sm@rt newsletter

This Year, All Publishers Go Mobile

2013-01-25T17:22:50Z

Mobile readership offers publishers new circulation revenue sources

Media businesses have already gone through a first wave of digital transition, and in the last few years, mobile has been the next frontier. Publishers have been tasked with deciding whether to offer their content on the smaller-screen devices—and how.

This year will be a seminal one, marking the first time 100% of publishers will format their content for mobile, according to an Alliance for Audited Media survey of 210 media companies in North America. The development points to both digital’s essential role in media companies’ future profits and the importance of mobile to consumers’ daily media lives.

The survey found in October that mobile did not play a huge role in media companies’ circulation revenues, but many expected that to change by 2014, when over four out of 10 anticipated making at least 10% of their circulation revenues—excluding ad dollars—from mobile.

One reason is the proliferation of mobile platforms available to publishers who increasingly see standalone smart device subscriptions, or higher-priced subscriptions for digital and mobile access, as major revenue sources. Many are offering special platform-specific content to maximize the potential of smartphones and tablets and make the subscriptions more valuable to readers.

Publishers increasingly see the iPad, and tablets in general, as offering some of the most dynamic opportunities for media consumption. Correspondingly, the iPad saw the greatest percentage of publishers charging for content across publication categories. The Kindle and NOOK saw the second- and third-highest percentage of consumer magazines charging for mobile content. For newspapers and business publications, the iPhone ranked above these two non-Apple devices, an indication that Apple remains a primary device-maker for media consumers.

Similarly, the iPhone and iPad were the No. 1 devices for which publishers developed mobile apps. Mobile apps are important to media companies across all devices, however. Over half of publishers reported having mobile apps for every major smart mobile device.

Publishers are also optimistic about their ability to scale smartphone and tablet apps to profitability fast. While, as of the survey, only 22% of publishers were profitable on apps, over half expected to be by the end of 2014. By comparison, websites were already profitable for 51% of publishers, with less room for growth.

To achieve profitability on mobile and desktop, and seeing that digital ad sales have not been enough to stanch print losses, a fast-increasing percentage of publishers are moving to some form of paywall. Four out of 10 media companies reported already using a paywall, with the highest percentage choosing a metered option.

Media companies have known for a while that their readerships’ transition to digital was inevitable. Publishers reported that already nearly one-quarter of their readership was exclusively digital. Now magazines and newspapers are wising to the mobile-first, and maybe even mobile-only, next phase of media consumption.

Source: eMarketer

NOTE: The goal of the sm@rt newsletter is to provide our readers with access to the best information, data, consumer behavioral purchase habits and prescriptive analytics created by professionals in the advertising, marketing and multimedia industries that can assist them in enhancing their multicultural communication campaigns. Some of the content may be freely distributed and copied. Others must follow the originator's copyright guidelines that appear in each article and must be given appropriate acknowledgment.

More Shoppers reach for Mobile to Browse, Buy

2013-01-23T13:28:18Z

Dramatic increases in mobile shoppers and buyers predicted

With digital storefronts just an arm’s length away, millions are reaching first for their smartphone when the urge to shop strikes. Whether at home or on the go, these consumers use their phones to browse and research products, hunt for deals and make purchases.

US consumers will spend $37.44 billion in 2013 on retail purchases made via smartphones and tablets, up from $23.72 billion last year, according to a new eMarketer report, “Retail Mobile Commerce Forecast: Shoppers Turn to Smartphones First.” But increased sales don’t tell the whole story. Even when shoppers do not buy on mobile and instead turn to the computer or a store to make a final purchase, the devices still play a critical role in the purchase funnel.

eMarketer’s mobile shopper forecast reflects a cultural shift toward a mobile-centric lifestyle in the US, one in which all things digital are increasingly accessed through mobile devices.

eMarketer forecasts the number of mobile shoppers in the US will increase by 24% in 2013 to 118 million consumers and represent 62% of digital shoppers. Over the next four years, the overlap between mobile and digital shoppers will steadily increase as the number of mobile shoppers grows to 174 million in 2016. At that point, roughly eight out of 10 digital shoppers will also be mobile shoppers.

As the number of mobile shoppers rises, so does the number of buyers.

Retail trends and the latest research leads eMarketer to believe that 72 million people in the US will make a purchase through a mobile device in 2013, a figure that will increase nearly 65%, to 119 million, in 2016. The growth of the mobile buyer community will be fueled in greatest measure by the expanding number of tablet users who are more prone to buying. Still, the number of consumers making purchases on a smartphone is expected to increase by double-digit levels for the next three years and contribute significantly to the overall expansion of the mobile buyer population.

“Just four years ago mobile commerce barely existed. Today, mobile touches nearly one in every three purchases on eBay,” said Steve Yankovich, vice president of mobile for eBay, in a company blog post on December 11, 2012.

Source: eMarketer

How Are Smartphone and PC Internet Users Different?

2013-01-08T16:47:16Z

Time spent on email near equal on PCs vs. smartphones

eMarketer estimates that 1.7 billion people around the world will access the internet via a mobile device in 2013. By 2016, there will be a staggering 2.5 billion mobile internet users worldwide. As internet usage increasingly takes place on mobile devices—and particularly on smartphones—it is important to understand how consumers’ internet behavior is adapting to these new devices.

An analysis conducted in July 2012 by GfK Group examined US consumers' web activity on a smartphone vs. on a PC. The research found that in a number of categories, consumers on the two kinds of devices behaved quite similarly.

Both PC and smartphone internet users spent a little under one-fifth of their internet time on email, and both allocated roughly a 10% share of time each to gaming and search.

The most striking difference GfK found was that PC internet users were considerably less social than their smartphone counterparts. PC internet users spent a sizeable 18% of their internet time on social media activities, but on smartphones, social media truly dominated, accounting for a 31% share of internet time—nearly twice as much as the amount of time spent on email, the next most popular smartphone web activity. Clearly, social media is a prime reason smartphone users access the internet via mobile.

On the other side, PCs remained the platform of choice for watching video, although the gulf between PCs and smartphones was considerably less wide. PC users spent 13% of their computer internet time watching video, while smartphone users spent just 9%. The other internet category consumers spent significantly more time on via PC? “Other.” This suggests that there are still a number of miscellaneous internet tasks that users don’t yet feel comfortable navigating on smaller-size phone screens—at least for now.

eMarketer estimates that mobile accounted for 11.7% of daily media time in 2012, compared to about 25% spent online on nonmobile devices.

As mobile usage grows, the activities internet users perform via their smartphone will account for a greater share of overall time spent online across all devices. Categories like mobile social usage will be the drivers and beneficiaries of this trend.

Source: eMarketer

Online Hispanics Make Time for Social Networks

2012-11-06T15:35:48Z

Hispanics are active social networkers, but guarded about what they share

Although Hispanics overall post lower-than-average social networking penetration, online US Hispanics are social mavens. For them, the sites occupy an outsized place in their digital lives, according to a new eMarketer report, “US Hispanics and Social Networking: A Digital Space They Make Their Own.” In an Anglocentric online universe that pays comparatively little heed to Hispanic interests, social networks provide a congenial space.

eMarketer estimates that 68.5% of Hispanic internet users will go to social sites from any device at least once a month this year. That’s several percentage points higher than the figure for all internet users.

As important as the sheer number of Hispanics on social networks is, the prominence of those networks in their overall digital usage may be even more telling. Polling by comScore in March 2012 for a Terra Networks report found online Hispanics averaging 4.0 hours per week on social networks, vs. 3.7 hours for online non-Hispanics.

Online Hispanics’ above-average time spent social networking is particularly striking when one adds a bit of context: The same study found them spending nearly three hours less per week than non-Hispanics using the internet across all screens (8.7 hours vs. 11.6). Putting all of these numbers together, it’s evident that social networking plays an outsized role in Hispanics’ overall digital lives.

While employing social networks for an array of purposes, Hispanics are not indiscriminate about what they’re willing to post there. A uSamp survey in February 2012 asked what types of information respondents were “willing to share in a social media setting.” Hispanics were markedly more guarded about sharing occupation, personal photos and other things that are common currency on social sites. Still, two-thirds said they were willing to share “race/ethnicity” on social sites, a factor that could make it easier for marketers to target them with Hispanic-specific content.

Source: eMarketer

Ethnodynamics: Understanding the Principles to Multicultural Marketing.

2012-08-24T17:01:53Z

By Yahoo! and Mindshare

Multicultural marketing has become an important priority for leading brands today, and with good reason. Ethnic minorities now represent $2.5 trillion in buying power, and that number continues to grow. In fact, the Hispanic and Asian populations within the US have experienced a 43% increase since 2000. Additionally, 7 in 10 ethnic minorities state that ethnicity is a significant part of their identity.

Below you will find four downloads that offer insights:

Hispanic Webinar presentation by Yahoo, CLICK HERE.

Multicultural Video Consumption by Mode of Delivery.

2012-08-24T16:53:21Z

By Felipe Korzenny, Ph.D.

How is the amount of time spent watching video divided among streaming, DVD's, and broadcast/satellite/cable among the different cultural groups in the US? Here we present some of the data collected by Research Now for the Florida State University Multicultural Marketing study of 2012 that answers that question.

We asked our online sample of respondents to tell us “in an average week, approximately how many hours do you spend...?” for multiple activities. The respondents were divided into those born in the US and those born abroad because that could have an impact on the language they select for their video exposure.

Distribution of the sample can be seen in Chart # 1 details the number of weekly hours spent watching streamed videos by different cultural groups. As can be seen streaming is most popular among Hispanics and Asians not born in the US and least among non-Hispanic Whites. Asians not born in the US report more than five hours per week watching these videos, followed by Latinos not born in the US with almost five hours per week. It may be that these groups, because of their bilingualism add more content to their routines.

Distribution of the samplel can be seen in Chart # 2, watching rented DVD's presents a similar pattern, but the number of hours allocated to this video delivery mode is lower and Hispanics born abroad have the highest tendency to rent DVD's. In general, Hispanics and Asians are generally more likely to rent DVD's than anyone else. Perhaps the heritage of countries of origin and the availability of certain types of content account for these differences.

Distribution of the sample can be seen in Chart # 3, Watching TV via broadcast, cable, and satellite is still the dominant mode of video consumption.

Distribution of the sample can be seen in Chart # 4, It is interesting to note, however, that those more likely to stream and rent are those less likely to watch TV in more traditional ways. Asians and Hispanics are less likely to watch broadcast than their African American and non-Hispanic White counterparts.

These results imply that changes in video watching routines vary by cultural group and by place of birth, with the obvious implication for language preferences. Video providers like Netflix and Hulu that favor streaming are likely to be more attractive to Hispanics and Asians, particularly those born abroad. Traditional video providers like Comcast, Dish Network, and broadcast may do well in anticipating the transition that is taking place by putting more of their content online, in particular if they wish to survive in a much more competitive environment. In this new environment emerging culturally diverse groups appear to be taking the lead in enjoying newer modes of delivery.

Cable and satellite companies may not only want to make their content available online but also they may want to reconsider how subscribers buy their content. The greater ability to choose provided by streaming and the fading DVD's mode is not as available in cable and satellite since these companies require the purchases of large bundles of programming.

All in all, the competitive world of online video delivery seems to be hot and worthy of much attention.

The data for this study was collected by Research Now of Dallas, Texas, thanks to the generous initiative of Ms. Melanie Courtright. Research Now contributed these data to the research efforts of the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University.

3 brands that lost – and won back – Latinos.

2012-08-24T16:43:39Z

By Dita Quiñones

So what's all this hype about Latinos being the second-largest demographic in population and online consumption patterns in the U.S.? Does it make marketers salivate to plot online marketing campaigns for Latinos? And if so, why have efforts been so dismal? Assumption: Marketers think Latinos will make a purchase no matter who is selling the product; after all, they have to buy -- stop right there. Bad assumption.

The 2011 IAB report "U.S. Latino Online: A Driving Force" found that more than half of U.S. Latinos prefer marketers to make a strong connection with their culture by relaying the message in this order of languages: Spanish, Spanglish, and then English.

The IAB also found that U.S. Latinos spend more time online than non-Hispanic whites, and that 61 percent of Hispanics made online purchases and spent an average of $746, which isn't far behind the total internet population at 72 percent, spending an average of $851.

With that said, it's surprising that marketers aren't more interested in targeting ads to the U.S. Latino demographic. In most cases, ads are targeted instead to the non-Hispanic white population before any other group.

"Behavioral targeting is an under-addressed area with Latinos," Andy Hasselwander, VP products and research for Latinum Network, said. "This area is lagging behind [the]general market by at least a couple years, and it's another big opportunity for marketers moving forward."

But to the credit of three legacy brands, some noticeable efforts to connect with U.S. Latinos have finally been achieved, although not without their fair share of PR fiascos, lack of engagement, low sales, and boycotts before finding redemption.

Here's how they did it:

Ford got its "Fiesta" back

Blunder: Forgetting -- and even worse, not knowing -- who its customer base was cost Ford (America's pioneer and once go-to automaker) a sales plunge of 30 percent, not to mention losing customers to competing foreign carmakers such as Honda, Toyota, and Nissan.

It was this sales slump that forced Ford into a marketing restructure -- most importantly, it had to get to know its true consumer, the largest purchaser of small cars: 18-24 year-old Latinos and African-Americans.

Making things right: Ford took a look at its car line and revived the Fiesta model (which hadn't been seen on the streets for 32 years) and developed a multicultural ad campaign: "Ready Pa' Tu Mundo" -- this time using social media, viral video, mobile advertising, and a banging website to connect with its young bilingual Latino audience. Even more specifically, Ford created a campaign that embodied true urban flair, tech-savvy, and bilingualism.

How to Keep Up with Hyper-Connected Consumers.

2012-08-24T16:36:25Z

By Jennifer Marlo

The convergence of social, local, and mobile has radically changed consumer needs and expectations. Here's how smart brands are turning this mass disrupter into success.

Change can be both bad and good. On one hand, change marks the death of old ideas -- it renders what was once the pinnacle of innovation obsolete. On the other hand, change allows for the birth of new concepts and technologies, thereby opening up new avenues.

Kenny Tomlin, founder and CEO of Rockfish, tackled this topic during his keynote address at the iMedia Agency Summit in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Tomlin opened with a real-life allegory -- the creation of the Sears and Roebuck Company. Richard Sears started out as the proprietor of a train station in the late 19th century. During that time, the pacific railroad was celebrated as one of America's biggest technological innovations.

One day, Sears accepted a shipment of watches that had been rejected by a local jeweler. Capitalizing on the fact that the U.S. had just inaugurated national time zones, Sears decided to sell the watches, which became wildly popular with consumers who now viewed keeping time as a sign of social sophistication.

Sears eventually moved to Chicago where he developed his catalogue and took advantage of the new rail technology by shipping his items. That, coupled with transparent pricing (a first for Americans who primarily negotiated the prices of items) and direct language, allowed the Sears to become one of America's great entrepreneurial success stories.

Drawing parallels between past and present super-companies, Tomlin likened Richard Sears' success story to that of Amazon's Jeff Bezos.

"Both launched their companies based on innovations that happened at the infrastructure level, both launched a single product that was in high demand, both used transparent pricing, both used personalization in marketing, and both brands grew rapidly through word of mouth." Tomlin said.

So, what can we learn from this?

"Anytime there is significant innovation occurring in infrastructure that transforms how people are connected, it ultimately becomes disruptive to commerce," Tomlin said.

In other words, companies like Amazon forever change the way we do business. In order to develop new innovative applications, we must first adjust to changes that occur within the infrastructure as well as the platform.

Think of it this way: The infrastructure (railroad) and the platform (trains) allowed Sears to sell his inventory in a whole new way (application). The same can be said for Amazon -- the infrastructure (internet) and platform (browsers) allowed Bezos to sell books online (application).

"Innovation at the infrastructure level creates new channels for connecting with consumers," Tomlin said. "Innovation at the platform level creates highly valuable companies that produce an entirely new ecosystem around them, and innovation at the application level shifts consumer demands as social networks and their access to knowledge and info expands."

When speaking of SoLoMo, smartphones are the infrastructure, Facebook and Twitter are social platforms, and companies like Yelp and Foursquare are the leading local applications.

What does this mean for agency and brands? First, it means that companies can be easily displaced. According to Tomlin, there is no such thing as brand loyalty, especially when talking about innovation and technology. New businesses are constantly born, and consumers are more than happy to switch brands in the pursuit of less expensive, higher quality products. Therefore, infrastructure innovation is viewed by companies as disruptive -- brands are constantly changing their business models in the effort to stay relevant.

Most brands work at the application level. However, to stay truly relevant, brands need to innovate on the platform. For example, Wal-Mart has endeavored to buy agencies and technology companies to create a startup culture within the framework of the super-company. Wal-Mart did this because there was just too much bureaucracy at the corporate level.

Forward-thinking brands must continually innovate to remain fresh and relevant to clients. Brands must think of themselves as technology companies because, really, it's all about product, data, and technology. Would you define Amazon as just a retail company, or as a retail and technology company? Would you define Netflix as just an entertainment company or an entertainment and technology company?

Lastly, if you are a brand, it's time to start fostering relationships with agencies and startups. Brands that keep things purely in-house bottleneck ideas and stifle the flow of innovation.

Jennifer Marlo is associate editor at iMedia Connection.

Are Hispanics Really More Social in Social Media?

2012-08-24T16:26:34Z

By José Villa

We’ve all heard it before…

“Hispanics are more social.”

“Hispanics over-index on social media.”

“Hispanics are the original social networkers.

”I’m just as guilty as anyone of blindly restating these supposed truisms about Hispanic digital behavior. The countless reports published over the last few years by highly reputable research firms like BIGInsight, Pew, and Nielsen, provide plenty of data points to support these claims.

But we all know that market research and market realities are two very different things.

Although I’ve been arguably one of the biggest proponents of Hispanic social media, I’ve seen my fair share of programs not living up to the heightened expectations about Hispanic social media.

Let’s think about this issue more critically. Hispanics are more social, but what does that mean exactly? At a very basic level, it’s a comparative statement. Hispanics are more social than other groups – the general market, and/or other demographic groups. Let’s keep this simple by focusing on the differences in online social behavior between Hispanics and the non-Hispanic general market.

How are they different? Much of the data focuses on consumption levels – how much time people spend using social media. Again, let’s simplify things for the purposes of this analysis: how much time Hispanics spend on Facebook vs. their non-Hispanic counterparts. I don’t refute the assertion a typical Hispanic may spend more time on average on Facebook than a non-Hispanic, but is that really important? There is an inherent flaw in this type of analysis – it focuses on a passive consumption metric, and not on the more important interactive nature of social media. As a marketer, time spent on Facebook may be somewhat important, but not the most important behavioral metric.

Back to my simple analysis – Hispanics may spend more time on Facebook, but are they commenting, sharing, and generating content at higher levels? There is a lot less data that I’ve seen to support that claim, and some recent research that is starting to question it.

My growing skepticism about Hispanics being more social is based on years of professional and personal experience working and living with Hispanics – not least of which is my family. Now the disclaimer – the analysis that follows is not based on hard research, or statistically significant data. While my data points may be limited, they do illustrate a trend line.

Hispanics have larger families. Hispanics tend to live in communities with other Hispanics. Hispanics engage in more word-of-mouth activity and place more emphasis on the opinions and recommendations of those in their social network. I’m on board with all this.

However, there is a big conceptual jump that is made when juxtaposing this Hispanic offline behavior – within their tight knit real world social networks – onto their online behavior. Are Hispanics more likely to comment on blogs or Facebook posts than non-Hispanics? Are Hispanics more likely to create online content and/or share it than non-Hispanics? There are three fundamental problems with assuming Hispanic social behavior extends to social media.

Issue #1 – Not all (online) Hispanics are the same

One very big problem I see – particularly with the data about heavy Hispanic social media usage – is we are painting with broad brush strokes. I know from our primary research and countless anecdotal experiences that there is a big dividing line in digital behavior between unacculturated/partially-acculturated, and older (35+) Hispanics and acculturated and younger (under 34) Hispanics. Most data out there lumps all these Hispanics together, resulting in what I hypothesize are some seriously skewed samples.

Issue #2 – Culture and Psychographics

In many of the discussions I’ve been privy to about Hispanics and social media, I’ve noticed a narrative developing that Hispanics are more likely to share and “make their voices heard.” This narrative is often tied to the “Hispanics are more social” hypothesis. This is interesting, because it goes against the cultural and psychographic characteristics of many Hispanics – particularly less acculturated ones.

Less acculturated Hispanics are unlikely to raise their hands. They keep a low profile, especially those here illegally – which is more than 10 million according to many estimates. Culturally, many of us are raised in environments where we are taught not to question authority. I’ve seen this with countless clients and peers who work in education. One of the biggest challenges faced by colleges and universities is Hispanics who never ask for help, never question their grades, and just keep their head down and try to do their work. This is just one illustration, but there are numerous other examples of these very important Hispanic psychographic and cultural norms that go against the type of digital “social behavior” we ascribe to Hispanics.

Issue #3 – Sharing with Family and Friends is Different than Sharing with Brands and the Public

Hispanics may be more social with each other, among family and friends, but are they more social with brands and the public? This is an important distinction often lost with all the buzz over Hispanic social media. This relates to the cultural and psychographic norms described above – a large swath of Hispanics, who are very social offline within their social networks, are not culturally comfortable with announcing their preferences, points of view, and experiences with brands and the public online.

I can’t be alone in my skepticism. Veteran Hispanic marketers – those who have been working in the trenches of Hispanic marketing for 20+ years – must share some of my skepticism. Let me know your thoughts, especially if you disagree, because lack of comments on this blog only reinforces my position.(an edited version of this article originally ran on MediaPost’s Engage Hispanic blog on August 2, 2012)Excerpted from thinkmulticultural.com

The Power of the African-American Consumer.

2012-08-24T16:15:21Z

Excerpted from a Nielsen Report dated September 22, 2011

African-Americans’ buying power is expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2015, according to The State of the African-American Consumer from Nielsen and the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a federation of more than 200 Black community newspapers across the U.S. This growing economic potential presents an opportunity for Fortune 500 companies to examine and further understand this important, flourishing market segment. Likewise, when consumers are more aware of their buying power, it can help them make informed decisions about the companies they choose to support.

“Too often, companies don’t realize the inherent differences of our community, are not aware of the market size impact and have not optimized efforts to develop messages beyond those that coincide with Black History Month,” said Cloves Campbell, chairman, NNPA.

Report Highlights

With a buying power of nearly $1 trillion annually, if African-Americans were a country, they’d be the 16th largest country in the world.
The number of African-American households earning $75,000 or higher grew by almost 64%, a rate close to 12% greater than the change in the overall population’s earning between 2000 and 2009.
This continued growth in affluence, social influence and household income will continue to impact the community’s economic power.
African-Americans make more shopping trips than all other groups, but spend less money per trip.
African-Americans in higher income brackets, also spend 300% more in higher-end retail grocers more than any other high income household.
There were 23.9 million active African-American Internet users in July 2011 – 76% of whom visited a social networking/blog site.
33% of all African-Americans own a smartphone.
African-Americans use more than double the amount of mobile phone voice minutes compared to Whites – 1,298 minutes a month vs. 606.
The percentage of African-Americans attending college or earning a degree has increased to 44% for men and 53% for women.
Find out more by downloading the free report: The State of the African-American Consumer.

For more insights, download Nielsen reports and webinars