News tagged Media Trends


Social Networks – is 380% Growth a Good Thing?

July 8th, 2011

As we continue looking at the optimal marketing mix for our clients, the new white paper from Borrell caught our eye.  Combined advertising and promotional spending will hit $38 billion by 2015, roughly 440% more than the $7 billion projected for 2010-a massive increase to say the least.

SocNet Promo Spending to Grow 380%
Breaking the combined social network marketing spending stream into advertising and promotional streams, “The Social Networking Explosion: Ad Revenue Outlook” projects that $5 billion of total $7 billion (about 71%) social network marketing spending in 2010 will consist of promotional expenditures.

From 2010 to 2015, social network promotional spending will grow about 380%. In 2011, it will grow 40% to $7 billion, and then slow down to about 14% growth in 2012, totaling $8 billion, However, social network promotional spending will then double to $16 billion in 2013, and continue rapid growth the next year, increasing 31% to $21 billion before slowing again with 12.5% growth to $24 billion in 2015.

SocNet Ad Spending to Grow 600%
Although the data shows social network advertising spending will remain at lower levels than promotional spending through the next five years, the total growth rate will be an even higher 600%.

In 2011, social network ad spending will grow 200%, from $2 billion to $6 billion, putting it on close to an even keel with promotional spending. Ad spending will remain close to promotional spending in 2012, rising almost 17% to $7 billion.

However, in 2013, ad spending will once again lag behind promotional spending, growing a very healthy 43% to $10 billion. Growth will then continue at a still impressive 20% pace to $12 billion in 2014 and 17% pace to $14 billion in 2015.

Consumers Fuel SocNet Marketing Spending Growth
Consumer analysis indicates the rapidly growing marketing spend in social networking is fueled by wildly climbing consumer use of social networking services. For example, comScore indicates Facebook alone had more than 100 million unique visitors in the US last December, out of 400 million registered users worldwide.

The average Facebook visitor came to the site 27 times during that month, almost once a day. As of the end of 2009, one hour in every nine spent online was spent on a social network site. More than two-thirds of the nation’s largest businesses recruit new employees through social networks, and 13% more plan to start this year.

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You Listen to the Radio Like it’s 2000

June 11th, 2011

The changing landscape on how “the youth of today” listen to the radio is clearly evident in the recent study “Radio’s Future II: The 2010 American Youth Study”.  In the report comparing media consumption of Americans age 12-24 of 2000 vs. 2010 found that radio listening time consumption plummeted 49.5%, or 79 minutes.  What makes the findings even more surprising is that in 2000, listening to the radio was the top form of media consumption for Ages 12-24. However, in 2010, radio came in a distant third after internet and television.

Although listening to the local FM station may have dropped in importance, we do see an increase in this age group (especially 18-24) listening to online radio stations such as Pandora.  This change in listenership has been witnessed by the industry.  BIA/Kelsey predicts $459.3 million in revenues will come from digital and online radio in 2011, a jump in revenue of nearly 29%.

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The Revenue is Falling, The Revenue is Falling (Well, Not For the Internet)

August 30th, 2010

Just in case you have not had the chance to read the PriceWaterhouseCoopers’ white paper on media spending for 2010, here are a few of the highlights.

Overall, as predicted, and not a surprise to any of us, ad spending on the whole is down this year. However, when looking at the data on a media tactic level, we see differences (and in some cases significant ones) between actual results and predictions made in late 2009. Of all predictions, the most striking difference is in the actual vs. estimated predictions is seen in OOH revenues: -13% actual vs. -7% forecasted.

The other two media categories which had a 2009 revenue decline more severe than originally predicted were newspaper publishing (approximately 12% compared to a forecast of slightly more than 10%) and consumer magazine publishing (about 11% compared to a forecast of about 9%).

In contrast, most digital media categories which experienced annual revenue growth in 2009 increased more than originally forecasted. Most significantly, internet advertising revenues, which were predicted to decline about 3% in 2009, rose about 4%.

In addition, revenue growth significantly outpaced expectations in categories such as internet access (about 8% compared to a forecast slightly more than 5%) and filmed entertainment (3% compared to about 1%). The only exception was the revenue stream from video games, which only grew about 3%, compared to a forecast of about 8%. A major reason for this increase can be attributed to a number of high-profile developers delaying the release of new games originally scheduled for 2009.

Print media, on the whole, continued to lag the overall ad market in Q1 2010. Consumer Magazine spending fell 3.9% from a year ago, while Local Newspapers dropped 5.6%. There was improvement in some narrow segments, as Sunday Magazine expenditures jumped 13.7% and National Newspapers increased 9.1%, primarily from gains at the Wall Street Journal.

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