Monday 23 December 2013

Paid ads on Twitter combined with TV ads reduced acquisition costs for mobile networks in the UK

"In an analysis conducted for Twitter, MarketShare – the leader in advanced marketing analytics – has found that TV ads were more effective when combined with Twitter paid advertising for the category examined. This study – which focused specifically on new mobile service subscribers in the UK – found that for mobile carriers, TV advertising generated new customers at an average of $131 each when there wasn’t Twitter paid advertising. But for those carriers combining television ads with Twitter advertising, customer acquisition cost for TV advertising dropped to about $83, a 35% improvement.
“Now more than ever, major brand marketers need to understand the complex interplay between different marketing channels, and online-offline in particular,” says Jon Vein, Co-founder and CEO of MarketShare. “This analysis for Twitter is shedding new light on today’s complex consumer journey and how companies can profit from these insights in an increasingly multi-screen world.”
“We have always believed that Twitter is a powerful complement to television, and this study supports that,” says Adam Bain, President of Global Revenue for Twitter. “MarketShare’s ground-breaking work, using big data techniques and leading edge analytics, helps us quantify how Twitter can be a force multiplier, making television advertising even more effective than ever”.
Study Goals and Findings
MarketShare’s analysis aimed specifically to measure the impact of Twitter paid products – promoted tweets, accounts and trends – on driving subscriber growth for mobile carriers in the UK. Results shed light on Twitter’s role in driving new mobile subscribers, the role of marketing spend in stimulating Twitter engagement and increasing sales, and how Twitter advertising affects TV ad performance.
Results indicate an “amplification” effect from Twitter promotions that helped mobile carriers improve ROI on their television ad spending. Paid Twitter programs also drove increases in other business outcomes for UK mobile carriers, including positive user commentary about marketing campaigns and branded search volume.
The study showed that Twitter paid advertising at a relatively small amount of spend – about 1.5% of total budgets on average – produced 9.5% of marketing’s overall contribution to sales. By comparison, online display ads consumed 5.1% of ad spending and delivered 5.5% of results. Print spending, meanwhile, was 31.7% of the total, while delivering 34.5% of the results.
MarketShare also measured how “share of voice” in the world of Twitter conversations (tweets; re-tweets, mentions, etc.) contributed to a lift in sales for UK mobile service providers. The study established that a simulated 10% increase in positive share of voice for service produces a 0.5% lift in sales. Likewise, a 30% boost in positive service-related conversations would lift sales 1.5% percent.
As marketing complexity continues to expand, big brands are seeking new insights into how marketing channels interact, and how best to allocate marketing dollars. Now, with the help of MarketShare’s advanced marketing analytics expertise, Twitter has quantified the financial impact of paid advertising on its platform with true return-on-investment (ROI) metrics that help brands make more informed marketing choices. Future analysis will further explore the interplay between Twitter, TV and other marketing channels across more categories and geographies."
Source:  Press release by MarketShare, 19th December 2013

Parcel deliveries in the UK

"Britons are keen online shoppers, with internet sales as a per cent of the overall retail spend outstripping even the US. According to Boston Consulting Group, online retailing is expected to account for 23 per cent of the UK’s total retail spend and 12.4 per cent of GDP by 2016.
Data from PwC show the UK parcels market has risen from about 1.3bn items in 2005 to 1.7bn items in 2012 and is expected to rise to 2.3bn items by 2023.
The evidence is borne out in its own post room – PwC said that its offices on the banks of the Thames had received up to 6,000 parcels from retailers such as Amazon in the past few weeks, double the usual level."

Friday 20 December 2013

Hulu has 5 million subscribers

"Hulu has revealed it has topped 5 million subscribers and $1 billion in revenue in 2013. New CEO Mike Hopkins says the $1 billion revenue is an increase from $695 million the year before.
Hulu says “living room viewing” accounts for more than half of the consumption from users. The app is available on several home entertainment devices including Roku, Chromecast and the just-launched video game consoles Xbox One and PlayStation 4."

Thursday 19 December 2013

Kik has 100 million users

"Kik, a popular messaging app for teenagers has reached 100-million registered users - more than half in the US - and it is also “quietly becoming a browser as well,”reports Forbes magazine.
One part of the appeal is having user names and not having to give your phone number. The free, HTML 5-based platform is adding 250,000 users a day . It is said to be growing quickly in terms of features to challenge similar apps like LINE, WeChat and now Instagram too."

Top 'life events' on Facebook in 2013

"1. Added a relationship, got engaged or got married
2. Traveled
3. Moved
4. Ended a relationship
5. First met a friend
6. Added a family member, expecting a baby or had a baby
7. Got a pet
8. Lost a loved one
9. Got a piercing
10. Quit a habit"
Source:  Facebook's end of year round-up, 9th December 2013
Note - lots of other data in the full post

The proportion of parcels as a percent of all mail


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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

Weekly access of video clips by device


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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

Mobile internet activities by market


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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

Smartphone operating system share by market 2012-13


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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

Smartphone penetration by market 2012-2013


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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

The profile of mobile internet users by age


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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

Ownership of PVRs and smart & 3D-ready TVs in 2013


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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

Viewing of TV content online by age in 2013



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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

Viewing of TV content online in 2013


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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

Awareness & use of 4G services by market



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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

Frequency of online shopping in 2013


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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

Regular use of media in 2013


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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

Ownership & Use of Devices in 2013



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Source:  Ofcom's International Communications Market Report, December 2013

Wednesday 18 December 2013

The most Instagrammed places and cities of 2013

"The most Instagrammed places of 2013
Siam Paragon (สยามพารากอน) shopping mall, Bangkok, Thailand
Times Square, New York
Disneyland, California
Bellagio Fountains, Las Vegas
Disney World Florida
Staples Center, Los Angeles
Central Park, New York
Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) ท่าอากาศยานสุวรรณภูมิ, Bangkok, Thailand
The High Line, New York
In the course of the past year, we’ve seen Instagram continue to grow across the globe. We’ve been amazed to see the community thrive in places like Indonesia, Russia and Brazil. 60% of Instagrammers are now sharing photos and videos from outside of the United States, so we wanted to also share the most-Instagrammed cities in the world.

The Most-Instagrammed Cities of 2013
New York City, NY, USA
Bangkok, Thailand
Los Angeles, CA, USA
London, UK
São Paulo, Brazil
Moscow, Russia
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
San Diego, CA, USA
Las Vegas, NV, USA
San Francisco, CA, USA"

Google has bought 8 robotics companies in the past 6 months

"Google’s recent acquisition of Boston Dynamics marks its eighth robotics purchase in the past six months, showing Google’s “moonshot” robotics vision is more than just a pet project.
Boston Dynamics is the most high-profile acquisition, however, instantly adding world-leading robotics capability, including robots that can walk all on their own, to Google’s arsenal – as well as significant links to the US military – conjuring images of Skynet and the artificial intelligence-led robot uprising straight out of the 1984 film The Terminator."
Source:  The Guardian, 17th December 2013

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Beyonce's 'Visual Album' sold over 800,000 copies on iTunes in 3 days

"Beyonce’s new album has broken an iTunes record to become the fastest-selling release in the history of the online music store.
The self-titled album sold 828,773 copies in just three days after the singer released her fifth studio album unannounced on Friday morning.
The majority of sales came from the US, where the record sold 617,213 copies.
Apple, which runs the iTunes store, said the album broke the previous first-week sales record set by Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 Experience, which sold 580,000 in March."

Friday 6 December 2013

Each Tweet contains 31 different data fields

"Consider the tweet. It’s short—140 characters and done—but hardly simple. If you open one up and look inside, you’ll see a remarkable clockwork, with 31 publicly documented data fields. Why do these tweets, typically born of a stray impulse, need to carry all this data with them?
While a tweet thrives in its timeline, among the other tweets, it’s also designed to stand on its own, forever. Any tweet might show up embedded inside a million different websites. It may be called up and re-displayed years after posting. For all their supposed ephemerality, tweets have real staying power.
Once born, they’re alone and must find their own way to the world, like a just-hatched sea turtle crawling to the surf. Luckily they have all of the information they need in order to make it: A tweet knows the identity of its creator, whether bot or human, as well as the location from which it originated, the date and time it went out, and dozens of other little things—so that wherever it finds itself, the tweet can be reconstituted. Millennia from now an intelligence coming across a single tweet could, like an archaeologist pondering a chunk of ancient skull, deduce an entire culture."
Source:  BusinessWeek, 7th November 2013

The Sun attracted 117,000 paying subscribers in 4 months

"The Sun has attracted 117,000 paying subscribers to its £2-a-week digital service Sun+ since erecting a paywall around its website on 1 August.
News UK's tabloid, the UK's biggest selling paper, reached 100,000 digital subscribers in four months – it took stablemates the Times and Sunday Times a year to reach the same level of paying customers after their online content went behind a paywall in 2010.
Analysts forecast that the Sun needed to attract at least 250,000 - and perhaps more than 350,000 - paying subscribers to Sun+ in order to cover the loss of online advertising and recoup the tens of millions of pounds forked out for deals including digital Premier League football highlights."

Microsoft and Sony each sold more consoles within 24 hours of launch than Nintendo had in 9 months

"Nintendo Co.’s prospects for meeting its profit and sales forecasts for this year are diminishing after Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. each sold more game consoles in 24 hours than the Wii U maker did in nine months.
Nintendo’s family-focused content is losing its appeal as titles were delayed, casual gamers migrate to smartphones and tablets, and hardcore players opt for faster Sony and Microsoft machines. The world’s biggest maker of video-game machines also refuses to offer games with its lineup of iconic characters such as Mario and Zelda on mobile devices, limiting its ability to profit from surging demand by online players."

Starbucks 'Tweet a Coffee' programme has generated an estimated $180,000 in 6 weeks

"A Starbucks program that lets consumers buy coffee for friends on Twitter, has prompted about $180,000 in purchases to date since it launched in late October, according to a researcher.
Research firm Keyhole tracked all the instances in which someone used "@tweetacoffee" in conjunction with a friend's Twitter handle and found that more than 27,000 fans used the program. Some 34% of users bought multiple gift cards and 32% of the purchases occurred on the first day.
Launched on Oct. 28, Tweet-a-Coffee let you give a $5 gift card to a friend by putting both "@tweetacoffee" and the friend's handle in a tweet. To do so, users had to link their Starbucks account to Twitter and their credit card to the account. Saif Ajani, co-founder of Keyhole, says $180,000 is a respectable return on investment since the program probably required a low investment. (Starbucks reps could not be reached for comment on his report.)
Ajani says the real coup for Starbucks is that it now has linked 54,000 users 'Twitter IDs to their mobile phones and customer IDs. "Here's proof that direct-response [marketing] works on Twitter," he says. Even better, Starbucks will now be able to access the Klout scores of those customers and see what topics interest them."

Facebook mobile ads drove 175 million app downloads in ten months

"Facebook offered a clue Tuesday as to how it had built its mobile advertising business so quickly.
Deborah Liu, a product manager, told a conference that Facebook users had downloaded 175 million mobile apps since January after seeing ads for those apps in their news feeds.
Liu came up with the idea for such mobile app install ads. She spoke at the Appnation conference in San Francisco.
Facebook had not disclosed the number of app install downloads since April, when it said there had been 25 million installs in the first quarter. That means there were 150 million downloads in the seven months between April and October."
Source:  WSJ, 3rd December 2013

Monday 2 December 2013

79% of Britons multi-screen

"According to a new study by GAME, millions of Brits are now ‘double screening’ regularly, by watching television whilst playing computer games or texting and tweeting from a mobile phone or iPad at the same time.
Researchers found that our love of interacting and sharing with others during TV shows has led eight in ten Brits to now use a phone, tablet or laptop to share their opinions online about the programme they are viewing.
Almost half also admitted to triple screening – watching TV at the same time as texting on a phone whilst playing on a tablet or laptop – GAME researchers found.
Reasons for the trend in multiple screening included 30% of people saying they were so busy felt the need to do all these things at once, while 36% admitted it’s down to the fact they get bored if they only watch TV.
[...]
The study of 2,000 Brits found that 79% regularly have evenings where they sit down in front of the TV with their phone, laptop or tablet also on their lap, with 46% saying they often operate two different gadgets at once whilst watching television. According to the data, around one in ten tweet about what’s on the TV, while 14% discuss the show with friends on Facebook.
As well as this, more than a third indulge in a spot of online shopping while watching TV, highlighting the increased popularity of easy online shopping apps on mobile devices, which can be easily operated when on the sofa watching TV."

Online sales in the US on Thanksgiving Day 2013 exceeded $1 billion

"Thanksgiving became a billion-dollar online shopping day for the first time this year as more consumers used tablets to browse for deals from their couches and e-commerce companies ramped up promotions.
Thanksgiving online sales came in at $1.06 billion in the U.S., according to Adobe Systems, which analyzed 180 million visits to more than 1,000 U.S. retail websites.
Thanksgiving Day revenue for leading online retailers rose nearly 40% from last year, e-commerce firm Monetate said in a separate sales report. The totals reflected this year's rare convergence of the holiday with the first night of Hannukah.
The increases included a 73.6% rise in revenue from shoppers using tablets, a 50.7% rise in sales to smartphone users and a 39.8% increase in revenues via laptop and desktop computers, said Pennsylvania-based Monetate, which based the findings on data from nearly 30 million online shopping sessions."
Source:  USA Today, 30th November 2013
Also - More Black Friday Adobe Stats
Also - 39m adults shopped online - more data
Also - $2bn on Cyber Monday