... challenges brands to grow earnings through improved marketing effectiveness and increased spending efficiencies to cut costs.”

Continued Mr Liodice: “Companies expect technology, expanding media platforms and better decision making to better enable marketers to pursue earnings growth objectives.” 

The survey found that marketers are continuing to challenge their agencies to lower costs. However, only 15% plan to cut agency compensation - a significant decrease from 2009 when 56% of marketers squeezed their agencies in this way.

Perhaps more significantly, the research also reveals that from 2013 onward marketers will focus on other means to lower costs and expenditures, including reductions on:

• Travel (58%)
   
• Internal agency expenses (55%)
   
• Advertising campaign media budgets (46%)
   
• New projects (44%)

The survey marks the seventh occasion on which the ANA has polled its members on the marketing industry's post-recession fiscal focus. The study was executed online in January 2013. Respondents included 120 client-side marketers.

Read the original unabridged ANA article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... far smaller than expected because existing customers would have come to eBay regardless - whether directly or through other marketing channels."

Some leading e-commerce companies, such as eBay and Amazon.com, traditionally big buyers of Google paid search ads, may not need the service as much in the future.

According to Oren Etzioni, an online search expert at the University of Washington and co-founder of shopping search service Decide.com: "This has to be a major concern for Google."

Continued Etzioni: "Strong brands like eBay, Amazon, and others need Google less and less as they have established a loyal online following. The eBay study validates this common-sense conclusion.

"Even at the far smaller Decide.com, we've found that buying ads on Google was not cost effective."

Ebay's Hoff declined to say how much the company spends on Google paid search ads. She also would not say whether eBay has cut spending on these ads, or plans to do so.

Likewise, an Amazon spokesman did not respond to a Reuters email asking the same questions on Tuesday.

Read the original unabridged Reuters.com article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... marketers to boost the performance of existing campaigns by adding a new direct channel - display advertising. 

Over the last twenty years we have seen a steady proliferation of marketing channels. The introduction of this latest channel is a sign of things to come digitally.

A new white paper published by UK-based Callcredit Information Group considers a planning approach that can be used to create multi-channel campaigns – now and in the future.

New opportunities for finding customers have become available and using targeting data in online marketing is nothing short of a game-changer.

The benefits of segmentation are well understood in the offline world but until now have not really touched digital advertising.

The very rapid growth of real time bidding now offers interactive marketers a chance to implement audience based marketing: they can identify the audience to which they are about to serve an ad - even before the ad is bought.

Addressable marketing identifies individuals and delivers personalisedmessages to them based on their unique characteristics.

For example, it would be inappropriate to display adverts for a credit based product to someone unlikely to be accepted for the product by the lender – and the new generation of display advertising can address such issues.

This new multi-channel advertising ecosystem allows a sophisticated mix of cost effective messaging across digital channels designed to maximise conversions.

A contact strategy can be created to orchestrate customer engagements, thereby enabling brand experiences that are consistent yet customisable across channels.

Read the original unabridged Callcredit article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... $7.1 billion, despite which market share will slip to 57.1%. 

Among the report's key forecasts are:

• Since eMarketer's May 2012 forecast, estimates for paid search have risen slightly to a compound annual growth rate [CAGR] of 9.7% on paid-search spending between 2011 and 2016, rather than 8.5% as estimated in May.

• The revision is prompted by greater-than-anticipated search spending in the first half of the year, as reported by the UK Interactive Advertising Bureau. 

• eMarketer estimates that in 2012 around $2.0 billion - or 23% of all UK digital adspend - will go to display advertising such as banners, rich media, video and sponsorships. The steady gains will partially come from an increase in use of realtime bidding and video formats, although doubts about the speed of economic recovery will lead some advertisers to focus on proven search tactics.
   
• Online video ads in Britain should rise from $273 million in 2012 to about $1.4 billion in 2016. The estimates include social video and video advertising on mobile devices.

According to eMarketer, in 2012 only the USA and Japan will outrank the UK’s $721 million market share, with projected mobile ad spending of $2.4 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively.

The annual rate of growth, estimated at 120% for 2012, is expected to remain above 50% until 2016, when mobile ad spending in the UK will approach $3.5 billion.

Read the original unabridged MediaPost article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

...  many tie-ups between broadcasters and social networking companies.

Social TV is concept with vested interests in loads of people, including second-screen Apps providers, Smart TV manufacturers, content providers, middleware providers, advertising agencies, and most importantly consumers.

Television viewers are currently looking for something interesting to watch coincident with getting opinions from friends and family.

Social TV plays an important role during the decision making phase when viewers want to search and chose content from various sources. It also enables viewers to chat during TV programmes as they are is broadcast and provides them with various statistics about movies, videos, programs, sports events, games, actors etc.

Social networks enable viewers to socialize virtually around television.

While some broadcasters are amalgamating social TV within their own platforms, there are others who are integrating Twitter into their platforms for enhanced custom experience and participation.

Industry players such as the BBC and CNN, on the other hand have signed deals with social networking players such as Facebook, as social networking companies are aggressively trying to venture into this space.

Hardly surprising given the predicted CAGR of 10.6% in the period 2012 to 2017!

The Markets and Markets Report provides insights on the social TV market, key market players, future scope, drivers, restraints and challenges of the market. It also analyzes global adoption trends and future growth potential across different geographies.

Read the original unabridged article. 

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... television programmers and advertisers with the ability to create and deliver TV commercials to individual households based on specific criteria.

Moreover, the Dish/GroupM duo claim they have been doing it successfully in trials involving nearly a dozen advertisers, targeting more than seven million US homes since October 2011, claiming this to be a first for the TV industry on such a large scale.

Whoops Michael Bologna, GroupM managing partner and director of emerging communications: “These trial campaigns with Dish demonstrate our ability to identify a specific target audience and deliver to them a relevant message, thus reducing unwanted impressions. Household-addressable advertising in a television universe, long considered a ‘holy grail,’ is finally starting to become a practical reality.”

GroupM clients, such as ConAgra, Mattel and NBC Universal, are believed to be among the major advertisers participating in the pilot program, although GroupM and Dish coyly declined to identify any of the advertisers involved.

The partners conceded, however, that marketers participating in the addressable ad trials included a variety of categories, including packaged goods and financial service providers.

Read the original unabridged article here.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... ad investment in paid search and internet display as well as providing data on broadband penetration, media time spent online and e-commerce per user data.

Additional key findings in GroupM's survey include:

• Digital advertising’s share of total ad investment rose from 4.4% worldwide in 2004 to a projected 18.8% in 2012.
   
• The average percentage of consumers’ “media time” spent online increased from 11% in 2006 to 19% in 2011.
   
• The absolute number of broadband homes worldwide has nearly tripled in this period to reach 500 million, and the typical country has seen broadband penetration grow by half.
   
• Aside from general monetary inflation, ad investment growth has two main vectors: aggregate audience hours, and advertising intensity per individual. Average online advertising investment per online user doubled between 2006 and 2011. For 2011, Norway had the highest per-capita online ad investment ($200) in the study’s sample.
   
• E-commerce accounts for about 5% of global retail sales today, with instant-on devices, secure and simple payment, vouchering, and the optimization of retail for mobile serving as catalysts for growth.
   
• Consumer tablet penetration reached double digits in only three of the survey’s countries in 2011: the US, Finland and South Korea. However, take-up is expected to be rapid and nine countries should reach double digit penetration in 2012.

The report was released today by London-based GroupM Futures Director Adam Smith and New York-based GroupM Interaction Global CEO Rob Norman.

Comments the latter: “At the risk of an ‘oh really?’ response, it’s possible to argue that - for the first time since these reports began - the last  year has been one of evolution rather than revolution.

"It seems that less is brand new and that a combination of scale of usage of an increasingly social and mobile web, the penetration of devices supported by it, and the continued atomization of audiences and content, in both their creation and distribution combine to tell the story of the year.”

Adds Norman: “In 2007 we speculated about a world that would be truly social, searchable, mobile, addressable and interactive and illuminated by data that could be collected and applied across all marketing functions; in 2012 that is no longer a matter for conjecture.” 

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... “Marketers need lasting solutions that focus on efficiency. We need to view this as an opportunity to push our industry to reach the next level of innovation and evolution.” 

These are the key areas of insights for this year’s Recession Survey:

Agency Compensation

• Only 17 percent of marketers plan to reduce agency compensation, representing the most hopeful outlook for agencies since 2008.
   
• However, 52 percent of those marketers surveyed will challenge their agencies to reduce costs internally, placing pressure on agencies to share the cost-effectiveness load.
   

Marketing / Media Budgets & Projected Spending

• In the coming year, marketers will continue to be conscientious in their spending, even as the economy recovers.
   
• Given this cautious environment, nearly half of marketers surveyed (49 percent) said that their advertising budgets will remain the same.
   
• However, a third said their budgets will decrease (34 percent).
   
• The remaining group of respondents (17 percent) believe their advertising budgets will increase.
   
• For those companies that plan to reduce budgets, reductions are expected to be higher than last year, with 33 percent planning to reduce marketing budgets by 11 percent or more, compared to 25 percent in 2011.

Overhead Spending Insights

• Marketers are opting for short-term budget cuts related to overhead expenditures.
   
• For example, 28 percent of marketers plan to decrease investment in professional development (eg, conferences, training) and 21 percent plan to utilize more freelancers to fill open positions – both increases from 2011.

The most popular ways marketers plan to reduce costs and expenditures:

• Restricting departmental travel and related expenses (68 percent)
   
• Reducing advertising campaign media budgets (48 percent)
   
• Altering the mix of marketing channels to lower cost channels (40 percent)
   
• Eliminating / delaying new projects (36 percent)

Summarises Mr Liodice: “Though the industry outlook is trending toward stability, marketers need to be careful not to simply rely on short-term answers to solve enduring budget issues."

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... operations, finance and public policy.

The report, based on in-depth interviews with thirty 'game-changing' lead marketers at companies spanning a broad cross-section of US businesses, cites as an example one CMO respondent who revealed that all initiatives/projects that affect corporate revenues are now channelled through the marketing department.

According to the study, CMOs are stepping up to the plate in the face of unprecedented changes and challenges confronting their companies. Which, in turn, requires CMOs to evolve well beyond their traditional roles.

Summarises CMG founding partner Russ Lange: "These changes and challenges have resulted from a confluence of the lasting effects of the “Great Recession,” volatility in markets, technological innovations, consumer/customer empowerment, and the inherently global nature of today’s business environment.

“In the face of what could be a daunting mission, the CMOs we’ve spoken with have adapted into a super-species we like to call ‘Marketing’s CEO,’” says Lange. “No longer just the master of corporate advertising campaigns and promotions, Marketing’s CEO is a true driver of corporate growth and strategy.”

However, the report acknowledges that this evolution toward greater influence is “on the threshold” rather than in full flower in many companies. The CMO “must earn not only his or her place at the table, but also his or her voice,” it concludes. “While the door to the C suite has cracked open, CMOs must now rise to the opportunity to not only enter but also remain in the room.”

In addition to the broader-authority role evolution, CMG identifies four additional core trends affecting CMOs:

• Strengthening the CMO/CEO relationship:
  Interviewed CMOs report that they are strengthening their credibility with the C suite, and CEOs in particular, through best practices that include framing recommendations in ROI terms (beyond creativity and the marketing budget’s P&L); educating themselves and top management on how marketing can contribute to the company’s growth/business performance; documenting where marketing opportunities exist and might be captured; and highlighting risks while laying out how those can be mitigated. Successful CMOs are also building relationships with fellow senior managers and creating intra-company alliances based on their ability to demonstrate marketing’s impact on their co mpanies’ performance.
   
• Social marketing:
  Social media are not only transforming traditional principles of brand-building and customer loyalty, but altering human interaction fundamentals, says CMG. While CMOs are best-positioned within their organizations to lead the mission of understanding and mastering these complex trends, by virtue of their ages/backgrounds, few are “native social-media speakers.” Study respondents reported that they are mastering these challenges through “generational seeding”: Creating internal teams that include younger, cyber-intelligent employees. This also brings the benefit of developing a talent pool that should secure the organization’s future.
   
• Managing Millennials:
  Millennial-generation marketing employees are critical because of their inherent understanding of social media, but their insights are too often dismissed because of their inability to present such insights with “crisp logic and presentation cosmetics,” marketing chiefs pointed out to CMG. Investing the time and energy to “connect the dots” to develop this generation’s thinking can unlock crucial learning for CMOs and their organizations, the participants stressed.
   
• Demand creation:
  Successful CMOs realize that the ability to position themselves as the rightful keepers of the “innovation flame” – the critical, differentiating mission of creating the perception among consumers that a brand is delivering what they need/want even before they know it themselves – is extremely powerful, and the key to advancing their influence within their companies.

The full report from CMG Partners can be downloaded here.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... languishing one-time market leaders Yahoo and AOL.

Google's supremacy can be attributed to substantial investments in technology and a change in the way it approaches advertising agencies - especial those holding the purse-strings of the globe's top advertisers. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, many ad agencies were initially suspicious of Google because it also worked directly with advertisers, cutting agencies out of the equation. Since when Google has embarked on a charm offensive to win over the agencies.

Google wooed the Madison Avenue prima donnas with a surgical precision normally associated with a P&G marketing campaign. It assigned more than one hundred employees - among them former ad agency staff - to work closely with the top ad shops. Larry and Sergei's charm commandos also armed themselves with voluminous research touting the results advertisers can get from display-ad campaigns.

And Google also hired former ad agency creative directors to offer free help to ad shops and their clients in shaping interactive promotions on YouTube.

The strategy is beginning to pay off at ad agencies such as Aegis Group's iProspect, which represents advertisers such as Gap and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Two years ago, iProspect asked Google to provide a dedicated Mountain View staffer to help it navigate Google's array of ad services and get better results.

According to iProspect ceo Rob Murray, Google assigned an employee to iProspect's Boston office, while a year ago another Googlista set up shop inside the agency's San Francisco office.

Now, says Murray, rather than "talk to 100 different people at Google," the latter's employees help solve problems and "spend more money on Google efficiently for our clients."

Last year, iProspect spent $340 million, or 70% of its $485 million digital advertising spend in the US, on ads through Google, up from $240 million, or 65% a year earlier. Display ad spending on Google grew twice as fast as search-ad spending during the period, Murray reports.

Elsewhere in the agency firmament, David Cohen, an evp at Interpublic's Universal McCann media-buying shop, opines that several years ago Google "did not understand how agencies worked and [was] impossible to deal with on payment terms, terms and conditions and other legal matters."

Now relations have markedly improved and his firm gets important previews of future Google offerings, among other things, though he added that the relationship is "still a work in progress."

In 2011 20% of UM's spending with Google involved display ads, double that of two years ago.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.