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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.
Thu, May 28, 2009
Just about every marketing plan ever created for a Broadway show put the 35 – 54 year old mom as the primary target market. Here’s a really informative article that dives into this demographic by looking at what is labeled the ‘Power Mom’ - women between the ages of 25 and 54 with at least one child and who participate regularly in online activities. These women currently represent 19.2% of the active internet population in the US and have significant online influence that continues to grow, according to a new study from Nielsen Online.
Here's an excerpt from the story...
Nielsen found that the group it labels Established Moms - those between ages 40 and 50 with three or more children at home - are heavy online shoppers. “Established Moms gravitate to online shopping destinations where they are likely to be receptive to highly relevant promotions to allow her to indulge herself while saving on her family’s needs,” said Jessica Hogue, research director, Nielsen Online. “However, marketers shouldn’t rule out the rising prominence of social networking sites among this cohort, which is one of the fastest growing demographics on Facebook.”
Top sites visited by Newbie Moms - more recent mothers between ages 25 and 34 with one or two children in the home - include several social networking destinations. Newbie Moms are more than twice as likely as the average web user to visit Blogger, and 85% more likely to visit Facebook, Nielsen said. “For Newbie Moms social networking is literally woven into their day-to-day existence,” said Hogue. “Newbie Moms use the internet to gather information about everything from nursery décor to choosing the right pediatrician. As they navigate caring for a newborn, returning to work or managing a growing household, the internet acts as a lifeline to answer worrisome middle-of-the-night questions and to build community.”
There is so much great information in this article, so be sure to read it in its entirety.
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.
Mon, February 25, 2008
2007 will go down as the year women tipped the scale to become the majority with more than 50% of online users. That’s fantastic news for theater marketers! Here is a great breakdown of ‘what women want’ online from an article recently published in Advertising age. The results may surprise you.
For example, 54% of women shopped online in the first half of 2007 and guess what they bought? Travel ranked first (who knew!). Or, that 45 million moms go online daily and spend an average of 85 minutes there.
From researching parenting tips to preferences watching online video, this story offers some interesting insight and statistics to a very important market segment we are all most often targeting.
Read On
Sun, February 24, 2008
Here's an interesting new initiative coming out of Las Vegas. Based on a similar model to Facebook and MySpace, "MyVegas gives tourists a virtual meeting place where they and their friends can choose a hotel, buy tickets to events and interact with other visitors. But unlike other social networking sites, MyVegas actually encourages its members to pretend to be something or someone they are not."
Create a phony name like "D-Money McBlackJack", upload a profile picture and interact with other members under your imaginary identity. According to the agency behind the project, "The inspiration behind this is that people have their real personality, and their Vegas personality. Traditional social networks push a bit more true-to-life representation of who you are. But MyVegas is all about representing who you want to be when you go to Vegas."
I get what they are aiming for but I'm torn on whether or not this has staying power.
As a trip planning tool - I think this could be very successful. It gives people a way to engage and organize their party in a fun, vegas-like way. But, as a true social networking site for connecting travelers in the market, I'm a huge skeptic for one basic reason - social networking is built on true connections in a real community. The whole premise of this campaign is the complete opposite - fake identities which create a fake community, no? Maybe I'm wrong - we'll have to wait and see. I do love the progressive thinking with this campaign. Even if it doesn't work, they will learn more about the Las Vegas traveler which is often a moving target.
Would love to hear what you think - email me.
Read On
Sun, November 19, 2006
Here’s something you probably didn’t know about YouTube – over 50% of US YouTube users are over the age of 35. That’s if you believe three research reports from firms including Nielsen/NetrRatings, comScore and Quantcast. I think the point they are trying to make is that despite the media positioning of YouTube, the online video sharing phenomenon is not just driven by kids.
Click here to learn more.
Sun, March 12, 2006
"Contrary to public perception, it's not just 'college kids' or 'bleeding edge' Internet users who are streaming videos," said Erin Hunter on behalf of a group that conducted a study surrounding online video usage. "This creates a fantastic opportunity for advertisers to capitalize on what is now a mainstream audience."
With additional reports showing over 1/2 of Internet users accessing streaming video online, the writing is on the wall - online video is surging.
Now, for the theater industry, the use of online video content is not so easy to implement.
It's so hard to express the true power and size of Broadway on a little window in a web browser. The amazing sets, costumes and sound design is simply not given its true justice through a computer screen.
We are recommending clients to shift more towards 'making of' content and 'behind-the-scenes' footage rather than showing video of the actual production. (Hats off to Broadway.com who has done a great job on developing this type of content.)
The new study found that people between the ages of 35 and 54 accounted for nearly half (45 percent) of online video viewed.
Click here to read more about the new study.
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.
Wed, December 07, 2005
If your target market skews slightly younger than the traditional Broadway theatergoer, then you should consider using video in your online marketing campaigns.
"Putting to rest the idea that only youngsters watch online video, a new study find that people between the ages of 35 and 54 accounted for nearly half (45 percent) of the online video viewed in August."
Click here to read more from the study.
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