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Fri, May 29, 2009
Hype + more hype = Twitter. You hear it and see it on every news outlet and it would feel nothing short of irresponsible to not really question if Twitter is simply a byproduct of hype or if it’s really here to stay. Having spoken with the Twitter folks, I’m quite impressed with their vision and their clear success of breaking thru the clutter with a service that has piqued all of our curiosity. But aside from the hype, there is a school of thought that believes the recent Twitter wave will soon feel like the conversations we all had years back about the idea of buying real estate in Second Life – mostly hype, little reality. The following story I came across says… “According to Quantcast, 72% of Twitter visitors stop by once and don't come back. Only 1% of the Twitter audience visits daily and this group of ‘addicts’ accounts for 35% of all visits. These numbers compare unfavorably to other social networks.” The story goes on to say, “60% fail to return for a second month. This number holds true, even accounting for the websites and applications that feed into the Twitter community.” Wow.
My favorite piece of data though is…”In the March 2009 Nielsen Netview, Twitter has an index of 40 against the demographic of kids 12-17, and below-average index against full-time students. The highest indexing demographic group on Twitter is Males 35-49 (167). I question the youthfulness and hipness of any media that Sarah Palin & Senator Claire McCaskill have embraced before our interns.” LOL!
It’s easy to find coverage on how fabulous it is but I thought I would share the view of a few naysayers. Eventually a strategy for driving revenue will have to emerge and I think at that point we will begin to see a clearer path of where Twitter will land in our daily life.
Read on.
Wed, January 21, 2009
Over the past quarter, we ran a survey online that aimed to dive deeper into theatergoers’ behavior and preferences online. While there is a lot of information we took from the research, I pulled out two specific focuses of the research that I think many of you would find interesting. The first bit of information surrounds social networking and usage by website and age group. In short, is it just younger audiences connecting through social networks and which social network do they actually prefer – MySpace or Facebook? The second bit of information is on text messaging usage by age group. The real issue we were trying to understand here was do older audiences feel comfortable text messaging.
Before I share the data, here are a few important points about the survey. We had a little over 1,250 surveys completed in full. We offered no incentive for those to complete it and it ran across a variety of Broadway show websites along with email lists to past ticket buyers. The surveys were completed in October through December of 2008.
Onward with the information…
Social Networking Usage of Theatergoers
The first bit of research I wanted to share was some information we learned on the social networking front. Social networking, particularly Facebook, is a very hot topic right now and will continue to be over the next year. So, we wanted to dive in and see what actual ticket buyers are doing in the social networking space.
When we asked the 1,250 folks, “Are you part of a social networking website such as MySpace or Facebook?”, 45.3% answered “Yes” while 54.7% said “No.” Interesting, huh? Well, let’s make it a lot more interesting by looking at the age breakdown by usage.
Social Networking Usage by Age
18-24 years old (95.3%)
25-34 years old (71.1%)
35-44 years old (48%)
45-54 years old (30.5%)
55-64 years old (21%)
So, before I continue, let’s keep in mind that these percentages are most likely higher than the ‘average person’ because these people are completing the survey online (meaning they are more online savvy to begin with). With that being said, these numbers pretty much paint a direct correlation by age and usage of social networks. No major surprise to me here – but, the big question you must ask yourself is if the usage percents are high enough to justify you using investing in participating in the social nets in a way that justifies the expense. When I say expense, I mean the time, commitment and actual costs that are required to have a meaningful presence.
Finally, one more bit of research that I think you’ll find interesting on this topic. When asked which social network that they used, a whopping 83.4% said Facebook with MySpace coming in a far second at 37.6%. There was nothing even close after that and we listed at least another ten so-called popular social networking platforms.
Beware of the hype surrounding social networking – it’s the Wild West right now as there are a lot of false promises and, quite frankly, ‘scare tactics’ that your brand needs to be on Facebook. The reality is, your marketing plan and goals will determine that – not hype. Know “the what” you are getting into first and fully understand “the why” before jumping in – I’ve seen it backfire in a bad way if you don’t.
Text Messaging Usage of Theatergoers
You know my stance on mobile marketing, so I couldn’t possibly offer up some research that didn’t include data on mobile marketing. When asked, “Other than making phone calls, which of the following do you use your cell phone for?” take a look at the % of respondents by age that say they use their phone for text messaging.
Text Messaging Usage By Age
18-24 years old (92.3%)
25-34 years old (84.9%)
35-44 years old (81.3%)
45-54 years old (69.5%)
55-64 years old (52.4%)
So, it’s not just kids text messaging. The bigger question here is which mobile marketing concept/application makes the most sense for which age group. I have my hunches here based on campaign performance we’ve been seeing as of late, but want to do more research to try and support those hunches.
I hope you found this helpful. There was a lot of other interesting information we have from the survey which we will be talking about in client meetings over the coming weeks. We will have (what I think will be) even more interesting data to share next quarter as we expand our research efforts. If there are specific issues or research you would like to see from us, please don’t hesitate to send me a note. Your feedback is helpful.
Thu, February 28, 2008
This past month we were involved in the launch of a new program on Broadway aimed to target students with our friends at Columbia University and Telecharge. The idea was simple. Shows want to reach younger audiences. Universities want to offer their students discount access to Broadway shows. Students want access to discount tickets that helps fit their schedules and their budget. They want to be able to buy online and in advance. Well, in this new program all of these stars aligned. Columbia University students can now log on to the school's intranet and have access to order tickets from a range of shows on Broadway.
In just three weeks after a soft launch, approximately 400 tickets were sold to Columbia University students. At first glance, not huge numbers. But, when you consider that this is only for Columbia students and it’s only three weeks old… then, this all of sudden looks great.
Now, imagine a 25% growth in the program over the course of the year and imagine if five more universities join on to the program – we are potentially looking at 1,000+ tickets weekly sold to college students for Broadway shows. Ok, this is ambitious… but the initial sales figures we are seeing makes me believe that this is an achievable goal if we (the industry) want to make it a reality.
This is not a money maker in the short-term for anyone really but long-term, you have to believe it’s building new audiences for both theatre and live entertainment.
I’ll keep you posted over the coming months on the progress of the program. It’s just so great to see the goodwill among so many people in the industry… from the ticketing/technology customization that was done to the producers of so many great shows offering specially student priced tickets… all of which was put together so quickly.
It’s nice to see a plan come together and gives me great optimism moving forward on supporting this initiative. I’ll take any optimism I can get. :)
Wed, February 27, 2008
With the value of the dollar plummeting and with international audiences pouring in to the US, how and where we talk to international audiences is becoming more and more of a critical issue. With that said, we welcome Facebook’s new venture into helping this cause.
Facebook has just introduced a version of the site for Spanish-language speakers (2.8 million active users live in Latin America or Spain), which will serve as the first of several languages beyond English speaking that will be included in the Facebook community. According to the story, “Sixty percent of Facebook's roughly 64 million users live outside of the United States. Britain alone has 8 million active Facebook users. Canada is third most active with 7 million users and Turkey has surged to become the fourth most active Facebook nation and its biggest non-English market. Rounding out the top ten Facebook markets are Australia, France, Sweden, Norway, Columbia, and South Africa.”
This doesn’t necessarily mean to go ‘advertise’ on Facebook – it means you should try and find ways how this may help you connect with your audiences through this channel in a meaningful way. This means exploring the idea of creating a community with dialogue along with content and connections to your brand that consumers can actually relate to. Have actors communicate with fans in-language, post content in-language – each production should evaluate and try and see what their audience wants.
No matter what you do - don’t hard-sell in a social network (would you hard-sell your friends?).
For entertainment marketers trying to target international tourists, there are still many obstacles that need to be addressed – particularly, adopting the ticketing systems to be translated into different languages and to better integrate with international currencies – but, it’s clear that it’s a ‘MUST DO’ for the live entertainment industry to try and figure out.
Read On
Tue, August 07, 2007
We’ve had a lot of coverage on how teens interact with brands. The following article covers many of the trends and habits of teens but pointed out some interesting data on the role that parents play in influencing teens’ online habits.
While teenagers often have the greatest word-of-mouth influence on their peers, parents play a large role in influencing teens’ online habits, according to the study, which found that 50 percent of online tweens and teens hear about new Web sites from their parents. Fourty-four percent use Web searches to find new sites. In addition, 66 percent of teens have been on the Internet together with their parents in the past month, and 71 percent discussed the Internet with their parents. Over 90 percent of teens have one or more rules or restrictions over their Internet use in the home.
I wish the article dove a little deeper into the parent/teen relationship but it’s an interesting point to recognize that the word-of-mouth effect is not all peer-to-peer. The rest of the article is a great read that touches on other overall teen habits online.
Read On
Mon, July 09, 2007
Here's a great story by Brandweek examining the complex equation of engaging teens with brands. According to a new study, nearly half of teens surveyed said they tend to stick with a few of the brands they really like, but, 52% felt, "Brands are created by marketers just to get more money." They are a heck of a lot smarter than they are given credit for. :)
Here's three bullet points of information that I found interesting:
1) Despite being wired 24/7 with mobile devices and online communities, they feel the word "chill" best describes them (according to 40% of those surveyed). Music most defines them, according to 44% of teens, followed by family (39%) and moral values (38%).
2) Brands are so concerned about focusing on influential teens, meanwhile "parents can be the biggest influencer, especially when it comes to big-ticket items."
3) TV (per 32% of respondents) and magazine advertising (28%) still proved to be the most influential forms of media.
Read On
Wed, March 22, 2006
How do we attract younger audiences to attend theatre?
A new report sheds some very interesting light on this topic and introduces us to the 13-18 year old SuperConnector.
Take a look at what the a report by GenWorld suggests:
"Globally, teens aged 13-18 are very concerned about the world and their own future. These concerns have made them self activists, creative, and highly adaptable to emerging technologies.
Fifty-six percent of these teens are SuperConnectors according to the GenWorld study. This group has an active lifestyle and uses multiple means of connectivity at any given time. Connectivity tools at this generation's disposal include such lean-forward mechanisms as cell phones, text messaging, the Internet, e-mail, instant messaging and search engines. Even when they're taking part of lean-back media, the group finds new levels of engagement."
In short, it's a difficult task to hit this market through advertising especially on a typical Broadway budget.
Click here to read more about the very critical market that will emerge as the theatre audience of tomorrow.
Fri, February 03, 2006
The web presence of The New York Times has moved from being 'ancillary' to being 'core' according to Arthur Sulzberger Jr, Chairman and Publisher, The New York Times at a recent World Economic Forum.
Look out - that may be the code word for "raise rates" and to lower the gap between print revenue and online revenue.
It's important to note that while the print version of The New York Times still provides most of the revenue, there are actually more readers accessing the online version of the publication.
The reporters also added the following which we found interesting:
"Similarly, Sulzberger said, readers who might drift to [news] aggregators at first would always come back to the Times for quality news. The average reader of the daily version of The New York Times is 43 years old; for the Sunday version, he or she is 45. Sulzberger said that these numbers have not changed in a decade. To him this indicates that teenagers may get their content from the Internet, but when they begin to have to rely on information later in life, they go to the Times."
From an editorial standpoint we would agree with the above statement. But, they better hope their technology keeps up with the demands of the younger generation if they expect this trend to continue.
Click here to read the full story.
Sat, November 12, 2005
There is little evidence to suggest that advertising to the teen market really results in direct ticket sales. Fact is, they are a moving target and we aren't even on their radar for mulitple reasons.
So, then how do you approach this market? Try understanding "online social networking" first and you may find your answer.
Click here to read the complete story.
Wed, November 02, 2005
Focus on the Teen Market
Study conducted by Pew Internet and American Life Project
- The plain old landline telephone remains the top method of communication for teens, used by 52 percent. Instant messaging (IM) came in second at 24 percent; cell phones at 12 percent; followed by e-mail (five percent) and text messaging (three percent).
- Teens use instant messaging for more than just basic messaging. Half the respondents have included a link to an article, 45 percent said they had used IM to send a document or photo, and 31 percent sent music and video.
Click here to read the complete study.
Fri, September 30, 2005
Fact is, in the online world, teens expect customization. We have 'My Space'... 'My Yahoo'... what about MyBroadway.com (already taken by a cybersquatter)?
A new study not only boasts information we already know about rising Internet usage among the youth market, but highlights the need for advertisers to reach out to what Yahoo calls the "My Media" generation.
Click here to read the complete story.
Thu, September 08, 2005
- A recent report projects 55 percent of the total U.S. at-home users are connecting to the Internet via broadband. Keep in mind that this doesn't mean that they don't connect via alternative methods (i.e., mobile, PDA, etc.) (more)
- A student's mobile phone bill ranges from $41 to $60 per month, but 57.5 percent of students are on family plans and don't pay the bills themselves. This backs the concept of mobile (cell phone) marketing to this audience. (more)
- So, why the big increase in online ticket sales? It could be tied to the improvements in connectivity. Broadband users spend 50 percent more than dial-up users. Or, maybe it's because our audience is getting much more comfortable with the technology. (more)
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