Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Americans 55+ Using Web More; Traditional Media Less

Someone the other day said to me, “I realize the Web is a fast growing communications medium, but isn’t most of that growth among younger demographics?” Well, there is an easy answer for that: “No.”

The latest evidence comes from a Burst Media survey (see story in eMarketer). The survey shows a rapid shift among people age 55+ from time spent with traditional media to time spent online. Among the survey respondents in this age group, 60.7 percent said they used the Internet more this year compared to last year.

Also, according to statistics from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 71 percent of Americans, ages 50-64, now use the Internet.

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Boom Often Follows Bust

The Dotcom Bust of several years ago was a financial response to an overhyped reality. This time it looks like valuations are based on performance metrics. Today, Piper Jaffray raised the target price on Google to $600...a 35 percent increase over its previous $445 target. Story here.

The entire Internet sector has risen about 22 percent in the last eight months. It has also risen almost 350 percent since “The Bust” low. Now that’s ROI!

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Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Survey: Online Advertising Moves To First Place

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post, the same Credit Suisse survey that raised online advertising growth estimates to 32 percent for 2006, also revealed that leading companies are now allocating more to online advertising than any other category...including magazine and television. Story here. Online advertising was in third place the previous quarter, but the new survey results would indicate that online has clearly reached the tipping point.

The survey involved 90 large companies with annual ad budgets averaging $22 million. The Bloomberg article quotes Rosemarie Ryan, advertising agency president of J. Walter Thompson’s New York office. “It’s a seismic shift for our business. Advertisers know they have to find new ways to get to people.”

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Monday, January 02, 2006

Wall Street Increases Growth Estimate For Online Advertising

Bloomberg, a leading provider of business and stock market analytics, reported recently that Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Heath Terry upped the estimated 2006 growth rate for online advertising from 21 percent to 32 percent.  Terry, who has a five-star rating from StarMine, has proven especially prescient at predicting growth in the Internet sector.

Online advertising will reportedly hit $16.6 billion in 2006. The biggest growth (65 percent) will be in online ads that utilize sound, animation and interactive features.

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Sunday, January 01, 2006

Six Marketing Resolutions for 2006

It is that time of the year when we make those commitments to ourselves: lose weight, exercise more, spend more time with the kids, etc. Here is my suggested list of New Year’s Resolutions if you want to make a substantial impact on your company’s marketing efforts.

1. Measure everything you do. Your credibility is on the line. Management used to cut marketing and advertising a lot of slack. They used to buy the line that some things in marketing are difficult to measure, or that even if you could measure results, you would need long-term tracking studies to see how brand awareness scores had increased.

Management isn’t buying it any more and they shouldn’t. People in the marketing loop need to demonstrate what all those precious company resources are producing for the bottom line. You’re profit or you’re overhead; take your pick.

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