(* Source: MarketingCharts.com *)

Nearly 61% of US consumers who recently bought a mobile or wireless phone were influenced by online product reviews and user comments, while 30% of purchasers were similarly influenced by blogs, according to the Media Influence on Consumer Choice survey by Ad-ology.

Additional findings:

• Consumers who rated online blogs and reviews highly tend to be younger (18 - 34 years old) and have average or higher-than-average incomes.

• Television, newspapers, and direct mail advertisements were among the most influential traditional media for recent mobile phone buyers.
• 26.3% of consumers surveyed indicated they prefer to purchase mobile/wireless phones online instead of in perso or at a store.
• Survey respondents also revealed product reviews, user comments, and blogs significantly influenced other consumer electronics purchases.
• The price of a cell phone was widely considered to be a less important buying factor than rate plans, coverage area, and mobile phone product quality.

“This is the modern day version of ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising,” said C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research. “Advertisers have always known the immense value of positive word-of-mouth. Now consumers have a whole world of opinions and reviews available online, and this survey shows how much they value that kind of information.”

About the survey: The Media Influence on Consumer Choice survey is conducted quarterly by Ad-ology Research to study on- and off-line media influence on buying decisions. The survey asks a national consumer panel about key factors in their buying decisions. Respondents also rate nine types of online and seven types of traditional media with regard to how each influenced what they bought and where they bought it. The research was conducted with an online consumer panel of 1,105 adults from August 25-28, 2008.

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(* Source: Fred Guillet *)

A new subset of affluent women dubbed “Marketing Multipliers” spends twice as much as other affluent women on consumer electronics and fashion, and uses dramatically more online and offline word-of-mouth to drive increased purchases, according to a study from The New York Times.

Based on qualitative interviews and a survey of more than 3,000 women with household incomes of at least $100K, the research identifies a combination of extensive social networks, past recommending behavior and personality traits that differentiate influential Marketing Multipliers from other affluent women.

The findings show that while Marketing Multipliers have the same demographic characteristics of other affluent women, they differ in a number of important ways:

• Marketing Multipliers have different media behavior, especially online, and are active contributors to the virtual world, not just passive readers. They are twice as likely to post to blogs or to publish their own Web pages, compared to other women.

• Marketing Multipliers are discriminating in vetting their online sources: 71% of Marketing Multipliers say it is important for an ad to be “on a Web site that I consider trustworthy.”
• Helping other people, learning new things and knowing people from different walks of life are much more important to Marketing Multipliers than to other affluent women.

• Marketing Multipliers are more than three times more likely to say being an authority – on what is in and what is out – is important to them.

• Marketing Multipliers are more likely to seek out in-depth information on products. In the investment category, for example, 45% follow up on new investment products they see advertised, and 53% of Marketing Multipliers in the Automotive category “follow information related to new safety features.”

The research also examined how Marketing Multiplier behavior related to five major industries: finance, fashion, consumer electronics, automotive and travel. It found:

• Marketing Multipliers in the consumer electronics category have almost five times as many conversations about these products than other affluent women; they spend more than twice as much; and more than half (52%) say they accompany family members on shopping trips to advise them on consumer electronics and other tech items.

• Marketing Multipliers in the fashion category spend more than twice as much as other affluent women on clothes and accessories. They serve as walking, talking ads for their favorite brands: 76% are asked by others where they bought the clothes they are wearing (compared to only 24% of other affluent women).

• In the travel category, Marketing Multipliers take twice as many trips, and talk more than four times as often about travel brands - including hotels, airlines and car rentals - than other affluent women.

“In a time of tight marketing budgets and an increased focus on return, this study provides advertisers a much better understanding of consumers who are powerful catalysts for purchase behavior and brand influence,” said Denise Warren, SVP and chief advertising officer, The New York Times Media Group. “The Marketing Multipliers research will help advertisers effectively reach and communicate with this key group of customers.”

About the survey: The research was conducted in conjunction with TSC (The Segmentation Company), a division of Yankelovich, which surveyed more than 3,000 affluent women across the country via an online survey. In addition, the research company Just Ask a Woman conducted a series of in-depth, ethnographic interviews in New York and Los Angeles regarding the five topic areas.

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(* Source: Michael Arrington *)

Mike says...

Federated Media (our advertising partner) has been experimenting with “conversational marketing” almost since their launch in 2005. Today they are launching a new marketing toolbox for advertisers which gives them tools to track all the ways users interact with these ads.

The goal, says Federated Media, isn’t just to track ad impressions and clicks, but also to look at a new set of metrics like posts, trackbacks, votes, RSS subscriptions, comments, etc, where users somehow interact with the advertisement and talk about it. Hopefully, a conversation occurs between users, the ad publisher and the advertiser, which gives the advertiser’s brand more face time. An old example of this is Hakia’s ad that asks bloggers what better search means. Other examples are here.

The definition of conversational marketing is a little squishy. But the general idea, which Federated Media founder John Battelle writes about in the primer below, is that you as an advertiser figure out which content sites best associate with your brand, and then you grab the leader in that space and pay them to start conversations on your behalf:

Early efforts didn’t pan out so well as authors were accused of conflicts of interest - users didn’t know where editorial stopped and advertorial began. It’s not clear those issues have been resolved, but Federated Media says a proper disclosure policy is the right place to start.

Convinced? It’s certainly controversial, but brands love it because they get a higher return on their advertising investment. That means it’s here to stay.

Posted by brian tiong at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Erick Schonfeld *)

Erick reports...

Three years ago today, Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace and its parent company Intermix for $580 million. That turned out to be money well spent. The last time we ran the numbers, we figured that MySpace alone is worth between $3 billion and $20 billion, depending on how much you value each user. Fox Interactive Media (which is mostly MySpace) accounted for about $850 million in revenues last fiscal year (which ended in June), and is projected to hit $1 billion next year.

It was supposed to hit $1 billion this year, but never mind. Unlike other social networks, MySpace is actually making a profit. The company now employs 1,600 people worldwide, compared to 150 in October, 2005—more than a tenfold increase.

The social network has grown as well. MySpace now has 73 million unique visitors a month in the U.S., according to comScore, compared to 24 million three years ago. (Facebook has 41 million). That means MySpace reaches about 40 percent of the online population, compared to 14 percent three years ago. Those visitors, on average, spend 263 minutes a month each on the site, versus 83 minutes in 2005.

MySpace has definitely evolved since 2005. Just this year it has made major strides in opening up its platform to developers, launching MySpace Music, and pushing new forms of social advertising.

The question is whether rival Facebook can catch up to MySpace in the U.S. (it has already surpassed it worldwide), or whether the two will co-exist and diverge, with MySpace being more music- and media-oreinted and Facebook continuing on its path towards becoming the platform for social software. Of course, MySpace would also like to play that role.

Three years from now, which one will be worth more? And will Rupert Murdoch still be smiling?

Posted by brian tiong at 03:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: ThreeBillion *)

Paul says...

User generated content has been an amazing phenomenon and has changed the way people use and consume the internet. The shift towards the consumer being the publisher has had profound effects on the way we market to young people. Whether that be the platform, the idea or execution.

BUT has UGC really changed the Internet? Moreover, has it REALLY changed the way we connect to young people in our marketing? The answer is not really, but there could be much bigger things to come. Here is a little presentation from 180360720.no and it's worth 5 minutes of your time. 

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(* Source: Marta Strickland *)

Martha says...

Little Big Planet is one of those games that defies explanation. On Friday, Eric Diem wrote, "I can't find the words to describe what a unique experience this game produces, so I figured it would just be easier to bring in my PS3 in so everyone can check it out."

So he did, and the impression that he left on the office was monumental. Jeff Bossardet confessed to me, "It is gorgeous. I have never been a gamer. For many years now I have thought that it may be advantageous, as an interactive professional, to understand the gaming world from a users perspective. I think I have found my gateway drug I mean game...Little Big Planet."

Why were we all so excited? Little Big Planet isn't just a game. It is a way to make games, mold games, and share games. The only limits are that of human imagination.

In its simplest form, Little Big Planet is a platform game, but it is a game that teaches you how to create your own levels. It provides you with different materials and all the tools you need to turn those materials into moving, changing, and logical objects. These objects can be set to react to different changes in the environment or actions of the players. The result is the ability for every player with patience and practice to create entire video games of their own.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The social element of the game is another side to the revolution. All worlds can be "published", which means they are open for the entire community to play. Those worlds can be rated, tagged, and shared. And, if the world creator so chooses, they can give the objects they create (villains, tools, etc) as gifts to other players to use in their levels.

Some see this all as a bold move in consumer-generated gaming, and others see it as opening the door to other greater deeds in co-creation. But everyone agrees it is a HUGE step forward for the industry. Just look at this guy who defied game-makers expectations and created a working calculator. Prepare to be amazed:

Posted by brian tiong at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

  (* Source: Sean P Aune *)

Sean says...

While eBay has been the champion of online auctions in the United states for years, lately there has been talk of lower sales and an exodus by sellers.

With the declining economy, where can buyers and sellers turn? Where will one get rid of that junk that’s been sitting in their garage for years?  Luckily eBay is not the only game in town, and we have a sampling of 17 different sites for you to try.

General Auction Sites

Auction.com - Auction does not charge any listing or final value fees, but does charge you for enhancements like bolding your listing and so on.  Traffic seems a bit low, and a lot of bells and whistles you’re used to seem to be missing.

Bidtopia.com - Bidtopia has some unique ideas in that bidding and selling have to be done from separate accounts.  The site only charges final value fees and focuses heavily on $.99 auctions.

Bonanzle.com - The site allows you to import your existing items from eBay and Craigslist, encourages direct contact between buyers and sellers, and prides itself on a quick listing process.

eBid.net - eBid offers several country specific sites, free registration, no listing fees for auctions, and even offers you the ability to pay for a lifetime membership that will remove all final value fees from your listings.

ePier.com - ePier does not charge any listing fees, but their final value fees are fairly high.  Focuses heavily on localized auctions with city listings for places like Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington DC and more.

iOffer.com - iOffer is not an auction site, but lets you buy and sell after negotiating with other users.  Offers you the chance to import your items and reputation from eBay and other sites.

OnlineAuction.com - Basic Online Auction registration is free, but verification will cost you $4 a month, and selling will cost you $8 a month.  Paying the selling fee will keep you from paying any final value fees.

Overstock.com - Well known for their television ads and selling overstocked goods, Overstock allows users to list auctions on their site.  They do have listing fees as well as final value fees.

SalvageSale.com - SalvageSale specializes in bulk auctions and items a bit too large for your standard UPS delivery truck.  This is the type of site you go to if you have pallets of products to unload, or large construction equipment.

TheSOCExchange.com - SOC Exchange charges a flat rate of $1 a month or $10 a year for unlimited auction listings.

Webidz.com - While it is free to list auctions, open a store and bid, Webidz charges you $5.00 to become a verified member, and you will be charged this fee any time you change your personal information.

International Auction Sites

CQout.com -CQout is primarily UK-focused, but charges no listing fees, and only a 1.5% final value fee, which makes it one of the lowest in the industry that charge.

Gmarket.co.kr - Gmarket, short for Global e-Market, is a popular auction site from Korea.  The site is available in both Korean and English, and welcomes buyers and sellers from all over the world.

OZtion.com.au - OZtion is free to register, and has no listing fees, but does charge final value fees with a maximum of $99.00.  The site focuses primarily on auctions inside Australia.

Souq.com - Souq focuses on auctions in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The site is available in both Arabic and English.

Tazbar.com - UK-based site that offers four different levels of monthly subscription from free to £18.99 a month, which determines how many listings you may have and how much they will cost.

TradeMe.co.nz - With approximately a quarter of all the residents of New Zeland having an account on TradeMe, it is considered the biggest website in the country.  They have expanded into many other areas such as real estate and a classmate locator.

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 (* Source: ThreeMinds *)

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(* Source: Marta Strickland *)

Martha says...

It's hard to pay attention to the news of the web industry this week. I've seen digests on other blogs become shorter and shorter. Right now, everything else going on in the world seems more interesting, scary, captivating, devastating...

But if you were paying attention this week, you would have seen an underlying trend, and that is this... social media is growing up.

What's Been Happening This Week?

The Playful But Powerful Google
Google had a few unserious moments this week. It introduced two joke features, an audio preview for YouTube comments and "mail goggles" for G-mail that prevent users from drunk e-mailing by forcing them to do math problems.

But as an ongoing trend, Google continues to be an innovator and a magnifying glass into online culture. They are implementing high-definition imagery and textual advertising into Google Maps. And, ReadWriteWeb had a great article on how one can use Google trends to analyze America's reaction to the debates. Popular campaign words, such as "maverick", saw a huge spike during the debates, as viewers at home everywhere in this nation turned to Google for a true definition.

The Social Network War Is Coming To An End, Or Is It?
It may happen in the next month folks. A battle that has been raging for more than a year might come to a close. As for the first time in US history, Facebook is set to overtake MySpace in traffic numbers. What could this mean? Will Facebook become MySpace like everyone fears?

Better question.. do we even need Facebook? The up-and-comer, Ning, just announced that it has hit the half a million mark with over 500,000 niche social networks. Maybe Facebook and MySpace are they the Netscape and AOL of the 2.0 world? They started the trend, but will fail to innovate quickly enough, as more nimble companies grow in popularity.

Enterprise Embraces Social While Everything Else Falls
Despite reports that half of social media campaigns will flop, there is more and more enterprise dollars being invested in the space. As risky as it may seem, it is far more risky to do nothing. We have 93% of consumers saying they want brands to join them in the space. And we also have compelling statistics to show that their purchase behavior and brand opinion is being shaped by social media experiences.

This space is evolving at intense speeds. We've moved passed the time of "my top 8 friends" and superpokes. Best Buy is building an enterprise Twitter for employees. Digg is flushing out those who are trying to scam the system. YouTube is building in e-commerce options into their site.

The good times are over. RIP. Things are about to get a lot more serious.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: B-side *)

B-side is proud to announce that they will be co-producing a conference with PSFK in Singapore.

This is the 1st Asian PSFK conference and they have a stellar line-up of speakers.

Daryl Arnold, Profero
Nick Barham, Wieden + Kennedy
Rob Campbell Sunshine/M&C Saatchi
Jerry Clode, Flamingo International
Sonal Dabral, Bates 141
Mark Dytham, Klein-Dytham
Piers Fawkes, PSFK
Andrew Hoppin, NASA
Chris Lee, Asylum
Michael Keferl, CScout
Achara Masoodi, Mindshare
Colin Nagy, Attention!
Charles Ogilvie, Panasonic
Graham Perkins, Elasticity
Jeff Staple, Staple Design
Jackson Tan, Phunk Studio
Brian Tiong, b-side
Ian Stewart, MTV
Floydd Wood, Flamingo International 

More for information and registration click here

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(* Source: Dan Taylor *) 

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(* Source: Henry Jenkins *)

Some takeaways comments from Henry Jenkins from a recent report released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project offers some valuable new data about the place video games play in the lives of American young people.

At the most basic level, game playing has become more or less universal.

• Fully 97% of teens ages 12-17 play computer, web, portable, or console games. 50% of teens played games "yesterday." 

The Pew research may also force us to rethink once again the assumption that there is a gender gap in terms of who plays games:

• "99% of boys and 94% of girls report playing video games. Younger teen boys are the most likely to play games, followed by younger girls and older boys. Older girls are the least "enthusiastic" players of video games, though more than half of them play.
  
• Some 65% of daily gamers are male; 35% are female. Girls play an average of 6 different game genres; boys average 8 different types."

The Pew Data complicates easy generalizations about the place of violent entertainment in the lives of American teens.

• The five most popular among young Americans are Guitar Hero, Halo 3, Madden NFL, Solitaire, and Dance Dance Revolution. Of these, only Halo 3 would qualify as a violent game. Over all, non-violent genres were the most popular.
  
• But, 50% of boys name a game with an M or A/O rating as one of their current top three favorites, compared with 14% of girls. (0ne of those places where gender really does make a difference in how people relate to games.) 32% of gaming teens report that at least one of their three favorite games is rated Mature or Adults Only.
  
• 12- to 14-year-olds are equally as likely to play M- or AO-rated games as their 15- to 17-year-old counterparts.

The Pew Data further challenges the idea that game playing is a socially isolating activity.

• The researchers found "65% of game-playing teens play with other people who are in the room with them. 27% play games with people who they connect with through the internet. 82% play games alone, although 71% of this group also plays with others. And nearly 3 in 5 teens (59%) play games in multiple ways -- with others in the same room, with others online, or alone."

More here

Posted by brian tiong at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Michael says...

It took iTunes nearly three years to get to 1 billion song downloads. MySpace Music streamed a billion songs in just a few days after it launched on September 25. And while this isn’t a fair comparison (songs on MySpace are free to stream; on iTunes users were paying $0.99 each), it’s an incredible milestone.

What MySpace won’t say for some reason is what the billionth song was, or when exactly it was streamed (which would be nice for trivia purposes). But they are confirming that the billionth stream was initiated sometime last week, just a few days after launch. They are also issuing a rather convoluted statement:

We’re extremely pleased with the launch of MySpace Music—clearly our users around the world are engaged and excited about the new music experience on MySpace. We’ve hit some incredible milestones in only a few days—some of the numbers you’re reading about are already out of date.

We can confirm that we hit a milestone of one billion music streams in only a few days after launching the new product however because this number may be inflated by the high profile launch and accompanying promotional push, we will be looking to our metrics on engagement and unique users which will tell a much richer story on how positively the community is responding to the new music experience. We will continue to keep you posted on the response to MySpace Music.

MySpace Music’s impact on the music industry won’t be fully understood for months or years (here’s our prediction). But one thing is certain - they are streaming a ton of music to users. The labels, which own part of the joint venture and are also paid per stream, must be very happy.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Paul Isakson *)

I'm been a big fan of Paul for a while now and here is another reason why.  Paul talks about modern brand building is this presentation.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Erick Schonfeld *)

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(* Source: Nick O'Neill *)

(* Source: Marshall Kirkpatrick *)

How it Compares

We're in shock that Google Blogsearch has actually updated. It's cleaner and less spammy than Technorati, it's more transparent than Yahoo Buzz, it's more inclusive than Six Apart's new Blogs.com and to the big question will be whether it's faster than Techmeme. (Techmeme caught this story far faster than the new Google Blogsearch!) That's our concern as a tech site. This has to be entirely new for bloggers who write about television, video games or business. Those sectors have got to be excited.

A Techmeme Killer?

Even in tech, though we may love Techmeme - it's audience is more influential than it is large. The new Google Blogsearch has the potential to reach tens of millions of people and drive insane amounts of traffic.

Techmeme indexes a limited number of tech blogs, primarily blogs linked-to by other blogs that are already indexed. Google Blogsearch, on the other hand, indexes all blog posts faster than anyone else on the web.

Techmeme is a great site and founder Gabe Rivera works hard to update its machinery and functionality regularly. The same iteration strategy can't be assumed for the new Google Blogsearch, in fact it appears that the Google News algorithm has just been applied to blogs. All this may or may not be significant. Rivera offered no response when we contacted him asking for one.

We're excited about the new Google Blogsearch. What do you think? Can you imagine yourself visiting it now?

Posted by brian tiong at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Doriano "Paisano" Carta *)

Tootsville is a new virtual world for children ages 6-14 that’s very similar to Disney’s online cash cows ToonTown and ClubPenguin (which they purchased for $700 million).

The reference to Disney is important to note because monetization is obviously extremely important to Tootsville. This is evident by the fact that kids cannot really do many of the fun things the site has to offer without their parents ponying up some money on a monthly or annual basis.

These premium accounts range from $5.95 per month up to $57.98 annually. Here are some of the things your kids CAN’T do unless you upgrade to a premium account: Walk on 2 legs, Dress up your toot, buy clothes or furniture, decorite your house, attend special events, collect pivitz, play premium games and safe chat with friends. I know, then what CAN they do? The answer: not a whole lot really. 

Speaking of money, since the characters in Tootsville are a bunch of colorful elephants, the currency they use is in the form of peanuts. Kids get a bunch of peanuts if their parents subscribe to the more expensive premiere plans, naturally. This is important because this is what they use to buy objects such as clothes for their elephant or furniture for thier house. Some might say this is a good way to teach children the value of money and how to spend wisely. 

On the positive side of things, the site is full of bright colorful worlds and loaded with activities (some are even free!). Kids can easily chat with other “toots” and checkout places together. The good news is that there are ways for kids to earn peanuts by doing certain things. For example, by going to the water fountain (see image above) and making a wish you quickly make 19 peanuts. 

Tootsville’s goal is to mix educational lessons with entertainment as displayed throughout the site. The Tootering program is scheduled for release for spring 2009 and the Teacher’s Pet Program will emphasize the fun in learning, at home, and in the classroom. 

If you’re a parent with children that enjoy playing online, then safe sites like Tootsville and the ones from Disney provide a service that’ll provide fun for kids and peace of mind for parents. When you look at things that way, then the small cost of membership is well worth it.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Helge Tennø *)

A great presentation by Heige and in his words "Seven suggestions to what's changed and what's important in digital / marketing / advertising"

Posted by brian tiong at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(* Source: Helge Tennø *)

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