Week of June 15, 2009

More on Nielsen's Q1 Ad Numbers

Friday, June 19, 2009

As we mentioned yesterday, Nielsen Company's Monitor Plus survey of advertising shows an overall drop in ad spending of 12% in the first quarter of 2009. Just as you had probably guessed that print was the hardest hit among media categories, it's not hard to pick automotive as the advertising category that cut back the most. Automotive factory and dealer association advertising was down 27.7% for the quarter, while local dealership spending dropped by 24.1%.

On the plus side, direct response marketing, an industry that we discussed in this space a few weeks ago, showed the highest percentage increase. It grew by 14.1%. Fast food restaurants were another category that grew, up 7.7% in Q1.

Putting a Number on the Advertising Decline

Thursday, June 18, 2009

The Nielsen Company just released its overall advertising survey for the first quarter, reporting that overall advertising was down by 12% (to $27.9 billion). Not all categories are created equal, as print dropped the most. Television, which accounts for 2/3 of all ad spending, was down by relatively modest amounts.

Here's a look at how various media categories performed:

• Local Sunday supplements: down 37.7%
• Business-to-business magazines: down 29.9%
• National newspapers: down 27.7%
• National Sunday supplements: down 25.9%
• Local TV: down 16.6%
• Network radio: down 12.6%
• Outdoor: down 10.7%
• Local radio: down 9%
• Network TV: down 4.8%
• Online; down 3.4%
• Cable TV: down 2.7%

The smallest drop? That honor belonged to one of the smallest categories by dollar amount, Spanish-language cable TV, which was down just 1.1%.

The Twitter Fad

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The phenomenal success of Twitter, especially in the last few months, has led to a tipping point, especially with respect to its use as a marketing tool by major brands and companies. However, among personal users, various sources are indicating that the hype is greater than the reality. Twitter's retention percentage is apparently very low.

A Harvard Business School professor conducted a study which showed that 90% of all tweets come from just 10% of users. And media research giant Nielsen released their own study that shows that 60% of Twitter users use the service for less than one month.

No FM for iPhone

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The buzz in the radio industry in the days leading up to the announcement of the next generation iPhone is that the device would have a built-in FM tuner, like the Zune player does. However, those hopes were dashed when the new iPhone (iPhone 3G S) was revealed on June 9th. The "S" stands for speed, as in faster than the regular iPhone 3G. And even though it lacks an FM tuner, there are plenty of other hardware upgrades:

• A better camera (3 megapixels)
• The ability to shoot and edit video
• Voice control for making phone calls and playing music
• Upgraded capacity with 16MB and 32MB versions, instead of the current offerings of 8 and 16MB

In addition to the new hardware, Apple will be releasing the 3rd generation software for the iPhone that will also add a number of upgraded features to those with existing iPhones.

The Long Tail of YouTube

Monday, June 15, 2009

The world's most popular video service, YouTube, has the power to make an overnight star, a la Susan Boyle's appearance on Britain's Got Talent. Her debut appearance on the show has attracted an astounding 100+ million views. However, the vast majority of YouTube videos exist in relative anonymity. In fact, according to TubeMogul, the median number of views for a video on YouTube is roughly 500. Here is the breakdown on the chances for success:

• 30% get fewer than 100 views over time
• 53% of videos get fewer than 500 views
• Only .33% attract more than 1 million views