Convertro has launched a new platform that it says will provide marketers with real-time metrics to measure the performance of television advertising and its impact on online channels. “In measuring the performance of any marketing campaign, our tools [provide] insights not only about the success of the campaign, but also whether it was more effective within a particular segment of users, on- or offline. We then leverage this data to quickly deploy campaign changes that result in increased leads, revenue, profit and spend levels across marketing channels,” says CEO Jeff Zwelling. This new system gives advertisers the ability to accurately measure and quantify ROI, revenues and true profits from television advertising campaigns, as well as their impact on online channels, with consistent measurement.”
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Hulu Delivers Record High Number of Ad Impressions
The February 2012 comScore’s Video Metrix report shows that 179 million U.S. internet users watched nearly 38 billion online videos during the month.
As usual, Google, thanks to YouTube, ranked as the top online video content property with 147.4 million unique viewers. It was followed by Yahoo!, VEVO, Facebook and Viacom Digital. In terms of number of video views and average minutes per viewer, Google (16.7 billion/418.2 minutes) and Hulu (951 million/226.5 minutes) held down the top two spots in each category.
The report also finds that Americans viewed 7.5 billion video ads in February, with Hulu delivering a record-high number of video ad impressions at more than 1.5 billion. Google came in second with 1.1 billion video ads during the month. Adap.tv, BrightRoll Video Network and Specific Media rounded out the top five.
NPD Predicts Rapid Hybrid TV Growth
According to a new forecast from NPD In-Stat, 100 million households will actively use a “hybrid” service that combines the web and TV experiences delivered to their TV set by 2016. “The next step in the viewing experience will be for TV sets and set-top boxes to permit all of the traditional TV-related services, which is then expanded and enhanced by bringing in content from the internet, or from internet-like web services that provide a ‘walled garden’ of authorized content and on-screen features,” said Gerry Kaufhold, Research Director. Alongside web-based content coming to TV screens, Kaufhold said that NPD In-Stat expects nearly 80 million households to be actively using TV apps from a service provider by 2016. Among the findings:
Personal computers are still the primary display device for viewing videos from the web.
North America is the early leader for hybrid TV households, but the U.K., France and Germany are rapidly growing.
Facebook to offer Real-Time Insights
Facebook will begin offering brands real-time Page Insights, allowing the companies to have a quicker, and therefore better, understanding of how their pages and posts are performing on the social network, reports AdAge Digital. Other features of Insights include the ability to download “1,000 additional columns of data,” for metrics such as number of video views in the past week, or number of clicks on photos over the past month and more. Additionally, down the road, Facebook’s Product Manager David Baser tells AdAge Digital that the company is testing out a tool that would help brands understand how effective paid ad campaigns are in driving user engagement on their Facebook pages.
Intel: The New Cable TV
Intel is considering its own online pay-TV service for U.S. consumers.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Intel has been pitching media companies on a plan to create a “virtual cable operator” that would offer U.S. TV channels nationwide over the Internet in a bundle similar to subscriptions sold by cable- and satellite-TV operators. Intel wouldn’t provide Internet access, which subscribers would obtain separately.
In its presentations to media companies, Intel says it is making its own set-top box to carry the TV service, and it has demonstrated an interface for users to browse programs.
Intel plans to launch a service by the end of 2012, though it faces hurdles such as scarce bandwidth and the high price of TV programming.
The new effort would mark a big shift for Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini, who has made clear his determination to move the company beyond the computer industry. Those efforts so far have include a series of TV-related businesses that have largely failed to gain traction.
Intel’s maneuvers come as the broader television business undergoes a major shift, with people spending more time watching video on the Internet and mobile devices.
Several technology and electronics companies have considered offerings that would use the Internet to deliver bundles of live or on-demand TV channels. In recent months, Sony Corp. and Dish Network Corp. have held exploratory talks about creating such services. Others, including Google, Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
A virtual cable service could theoretically offer smaller or cheaper bundles than traditional cable subscriptions. Intel, for instance, has talked about offering, say, 50 channels, rather than 150, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. But media companies are likely to resist such shifts, at least initially, because they make money by selling big bundles of channels via cable operators.
Internet bandwidth could be another problem. Some tech companies have retreated from plans to become virtual cable operators in part because of an inability to guarantee enough bandwidth for high-quality video at all times of day, one media executive said. Cable operators, which also sell high-speed Internet access, could shift to usage-based Internet pricing if more people start consuming their video online. If that happened, consumers watching a lot of online video could end up paying much more for Internet access—cutting into what a virtual cable operator could reasonably charge its subscribers for a package of channels.
A third issue could be many existing TV channels’ lack of Internet rights to all of their own shows. That would mean some channels on a service like the one Intel is proposing could be reduced, at least initially, to a selection of shows in an on-demand format, rather than live. That could make a Web offering less competitive.
TV Advertising Surges while Traditional Ad Spending Declines
Ad spending on network television surged last quarter while other traditional media and digital outlets were hit by year-end belt tightening, according to a study issued Monday, one of several this week that will dissect the health of the 2011 advertising market.
The figures may validate a cautious optimism by network execs so far this year even as the latest Q4 and full-year 2011 stats from ad tracking firm Kantar Media shows a fuzzy overall picture for total U.S. ad spending.
Network TV saw spending jump 7.7% in the last three months of the year. However, total U.S. ad spend dipped 1%, the first quarterly decline since the end of 2009. Overall growth has declined for five consecutive quarters since a post-recession peak in the third quarter of 2010 — notnot the kind of numbers showbizzers want to see as the summer upfront advertising selling season approaches.
Broadcast networks were helped by strong pricing for football, a World Series that went to seven games, and the launch of “The X Factor” on Fox, Kantar said.
Spanish language television was on fire — up 19% in the quarter and 8.3% for the year.
Cable growth slowed to 2.4% as higher demand from restaurants and retailers was offset by cuts in consumer packaged goods.
The figures were flipped for the full year when network TV fell 2% and cable rose 7.7%.
Spending on so-called mature digital media formats fell in the fourth quarter with paid search budgets down 6.4% year-on-year and display spending down 5.9%. It’s a move that “bears watching as 2012 unfolds,” said Jon Swallen, senior veep of research at Kantar North America. He questioned whether it was a one-off event or a sign of digital dollars moving toward emerging, unmeasured digital platforms.
Search was hit by lower financial, insurance and local service advertisers, and display was hampered by reduced coin from automakers, telecom providers and the travel biz. For the full year, paid search declined 2.8% and display rose 5.5%.
Syndication, benefitting from higher spending by department stores and health and beauty brands, saw spending soar 11% percent in the fourth quarter and 15.4% for the year.
Spending on local TV fell 8.7% in the fourth quarter despite easy comps in November and December against diminished post-election volume of a year ago. It was down 4.5% for the year.
Consumer magazines, flat year-on-year, took a hit in the fourth quarter, falling 5.2% on cuts in auto, food and pharmaceutical advertising.
Local newspaper ad spend fell about 3.9% for the quarter and the year.
Local radio was down 3.8% for the quarter. National spot radio plummeted 13.9% on reduced outlay from telecom, financial service and autos. Network radio spending was up 4.3% for the quarter and 2.7% for the year.
Procter & Gamble was the top advertiser for the ninth year running with spending of about $3 billion, down 5.4%. P&G’s 2011 budget saw share gains for magazines at the expense of TV, Kantar said.
AT&T, the second largest advertiser at $1.9 billion, spent nearly 12% less after an aborted takeover of T-Mobile.
Verizon Communications was also down about 12% for the year at $1.6 billion, although spending was up in the fourth quarter.
Of the top 10 advertisers, Chrysler’s spending rose 36% to $1.2 billion.
In contrast, General Motors spent 16% less for the year and 25% less for the quarter.
Among media advertisers, Comcast’s spending rose 11% to $1.6 billion; Time Warner was up 5.8% to $1.3 billion; News Corp. spending dropped 14% to $1,17 billion.
eBay Enters SocialTV Market
Watch With eBay, a feature within eBay’s iPad app that allows users to shop for products related to a TV show they’re watching at that time, will become its own standalone free iPad app. The app lets users enter their zip code, cable provider, channel and TV program they’re watching, and also offers a channel guide, in order to help users search for relevant products and merchandise available on eBay. Other features include the ability to filter out keywords to refine the search process. Another is “eBay Celebrity,” which pulls up featured celebrities’ product recommendations, and presents the option of donating to their chosen charity. TechCrunch reports that some celebrities will also interact with users by way of original content, videos and message boards.
Smartphones now outnumber dumb phones
Smartphone owners in the U.S. now outnumber their fellow Americans that own a mobile phone that isn’t a smartphone, according to new data from Pew Research. 46% of Americans own a smartphone as of February 2012, marking an 11% jump from the 35% who reported owning such a device in May 2011; meanwhile, only 41% of Americans own a mobile phone that is not a smartphone.
Mobile Video Experiencing Explosive Growth
Mobile video advertising is experiencing “explosive” growth according to Rhythm NewMedia’s Insights Report for the fourth quarter of 2011, which found that 93% of advertising campaigns with Rhythm in Q4 included some form of video advertising.
The report also noticed a trend that consumers seem to respond better to ads during the holiday season; Video ads featuring seasonal creative had a 92.1% completion rate, while engagement with full-page ads and banners jumped 33% and 10%, respectively, over Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Among the other data in the report, Rhythm found that in-stream mobile video ads saw an 89.1% completion rate, outperforming its online counterpart, with completion rates being high for 15-second (89.2%) and 30-second ads (88.3%) within premium content.
Taking a look at in-stream advertising within the two preeminent mobile operating systems, the completion rate for Android (92%) was slightly above that of iOS (87%).
Online TV Viewing Becoming a Must-Have for TV Networks.
The availability of TV programming online has gone from being a nice-to-have to an expect-to-see option in the minds of most Americans, raising major implications for networks and potential new opportunities for advertisers, according to the most recent installment of an ongoing tracking study of the Internet’s effect on TV viewing. Knowledge Networks’ annual “TV Web Connections” report shows that over the past four years Americans have shifted from thinking of online viewing as a novelty to an expectation.
It’s a big question for television networks, How do they monetize the digital side without cannibalizing the mother ship? The good news is that TV programmers seem to have strong demand from advertisers for their digital ad inventory — and so far, reasonable acceptance from users to view it — but the amount of ad inventory online is still a fraction of what they get with conventional television.
In the short term, television programmers can look at online access as an opportunity to expose viewers to shows they might not have otherwise seen, so there is a promotional value. Data from KN and Nielsen show that the growth in online viewing of TV programs has not hurt conventional TV viewing levels. Nielsen, recently began integrating online viewing of TV shows into its core TV ratings services, as it expects the behavior to become an increasingly important factor in total TV viewing levels.
One thing that does not yet appear to be occurring due to the availability of online access to TV shows is so-called “cord-cutting,” or people cutting their conventional TV subscription services, because they can access some or all of the same content online.
Both smartphones and tablet computers — increasingly are becoming a factor for viewing TV programs online, but the No. 1 source still is an Internet-connected personal computer.
The biggest developing factor is the shift in consumers expectations surrounding social sharing. Apps that enable consumers to share TV shows they are watching with friends have become a significant factor — and consumers increasingly expect those features too.
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