My 15 Minutes of Fame: IPSOS

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Social Media, Mobile Marketing Use Rises Among Small Businesses

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Facebook and mobile websites are a growing focus of small businesses, though overall marketing spend remains flat year-over-year.

Small businesses are focusing more of their budgets on websites and other Web properties, such as social networks and mobile optimized sites, according to research firm BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor, an ongoing tracking survey of small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) conducted with research partner Ipsos. The report found SMBs are spending, on average, $1,190 in these media and marketing areas during the previous 12 months, up from up from $876 in the report conducted during the fourth quarter of 2011.

Small businesses are also turning more to mobile platforms and the advertising and promotion formats that ride on them. In the latest survey, 14.7 percent of respondents reported having a mobile website, with another 22 percent saying they intend to add one within the next 12 months. That figure represents a healthy rise in the percentage of SMBs that reported having a mobile website during the Q4 2011 survey (8.7 percent).

“While total annual spending on advertising and promotion remained flat at around $3,000 for the previous 12 months, SMBs are locating more of their marketing dollars to digital presence assets,” BIA/Kelsey director of research Steve Marshall said in a statement.

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Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Study: 90 Percent Use Multiple Screens During The Same Day

We’re living in a multiscreen world. Like arboreal monkeys in the rain forest, swinging from tree to tree, consumers now move between various screens throughout the day.

They start on smartphones, advance to the PC and perhaps finish tasks on tablets. They watch TV and search on what they’re seeing. They go back to their smartphones the next day and the process continues.

It’s a world that’s increasingly complex for marketers to follow. And the PC promise of clear attribution almost totally breaks down in this new multiscreen environment.

Google and IPSOS are the latest to try and get a handle on the new, more elusive mobile consumer. In a piece of research released earlier this week, Google and IPSOS reported that 90 percent of consumers now move “sequentially” between different screens the same day. The study was conducted in the second quarter this year with just over 1,600 US adults.

Study participants were asked to record their screen-usage behavior in diaries and then were given a survey as well. In all nearly 8,000 hours of media/screen activity were documented.

In addition to “sequential” screen usage (e.g., smartphone–>PC–>tablet) the study documented “simultaneous” screen usage (TV + smartphone, PC + smartphone, TV + laptop). In this latter media scenario smartphones were the most common “second screen.”

While TV still commands the most time spent of any media channel, consumers are no longer paying full attention (if they ever were). According to the study, “77 percent of TV viewers use another device at the same time in a typical day.” Paradoxically, however, TV programs and advertising were found to be “a major catalyst for search.” A majority of that search behavior took place on smartphones.

At a minimum, all TV advertisers need mobile optimized websites that are consistent with TV promotions. Furthermore, TV advertisers now should also be buying mobile search ads that mirror their campaigns.

Google reported that consumers had preferred screens for certain kinds of activities (e.g., tablets “for shopping and travel planning”); however they also tended to consult “the screen that’s closest.” Most often that turns out to be the smartphone.