How do young consumers listen to music?

While streaming music online is growing more popular among consumers, it’s easy to forget that traditional radio still has a strong footprint in the media market. According to eMarketer, the research company The NPD Group conducted a survey over 4^th quarter 2012 on the music listening of US consumers between the ages of 13 and 35.

Results showed that the terrestrial radio still lead as the primary method, by a small margin, to listen to music.

24% listened to radio primarily

23% listened to internet radio primarily

15% listened to digital files primarily

CDs and Satellite radio both had less than 10% of responders, 9% and 5% respectively, chose it as a primary method of listening to music.

Another find was that the car is still the main place where the majority of those surveyed listen to most music. A good reason is that listeners are able to use multiple devices in the car like the radio, smartphones, mp3 players, and in-car infotainment systems.

How does this affect advertisers? Consumers want music, and they want it their way. Whether it’s from their preferred radio station, favorite playlist, new CD, or online streaming, people are going to access the music. Therefore, advertisers will need to really understand their customer and be able to reach them on various music platforms at the same time. There is no need to pull money out of traditional radio; listeners are still listening. Instead, online streaming vendors may need to be evaluated as a radio station and included in the overall buy in order to reach the desired audience.

Cinema advertising network to roll out new consumer interactive products in 2013

National CineMedia (NCM) has changed up a few advertising tactics in order to increase total revenue spend according to MediaPost.

As one of the largest cinema advertising networks in America, the vendor has begun the process of phasing out the Fathom Business Events operations. With events revenue fading out, NCM will invest in new products in order to increase total revenue.

One new product will be an interactive video display called a “Monster Wall.” The wall will be approximately 8 feet by 10 feet and encourage people to interact with it by way of game and entertainment content. “Monster Wall” will also house interactive advertising content for moviegoers, which will give advertisers another way of reaching potential consumers. So far, it’s being tested in large markets. Should it be deemed successful, it will be dispersed across the network’s other theaters.

Another initiative rolling out later this year is FirstLook Sync, which is a second-screen capability with smartphones. The idea is to have movie audiences interact with the movie content through this technology.

With all of the upcoming changes this year, NCM is estimating a 1-4% increase in total revenue compared to 2012. 

Half of online video shares happen within the first three weeks of publishing

As advertisers are more regularly running video advertisements online, it leads to the question, how will an advertiser know if this is successful? At this point, there is a two-pronged answer. The first is recording how often the video is watched in its entirety, versus being skipped. The second is watching to see if the video goes viral with social-sharing. Unruly Media Inc., a video technology company, recently researched the process of video sharing on social websites worldwide.

According to e-Marketer, the top categories that received the most shares were entertainment and fast-moving consumer goods and consumer products category. The smallest amount of shares was from the finance category.

Research also discovered the timeline in which most shares were performed. Unruly Media pulled information from the top 200 most shared videos in 2012. It found that:

10% of shares happened on the second day the video was available

25% of shares happened within the first three days

50% of shares happened over the first three weeks

66% of shares happened within the first three months

Overall, this can show advertisers the importance of making video available to the masses and making it relevant enough to share.

Does heavy media consumption negatively affect other media?

If a consumer is a heavy user with one media platform, does that mean that they will consume less from another? Not necessarily, according to a study from Edison Research and Arbitron.

The Center for Media Research recently released results from a study that tracked media use consumption. The three top reaching media platforms are radio, online and TV, and the study focused on its heavy user habits. On average, persons 12+ consume 3:33 hours of television a day, 2:38 hours of the internet, and 2:04 hours of radio.

Results reflected that heavy online users spent about seven hours per day on the internet. By contrast, these heavy users consumed the average amount of TV at 3:35 hours and radio at 2:07 hours. Meaning, the steep skew towards online media consumption did not directly affect other media habits.

The trend continued with heavy TV users. This group averaged about 8:16 hours a day watching TV compared to 2:52 hours being online, and 2:12 hours listening to radio. All media was above the national averages.

Lastly, the heavy radio users spent about 6:23 hours listening, 3:31 hours watching TV, and 3:00 being online.

In conclusion, the study mentioned that the average time spent will all three media is 8:15 hours. This is up from the 7:03 hours average ten years ago. That being said, it leads one to believe that there is some media usage overlap to account for the increased consumption.

Which is easier to read- print, tablet or e-reader?

What difference does it make whether one media is easier to read than another? It can make a big difference if you want someone to read something long enough to see your advertisement. Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany recently did a study to see which print form, print, tablets, or e-readers, are easiest to read.

According to MediaPost, the study divided the research participants into two groups with one being between the ages of 21-34, and the other being 60+. While the groups read from print, tablets and e-readers, researchers were tracking eye movement and brain activity. This was done to determine how much neural power is needed to read the same text but in different formats.

Results showed that there wasn’t much variance between reading formats for the younger-skewing group. However, the older-skewing group did have some differences. This group, on average, read text on an iPad tablet three or four seconds faster than the other forms. Also, when reading the iPad, the same group showed lower level of brain activity. Meaning, it was easier to read than print and e-readers. Researchers reasoned this could be because of the tablet computers’ backlit screens, which can make text stand out more from the page.

Overall, how can advertisers use this to their advantage? It would be extreme to cut out all advertising in print and e-readers all together if the goal is to reach the older-skewing demographic. Instead, it would be recommended to maintain coverage in existing media and possibly expand into other media forms like the iPad.

Is television reaching an older audience?

With broadcast television, some networks skew younger than others, but how exactly are they ranking? From looking at the first two weeks of the fall 2012 season, it appears that most networks are growing older.

According to MediaPost, most of the median ages increased from the year prior:

·       CBS: Median age of 57.8 years; 55.3 in 2011.

·       ABC: Median age of 55.3 years; 53.4 in 2011.

·       NBC: Median age of 47.8 years; 48.7 in 2011.

·       Fox: Median age of 43.3 years; 41.8 in 2011.

·       CW: Median age of 40.9 years; 36.6 in 2011.

·       Univision: Median age of 40.4 years; 36.8 in 2011.

What does this information tell us? First of all, the data was pulled from the initial two weeks of the fall season. Therefore, it may have leveled out throughout the season. However, it does still show a trend towards an older audience.

It’s up to advertisers to figure out how best to reach their audience. For example, if the desired consumer is younger, look at younger skewing networks or look at younger skewing programming within all networks. Just because the median is slightly older, doesn’t mean that the younger audience has left. It simply means that the active audience is staying with certain programs and networks in spite of the fact they are getting older.

FXX to launch this fall to a younger demographic

In recent TV upfronts, the Fox cable group announced plans to launch a new cable channel this September. Already running FX, the new sister channel will be called FXX.

According to MediaPost, FXX will target a younger skewing audience of people 18-34. In order to help bolster interest, two successful FX programs, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “The League” will move to FXX. In addition, two original comedies, and a late-night show will be added to the programming. Eventually, the new channel hopes to expand to original dramas. The cable group intends to reach a distribution of 74 million homes within the first year.

With this addition, the Fox cable group will be able to reach the majority of the demographics with FXX reaching the younger audience of adults 18-34, FX reaching the young to middle aged adults 18-49, and the Fox Movie Channel, FXM, reaching the older audience of adults 25-54.

Advertisers will need to keep an eye on the new channel to see if the programming has enough leg to make it a success. In theory, this could be a new option to reach a young adult audience.