Posted by truecreek on January 8, 2010 under More Dam News | 
You just have to appreciate great B&W photographic essays. Alfred Wertheimer was offered the opportunity of a lifetime and he definitely made the most of it. Today, using B&W imagery in your print advertising is often an outstanding way to separate your message from the crowd.
By Chris Murray
In 1956, a twenty-one-year-old Elvis Presley was at the beginning of his remarkable and unparalleled career. Photojournalist Alfred Wertheimer was asked by Presley’s new label, RCA Victor, to photograph the rising star for a one-day assignment that quickly developed into an odyssey. With unimpeded access to the young performer, Wertheimer was able to capture the unguarded and everyday moments in Elvis’ life during March and July of that year, the pivotal year that made Elvis’ career—taking him from virtual obscurity to the verge of international stardom and his crowning as “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
Wertheimer’s unobtrusive photographs of Elvis in performance, with his fans, in the recording studio, and at home with his family present a unique look at one of the world’s most famous cultural figures. These images represent the first and the last unguarded look at Elvis, and are an extraordinary portrait of a charismatic young man who would go on to become a legend.
Much more about Elvis 1956 here.
Posted by truecreek on December 30, 2009 under More Dam News |
By John Eggerton
For more than 60 years, TV stations have broadcast news, sports and entertainment for free and made their money by showing commercials. That might not work much longer.
The business model is unraveling at ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox and the local stations that carry the networks’ programming. Cable TV and the Web have fractured the audience for free TV and siphoned its ad dollars. The recession has squeezed advertising further, forcing broadcasters to accelerate their push for new revenue to pay for programming.
That will play out in living rooms across the country. The changes could mean higher cable or satellite TV bills, as the networks and local stations squeeze more fees from pay-TV providers such as Comcast and DirecTV for the right to show broadcast TV channels in their lineups.
The networks might even ditch free broadcast signals in the next few years. Instead, they could operate as cable channels — a move that could spell the end of free TV as Americans have known it since the 1940s.
“Good programming is expensive,” Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns Fox, told a shareholder meeting this fall. “It can no longer be supported solely by advertising revenues.”
More of ‘Business Model Unraveling for TV Networks’ here.
Posted by truecreek on December 24, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
The Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Project and Internet Project combined forces to write an in-depth look at Internet penetration across racial and ethnic categories in the U.S.
A summary of the major findings:
From 2006 to 2008, Internet use among Latino adults rose by 10 percentage points, from 54% to 64%. In comparison, the rates for whites rose four percentage points, and the rates for blacks rose only two percentage points during that time period. Though Latinos continue to lag behind whites, the gap in Internet use has shrunk considerably.
For Latinos, the increase in Internet use has been fueled in large part by increases in Internet use among groups that have typically had very low rates of Internet use.
· While U.S.-born Latinos experienced a two percentage point increase in Internet use from 75% in 2006 to 77% in 2008, foreign-born Latinos experienced a 12 percentage point increase during the same period, from 40% to 52%.
· In 2006, 31% of Latinos lacking a high school degree reported ever going online; in 2008, this number was 41%. In comparison, Latinos with higher levels of education experienced three to four percentage point increases in Internet use.
· Internet use among Latinos residing in households with annual incomes less than $30,000 increased 17 percentage points from 2006 to 2008. For Latinos in households earning $30,000 to $49,999 annually, Internet use increased two percentage points, and for Latinos in households earning $50,000 or more annually, there was no change in Internet use.
Read the entire survey, Internet Use Grows Fast Among Latinos, here.
Posted by truecreek on December 21, 2009 under More Dam News |
Looks like buying Walt Disney Co.’s ABC Radio stations in 2006 was an unfortunate business decision for Citadel.
By Mike Spector and Sarah McBride
Citadel Broadcasting Corp., the third-largest radio broadcaster in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy over the weekend, the latest victim of the travails facing media companies.
Citadel, which owns and operates 224 stations across the country, listed assets of about $1.4 billion and more than $2.4 billion in debt.
The company, like many print and broadcast media outfits, faces stiff competition, shifts in consumer habits and a harsh advertising climate.
More on Citadel Files for Bankruptcy here.
Posted by truecreek on December 16, 2009 under More Dam News |
This article brings up a good point that the increased usage of DVRs creates a huge problem for any advertiser whose television spot is time constrained .
By Brian Steinberg, AdAge
The ability to delay viewing of TV shows by using a digital video recorder is giving rise to noticeably different habits, according to new research from Horizon Media.
Through November 2009, 11 fall season programs were regularly “time-shifted,” or watched as many as seven days after the date of original air, by more than 3 million viewers, said Brad Adgate, the independent media-buying firm’s senior VP-research. Last year at this time, only three programs — ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” Fox’s “House” and CBS’s “CSI” — fit that bill.
The trend is cause for scrutiny among TV outlets and advertisers, because the more people who watch TV programs longer after they air, the more difficult it is to reach them with a timely ad pitch.
While futurists project one day advertisers may well be able to insert more relevant advertising into recorded programming, these days marketers remain concerned that ads for particular events — Friday-night movie openings and weekend sales at retail outlets — amount to naught when consumers watch them five or six days after they were intended to run.
Entire article, “The Most Time-Shifted Shows of the Fall Season” here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News, Research |
By David Lieberman, Associated Press
The Internet and tech toys get the headlines. But the vast majority of Americans still turn to their familiar televisions, radios, and CDs when they want to be informed and entertained, according a consumer tracking survey released Tuesday by the NPD Group.
“There’s a perception that families spending time in front of a glowing TV hearth has been replaced by glowing laptop or iPod displays,” NPD analyst Russ Cupnick says in a release. While true for some, “TV remains the top entertainment choice by far in the United States.”
More than 80% of the country watches an average of 10 hours a week of non-movie TV programming, according to the online survey of 10,281 people in August, weighted to reflect the general population.
After that:
* 78% said that they listened to music on a traditional AM/FM radio sometime during the prior week.
* 70% sent an instant message or e-mail.
* 60% listened to music on a CD.
* And 58% watched a movie on TV, not including pay-per-view or video-on-demand.
But the survey found that online is becoming an increasingly important part of the mix. Some 47% of the respondants visited a social networking site the prior week.
Read the entire survey, entitled “TV More Popular Than Internet for Entertainment” here.
Posted by truecreek on December 14, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Emily Bryson York, AdAge
Not everyone wants a value meal. And not everyone is unemployed. These insights informed an impressive year at Panera Bread Co., in which the chain outperformed much of the fast-casual category. To do so, the chain focused on quality, innovation and marketing.
“A bunch of folks have been cutting quality to cut price to go after the marginal customer,” said Exec VP-Chief Operating Officer Rick Vanzura, who added that Panera donates about $100 million in bread each year. “We said a better strategy that addresses a bigger group of people is providing better value.”
More about Panera: an America’s Hottest Brands Case Study here.
Posted by truecreek on December 10, 2009 under More Dam News |
If this software works well, it could really improve the creative process for digital media.
From Creativity.
Burt, a software development company that sprang from Crispin Porter + Bogusky Europe, has released its digital media analytics product, Rich.
Rich is aimed squarely at agency creatives and is designed as a streamlined, accessible – and free- tool for measuring the success of online campaigns.
Burt was co-founded by Gustav von Sydow and Gustav Martner of Daddy, which was acquired by CP+B this year. von Sydow was a planner at Daddy and is now working at Burt full-time; Martner is still ECD of CP+B Europe. As agency types, they say they have a greater understanding of the specific needs of creatives when it comes to these sort of tools.
Burt is making Rich available to agencies for free and, starting in January, will offer premium services like media quality audits and pre-testing for a fee.
Read more about Burt Unit Launches Analytics Tool for Creatives here.
Posted by truecreek on December 7, 2009 under More Dam News |
Gotta love Seth. We’ve been using the concept of LTPV (Lifetime Present Value) for years to help our clients determine just how much a new customer is worth. Not to mention how much you can lose when one goes out the back door.
By Seth Godin.
If you walk into a company-owned cell phone store to sign up for a contract, what are you worth?
Given the huge gross margins at AT&T and Verizon and the standard two-year contract, I think it’s easy to figure on more than $2000 in lifetime value.
If you ran a business where a customer represented an additional $2,000 in profit, how would you staff? How long would you make someone wait? If staff costs $25 an hour, how long would that extra person take to pay off?
Few businesses understand (really understand) just how much a customer is worth. Add to this the additional profit you get from a delighted customer spreading the word–it can easily double or triple the lifetime value.
So, a chiropractor might see a new patient being worth $2,500, easily. And yet… how much is she spending on courting, catering to and seducing that new customer? My guess is that $50 feels like a lot to the doc. Instead of comparing what you invest to the benefit you receive from the first bill, the first visit, the first transaction, it’s important to not only recognize but embrace the true lifetime value of one more customer.
Write it down. Post it on the wall. What would happen if you spent 100% of that amount on each of your next ten new customers? That’s more money than you have to spend right now, I know that, but what would happen? Imagine how fast you would grow, how quickly the word would spread.
Here’s how you’ll know when you’ve really embraced this–a good customer at your podiatry practice (or supermarket or tax firm) walks out the door in a huff and you turn to your partner and say, “There goes $74,000.”
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
Real moms still have unmet needs—as women and mothers. Boston Consulting Group estimates that women control $4.3 trillion of the $5.9 trillion in U.S. consumer spending, or 73% of household spending.
To reach this demographic, marketers need not just to communicate that the goods and services they offer are practical and convenient; they also need to make real moms feel confident and in charge.
Marketers should empower these female consumers to delegate to others (spouses, children,brands) so they can have more time to be who they want to be—at home, at work and on their own.
And marketers have to use new ways to reach a population that rarely has time to sit down to read or watch or enjoy something without simultaneously doing something else.
Read the entire report about marketing to moms here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
Not my cup of tea, but a whole bunch of people tuned in to see the final episode of USA’s “Monk.”
By Nellie Andreeva
“Monk” ended its eight-season run with a bang, becoming the most-watched hour-long series on basic cable.
The Friday series finale of the USA Network dramedy drew about 9.4 million viewers.
It is the largest audience and demo turnout to date, not only for the show and for a USA scripted series but also for a drama series on basic cable, eclipsing the 9.2 million mark for TNT’s “The Closer.” (“Monk’s” final tally is expected to grow further once Live+7 numbers are factored in).
It is a fitting farewell for a series that defined USA’s brand of quirky dramedies and kicked off the network’s ascension to cable-ratings supremacy.
The second part of “Monk’s” two-part closer, which saw Tony Shalhoub’s OCD-plagued detective solve the biggest case of his career — his wife’s murder — beat the series’ previous high in total viewers by 37%.
It also towered over all programs on the broadcast networks Friday night.
Boosted by “Monk,” the fall finale of USA’s freshman series “White Collar” also hit series highs, averaging 5.55 million viewers, the cable network’s best performance at 10 p.m. Friday in more than three years, since the series premiere of “Psych.”
“Collar” also posted its best numbers in adults 18-49: 2.1 million.
“What a perfect way for ‘Monk’, our first tentpole success, to finish its run — going out even stronger than it came in, and helping to launch another great show, ‘White Collar’,” said USA’s president of original programming Jeff Wachtel.
Read all about the final episode of Monk here.
Posted by truecreek on December 4, 2009 under More Dam News |
From Popsop
SABMiller Plc. have re-launched Pilsner Urquell, the original pilsner from Plzen, with new secondary packaging and can graphics by Lewis Moberly.
LM were appointed in 2008 as part of a global re-positioning of the brand. The new design reflects the high quality of the product and reasserts the rich and authentic heritage of the brand with a contemporary edge.
The new split color secondary packaging and can graphics are now a harmonious balance of a premium gold and dark green. The gold is a reminder of the wonderful golden color of the beer while green reflects the familiar green glass bottle. Secondary packaging features a water-marked, cropped graphic version of the Plzen town coat of arms highlighting the unique relationship between the brand and the city. The brewery gates feature as a graphic device on the base of the can.
Other Pilsner Urquell designs here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News, Research |
We’ve recommended Cinema advertising to our clients for years now. Executed well, it’s an effective tactic.
By Breeanna Hare, CNN
There’s an old Hollywood tale, and it goes like this: Open a female-led movie around Valentine’s Day. Watch women go in droves and drive up box office numbers.
Then let Hollywood executives call it a fluke, since everyone knows that women don’t go to movies.
Over the past few weeks, that tale has been told with a twist.
Two female-led movies have earned astronomically high box office numbers — like “third best opening weekend” high — on fall weekends typically dominated by blockbuster movies aimed at men. “New Moon,” the second film in the “Twilight” vampire series, has grossed more than $230 million since its opening, while “The Blind Side,” about a white family that takes in a homeless African-American boy, is already past the $100 million mark.
For both “Blind Side” and “New Moon,” women have made up more than half the audience. And by the time these films complete their runs, they could gross nearly $500 million each, said Gitesh Pandya, the editor of BoxOfficeGuru.com, because of a largely female audience packing theaters.
Read more about women going to the movies here.
Posted by truecreek on December 3, 2009 under More Dam News |
Be Deborah Yao.
Comcast Corp. announced Thursday it plans to buy a majority stake in NBC Universal for $13.75 billion, giving the nation’s largest cable TV operator control of the Peacock network, an array of cable channels and a major movie studio. Although the deal could mean that movies could reach cable more quickly after showing in theaters, and that TV shows could appear faster on cell phones and other devices, it was already raising concerns that Comcast would wield too much power over entertainment.
Indeed, if the deal clears regulatory and other hurdles, Comcast would rival the heft of The Walt Disney Co. – which Comcast CEO Brian Roberts already tried to buy.
Comcast, which serves a quarter of all U.S. households that pay for TV, would gain control of the NBC broadcast network, the Spanish-language Telemundo and about two dozen cable channels, including USA, Bravo, Syfy and The Weather Channel. It also would have regional sports networks, Universal Pictures and theme parks.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on December 2, 2009 under More Dam News |
From Popsop:
Heinz is going to spend more money on its marketing campaigns over the next few months to attract new shoppers and please consumers loyal to its products. The giant food company’s profits rose to $2.67 billion (2.5%) in the last quarter, and the giant believes it’s high time to adopt new approaches for gaining more popularity among customers, looking for discounts and bargains.
The company is going to spend 25-30% more in the second half of the fiscal year, and in four years the expenditures set for these purposes will comprise $130 million. Over this period the marketing investments will be greatly increased particularly in North America and Europe.
“Even though the global recession appears to be abating, there’s no question that consumer and customers remain intensely focused on value which they are more often defining as price,” comments Bill Johnson, chairman/CEO of Heinz. The new approach is going to be based around the company’s Consumer Value Program scheme involving “selective price point adjustments that are more attractive to cost conscious consumers, targeted media, increased point of purchase, in store marketing and increased new product activity,” noted Johnson.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
From Popsop:
By the end of 2020 Coca-Cola is planning to double its “Asian” revenues to $200bn in course of the next 10 years, with the developing markets of India and China being set as the major fields. The giant soft drinks maker is hoping to have at least $1 billion of annual sales from marketing its six major brands in the Celestial Empire.
The giant’s broad portfolio, which now includes a wide range of soft drinks, diary and water, helped increase Coke’s profits by annual 19% over the past five years, and the company is plotting to earn three times more by 2020. At the current moment, Coke’s sales double those of its main competitor PepsiCo. As FT reports, each average resident of China annually consumes 28 Coca-Cola items.
Coke and Sprite soft drinks already make $1bn in China on an annual basis, and Yuan Ye, the maker’s tea product, and Ice Dew, are supposed to deliver this amount of money by 2020. To win more consumers, the giant has already launched Glaceau water and Minute Maid Super Pulpy Milky in China market and is planning to introduce new products to the fast-growing market. The company has 10 years in stock, and with its high brand level and a variety of new offerings to arrive a decade will be more than enough to reach the lofty aims.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
From Popsop:
The Nike (RED) campaign was launched yesterday, December 1, in 13 countries around the world. Like Starbucks, another global brand, the sportswear maker joined the movements dedicated to fighting AIDS in Africa. All the revenues gathered from selling red football laces, with each pair costing $4.00, will be donated to the Global Fund.
Posted by truecreek on November 30, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
By Bertha Coombs, CNBC
Retailers drew more shoppers to open their wallets this Black Friday weekend, but the steep discounts they used to get them in the door meant that on average, shoppers spent less.
The National Federation of Retailers says 195 million people shopped at stores and online over the weekend, up 13.3 percent from last year. Total spending was flat at $41.2 billion, but on average consumers spent 8.5 percent less, roughly $343 per person compared to $372 a year ago.
Department stores emerged the shopping destination of choice for nearly half of all shoppers polled in the NRF’s Black Friday survey, conducted by BIGresearch.
Discount stores came in second garnering a 43.2 percent share, and outlets picking up 7.8 percent of shoppers. Just over one in four surveys shopped at electronics stores (29 percent) or online (28.5 percent).
Two years into the deepest recession in a generation, consumers may be showing signs of what some have termed frugal fatigue, says the NRF’s Ellen Davis. “Retailers have to come away from this weekend encouraged,” she says, “that shoppers were willing to spend on some discretionary items.”
Capital Growth Partners president Craig Johnson says the consumer was back in force over Black Friday weekend. In a note to clients, he wrote, ‘These are not simply browsers, but buyers, with checkout lines of 30 or longer in some mall teen specialty stores, and checkout lines exceeding 350 in several Big Box stores.”
Just over half shoppers bought clothing, according to the survey, helping to boost department store sales. About forty percent bought books, DVDs and video games. Those numbers were about the same as last year.
Price wars on popular toys at Wal-Mart, Target and Toys R Us saw more shoppers buying toys as gifts. About a third of shoppers said they spent money on toys, a 12.9 percent increase from last year.
According to the survey, more shoppers bought sporting and leisure items this year — 12.6 percent, up a point from last year. Personal care and beauty items saw a bigger increase — 22.4 percent up from 19.0 percent — along with gift cards — 21.2 percent vs. 18.7 percent a year ago.
Did those early door busters in the wee hours of the morning pay off? Nearly one-third of shoppers (31.2 percent) were at the stores by 5 a.m. according to the NRF survey, that’s up from 23.3 percent last year. The majority of those early shoppers were men or younger shoppers.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
By Meg James
There’s finally some new life in old media.
After pummeling traditional media companies for nearly two years, the advertising recession is showing signs of a recovery. TV networks — including Fox, CBS and ABC and such leading cable channels as TNT, TBS, USA, Bravo and Fox News Channel — have benefited the most as advertisers have been snapping up available commercial spots and agreeing to pay significantly higher prices than they did just five months ago.
“In challenging times, people go back to what they know, and what they know best is television,” said David Levy, president of sales for Turner Entertainment, which includes TNT and TBS. “It is a little too early to declare victory, but the market is definitely improving.”
The welcome news is the result of stronger-than-expected demand for TV advertising in the “scatter” market, in which advertisers frequently have to pay premiums for scarce available commercial time. It also represents something of a win for the networks, which gambled this summer that demand would pick up later in the year and held back a larger percentage of their inventory than in previous years, hoping to capitalize on the improved economy.
Fourth-quarter commercial sales have been propelled by retail chains hoping to ignite their holiday sales; technology giants Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc., which have new products to promote; cellphone carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, which are battling for customers; and even such financial firms as American Express, according to television executives and advertising buyers surveyed this week.
Such strong demand has made up for the weaker orders from other mainstay advertisers, including automakers, still reeling from weak sales, and Hollywood movie studios, which have fewer new movies to hype.
A fourth quarter described by one top network sales executive as “gangbusters” amazed even veterans who have lived through several economic cycles. Only five months ago, the industry was bracing for another dismal year as TV network sales teams were engaged in protracted negotiations with advertisers that were demanding that the networks roll back prices as much as 20%. Networks eventually agreed to trim rates about 5% to 8% to mollify advertisers and begin unloading their time.
But now, in some cases, advertisers have agreed to pay rates 10% to 35% higher than the prices established in June and July, when the networks sold the bulk of their time for the new TV season. In addition, advertisers that placed their orders in the summer are honoring their commitments. Network executives said that few advertisers have canceled their orders for commercial spots, in contrast with a year ago.
“We have all been surprised that the ad market has come back this soon,” said Gary Carr, executive director of national broadcast for the advertising firm TargetCast. The networks, he said, also face easier comparisons because last fall, with banks failing and the economy on the skids, companies were afraid to spend on advertising.
“A year ago, people thought the world was coming to an end, and the U.S. economy was falling apart,” Carr said. “But the world did not come to an end. Cars still have to be sold, and studios still need people to go see their movies. Advertisers have begun releasing the money that they have been holding onto all year.”
Even local TV stations — among the hardest hit by the slump in advertising spending — have received a lift, primarily fueled by stores that unleashed their holiday sales campaigns earlier in the season, according to television executives.
Not all media outlets have rebounded, however. Many small cable TV channels and Spanish-language television networks are still hurting, according to television executives. Newspapers, magazines and radio stations also continue to struggle.
“In many sectors, the news is still grim,” said Jon Swallen, senior vice president for research at TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks advertising spending. “And there is still a fairly large hole for these companies to dig out of before they get back to the levels they were a few years ago.”
Unexpectedly, online advertising also has taken it on the chin.
Many advertisers are no longer as eager to buy Internet display ads as they were two or three few years ago, when firms were steering millions of ad dollars to online sites.
“There is still a big push toward digital and online video, but the Internet display advertising market is challenged,” said Greg Kahn, senior vice president of strategic insights at advertising firm Optimedia. “There is so much clutter in the space, and advertisers have begun to question the effectiveness of those display ads.”
More here.
Posted by truecreek on November 25, 2009 under More Dam News |
This is turning into quite the battle of the airwaves. The mere fact that the court declined to order Verizon to pull the ads means more to come, and quickly.
By Peter Svensson
NEW YORK (AP) – What would the holidays be without bickering between siblings? AT&T and Verizon are swamping TV with ads attacking facets of each other’s wireless networks. While the ads stick fairly close to the truth, there’s a lot they don’t say.
AT&T Inc. has been running ads with actor Luke Wilson checking off points in AT&T’s favor over Verizon Wireless. It’s the continuation of a spat that started a month ago, when Verizon started airing cheeky commercials that highlighted how its fast, third-generation (“3G”) network has wider coverage than AT&T’s 3G system.
Verizon’s ad used the slogan “There’s a map for that,” a play off Apple Inc.’s ads for the iPhone, which tout the diversity of third-party applications for the phone with the line “There’s an app for that.“
AT&T sued Verizon Wireless over the “map” ads, not because the maps were incorrect, but because AT&T felt there was a danger that viewers could get the impression that AT&T had no coverage at all where it doesn’t have 3G. Last week, a judge declined to force Verizon to pull the ads.
AT&T and Verizon, two offspring of Ma Bell, are getting more aggressive in their marketing, though it’s not clear how much they are spending. Verizon and AT&T are both pulling away from their smaller rivals, so instead of competing with Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA, they’re increasingly focused on each other. Verizon Wireless has more subscribers than AT&T – 89 million versus 81.6 million. But AT&T added more wireless subscribers in the latest quarter – 2 million versus 1.2 million at Verizon, which is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.
Posted by truecreek on November 24, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
From Consumer Reports:
Bell ringers, perfume sprayers and the steady drumbeat of holiday music may be annoying to some shoppers. But what really brings out their grinchier instincts are stores that fail to open all the checkout lanes and then use pushy retail tactics when shoppers finally make it to the cash register.
Customers don’t like being pressured to open store credit cards or being asked for personal information. And they really object to being hounded to buy extended warranties, according to a nationally representative survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.
The survey was conducted as part of Consumer Reports’ annual “Dear Shopper” campaign that highlights holiday gotchas and shopping traps. This year Consumer Reports had an assist from its sister Web site, Consumerist, which collected a list of annoyances from its readers.
When the list was taken to the public at large, those surveyed were in agreement. Here are the top gripes about retail practices:
* 72% Stores that don’t open all the checkout lanes;
* 68% Fake “sales”. If something is always 20% off, it’s not on sale;
* 67% Coupons that exclude almost everything in the store;
* 62% Being hounded with the extended warranty sales pitch;
* 58% Cashiers that ask for your phone number or other personal information;
* 56% In-store prices that do not match the same company’s on-line prices;
“Consumers have told us that they just want a hassle-free and convenient shopping experience,” said Jim Guest, president and CEO of Consumers Union. “We really hope this list of holiday annoyances is a wake-up call for the retail industry.”
When we asked shoppers about the number one non-retail practice that made them grumpy almost a third said the crowds (29%) followed by difficulty parking (28%), sales people spraying perfume (16%) and bell ringers outside stores (13%). Surprisingly, few folks are annoyed by that holiday music—only three percent said that was their top pet peeve. Fa-la-la-la-la indeed.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on November 19, 2009 under More Dam News |
We’re proud to announce the addition of a new client, Fortress Technologies. They design, develop and manufacture secure wireless networking products for a wide variety of government markets, civilian organizations and corporations.
Right now, on the media side, we’re working on the planning and placement for the first half of 2010, in conjunction with Timberlake Media Services in Chicago.
Creatively, we’re working on a new direction that will offer them the ability to communicate their message effectively, while standing out in a very crowded field.
We’re really looking forward to the opportunity and hope to be posting some great work in the coming weeks.
Posted by truecreek on November 13, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
By Keith Hampton, Lauren Sessions, Eun Ja Her, Lee Rainie
This report adds new insights to an ongoing debate about the extent of social isolation in America. A widely-reported 2006 study argued that since 1985 Americans have become more socially isolated, the size of their discussion networks has declined, and the diversity of those people with whom they discuss important matters has decreased.
In particular, the study found that Americans have fewer close ties to those from their neighborhoods and from voluntary associations. Sociologists Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin and Matthew Brashears suggest that new technologies, such as the Internet and mobile phone, may play a role in advancing this trend.
Specifically, they argue that the type of social ties supported by these technologies are relatively weak and geographically dispersed, not the strong, often locally-based ties that tend to be a part of peoples’ core discussion network.
They depicted the rise of Internet and mobile phones as one of the major trends that pulls people away from traditional social settings, neighborhoods, voluntary associations, and public spaces that have been associated with large and diverse core networks.
The survey results reported here were undertaken to explore issues that have not been probed directly in that study and other related research on social isolation: the role of the Internet and mobile phone in people’s core social networks.
This Pew Internet Personal Networks and Community survey finds that Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported. People’s use of the mobile phone and the Internet is associated with larger and more diverse discussion networks. And, when we examine people’s full personal network – their strong and weak ties – Internet use in general and use of social networking services such as Facebook in particular are associated with more diverse social networks.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on November 12, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
Some 19% of Internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11% of Internet users said they use a status-update service.
Three groups of Internet users are mainly responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social network website users, those who connect to the Internet via mobile devices, and younger Internet users – those under age 44.
In addition, the more devices someone owns, the more likely they are to use Twitter or another service to update their status. Fully 39% of Internet users with four or more Internet-connected devices (such as a laptop, cell phone, game console, or Kindle) use Twitter, compared to 28% of Internet users with three devices, 19% of Internet users with two devices, and 10% of Internet users with one device.
The median age of a Twitter user is 31, which has remained stable over the past year. The median age for MySpace is now 26, down from 27 in May 2008, and the median age for LinkedIn is now 39, down from 40. Facebook, however, is graying a bit: the median age for this social network site is now 33, up from 26 in May 2008.
It will probably become more difficult to track status updating as an independent activity as social network updates feed into Twitter and vice versa. For now, it is clear that a “social segment” of Internet users is flocking to both social network sites and status update services. This segment is likely to grow as ever more Internet users adopt mobile devices as a primary means of going online.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
Ouch. And Architectural Digest is one of my favs.
By Stephanie Clifford
Condé Nast’s ad-page numbers are in, and they explain why the company has had such a rough 2009.
Ad pages fell by 49.9 percent at Architectural Digest, part of an estimated total loss of 8,359 ad pages at Condé Nast monthlies in 2009.
The company lost 8,359 ad pages at its monthly magazines, according to estimates it released Wednesday. That is a 31.6 percent drop from last year.
The worst hit were Architectural Digest, where ad pages fell 49.9 percent; W, where ad pages fell 46 percent; and Condé Nast Traveler, where pages fell 41.1 percent. Details and Wired both fell about 39 percent.
Some magazines showed improving numbers toward the end of the year. Traveler dropped only 5.4 percent from last year’s December issue, and Lucky 8.8 percent. Glamour actually rose 6.6 percent.
More here.
