Via WARC LONDON: Marketers in the UK are failing to engage consumers making comments about their brands on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, new research has revealed.

Marketing Week, the trade title, and Maritz Research, the insights provider, polled 1,000 adults, 81% of which had uploaded opinions about goods specific and services on the web. A further 77% expected to do so in the future.

Some 85% of the participants who had entered comments on the net concerning a brand did not receive a reply. In all, 47% would be “happy” to hear back from a business in such a way, and 32% would “love” this kind of response.

“The large percentage of people who had never been contacted after posting a complaint is a real example of where companies are missing a trick,” said Maya Robert, content editor and social media manager at uSwitch, the price comparison website.

When discussing the 15% of consumers who had received a message from a brand, 32% “loved” it and 47% ranked their engagement simply as being “OK”.

“I think we will always be surprised by how much people want you to be visible and step in and give help,” said Stuart Handley, EMEA director of communication for Dell, the IT group.

Nearly half of the panel had utilised social media to air their views relating of companies, with 24% providing favourable feedback in this way and 23.5% “venting feeling” to friends and family.

For 14% of interviewees, this medium had been a “last resort”, and 8% opted for such an approach in anticipation of achieving a rapid reply from the organisation involved.

Overall, 74% of contributors who had mentioned brands on Facebook generally adopted a positive tone and 26% complained, figures hitting 17% and 5% respectively for Twitter, and falling to 10% and 2% for YouTube.

Among those shoppers making remarks about goods and services online, 58% would have a “higher opinion” of corporations that responded, the analysis added.

When complaining, 74% of customers were seeking an apology, 39% sought offers or vouchers, 34% wished to be thanked by a firm and 29% hoped to gain financial compensation.

“More than 90% of the incoming traffic on our social media channels is customer-related comments or issues,” said Jakub Hrabovsky, head of web relations and social media at Vodafone, the telco. “The vast majority just want a solution and don’t care whether you apologise or offer them compensation.”

Data sourced from Marketing Week; additional content by Warc staff, 2 April 2012

contact ApolloBravo for consumer engagement strategies.

Via WARC NEW YORK: A majority of US brand owners are interested in exploring innovative technologies and services to enhance their television advertising, a study has found.

The Association of National Advertisers, the trade body, and Forrester Research, the insights group, surveyed 124 advertisers in 16 major industries in the US.
Overall, television should take 47% of media expenditure this year, a figure which had grown by six percentage points compared with similar analysis published in 2010.

Some 76% of respondents reported that media budgets will be “stable” in 2011. Another 62% thought their media agency was well-equipped to help them exploit the changing viewing trends and possibilities which are currently observable.

Among the shifts set to reshape the TV market this year is the rising uptake of alternative measurement methodologies, to be coupled with existing data from Nielsen, which remains the most trusted source.

For 72% of interviewees, the quality and accuracy of information provided by set-top boxes, for example those offered by TiVo or Apple, is likely to improve in the next few years.

An additional 47% stated that unique visitor or viewer numbers would eventually become the industry standard for measuring audience figures across different channels. Advertisers expressed rising confidence in set-top box technologies capable of targeting ads at specific customer segments. Nearly three-quarters of marketers had a “strong interest” in this area.

Elsewhere, almost half of participants are testing or plan to utilise “advanced” television advertising, such as by including interactive features in spots on video-on-demand platforms or cable stations, in the coming 12 months.

A further 18% of the panel had already leveraged “synchronised” ads on at least two screens – say, PC and television – while 31% expected to deploy this kind of model in 2012.

In all, digital is still the top priority for advertisers, 70% of which will spend more on web ads in 2012. Social media and mobile came next in this list.

Indeed, ads on the latter channel were the main video alternative to linear 30-second spots when contributors considered areas where they were likely to boost expenditure in 2012, the study said.

Data sourced from Forrester; additional content by Warc staff, 20 February 2012

via Warc.com NEW YORK: Companies making the most effective use of digital media typically adopt a distinct set of strategies in areas like mobile, social networking and data analytics, a study has argued.

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the advisory group, polled 489 US firms with annual sales of over $500m, and identified a selection of “top performers” boasting the strongest revenues, growth, margins and innovation credentials.

It revealed that 50% of these leading players planned to spend a minimum of $1m on building mobile tools for their customers to use in 2012. The same was true of just 29% of other enterprises.

Moreover, 66% of the premier digital businesses described their interaction with consumers on mobile devices as “quite or very significant”, measured against 45% of all the corporations assessed

A 30% share of “top performers” deployed social networks to reach shoppers, versus 37% of firms not attaining such a status. But while 41% of the former group yielded “significant benefits” from this tactic, a smaller 24% of “the rest” said the same.

“Interestingly, though, there seems to be little connection between use of social media for external communications and actual commercial success,” PwC study stated.

“We have found that the organisations that achieve solid results from their social media efforts are those that use it not only as an outreach platform but “also as a method to listen and engage.”

By contrast, the companies enjoying the most impressive returns are making greater usage of social media internally, and 36% should spend at least $1m on this channel in 2012, standing at 22% for “the rest”.

Similarly, although 56% of the entire panel intend to collect more consumer data in the next year, this rises to 66% for “top performers”. Exactly 50% of the best organisations will exploit such insights for R&D, falling to 28% elsewhere.

Some 89% of top performers also agreed their company had a strategy in place that was likely to succeed, and 86% said their CEO actively championed new technology to achieve success. This beat average scores of 68% and 60% in turn.

More specifically, 63% of the highest-ranking operators believed that their chief information officer and chief marketing officer had a “strong” or “very strong” relationship, a total that fell to 42% of all featured corporations.

“Leading firms … understand that being behind the curve on the strategic use of technology not only puts their firms at a competitive disadvantage, but weakens their ability to interact and strengthen relationships with customers,” PwC said.

Data sourced from PricewaterhouseCoopers; additional content by Warc staff, 3 February 2012

Via WARC / Comscore NEW YORK: Increasing numbers of US consumers are using smartphones to research and buy products, a report has shown.

According to comScore, the research firm, 38% of smartphone owners – an audience currently standing at 90m people – have purchased goods and services through their handset on at least one occasion.

During September 2011, some 47% of individuals who acquired products via this route bought digital items like music, ebooks, ringtones, films and television programming content, the company found.

A further 37% bought clothing or accessories directly from a retailer, with tickets to events including movies, plays and sporting fixtures following on 35%.

In a demonstration of the integration between emerging digital platforms, 34% of the mcommerce population completed transactions on daily deals websites such as Groupon and LivingSocial.

This matched the total generated by gift certificates, while 32% of the mobile customer base opted for electronics like TV sets and computers.

Ordering food for delivery or pick-up, for example a takeaway pizza, scored 31%, hotel reservations yielded 29%, physical books registered 26%, and car rentals logged 24%, as did airline tickets.

Elsewhere, 13% of shoppers buying from a phone made purchases linked to the automotive category, suggesting this channel holds opportunities for a wide range of sectors.

“In September we saw two-thirds of all smartphone owners perform shopping activities on their phones, including comparing products and prices, searching for coupons, taking product pictures or locating a retail store,” Mark Donovan, comScore’s senior vice president, mobile, added.

Looking at the location of consumers as they bought offerings through their smartphone, 56% did so at home, and 42% engaged in this pastime at work.

Another 37% did so when travelling, and 36% actually utilised mcommerce tools in bricks and mortar stores.

Other outdoor sites, such as parks, schools and restaurants, posted a combined 42%, comScore’s analysis revealed.

Data sourced from comScore; additional content by Warc staff, 7 December 2011

Via Mashable

Thanks to the Internet, marketing has evolved over the years. Consumers no longer rely on billboards and TV spots — a.k.a. outbound marketing — to learn about new products, because the web has empowered them. It’s given them alternative methods for finding, buying and researching brands and products. The new marketing communication — inbound marketing — has become a two-way dialogue, much of which is facilitated by social media.

Another reason why inbound marketing is winning is because it costs less than traditional marketing. Why try to buy your way in when consumers aren’t even paying attention? Here are some stats from the infographic below.

• 44% of direct mail is never opened. That’s a waste of time, postage and paper.
• 86% of people skip through television commercials.
• 84% of 25 to 34 year olds have clicked out of a website because of an “irrelevant or intrusive ad.”
• The cost per lead in outbound marketing is more than for inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing focuses on earning, not buying, a person’s attention, which is done through social media and engaging content, such as blogs, podcasts and white papers. This content is interesting, informative and adds value, creating a positive connection in the eyes of the consumer, thus making him more likely to engage your brand and buy the product. So it costs less and has better a ROI.

This infographic from Voltier Digital highlights the differences between the two kinds of marketing. Let us know your opinions in the comments below.

via WARC NEW YORK: Over 70m consumers in the US now access social networking sites through their mobile phones, a study from comScore, the research firm, has revealed. According to the company’s estimates, 72.2m people – a third of the entire mobile audience – logged on to these platforms via a handset in August 2011, a 37% increase on an annual basis.

More specifically, 39.9m individuals engaged in this pastime “almost every day”, a total which had expanded by 58% during the last 12 months.

Facebook led the field in terms of usage, reflecting its dominant position in the market as a whole. Some 57.3m of its members signed in from a wireless handset in August, a 50% lift year on year.

Twitter was in second place having attracted 13.4m mobile subscribers across August 2010, equating to 75% growth on August 2010. LinkedIn attracted 5.5m visitors in the same way, a 69% surge.

At present, the most popular activities undertaken by the mobile social networking audience are viewing comments from their friends on 80.3%, and posting status updates, on 69.5%.

Elsewhere, 53.2% of people had followed links to websites, and 52.9% read posts from brands and organisations.

This was ahead of the 44.8% that looked at material from celebrities and other public figures. Another 34.8% of netizens posted links to websites.

Turning to more commercial matters, 33.3% of consumers had received coupons and offers on these web properties, and 27.7% clicked on ads.

When considering the means via which mobile subscribers access social networks, comScore reported 42.3m did so through a browser, up 24% year on year, and 38.5m utilised an app, a 126% annual improvement.

Some 60% of smartphone owners logged on to social networks on these gadgets, nearly double the overall average, Mark Donovan, comScore’s senior vice president for mobile, said.

“Knowing that fans and followers engage with branded content on mobile devices opens the door to a world of opportunity for location-based services,” he added.

Data sourced from comScore; additional content by Warc staff, 24 October 2011

Read More Via Warc

GOTHENBURG: App downloads are set to increase rapidly around the world in the next five years, fueling growth in the subscription and advertising revenues generated through this channel.

Berg Insight, the research firm, estimated the number of apps installed by consumers on wireless devices will grow by 56.6% annually between 2010 and 2015, reaching 98bn a year by the end of this period.

More specifically, the company reported the revenues resulting from individuals paying for these tools, alongside in-app purchases and related subscriptions, hit €1.6bn in 2010.

It predicted the amount delivered by these combined activities should stand at €8.8bn in 2015, equivalent to a compound annual growth rate of 40.7%.

Apple is currently the leading source of income where mobile applications are concerned, with the firm’s App Store supplying some €1.3bn last year, a total anticipated to come in at €4.4bn in 2015.

During the same period, Google’s Android platform contributed a relatively modest €80m, but is projected to yield €1.5bn by the end of the forecast period.

The Windows Phone operating system manufactured by Microsoft is likely to assume third position in this area by 2015, although the company still has work to do if it is to catch up with Apple and Google.

Elsewhere, Berg Insight reported that in-app advertising was worth €300m last year, or 16% of all application revenues. Ad sales through this channel should be €750m in 2011 and €3.5bn in 2015.

As advertising is expected to be more of a “volume game”, Google Android is anticipated to assume a leading role, as the number of handsets utilising this operating system may be more prevalent, while Apple’s subscribers remain of higher value.

Overall, Berg Insight argued that Android would provide €1.2bn in ad revenues by 2015, versus only €39m in 2010. Apple’s comparative returns are pegged to rise from €230m to €1bn in this period.

Johan Svanberg, a senior analyst at Berg Insight, said: “Most apps are free to download and app monetisation will be a challenge for developers. Free to download monetisation strategies such as in-app advertising and in-app purchasing will be increasingly important.”

Geographically, Asia Pacific, which houses the key mobile markets of India and China, is pegged to account for 40% of all app downloads by 2015.

Data sourced from Berg Insight; additional content by Warc staff, 10 October 2011