nearly as likely to share and search for information after they make their purchase as they are to seek information online before or during the purchase process.

The Radius Global Market Research study results are based on a survey of a sample of its internet panel of consumers from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Scandinavia.

What do you think? Any surprises in this data that will affect your brand marketing spending?

Image: Carl Dwyer

Don’t Redefine Market Segments, Redefine Market Segment Perceptions

college classroom desksThe market segments that existed 20 years ago have changed significantly with the spread of wireless devices, instant communication, instant access to information, and instant gratification. The parameters used to define college students, teens, and twenty-something market segments have seen some of the biggest changes, and those changes have led to significant misperceptions about the people in those segments.

This is something that Mike Poznansky learned first-hand during his seven years with Red Bull where he led the brand’s college program (he left the company recently to start his own agency, Neato). In an interview with AdWeek, Mike shares some insights that every brand manager should read. Rather than suggesting that marketers should rely on redefining market segments to stay relevant and boost ROI, he suggests that marketers should redefine their perceptions of market segments, particularly the college student segment.

When asked what misperceptions are causing brands to falter with the college student segment, Mike explained:

“[It’s a misperception] that a [brand] ambassador program is the lifeblood of a college marketing program, or that all your focus should be on getting your brand and your product on campus. To color that in, just a fraction of the college experience takes place on campus. Most students don’t even live there. Most of their spending isn’t happening there. So, some brands are just frankly investing way too much money on the wrong things. You really need a comprehensive approach. You’re not going to achieve everything through one vertical.”

Integrated marketing is the key to success across market segments these days, and getting a better understanding of the people within those market segments in 2013 is critically important. Mike explains that college students affect more purchase decisions than ever as parents seek out their help in finding information about products and services online. He also notes that college students are the future power consumers, so investing the time, money, and resources into better understanding this new generation of hyper-connected consumers who don’t remember any other way to live than connected to their mobile devices 24/7.

Consider the market segmentation you’ve done to maximize your brand marketing efforts. Do you really understand the people within each of those segments in 2013, or is part of your “understanding” based on outdated misperceptions? People have changed, and your understanding of your market segments has to evolve to keep up with them. The “traditional” college student buyer persona is anything but traditional these days.

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts

Image: Tiffany Szerpicki

Shifting 15% of TV Ad Budget to Online Leads to Higher Reach and Brand Recall

calculationA new study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Nielsen provides strong evidence that shifting television advertising dollars to online advertising drives positive results.

In “A Comprehensive Picture of Digital Video and TV Advertising: Viewing, Budget Share Shift and Effectiveness,” it is reported that a 15% shift in media spending away from television and toward online drives increases in brand recall, reach, and the effectiveness of that reach.

Furthermore, combining online advertising with television advertising drove even better results. Online video ads that run before television ads lead to a 33% increase in brand recall over television advertising alone. Online display ads that run before television ads drive a 25% increase in brand recall. In other words, timing your media buys so consumers see your messages online before they see them on television is an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to increasing returns on your advertising investments.

Some of the key findings from the study include:

  • When 15% of ad spend is shifted to digital from television, consumer packaged goods brands (CPG) experienced a 3.4% increase in reach.
  • When 15% of ad spend is shifted to digital from television, non-CPG brands experienced a 6.2% increase in reach.
  • When 15% of ad spend is shifted to digital from television, brands experienced more reach at lower costs per point ($63.0K vs. $67.6K) and CPMs decreased ($12.31 vs. $13.82).

The report also reveals statistics specific to online video advertising that can help media buyers make the right choices for brand advertising. For example, ads shown during full-episode online video content generated a 39% higher brand recall than ads shown during full-episode programs on television. In fact, digital ads shown during both short-form video and full-episode video content drove higher brand recall, general recall, message recall, and ad likability than television ads.

And despite what you might think, ad receptivity is quite good no matter when an ad is played with online video content. Here are the overall findings related to online video ad receptivity:

  • The average streaming video viewer watches ads for 20 seconds. The average completion rate for these ads is 87%.
  • Mid-roll ads generate the highest completion rates (99% for short-form video and 89% for long-form/full-episode video).
  • Pre-roll ads generate the second highest completion rates (79% for short-form video and 81% for long-form/full-episode video).
  • Post-roll ads generate the lowest completion rates (71% for short-form video and 79% for long-form/full-episode video).

You can follow the link to view the complete report, which makes a compelling case for shifting up to 15% of your media buying budget from television to online, particularly online video, and for modifying the timing of your ad runs.

Image: Ayhan Yildiz

10 Most Influential Brands in Canada

canada flagWe often hear about the most influential brands in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the EU5, but what are the most influential brands in Canada? According to a survey of internet users by Ipsos Reid and the Institute of Communication Agencies, digital brands lead the way.

Emarketer explains that the study asked internet users in Canada to rate brands based on five criteria: engagement, presence, trustworthiness, leading edge, and corporate citizenship. The top 10 most influential brands according to Internet users in Canada are:

  1. Google
  2. Microsoft
  3. Apple
  4. Facebook
  5. Walmart
  6. VISA
  7. YouTube
  8. Tim Hortons
  9. AIR MILES
  10. Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC)

50% of the brands in the list of the top 10 most influential brands in Canada are digital and technology companies. With that in mind, it’s interesting to compare these results to the list of the most valuable brands in the world according to Brandz. In 2012, 40% of the top 10 most valuable brands were in the digital and technology industry:

  1. Apple
  2. IBM
  3. Google
  4. McDonald’s
  5. Microsoft
  6. Coca-Cola
  7. Marlboro
  8. AT&T
  9. Verizon
  10. China Mobile

And let’s take a look at how the most influential brands in Canada compare to the best global brands of 2012 according to Interbrand. In this list, 50% of the top ten brands are in the digital and technology industries:

  1. Coca-Cola
  2. Apple
  3. IBM
  4. Google
  5. Microsoft
  6. GE
  7. McDonald’s
  8. Intel
  9. Samsung
  10. Toyota

One thing is certain, digital and technology brands are powerful and influential both around the world and in key markets across the globe. Technology is a vital part of consumers’ lives these days, so it’s not surprising to see so many technology and digital brands in these lists of leading brands. However, it is interesting to see the same brands appear on these lists again and again, year after year, in varied regions, and among diverse audience segments.

These are the brands to watch, but just as we’ve watched them rise to the powerful positions of consumer influence that they hold now, most lifecycles follow the traditional bell curve, which means the good times can only last for so long. Some of these brands are already on the decline in terms of sales, but their power and influence hasn’t waned significantly yet.

One thing is for certain, brand marketers should keep an eye on these brands to benchmark now and in the future. They hold the positions you want your brand to hold. Learn from them.

Image: Rob Blissett