Selling shoes online is growing at a breakneck pace. But who are the people buying all of the shoes? The average online shoe buyer spends about an hour and a half searching for the perfect pair. Shoe buyers also tend to buy the same day, as opposed to stretching the browsing period out over the course of multiple days.
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Forbes posted an article this week about Yahoo!’s decision to pursue more local advertising. With advertisers spending more than $120 billion annually on local advertising, it’s safe to say that Yahoo! wants a piece of the pie.
The Sunnyvale, CA-based company aims to target companies that advertise in local newspapers, and on radio stations and web sites. Some companies on their radar include: Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts, Home Depot, Pizza Hut, and State Farm Insurance, to name a few. The new emphasis on local advertising takes a nod from Google’s strategy to extend beyond its search business foundation.
According to Yahoo!, local clients will become increasingly important to the company’s regional advertising campaign. “We’re laser focused on this segment of the market,” posits Lem Lloyd, Yahoo!’s vice president of channel sales for North America. To Lloyd, many of these marketers – with their billions to spend – provide a virtually untapped market for web-based advertising services. Because, when it comes to local advertising, only 1% or 2% is spent online.
Via Laurie Burkitt @ Forbes
AdAge.com recently featured an article by Nat Ives, regarding Kantar Media’s, advertising industry report. This reported indicates that total ad sales fell over 12% in 2009. The massive decline was triple the losses seen in 2008, and it was only a rebounding Q4 that prevented the total year loss from being even worse. While last year’s numbers are far from pleasant, Ive’s notes, the future looks much brighter as long as consumer spending continues to grow.
According to Jon Swalle, senior VP-research at Kantar, “The advertising recession began to ease in the final two months of 2009 and preliminary figures from the first quarter of 2010, when compared against the abyss of a year ago, indicate many sectors are experiencing growth. Given the restraint in consumer spending, it appears marketers have more confidence right now than their customers.” Swalle posits that increased consumer activity will be the primary means for growth in the coming year.
A Magna study conducted in January predicted that a turnaround in the ad industry wouldn’t happen until the second quarter of the year, with the first quarter representing the final quarter of decline for some time to come.
Here are the specific industries and their 2009 revenue percent change from 2008:
The top two advertisers in 2009, Procter & Gamble and Verizon both significantly reduced their yearly spending on advertising. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Three of the top ten spenders from 2008, Pfizer, Walmart and SprintNextel increased ad spend by a massive 30% or more last year.
Out of the major advertising categories, only three of seven increased spending in 2009: telecom, food and candy, and pharmaceuticals. The categories that reduced spending, sometimes severely, were: automotive, financial services, local services, misc. retail and direct response.
via Ad Age
A new study was recently released by the Euro RSCG Worldwide PR firm titled The Teenage Girl as Consumer and Communicator. The report, as discussed on Marketing Charts, revealed key findings of the shopping habits of teenage girls.
The most surprising statistics in this report have to do with the fact that teen girls are very careful spenders when it comes to shopping. The paper, which was based on a survey conducted in November, 2009 by MicroDialogue, revealed that teen girls spend more than $200 billion annually at retail establisments. But the report shows that more than 60% of girls wait for items to go on sale before they make their purchase, and 77% are more likely to make a purchase if the item is on sale. Furthermore, the study shows that when teen girls shop with their sister or one best friend they will spend 23% more compared to when they shop with two or more friends. And, wen a teen girl is shopping with a boy she will spend a mere 43% of what she will spend with her sister or best friend.
The study also looked at the biggest fashion influences for teen girls. 59% say that they are most interested in maintaining a unique personal style, while only 30% say that they are more interested in following the same fashion trends as their peers. In addition, 43% are most influenced by celebrities and 26% are most influenced by “other cool girls.”
While 78% of teen girls use social media to keep in touch with friends, they apparently prefer to use other means to conduct shopping research. When teen girls find out about a sale at their favorite store, 65% say they want to share the news with their friends, while 57% say they do the same upon discovering a new trend. Also, 80% prefer texting and phone calls compared to broadcasting on sites such as Facebook or Twitter. E-mail lists are also widely used in order to find out about hot deals. 40% say they sign up on e-mail lists for their favorite brands while 28% only browse and subscribe to basic newsletters for pertinent information.
According to The Nielsen Company, females age 15-32 are the most prone to use social media to alert their peers of deals and sales events. Marketers should be aware that these women will often text and tweet in real-time about the deals they are seeing at the time. Lucky retailers will sometimes even get YouTube video coverage from a customer who has a helpful employee experience.
via Marketing Charts
The ten largest online publishers own a disproportionate amount of the world’s web traffic. These busy sites, including subsidiary holdings, account for billions of unique visitors per month. They also comprise the most sought-after ad space in the world. However – and while the recession has played a role in the decline of the display CPM major publishers could acquire – an average $10 CPM, has in many cases, dwindled to $1CPM.
For many publishers, display has simply not paid off. Search advertising revenues, however, have steadily increased during this same time. And, with roughly 90% of the major publishers’ revenue being derived from low-paying (and in many cases remnant) advertising networks, many would argue that it is just a matter of time before many of these sites begin charging users to access content; either on a subscription, or pay-as-you-go basis. The alternative, of course, requires an alternative approach to advertising — the fact of the matter is that publishers are not in the business of providing free content if they are unable to monetize their traffic.
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Twitter may be pushing 10 billion tweets, but Facebook has reached $1 billion in revenue, according to a recent article on TMCnet.com, written by David Sims. Citing a Mashable.com feature, Facebook’s finance numbers have always been hidden away. But, recently additional tidbits of information have been leaked, which illustrate a rapid increase in revenue over the last few years. In 2007, annual revenue was said to be at $150 million. Revenue for 2008 was believed to be at $300 million, while it is widely cited that the social networking behemoth pulled in roughly $700 million in 2009.
But, where is the boost coming from? Thebigmoney.com says the recent, rapid growth is due to, “…a strong advertising push from social gaming companies, along with direct marketers and local businesses.” While there have always been a number of theories regarding the site’s (in)ability to monetize, its registered 400 million users presents an unparralled opportunity. And, if Facebook can figure out a way to successfully grow its revenue, this could pave the way for monetizing other social sites and apps. At the end of the day, Facebook’s revenue will overwhelmingly come from advertising. But how the story will continue to play out remains to be seen.
Via TMCnet
Each year at the Oscar’s, attention tends to veer away from the performances and films and onto the outfits of Hollywood’s biggest and brightest stars. Whether it turns out good or bad, every celebrity that makes an appearance at the award show hopes to make a statement with how they are dressed. More interesting however, are the fashion statements made in the movies being lauded. What come as no surprise, there is a distinct connection between the trends featured in movies, and consequently in pop culture– people tend to latch on to trends featured in popular films. But just how do movies influence trends and sales? We have decided to produce a graphic illustrating the source of he 21st century’s most memorable trends, and where they got their starts:
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