Forget Valentine’s Day Stereotypes - Valentine’s Day is the second-biggest card-giving holiday in the US, according to Experian Simmons. And though many Valentine’s Day advertisements feature men showering women with flowers and cards, research from Experian Simmons reveals that women actually buy more online flowers, and eCards enjoy as much popularity as traditional ones.
In 2008, more women visited flower websites than men, according to Hitwise, a sister company of Experian Simmons. In fact, 63% of the visitors to US flower websites in the four weeks ending Feb. 16, 2008 were by females.
Interestingly, the analysis found that only younger and older consumers are most likely to give flowers - because they can’t think of another present. Experian Simmons suggests that this could mean that flowers are either a last-minute gift choice, or that consumers think flowers are appropriate for any occasion which is of course, what florists have been telling us for years or is it eons?
Dating Site Visits Up Around V-Day - Because not everyone has a Cupid’s-Day mate, Simmons research reveals that many single American adults attempt to brighten their Valentine’s Day by using online dating websites. Data from Hitwise shows that there typically is a spike in the number of visits to dating websites in the weeks before February 14, and that males are the predominant visitors to these sites. In February 2008, 57% of the visitors were male - a considerable increase from two years earlier when visitors to dating websites were only 51% male.
Among the four dating websites reviewed by Experian Simmons, men are 36% more likely to select Date.com over the three other prominent competitors (17% for AmericanSingles.com, 19% for eHarmony.com, 13% for Match.com).
E-Cards and Traditional Cards Given Equally - The research also investigated if greeting-card purchases have been overshadowed by e-cards in the past several years. Looking at four geographic areas shows little difference between the use of traditional greeting cards and e-cards. However, those in the West US are less likely to either use/visit greeting card stores like Hallmark.com or purchase greeting traditional greeting cards.
Once, the three-channeled rabbit-eared centerpiece in the American living room, that “small screen” has left the decorative walnut cabinet our parents were so proud of, and now can be found in flat screen computers and on mobile phones.Driven by consumer demand for entertainment and good old American capitalism, we’ve gone from rooftop antennas, to cable and satellite transmissions.Our station selection has increased far into the hundreds and in the meantime, with the introduction of broadband and high speed wireless, our computers and cell phones started to host visual experiences like the news, music videos and real time interactive conversations.
A recent broadcast first at Obama’s inauguration is one example of many that demonstrates the experimentation and evolution going on with the “small screen”. CNN changed the viewing experience by integrating Facebook, into their broadcast.While the CNN.com broadcast was seamlessly displayed, Facebook followers watching commented, on the same screen, on the event in real time to their friends.
In fact our “small screen” is experiencing explosive growth particularly on the Web where TV shows are downloaded by the millions and streaming is gaining remarkable momentum.Just look at the popularity of free downloads of TV shows and movies on BitTorrent.
In addition, according to a research report (June 2008), conducted by The Nielsen Company for the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) when asked to choose among seventeen online content categories, online viewers said they prefer to watch shorter video clips when they go online. Specifically these “small screen” choices included:movie trailers (53%), user generated videos (45%), music videos and general news segments (37%), comedy programs (31%), and sports clips (31%).
So is anyone watching the set in the living room? Well, according to that same Nielsen study commissioned by CTAM, roughly 94% of cable and satellite subscribers prefer to watch “TV” on their TV, (not on their computers). A good indication about who these folks are comes from another study released by Magna Global's Steve Sternberg (June, 2008), which discovered that the five broadcast networks' average live median age was 50.
Who are these 50 somethings?Well, you’ve heard of them. They represent the largest US population segment in history.There are about 77.2 million between the ages of 44 and 62.They’re called Baby Boomers and the enormous size of this group makes them key influencers in the evolution of the “small screen”.For starters think about this,Boomers have spent years sitting down after dinner not in front of their computers but the TV, and you’ll understand Steve Sternberg’s 50 something statistic. Old habits die hard.
What might surprise you is that it isn’t the younger set but Boomers who make up the largest group of US Internet users.At 56.7 million strong, they constitute nearly 30% of the online population.Like the three hundred pound gorilla in the room, what Boomers want and what they do, matters a lot to merchants, marketers and people who want to make money.And even if they haven’t all given up their VCRs, baby boomers are starting to buy, download and stream media online.
According to a September 2008 study from market research group NPD, roughly 61 % of baby boomers said they visited sites that offer streaming or downloadable video (e.g., YouTube and TV network Web sites), and 41 % had visited social networks (e.g., Linked-In, Facebook, and MySpace),.Plus, the web-savvy boomers who visited video streaming sites were 15 % more likely to buy DVDs, CDs and go to the movies.
As opposed to those younger folks, in general, boomers have a different attitude toward the Internet, as pointed out by Lisa Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst.It’s more of a convenience and less of an entertainment vehicle.Also, how boomers use the Internet today is indicative of how they will use it as they age into their 70s and 80s.Their influence is not going away any time soon.
Want to be successful on the “small screen” to this large and lucrative segment?Take these words of advice from Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for the NPD Group, to heart.“There’s an ongoing misperception that certain Web activities are the exclusive domain of young people. That misperception could cost the entertainment industry, in terms of lost opportunities to target valuable consumers."Not convinced? Here’s an additional warning from Ms. Philips.“Marketers who pigeonhole boomers as just aging seniors will find their brands ignored and distrusted by this generation.”
My friend, Chas Kutchinsky, at iBox (http://www.iboxfilms.com/), and I recently discussed this very issue, that TV and in fact traditional marketing and traditional marketing venues are evolving as a result of new consumer behaviors created by new technologies and here's a recent example highlighted in Shelly Palmer's MediaBytes.
Nielsen is reporting that nearly 40 million Americans watched the Inauguration of President Barack Obama on television. While the largest television audience recorded during an inauguration came for Ronald Reagan in 1981 (41.8 million viewers), a pure TV rating is hardly accurate in measuring the event. The figure does not take into account online video, which drew millions of Americans, many of whom were at work.
Here's a video of folk legend Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen singing Woody Guthrie’s “The Land is Your Land,” at the inaugural concert yesterday. Pete Seeger, at 89, must have particularly relished singing at the Lincoln Memorial after being blacklisted as a commie in the 50s. This is not the original version however. This was shot by a German team and posted on YouTube. (Here it is Woody Guthrie’s “The Land is Your Land”.)
The original version was created by HBO, who made a fuss and had it removed complaining that their exclusive rights to the event were being violated. Well now that we're all aware of HBO's "rights", their Public Relations should, if they're smart, put the original version back on, as a "courtesy". An action that will undoubtedly create positive press.
By the way, did you know that Guthrie clan's motto is "Stands for Truth"? For more details check out Peace Arena -
I'll admit it. I'm an 'oldersomething' and have for a number of years indulged my skin and hair with moisturizers. Hence based on a product review, I wanted to try out a new line that Dove has introduced called ProAge. So I went out and purchased (with my glasses on) the body wash, shampoo and conditioner. The products are good and not that expensive. The issue is the packaging. I don't wear my glasses in the shower and the type face, color and size of the labeling, i.e. "shampoo", "conditioner", "body wash" is very difficult to read with my glasses off (art directors take note - reverse type is not always easy for us boomers to read). In addition the bottles are all the same size and color. My recommendation to Dove is if they are going to introduce a product line for us 'oldersomethings', they should at least make the typeface on the package large enough for us to read or perhaps introduce different colors. Don't despair, my home solution has been to put each bottle on a different rack in my shower. But shame on Dove for not thinking through their customer's experience.
There's an undeniable trend - the future of online social networking doesn't live within a single entity's walls but instead permeates the web. MySpace, Facebook and Google each announced similar-sounding moves back in May 2008 that remain worth paying attention to as marketers watch to see how the social web evolves.
MySpace on May 7 said it would open up its profile data to third-party sites. Two days later Facebook said it would let users connect their Facebook accounts to third-party applications and websites, and that it would also allow developers to incorporate Facebook friend data into other sites and applications. And Google announced FriendConnect, a service that lets website owners add social applications to their sites.
Sites are blending So here we are, about 9 months later and these actions were pre-cursors to what many web watchers and social media gurus likeDan Schawbel & Christopher Penn, have been prophesizing: that social-media tools and services would spread throughout the wider web, rather than stay contained within a single service.
Forrester's Charlene Li is also one of those believers. She has described how social networks will be "like air." She writes on her blog: "I thought about my grade-school kids, who in 10 years will be in the midst of social network engagement. I believe they (and we) will look back to 2008 and think it archaic and quaint that we had to go to a destination like Facebook or LinkedIn to be social."
"Instead, I believe that in the future, social networks will be like air," she continued. "They will be anywhere and everywhere we need and want them to be." And we are seeing this transformation from such sites as MySpace and Facebook as they empower their users with the ability to move data and social connections to the broader web.
Even traditional media companies such as CBS understand the importance of spreading their social tools among third-party sites. CBS's hyper-syndication web-video strategy also includes technology that lets CBS viewers chat with each other while watching content, even if they're watching that content off CBS.com.
Listen up, marketers So what does this mean for marketers? It means more consumers talking to each other across the web, and it means discussions around brands are no longer siloed to a single platform or network but are spreading to a wider swath of sites. Imagine just since May you can now easily take a conversation about a brand that's occurring on say,... Twitter and embed that into other sites.
Of course this also means that when a company fails to deliver on their "brand" promise, bad news will spread very fast. Someone who has put some understanding around this issue is Rohit Bhargava in his book, Personality not Included. And if you do nothing else but read the introduction excerpt, free, on his site, it will help you understand where marketing is headed in this brave new world and the need to put a consumer-friendly likable face on your company.
Add a social layer and become more interesting and engaging. Or to quote David Ogilvy, "You now have to decide what image you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the marketplace."
