Each year, comScore releases a report that outlines what happened in the digital media industry in the prior year, so marketers can get an understanding of what’s been happening and leverage the opportunities created by those trends in the following year. The complete report is available for free download and paints a positive picture of the digital media landscape that is very promising for 2011.
Some of the highlights from the report follow:
- Ecommerce spending: Total U.S. ecommerce spending increased by 9% in 2010 over 2009. Retail (non-travel) ecommerce spending jumped 10%, and travel ecommerce spending climbed 6% in 2010.
- Social networking: In 2010, 9 out of every 10 U.S. Internet users visited a social networking site in a month. The average Internet user spent more than 4 hours on social networking sites each month during 2010, and 1 out of every 8 minutes spent online by the U.S. Internet user audience is spent on Facebook.
- Search market: The U.S. search market grew by 12% in 2010. Specifically, unique searchers grew by 4%, and the number of search queries by searcher increased by 8%.
- Display ads: Display ad impressions increased by 12% in 2010, and social networks accounted for more than 33% of those display ad impressions. 4.9 trillion display ads were served to the U.S. Internet audience in 2010.
- Online video: The average U.S. Internet user streamed more than 201 online videos and spent more than 14 hours watching online video in 2010. That’s a 12% increase over 2009.
- Mobile market: 1 in 4 mobile customers used smartphones in 2010 with 3G usage going over 50%. In 2010, 47% of mobile users are now “connected Internet media users (via browsers, applications, or downloaded content),” which is an 8% increase over the prior year.
Internet use continues to grow and the mobile market is growing at lightning speed. Trends show that online video and mobile marketing are the big things for brands to target as well as social networking. Is your brand represented in online video, mobile and social networking? That’s where your customers are, and your brand needs to be there, too. These trends aren’t going to reverse themselves in 2011, and they’re not unique to the U.S. consumer audience.
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Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
