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Can Programmatic Buying Save Traditional Media?

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:15:00 GMT

ADOTAS — Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Pandora, Spotify … these services are all popular household names. But they have something else in common: they are also Internet-based alternatives to traditional ad-supported media – and they compete for the same ad dollars.

Call me nostalgic, but as much as I love the Internet, social media and mobile, I am not ready to give up traditional television and radio, and I don’t think I’m in the minority.

Three Strikes

It’s no secret that traditional (i.e., non-addressable) media has been facing a challenging advertising market — one that delivers brand advertisers with more options, better targeting and lower costs. How can traditional media compete with that?

To add more fuel to the fire, the marketplace is increasingly dominated by real-time bidding and programmatic buying solutions. Programmatic streamlines the buying process, creating efficiencies of scale and eliminates waste – making tasks that were previously difficult and time-consuming much easier, while increasing margins. Strike two for traditional media’s ad sales efforts.

A survey conducted by ad tech provider OpenX found that 70 percent of media buyers and publishers surveyed are already participating in programmatic trading, and of those 77 percent planned to increase the amount and frequency over the next year. Additionally, a third of those surveyed were considering replacing traditional publisher relationships with programmatic. Strike three. The times, they are a changin’…

While programmatic’s roots are in display (and many still think of it solely as such), its success has recently expanded to search, social and even online video and audio. Here’s where things get interesting. The audience that consumes traditional media also consumes digital media.

Advertisers want to reach this audience, and when digital tools such as programmatic buying and RTB are used, well, traditional media doesn’t stand a chance.

Most of the growth in ad budgets is planned for the programmatic buying paradigm. If they can’t figure out how to access this growing stream of advertising budgets, the outlook does not look good for our traditional friends.

Cue Clouds Parting

However, there may just be a bright spot for traditional media ads: They operate above the proverbial fold. Think about when you open a website; there is likely a banner ad at the top, often a video embedded to the right, perhaps a “site takeover” running in the background and a pop-up that must be clicked off. With all these ads, we as consumers are likely to tune out, turn them off and just ignore them.

In contrast, picture yourself in your car during your morning commute, listening to your favorite songs or talk radio. When a commercial comes on, there is no competition for your attention; you are a captive audience. Advertisers understand the benefit of this captivity and are willing to pay a premium for it. Combining this high level of “audibility” and engagement with the targeting capabilities of programmatic buying is a powerful combination.

The shift has already begun. Radio stations like CBS and Entercom already use programmatic to sell ads for their online streaming properties. For video, Forrester Research found programmatic to be the fastest-growing segment of the online video advertising market, and predicts that it will account for about 25 percent of all U.S. online video spending, or $1.14 billion, by 2014. Add in display, social, and mobile, and programmatic could easily top US $6 billion next year.

I Can See the Future

To take this a step further, let’s consider outdoor advertising – you know, those billboards you pass on the highway – in my mind, this is the simplest and oldest form of advertising. Well, out-of-home ad company Vistar recently signed a deal with WPP’s trading desk, Xaxis, proving that programmatic works for even the most traditional of media.

From my perspective this is a huge hurdle that has been successfully crossed. Traditional media companies are starting to understand programmatic audience buying and how it works, and in some cases they’re already using it in certain functions – but not yet for traditional radio and television ads.

The lines between traditional and digital media continue to blur. I can stream my favorite radio stations online and on my phone, and I can watch my favorite television shows wherever I am. This content is in most cases still produced and owned by “traditional” media companies, but the distribution models have changed … and so have the monetization models.

So as we embrace these changing models, I predict we’ll see programmatic buying seeping its way further into the traditional sales model. As the line between traditional and digital media fades away, those who fail to accept the new order risk being left behind.

Thank You Peter

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:05:00 GMT

In case you missed it, earlier this week Greater Media’s Peter Smyth drafted an open letter to the community entitled, "Streaming and Screaming," about the current industry debate around terrestrial stations streaming content online.

Personally, I was very happy to see one of broadcast radio's leaders step up and boldly support both streaming and targeting in-stream. Peter's message speaks to our industry’s need to evolve and reiterates that setting your company’s strategy based on a moment in time can result in lost opportunity in the long run.

In times of rapid change, survival prospects are seldom good for those that withdraw in fear. Over the past two years we've witnessed a number of broadcast radio companies doing just that. No doubt the early stages of the digital audio market have offered little in the way of monetization for publishers, but to withdraw assuming this will not change is short sighted and dangerous.

This market evolved slowly over the last decade for a few reasons:

- first generation technology was much more about break replacement and solving AFTRA issues than creating a targeted digital audio ad market;

- audio ad networks were primitive in their capabilities and settled for the low hanging fruit of network radio budgets and $2.00 CPMs;

- service provider's preyed on the ignorance of many broadcasters, creating unfair revenue splits and little to no transparency;

- local “feet on the street” could not be leveraged to sell small audiences

There's a different market in 2013. Ad technology now enables publishers to have their inventory sold in a digital metaphor (targeted, one-to-one delivery). This means audience size is being democratized and your impressions can be sold alongside other impressions in an aggregated market delivering scale. Audio ad networks have gained sophistication and made their way into the mix for digital and mobile ad budgets, CPMs are rising rapidly and targeted ads often capture $8.00 and higher CPMs. Business models are evolving as well and soon there will be opportunities to leverage your local feet on the street.

Pandora now has nearly 2 million concurrent listeners in prime time. Spotify, Google, Rdio, Songza, Rhapsody, Slacker, Samsung, Nokia and iTunes Radio are all out there or coming soon. Three years ago, broadcast radio controlled 70% of the digital audio audience, but that has inverted to less than 30% today. There are a number of players at the table and others coming that are focused on spoken word content and real-time, location-based audio services. The automotive market is obsessed with delivering a new definition of the in-vehicle entertainment experience.

I'm perpetually perplexed that the conversation about digital audio with broadcasters is focused on monetization challenges and not audience engagement. The monetization issues are being solved quickly. I promise you that in the next 18-24 months a digital listener will be worth more to you than an over-the-air listener. You need only look at Pandora's revenue reporting to understand that this audience at local scale is highly desirable. You need only look at some of the recent entrants to the space and the level of Silicon Valley investment to understand that very smart people are placing bets on digital audio.

Multi-platform selling of a combined in-market audience is a strategy that all broadcasters should use. However, time will quickly tell you that you can't and shouldn't do that in a "one size fits all" simulcast model. For one thing, agencies that have not paid move-over fees are not going to tolerate it. Even the agencies and advertisers who have paid SAG-AFTRA move-over fees are likely to have different creative lengths and different creative executions for the same campaign. They will likely also expect/demand that you deliver a synced visual add in the player/app and will likely ask for reporting beyond "running the spot."

Why is it so hard for Arbitron to provide a better option? Why can't TLR simply be a multi-platform combined number? Why can't you just sell combined audience when it makes sense and not sell it when it doesn't? Why can't we just simply feed your Webcast Metrics numbers to Arbitron and have them included? Why can't both Arbitron and Triton feed data to a neutral third party?

Some of you have criticized Triton because we don't provide log files to Arbitron. Please keep in mind that you own your digital data, not Triton, and that the opposite is true for your over-the-air estimates. Arbitron owns your OTA data. At Triton we want to work with you to help. Whether that help is feeding your actual metrics, free of charge, to Arbitron or another third party, or some other method that easily enables multi-platform selling, we support your desire to simplify a combined sale. There are numerous ways to accomplish this that don't necessitate an anti-competitive measurement market.

Going for that extra .1 and also hoping the guy down the street doesn't get an extra .1 will work sometimes, but the key is to enable all of your digital impressions to be pressurized from every ad source possible to drive the highest value.

Moving forward, you are going to care about both building audience and optimizing the monetization of that audience. As far as I know, no wars have been won by the army in retreat.

If you'd like to hear about the myriad ways Triton is investing to both improve the user experience and audience valuation of digital audio, please reach out to us. After all, our vision is to connect audio to audience and audience to advertisers.

It's great to see Peter preparing his army to fight!

In Case You Missed It May 2013

Fri, 31 May 2013 13:15:00 GMT

Targeted Or Random; How Do You Like Your Ads?

MediaPost by Jack Loechner 5/8/13

40.5% of respondents chose targeted ads, while another 27.6% were content to see both. Only 16.1% preferred random ads, with 15.8% unsure. Separate results from the DAA survey indicate that 47.3% of respondents are opposed to a law that “restricted how data is used for online advertising, but also potentially reduced the availability of free content such as blogs and video sites.”

Almost 6 in 10 respondents said an online ad had at some point helped them find an offer or product they wouldn’t otherwise have known about. When asked “... has an Internet ad ever helped you find an offer or product that you wouldn’t otherwise have known about?...” 58.5% said yes, 25.8%, no, and 15.7% said “... not sure.”

42.1% of respondents reported having purchased a product because they saw or clicked on an online ad, but that was fewer than the 46.3% who said they had never done so. The remainder were unsure. And 50.2% reported saving money or time because of an Online advertisement, though 37.2% said “no.”

Digital Coupons Impact New Product Awareness, Brand Recall

MediaPost by Laurie Sullivan 5/9/13

Running ads prior to a product launch helps familiarize consumers with new merchandise, especially for value-minded shoppers. New research released Thursday shows how digital coupons prior to a product's release date increases awareness.

For the food products tested, the brand recall rose 36.3%; household, 11.9%; and beverage, 7.2%.

An increase in purchases for three new product launches translated into more than 16.6% for the food items, 6.6% for the beverage, and 7% for the household cleaning. The increases rose higher than Dynamic Logic's CPG industry benchmark for purchase intent of 1.1%, suggesting shoppers are 9.2 times on average more likely to consider purchasing the new products featured on Web sites like Coupons.com.

Compared with average shoppers, digital coupon users make 25% more shopping trips annually, as well as spend 13% more each time and 42% more per year on grocery purchases

Mobile Marketing Spend Hits $6.7B In 2012, Forecasts Soar

MediaPost by Mark Walsh 5/9/13

The mobile marketing ecosystem generated $139 billion in additional sales within the U.S. economy last year, with that figure expected to grow 52% annually to $400 billion by 2015. The vast majority of mobile’s sales impact -- at least 85% -- is taking place offline rather than through m-commerce transactions.

Separately, spending on mobile marketing (across mobile phones and tablets) in 2012 totaled $6.7 billion, with that amount projected to reach nearly $20 billion by 2015.

Almost 85% -- or $117.6 billion of the $139 billion in incremental sales driven by mobile marketing last year -- occurred in the brick-and-mortar world, according to the report. The estimate for mobile-influences sales offline is based, in part, by deducting the roughly $21 billion in m-commerce sales in 2012 from the $139 billion total.

Attracting the most marketing dollars, mobile media advertising is credited with having the biggest sales impact, driving $73.8 billion in incremental sales in the economy in 2012. Mobile CRM was responsible for $54.9 billion, and direct-response, for $10.3 billion.

Americans Prefer On Demand Radio

FMQB 5/14/13

57 percent of respondents believe that in five years, Americans will primarily listen to streaming radio options over traditional AM/FM radio. The survey also found that students may be leading the shift to on demand and streaming media, and Americans aged 18-34 are far more likely to watch movies, television, and listen to music always or mostly on demand than their older counterparts.

AT&T Stirs Controversy With Data-Cap Plans

MediaPost by Wendy Davis 5/15/13

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson reportedly confirmed today that the carrier plans to let content companies pay to exclude their material from data caps imposed on wireless subscribers.

"There will be models that emerge where they defray consumer charges by paying it themselves or by advertising," he said at an investor conference, according to Fierce Wireless. The remarks come several days after The Wall Street Journal reported that ESPN was in talks with carriers about paying to exclude its material from data caps.

High Entertainment Spenders Account For 70% Of Home Entertainment

MediaPost by Jack Loechner 5/16/13

According to Nielsen’s U.S. Entertainment Consumer Report, consumers in households earning an average annual income of $66,000 account for more than 70% of spending on entertainment, like books, video-on-demand and music. Not only did the survey find that these high entertainment spenders have more discretionary income than low or moderate spenders, they also participate in more entertainment activities. This group is also more likely to be female, ethnically diverse and have young children in their household.

29% of consumers are likely to purchase new music after hearing it through a streaming service.

Exchanges Continue To Outpace Overall Ad Marketplace, Expands 35% In April

MediaPost by Joe Mandese 5/23/13

Exchange-based programmatic media-buying continued to outpace the overall growth in advertising spending during April, expanding 35% over the same month last year.

ComScore: Over 13 Billion Video Ads Viewed in April

ClickZ by Caitlin Rossman 5/23/13

Consumers watched 13.2 billion online video ads last month, reaching an all-time high, according to a new report by comScore.

According to comScore's study, 84.7 percent of the U.S. population saw an online video in April.

Art+Science. Music+Social. Cookies+Milk.

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:00:00 GMT

via Technorati

As I recently drove down Rt. 18 in Whitman, Mass. I passed the Toll House Inn, where everyone’s favorite, the Toll House Cookie, was invented. I was listening to a great Pandora channel in my car, and it got me thinking of how two of my favorite things relate. Turns out, May 15 is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, so let’s take a semi-sweet look at how digital music is like our favorite Toll House Cookie.

Everybody loves a good cookie in moderation. But what about when they’re in abundance?

It seems just a few months ago there were only one or two digital audio services “that mattered.” They offered a sandbox of eight-hundred thousand to a couple million tracks that you could configure and play with limited only by your imagination. Mouths watered, eyes bulged and ears popped. Audio released our unconscious inner program director. Listeners now got a vote. They could have a hand in or be the sole hand stirring the musical drink. Let there be rock. The take-up on these propositions was great regardless of whether the model was ad-supported or subscription-based.

It was almost Pavlovian. Cookie? Yes please. Who could say no?

Well, now you’ve got your choice of cookies — and they’re all good for you too. Familiar favorites Pandora, Rhapsody, Slacker and Spotify are now joined by the likes of Microsoft and Twitter to say nothing of the traditional radio companies moving into the digital realm. Rumors are swirling of many other big tech players entering the scene hot on their heels. Some of these new services offer catalogs well north of ten-million tracks. Wow. That’s a lot of chocolate chips.

It poses an interesting question: Now what? We’re moving from scarcity to abundance. All cookies are delicious. How do you choose in the Cookie Bazaar? What distinguishes one from another? What separates the good from the great?

How warm they are.

All cookies are good, but warm ones are great. Nobody can resist a fresh-baked warm cookie. They’re delightfully messy, rich in texture, full of aroma, and packed with psychological flavor. Name one event ever made worse for having warm cookies. Can’t.

Whether you’re playing with 800 thousand or 14 million tracks, there comes a point in time when you want to hear a human voice or you’ll be lost in the library. Not Crazy Eddie. Not banal chatter. Just a human voice. That’s the warming effect.

Humanity+Technology+Social=Warm Cookies

I think global warming is coming to cookies. And it’s gonna be great. Let’s take a look at the ingredients that are making social music so ooey gooey good.

Made from Scratch Ingredients

My favorite radio station, WXRT in Chicago, used to have little interview snippets with artists followed by a track recorded live in the studio. No overdubs. No take-twos. Just the real Lipton. It was human. Sometimes it exposed superhumans in terms of talent. Other times it revealed feet of clay. Both made great content.

Take cold studio perfection and mix in some real sweaty humanity. That’s getting warm. I see a lot of that kind of think coming to Audio. Radio stations have a lot to offer in this regard if they can unlearn some of the traps of the past when the balance got out of whack.

Personally, I’ve also taken to adding some Robert Schimmel, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, and especially Mitch Hedberg to all my Pandora stations. It is like the best kind of record-scratch moment. Cash, Clash, Cult, “I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music," as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work.” It’s insanely awesome, like the little odd Terry Gilliam animated bits inside of Monty Python movies. The fact they’re so incongruous is precisely why they work.

Much warmer.

A Dash of Technology

Spotify has packed so much Social into its new app, it’s much less a means to music than a full-blown website where I share playlists with friends like the 80s never ended, see what people around me are listening to much to my horror, and pick up some great f*ck-me-facts I can share at the pub—“Bob Dylan was planning to ask Mavis Staple to marry? F#ck me!” This is not an app to be minimized, but maximized to the max. It’s lean-in. Way in.

That goes right past warm to screaming hot. I see more and more metadata finding its way into Audio apps. Tour dates, SWAG, you name it.

A Hashtag of Social

And the new Twitter Music app. A carnival for the eyes and ears. Where early social integrations meant that people on Facebook could see what you were listening to on music apps, this is a social music app that actually houses Spotify and Rdio. It looks at Audio through the other end of the telescope, scraping social and suggesting things for you to listen to. It’s also very visual, zigging where most other music apps (understandably) zag, leading with the ears. In essence, Twitter Music is the app that threads together your social and musical connections, showing what music the artists you listen to listen to themselves. The app is brand new and I suspect this incarnation is only the tip of the twitberg.

Audio, like a chewy homemade chocolate chip cookie, is best served warm. Warm means alive. Human. Connected by our humanity. From “In My Room” to “I Am a Rock” to “Down in a Hole” the emotion of isolation is timely and timeless. It comes and goes. Always has. Always will. These lows have been the wellspring of countless musical highs. The cool thing about these forlorn tracks is that while they speak of that feeling of being a speck of dust on a barren rock in an endless sea… which we all experience from time to time, you know in listening that there are others who feel like you do sometimes. In saying we’re all alone in unison, we in fact prove we’re not.

At a time of digital music abundance, personalized recommendations, connectivity and a renewed human element has ushered in the social era of music. And it sounds reeeeeeeeeaal niiiiiice. For the listener, for the artist, and for the music industry.

Much like Robert Putnam’s seminal Bowling Alone suggested, listening to music of our choosing alone with headphones on is here to stay. But there’s a time when only a shared communal experience will do. It’s the cookie we share because we want to. When you have one you’ll remember why you love them so.

So on this National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, take a break, grab a cookie and flip on your favorite digital music channel. Your taste buds and ear buds will thank you.

In Case You Missed It April 2013

Mon, 06 May 2013 16:35:00 GMT

Among music listeners between the ages of 13 and 35, Pandora has a significant lead in terms of streaming-music usage, according to The NPD Group.

NPD 4/2/13

According to The NPD Group, a global information company, in fourth quarter (Q4) of 2012, Pandora and other subscription-based and free Internet radio services accounted for nearly one quarter (23 percent) of the average weekly music listening time among consumers between the ages of 13 and 35, an increase from a share of 17 percent the previous year.

As Internet-radio listening rose among this age group, listening to AM/FM radio, which now accounts for 24 percent of music-listening time, declined 2 percentage points. In the 36-and-older age group, by contrast, Internet radio accounted for just 13 percent of music listening, while AM/FM radio dominated listening methods with a 41 percent share.

More Than 1 Million People Cut Pay-TV Cords Last Year

AdAge 4/3/13

About 1.08 million U.S. pay-TV customers canceled service in favor of Netflix Inc. and other online options last year, according to a report, while the proportion of TV viewers watching full episodes free online declined.

The estimate from Toronto-based Convergence Consulting Group brings the total number of cord-cutters to 3.74 million since 2008. The total will reach 4.7 million this year, the group forecast. The number of people canceling service last year was equal to 1.1% of pay-TV accounts.

RTB Ad Spend Continues Robust Growth

eMarketer 4/4/13

Programmatic buying continues to gain traction in the US online ad market, and eMarketer’s latest forecast projects growth this year of 73% on spending on digital display ads purchased through real-time bidding (RTB).

eMarketer estimates US advertisers will spend more than $3.36 billion on real-time bidding this year, up from just under $2 billion in 2012 and less than $1 billion in 2011. Growth rates will continue to decline as the market matures, but eMarketer expects double-digit increases in spending each year through 2017, when real-time bidding will account for more than $8.49 billion in digital ad spending—or 29% of all digital display spending.

Spending on all digital display advertising, including banner, video, rich media and sponsorships, will grow far slower—at 18.1%—as penetration and use of RTB among media buyers and publishers increases.

Consumers Allowed To Bring Class-Action Against comScore

MediaPost by Wendy Davis 4/4/13

Web measurement company comScore suffered a major defeat in court this week, when a federal judge ruled that consumers who are suing the company for privacy violations can proceed with a class-action.

U.S. District Court Judge James Holderman in the Northern District of Illinois this week certified a class of everyone since 2005 who downloaded comScore's software from a third party. Holderman also certified a smaller subgroup of people who weren't shown a hyperlink to comScore's end user license agreement before downloading the software.

Jay Edelson, lawyer for the consumers who brought the case, estimates that the class could total 1 million people. The lawsuit was filed in 2011 by two comScore panelists, Jeff Dunstan of California and Illinois resident Mike Harris, who allege that they installed comScore's software after downloading a free product -- like a screensaver, game or program that creates greeting cards.

They say that comScore's terms of service don't alert users about the “terrifying” amount of data the company collects -- including usernames and passwords, search queries, credit card numbers and retail transactions. comScore's terms also don't inform users that the software can change files on people's computers, as well as modify their security settings, Dunstan and Harris allege.

Newspaper Ad Revs Drop Again

MediaPost by Erik Sass 4/8/13

Newspaper advertising revenues have been dropping steadily for some years now, and the end of 2012 brought no respite for publishers. Total ad revenues (including print and online) fell 8.5% from $6.83 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 to $6.26 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the latest figures from the Newspaper Association of America.

Over the same period, total print revenues tumbled 10.8% from $5.93 billion to $4.36 billion. Online ad revenues increased 6.9% from $906 million to $968 million. This marked the 26th straight quarter of year-over-year declines for total advertising revenues.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, online advertising contributed 15.5% of total newspaper advertising revenues, up from a 13.3% share in the fourth quarter of 2011.

U.S. Social Ad Revenue to Hit $11 Billion by 2017

ClickZ by James Dohnert 4/11/13

Annual U.S. social ad revenue is expected to reach $11 billion by 2017, according to a recent study by BIA/Kelsey. The jump would represent a growth rate of over 18 percent over the next five years. BIA/Kelsey projects that video and mobile social ads will be the prime motivators for the future growth.

According to the study, campaign options such as Twitter Promoted Tweets and Facebook Sponsored Stories will lead to advertisers rethinking their campaign strategies. BIA/Kelsey's study estimates that native social advertising revenues will grow over $3 billion by 2017.

Netflix 'Most Watched' Cable Network In Viewing Time Per Day

MediaPost by Wayne Friedman 4/11/13

By one measure, Netflix could equate to being the biggest U.S. cable TV network -- in terms of viewing time per day, per its subscriber universe. Following up on his July 2012 estimate, Richard Greenfield, media analyst for BTIG Research, says the subscription video-on-demand service in the first quarter of this year has streamed some 87 minutes of video per subscriber per day. This is up from 79 minutes of streaming video per subscriber per day in June of 2012.

"Netflix is now likely the most-watched cable network," he says -- similar to viewing levels of the Disney Channel. Netflix's streaming only goes into 28.1 million homes in the U.S. -- far less than 100 million or so homes for the Disney Channel and many other veteran networks, including ESPN, USA Network, TNT, and TBS.

Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, has said in his blog that Netflix has exceeded 4 billion hours of streaming video content in the first quarter of 2013.

How did Greenfield arrive at his conclusion? He assumes that 88% of the streaming was with U.S. subscribers. That comes to 1.2 billion hours in the quarter -- and it means 73 billion domestic minutes per month. Looking at 28.1 million expected Netflix subscribers for this quarter, you get 2,600 minutes per subscriber per month -- or 87 minutes per day.

Spending on video bought via RTB to significantly outpace overall digital video growth

eMarketer 4/16/13

Advertisers and publishers have been quick to join the real-time bidding (RTB) marketplace. Drawn by the efficiency and targeting offered by programmatic buying, RTB spending on display formats has risen fast. And digital video—already a fast-growing format—is now seeing a significant percentage of that RTB outlay.

Forrester Consulting, in a survey commissioned by video RTB marketplace SpotXchange, found that in 2012 the number of video ad impressions bought via RTB exchanges doubled year over year; this year, the number of video impressions will top 100 billion.

Forrester projected that spending on video ads bought via RTB will reach $686 million this year and top $1 billion in 2014. At that point, RTB spending on the format will account for nearly one-quarter of digital video outlays.

Between 2011 and 2014, RTB video spending will also grow at nearly three times the rate of overall video spending, rising at a compound annual growth (CAGR) rate of 57% vs. 20% for video overall, according to Forrester.

eMarketer estimates that video spending overall will rise by 41% this year to $4.1 billion, slightly higher than Forrester’s estimate of $3.59 billion.

IAB - 2012 Spending

IAB 4/16/13

Digital advertising revenues climbed to a milestone high of $36.6 billion in 2012, according to the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report for the full-year of 2012. That historic number marks a 15 percent rise over 2011’s full-year number, which itself had been the highest on record, at $31.7 billion. The report, released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and prepared by PwC U.S., additionally reveals that 2012’s fourth quarter numbers, at $10.3 billion, rose by 14.9 percent from $9 billion in the final quarter of 2011. These 2012 Q4 figures represent an uptick of 11.6 percent over Q3 2012, which came in at $9.2 billion.

Other highlights include:

- For the second year in a row, mobile achieved triple-digit growth year-over-year. The past year saw the mobile category surge 111 percent to $3.4 billion, pivoting off of 2011’s record-breaking 149 percent year-over-year rise to $1.6 billion. Mobile accounted for 9 percent of total internet ad revenue in 2012.

- Digital video, a component of display-related advertising, brought in $2.3 billion, marking a significant year-over-year increase of 29 percent in 2012, compared to $1.8 billion in 2011.

- Search revenues in 2012 totaled $16.9 billion or 46 percent of 2012 revenues, up 14.5 percent from $14.8 billion in 2011.

- Display-related advertising revenues in 2012 totaled $12 billion or 33 percent of 2012 revenues, up almost 9 percent from $11 billion in 2011.

- Retail advertisers continue to represent the largest category of internet ad spending, accounting for 20 percent in 2012, followed by financial services, which is responsible for 13 percent of the year’s revenues.

Despite Reservations, Programmatic Buying Gains Steam

eMarketer 4/23/13

Buyers and publishers struggle to get the info and control they need out of exchanges Programmatic buying has begun to rewrite the way digital ads are bought and sold. Through demand-side platforms and real-time bidding exchanges, marketers are purchasing ad inventory through automated technology, which can allow for real-time response to customer actions—often at a lower cost than traditional ad-buying methods. However, both publishers and media buyers still have concerns about programmatic buying.

Digiday and digital advertising technology provider OpenX surveyed media buyers and publishers in North America in February 2013 and found that 70% were already doing some programmatic trading. And 77% of those buying via programmatic means planned to do more of it in the next 12 months.

Not only are more media buyers using programmatic exchanges, but a good number are also considering moving to programmatic trading to replace their direct relationships with publishers. More than one-third of media buyers said they were at least somewhat likely to do so.

For publishers, the concern around programmatic buying is a matter of protecting their pricing and brand image.

While the cheaper pricing and better targeting upside of programmatic buying may be obvious for media buyers, they too have concerns about migrating onto programmatic platforms. The greatest percentage (68%) wanted more data to inform bids. There was also significant interest in exposure to additional inventory.

Netflix Surpasses HBO In Subscribers

MediaPost via Variety 4/23/13

For the first time, Netflix surpassed HBO in subscribers in the first quarter of 2013. “Netflix, which ended 2012 with 27.15 million domestic subs, added just over 2 million subs [in Q1],” Variety reports, citing Netflix’s own numbers. HBO, meanwhile, ended 2012 with 28.7 million subscribers, according to data from SNL Kagan. “The new figures will likely escalate the rivalry simmering between the two companies,” Variety suggests.

Old Media, New Tricks Radio and Outdoor Companies Turn to Online Auction System to Sell Digital Ads

Wall Street Journal by Suzanne Vranica 4/28/13

Buying ad space on the video screens inside the Clark/Lake train station in Chicago typically involves making half a dozen phone calls and exchanging several emails or faxes with the firm that owns the screens.

Now, advertisers can accomplish the same task with a few clicks of a computer mouse, thanks to a new auction system for buying digital out-of-home ads.

Radio is also tuning in. Triton Digital, a Los Angeles-based company, has recently built an ad exchange that allows advertisers to automate the buying of online and mobile-audio radio ads. Its sells some inventory for media companies such as CBS Radio, which streams content on the Web from many of their local stations.
Triton said it has already run ad campaign for a "handful" of advertisers but it declined to provide specific names.

In Case You Missed It March 2013

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:10:00 GMT

1.5 Billion People Will Watch Video Online by 2016

ClickZ by James Dohnert 2/27/13

Roughly 1.5 billion people will watch at least one online video by 2016, according to a recently released study by online video technology provider Ooyala. Ooyala says that viewership of branded videos grew 91 percent over the course of Q4 2012. According to the study, streaming video on smartphones and tablets grew exponentially in 2012.

The study found that branded video viewership surged during last year's holiday season. It was discovered that streaming video on tablets also peaked during the holiday season. Tablet video viewership grew 73 percent on Christmas Day specifically, according to the study.

Overall, live video views grew on streaming devices over the course of 2012. Users were reported to watch live video 18 times longer on a desktop than video-on-demand. For tablets, the number was five times longer when comparing live video streaming to video-on-demand.

Ooyala projects that video viewing on smartphones will grow 10 times over within the next five years. Last year alone mobile saw its share of online video views jump 87 percent.

Increased use of free music streaming services takes a bite out of illegal peer-to-peer music file sharing activity.

NPD 2/27/13

According to The NPD Group, a global information company, illegal music file sharing declined significantly in 2012. Last year the number of consumers using peer-to-peer (P2P) services to download music declined 17 percent in 2012 compared to the previous year.

The primary reason for this reduced sharing activity was an increased use of free, legal music streaming services.

Facebook Acquires Atlas, Boosting Ad-Serving, Attribution

MediaPost by Mark Walsh 2/28/13

Facebook on Thursday announced its acquisition of Microsoft’s Atlas advertising platform to enhance its ad-serving capability and help marketers better track the value of ad spending on the social network.

Much of the speculation about the long-rumored transaction has focused on Facebook using Atlas to launch its own Web-wide network.

The acquisition immediately gives Facebook a direct competitor to Google’s DoubleClick and ratchets up the company’s rivalry to dominate display advertising online.

With Atlas, the No. 2 ad server behind DoubleClick, Facebook has the means to grab a larger share of advertisers’ display budgets and vault ahead of Google.

YouTube to launch music streaming service, take on Spotify

CNN by Ryan Bradley and Jessi Hempel 3/5/13

YouTube, the world's largest digital repository of streaming media, will launch a subscription music service later this year. The service has its own negotiating team and operating unit but will likely have some overlap with new features also rumored to be coming to Google's Android music platform, Google Play.

YouTube is already one of the most heavily used music services in the world, but it hasn't yet charged users. Instead, it sells ads against its music videos; a cut goes back to the record companies. Of the ways music is consumed today, spending on subscription-based streaming ("renting" music rather than "owning" it) is a fraction of what spending on digital purchases on stores like Amazon (AMZN) or Apple's (AAPL) iTunes store can reach. Fewer people subscribe, and of those, the spending per month is generally lower.

Beats By Dre, the headphone and speaker company, recently announced that it, too, would launch a streaming music service. It will be named Daisy -- a reference to the first song "sung" by a computer.

They're all fighting over a still small pie. U.S. consumers have been fairly slow to join -- and stick with -- subscription music services. The most popular, Muve Music, has just 1.4 million customers. (Spotify is close behind, with about 1 million.) Its success is in large part due to the fact that it bundles its price into a cellphone bill, as if it were a cable operator charging for an MTV/VH1 package. The mobile carrier that owns Muve, Cricket, is then able to sell subscriptions at less than $5 a month, far lower rates than Spotify, which generally costs about twice that much.

Guess Who's Planning to Spend Big in Mobile? CPG Advertisers Highest Level of Overall Optimism Since 2007

AdAge by Jason Del Rey 3/7/13

The latest trend that CPG advertisers seem ready to latch onto? Mobile advertising. Two-thirds of CPG advertisers and their agencies say they plan to increase spending in mobile advertising over the next 12 months, according to an Advertiser Perceptions semiannual survey of more than 1,200 people involved in deciding how ad budgets are allocated. Only 2% of those same CPG advertisers said their mobile budgets will shrink. CPG advertisers are also the most optimistic group about increasing spending in digital video.

Overall, advertisers and agencies said mobile was the medium they were most confident would see increased spending this year, with 64%.

Pandora Revs Rise 54%, CEO Steps Down

MediaPost by Mark Walsh 3/7/13

The company saw revenue rise 54% to $125.1 million on strong advertising sales for the three months ended January 31. Excluding stock-based compensation, it posted a loss of four cents a share, up from three cents in the year-earlier period. Analysts, on average, had estimated a loss of 5 cents a share on revenue of $122.8 billion.

Pandora said ad sales in the quarter rose 54% to $109 million, while subscription and other revenue increased 74% to %16.1 million. Fueling those gains were growing usage numbers. Total listener hours grew 53% to 4.05 billion in the quarter from 2.66 billion a year ago. It had an 8% share of the total U.S. listening audience in January, up from 5.55%.

With most users now accessing Pandora via mobile, the company reported mobile revenue increased 111% to $80.3 million in the fourth quarter. That rate even outpaced mobile listener growth of 70%.

1 in 4 American Teens Access the Internet Mostly From a Mobile Phone

MarketingCharts 3/13/13

78% of American teens (aged 12-17) now own a cell phone, and 47% of those teens own a smartphone. That translates to 37% of all teens having a smartphone, up from 23% in 2011.

Among teens who access the internet through a mobile device (74% of the total), 33% are cell-mostly internet users, while among smartphone owners, that figure rises to a gaudy 50%.

Other Findings:
- 95% of teens are now online.
- 93% have a computer or have access to one.
- 23% of teens have a tablet, with that figure climbing to about 30% among those whose parents have high levels of household income and college education.
- Hispanic teens (43%) are more likely to own a smartphone than black (40%) and white (35%) teens.

Digital Marketing Budgets On The Rise

MediaPost by Mark Walsh 3/14/13

Annual digital marketing budgets, on average, amounted to 2.5% of a company’s revenue in 2012 and will grow 9% this year. The majority of companies spend between 10% and 50% of their marketing budget on digital efforts, with an average of 25%.

Advertising accounts for the largest share of digital marketing budgets at 12.5%, followed by content creation and management account (11.6%), and search marketing (10.7%). The emergence of the second category reflects increased emphasis on content marketing through media such as blogs, social networking and customer forums.

To help fund digital efforts, 28% of marketers overall say they have shifted money from their traditional ad budget. High-tech companies are most likely to take this approach, which may partly result from a desire for increased efficiency. Two in five companies say they are realizing savings from digital marketing compared to traditional methods.

Netflix Gets Social With U.S. Facebook Integration

ClickZ by Lisa Lacy 3/14/13

Netflix has launched Netflix Social, a feature that enables its streaming users in the U.S. to link their accounts to Facebook to see what their friends are watching and what they really like.

Friends' Favorites will include content rated four or five stars. Watched by Your Friends will include anything friends have watched, with a few exceptions. Members can choose not to share a specific title by clicking a "Don't Share This" button. They can also unshare a previously shared title by clicking an "Unshare" button. That's according to a blog post announcing the update.

Carat Projects Digital At One-Fifth Of All Ad Spend, Beginning To Dominate Key Markets

MediaPost by Joe Mandese 3/20/13

While TV will remain advertising’s No. 1 medium, digital -- principally online display and search -- will account for one-fifth of all ad spending next year, according to new projections released this morning by Aegis Group’s Carat unit. The forecast, which calls for the global ad economy to expand 3.7% this year, represents a significant downgrade from Carat’s previous projections in August 2012, when Carat projected ad spending would increase 5.1% in 2013. On the bright side, Carat projects worldwide ad spending will rise 5.0% in 2014, led by double-digit increases in Latin America, Russia, and a resurgence in North America and the U.K.

Carat estimates that digital’s share of global ad spending has been expanding 2% each year, and based on that rate, predicts it will account for more than 20% of all global advertising by 2014.

Slight Gain in Share for Local Digital Radio Ad Spend

eMarketer 3/19/13

Digital radio occupies a small piece of the digital ad spending pie, but as internet radio takes off, more dollars will go to the format. According to an industrywide survey of more than 6,200 local online operations from Borrell Associates, US local radio digital ad spending grew 22% to reach $370.7 million in 2012. That is more than three times the pace of local radio digital ad growth in 2011, and slightly faster than total local digital advertising’s 21.4% growth in 2012.

Nielsen Study: Fans Could Spend Billions Annually For Exclusive Content

FMQB 3/21/13

40 percent of U.S. consumers – those classified as "Fans" – are responsible for 75 percent of music spending. These Fans, who spend between $20 billion and $26 billion on music each year, could spend between $450 million and $2.6 billion more on music if compelling content is made commercially available.

- A majority of "Fans" want greater engagement with their favorite musicians and would be willing to pay considerably for that access.
- Aficionado Fans (14 percent of respondents) - the most avid and engaged music fans are spending about $400 per year on music.
- Digital Fans (13 percent) – the smartphone is the entertainment hub for these fans.
- Big Box Fans (13 percent) - these fans shop at mass retailers, are partial to pop and country music, and listen to music through a CD or MP3 player.
- Occasional Concert Consumers (14 percent) and Ambivalent Music Consumers (22 percent) are less engaged with music than the "Fans," and they spend less (about $100 and $70 per year, respectively).
- Background Music Consumers (24 percent) are the least engaged of all music consumers, spending only $40 per year on music.

Initial 2013 Broadcast Spending Reflects Tough Comps With 2012, Digital Continues To Expand Share Of Agency Budgets

MediaPost by Joe Mandese 3/26/13

U.S. ad spending expanded 4% during the first two months of 2013 vs. the same period in 2012, both radio (-4%) and TV (-3%) -- the main beneficiaries of political media buys, were the only media sectors to post declines during the first two months of 2013.

While broadcast TV was down, increases in network (+1%) and local cable (+5%) and syndication (+1%), were enough to keep total TV ad spending erosion down to just 1% during the first two months.

While all other media expanded by double-digit rates, the overhang from television -- which accounts for nearly two-thirds (64.6%) of the media budgets spent by the agencies -- was enough to keep total ad spending down to just a 4% rate of growth.

Twitter Ad Revenue to Approach $1 Billion by 2014, Fueled by Mobile

AdAge by John McDermott 3/27/13

Twitter's global ad revenue will catapult from $582.8 million this year to $950 million next year, according to new projections from the market research firm eMarketer on Wednesday, which cited the strength of Twitter's mobile presence in revising its earlier projections upward by a combined $180.1 million.

Just more than than half of Twitter's ad revenue, 53%, comes from mobile today, according to eMarketer. But that proportion will increase to more than 60% by 2015, when the researcher estimates that Twitter will collect more $1.3 billion in ad revenue.

The company's U.S. mobile ad revenue will jump to $811 million in 2015 from $551 million next year and $308.9 million this year...

Based on the new set of projections, Twitter will pass Pandora in 2013 to become the third-largest mobile ad company in the U.S., behind Google and Facebook.

In Case You Missed It February 2013

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 14:20:00 GMT

Facebook Sees 23% Mobile Ad Jump in Q4 2012

ClickZ by Mary Lisbeth D'Amico, 1/31/13

Heading off critics who have said that Facebook is not a mobile-first company, the social media behemoth yesterday reported that mobile advertising revenues grew 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.

At its Q4 2012 earnings press conference yesterday, Facebook announced gains in its advertising business of 41 percent over Q4 2011 to total $1.3 billion, or 84 percent of total revenue. Of that, 23 percent was mobile ad revenue, up from 14 percent the previous quarter.

"Today there is no argument: Facebook is a mobile company," said CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the earnings call, pointing out that a year ago those revenues were zero percent.

Overall, Facebook beat analyst expectations with total revenues of $1.585 billion in the fourth quarter, which also includes payments and other fees. Net income was up year on year for the quarter to $548 million, compared to $523 million in the fourth quarter the previous year.

COO Sheryl Sandberg also said that Facebook continues to work on all fronts with brand marketers, direct response advertisers, local businesses and developers. The company said that the use of promoted posts had nearly doubled revenue from local business pages since the beginning of 2012, for example. The posts make it easier for businesses to create and purchase ads directly from their Facebook Page. Facebook Exchange, which claims to give brands access to new, higher-quality sales leads, also served one billion impressions daily since its launch in September.

Digital Ad Spend May Surpass Trad Media In Near Future

MediaPost by Steve McClellan, 3/5/13

A new survey of ad agencies indicates that digital media may eclipse traditional advertising in the near future, with nearly one-third of respondents expecting to spend more on digital than on traditional media within the next three years. That’s according to a survey conducted by ad transaction processor Strata, which polled nearly 100 ad shops in the fourth quarter.

The survey found that enthusiasm for spot TV and spot radio continues to decline. On a year-to-year basis, the survey found that 40% fewer respondents indicated their clients were interested in spot TV advertising, while 32% were less interested in spot radio.

According to the survey, print continues its free fall, with agencies indicating that 60% percent of advertisers are less interested in print than they were a year ago.

The outlook for 2013 remains uncertain, per the survey. Half the agencies polled expect their growth in the first half of 2013 to be the sameas the last half of 2012. Nearly one-quarter of the agencies polled see their business decreasing within the same periods.

Mobile Users Shift Alters Web, Facebook Biz

MediaPost by Mark Walsh, 3/8/13

NPD Group today released new findings on the mobile shift, leading companies like Facebook, Google and Pandora to alter their business models as more people consume media on devices.

The research firm said more than a third (37%) of those surveyed use their PC less often or not at all because they are spending more time on tablets and smartphones. Web browsing and accessing Facebook are the top activities people are switching to on mobile.

While people are still using their computers for many PC-centric activities, NPD said tablets and smartphones are gaining ground. Internet browsing is still highest among PC owners, at 75%, followed by smartphones (61%), and tablets (53%). Facebook use follows the same pattern with PC owners at 63%, smartphone owners (55%) and tablet users (39%).

Half of Tablet and Smartphone Users Are Using These Devices to Listen to Music

NPD Group Blog, 2/11/13

Mobile devices including tablets and smartphones are increasingly being used as portable music players, according to the new Audio Consumption Study from global information company The NPD Group. Forty percent of tablet owners report they use it to listen to music, while 56 percent of smartphone users say they use it for music listening. Among those using the smartphone for music listening, 39 percent said they listen to music at least once a day and half (54 percent) report they are using the device more for music compared with a year ago.

In the case of smartphones, 65 percent of the music users reported using Internet Radio, such as Pandora, while 30 are using on-demand services, such as Spotify or Rhapsody. However, many (60 percent) bring their own music to the device. Tablet owners have a similar passion for using Internet Radio, and half (49 percent) port their own music files to the device.

Safeway Envisions Future Without Print Ads - No. 5 Grocery Chain Says Digital Coupons Gaining in Popularity

AdAge by Natalie Zmuda, 2/22/13

Safeway is doing its best to eliminate print advertising in favor of more personalized digital ads. The fifth largest grocery player in North America spent $20 million on newspaper ads through November of 2012. That's consistent with 2011, though a big drop off from the $33 million spent on newspaper ads in 2010.

Still, print and free-standing newspaper inserts continue to dominate coupon media, even as digital coupons gain in popularity. Kantar Media found a 46% increase in digital coupon events by consumer packaged goods companies last year, with the trend accelerating as the year progressed.

The Whole Story: Behind The Buzz On Streaming Media

MediaPost by Mike Bloxham, 3/7/13

Streaming video has gained significant attention in recent times as the market continues to grow. This USA TouchPoints analysis looks at the extent to which TV, Movie and Radio/Audio content is streamed in the average week by different age cohorts.

Interestingly, the results clearly show that while the majority of industry buzz is around streaming video, in all age groups analyzed, TV and Movies (individually and combined) were outstripped by the total reach of streaming Radio / Audio.

While this may seem counterintuitive to some, a possible explanation may be a plus of audio content -- it does not require fixed attention or even for the individual to remain in place. Also, Radio and any other kind of streaming can be done on the computer while working on the same device -- whether for the purpose of providing background music, sports commentary or other forms of talk-based content. Services such as Pandora will also account for some of this sector.

3 Out of 10 Display Ads Are Never Seen by Consumers

ClickZ by James Dohnert, 2/15/13

Three out of 10 display ads were never rendered in-view in 2012, according to a comScore report. The report found that around six trillion ad impressions were seen last year. ComScore's report also covered 2012 trends in a variety of other markets like mobile and social networking. The 2013 U.S Digital Future in Focus report comes as part of an annual study by the research firm.

According to the report, about 1.4 trillion of all 2012 ad impressions came during the fourth quarter of the year. That figure represents a 6 percent year-over-year increase for the quarter.

Looking to 2013, comScore projects that publishers will begin to better use data to cut down on frivolous display ads. The firm projects that marketers will begin to use more targeted ads and use data that better shows the monetization ability of advertisements.

"2013 is poised to be digital's most exciting year yet as the growing ubiquity of digital platforms presents marketers with nearly endless opportunities to connect and engage with consumers," says comScore CMO and EVP of Global Product Development Linda Abraham.

Living Social Wins a $110 Million Lifeline

BIA Kelsey by Peter Krasilovsky, 2/20/13

Living Social has won a lifeline from some of its existing investors today with a new infusion of $110 Million. The new cash lets the #2 deals company, which has been 31 percent owned by Amazon, proceed after sustaining very large, unsustainable losses. (It isn’t clear whether Amazon participated in the new raise).

The new investment suggests that the investors arent ready to toss in the towel yet on an investment once valued at $4.5 Billion. There is, in fact, a lot for Living Social to grow on. Despite the bad press that has accumulated in the space including a recent round of layoffs — Living Social has been experiencing revenue growth, with a 32 percent increase in 4Q 2012 over 3Q 2012.

What’s Billboard’s No. 1? Now YouTube Has a Say

The New York Times by Ben Sisario, 2/22/13

What makes a song a hit? In the “Gangnam Style” age the answer often has as much to do with its popularity on YouTube as any other factor.

This week the Billboard Hot 100, the magazine’s 55-year-old singles chart, takes a evolutionary step by incorporating YouTube plays into its formula. The move comes just in time for Baauer’s song “Harlem Shake,” the latest viral video phenomenon, which will make its debut at No. 1 this week thanks to the change.

“The notion that a song has to sell in order to be a hit feels a little two or three years ago to me,” Mr. Werde said. “The music business today — much to its credit — has started to learn that there are lots of different ways a song can be a hit, and lots of different ways that the business can benefit from it being a hit.”

The move is Billboard’s latest step in modernizing the Hot 100, which besides sales and airplay now also incorporates data from streaming services like Spotify. YouTube has taken on an essential role in propelling songs to the cultural forefront, often long before they are picked up by radio programmers. “We want to measure how much consumption is going on, in whatever form a consumer chooses to consume something,” said David Bakula, a senior analyst at Nielsen.

Nielsen TV Ratings Will Soon Include Viewers Who Watch Online

Wired by Angela Watercutter, 2/21/13

It’s not news — to savvy media viewers, at least — that people like to watch TV online, through a range of devices including consoles, tablets, laptops, and computers hooked up to TVs. Now the television ratings company Nielsen is finally getting hip to the program, announcing today that they plan to expand their definition of “TV” to include viewers watching TV over broadband.

The new definition of a “TV household,” as Nielsen explained to its clients today, is any household with “at least one operable TV/monitor with the ability to deliver video via traditional means of antennae, cable [set-top box] or satellite receiver and/or with broadband connection.” In short, “cord cutters” could one day become Nielsen families.

The ratings firm also did research, said McDonough, into homes that did not fit into the current definition of a Nielsen household and found that while a lot of them had televisions, they were using broadband to stream their content. With more and more people catching up on shows through online services like Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and Netflix — most of which are available through connected consoles like the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the Wii — it’s a move that eventually could give a broader picture of how popular a show truly is.

“Nielsen had to do this, of course, because sooner or later business models have to change to reflect how today’s audience really consumes entertainment,” Stewart said in an email to Wired. “Obviously, Fourth Wall Studios, and any other producer of online content, welcomes any tool that gives sponsors a chance to make apples-to-apples audience comparisons between our programs and traditional broadcast television.”

The average radio station booked $137,033 in online advertising last year.

Inside Radio, 2/26/13

Radio took a bigger share of local digital ad spending in 2012, a report by Borrell Associates and the Radio Advertising Bureau finds. It says radio’s local digital dollars grew 22% to $370.7 million last year. That translates to the typical radio station pulling in $137,033 in online advertising. The average cluster made $595,863. Both figures are up about a third from 2011, although Borrell says some stations and clusters netted as much as 32-times those averages. The survey estimates there was a share increase of two-tenths of a point, reversing a three-year trend of radio losing ground to other local competitors. Yet radio’s share of the local digital pie remains small at just 2%. “Among all competitors, it was one of the smallest slices of the pie,” the report says, pointing out the average radio cluster received just 0.47% of all locally spent internet advertising dollars. Pureplay companies like Groupon, Yelp, and Angie’s List took the biggest share at 46%, followed by newspaper with a 24% share and local TV stations with 12%. CEO Gordon Borrell, who has been critical of radio’s slow embrace of digital-only sales.

The Internet is hurting radio's star

San Antonio Express-News by Nolan Hicks, 2/26/13

The ability to stream music from the phone in your pocket — using Pandora or one of its competitors — represents the biggest challenge to commercial radio that the technological revolution has wrought, said Larry Rosin, president of Edison Research, a media research provider.

“(Pandora) is clearly stealing time from commercial radio music stations, primarily among people under 35 years old,” Rosin said, referring to drop-offs in the amount of time people spend listening to radio. “Pandora is more than two-thirds of all Internet radio all by itself.”

While the percentage of the population that listens to radio has remained almost constant during the past decade, time spent listening to the radio consistently has declined by about 15 minutes a year for the past 20 years, said Larry Johnson, senior research consultant for Paragon Media Strategies.

He said the drop has been especially pronounced among younger listeners, who usually are among the early adapters of new technology and services — such as iPods and Pandora. However, he added, there's no clear way to see if those declines have been caused by listeners leaving radio for online streaming services.

A study by the Katz Radio Group provided by Johnson showed that listeners between the ages 18-34 listened to 15.25 hours of broadcast radio every week during spring 2011, while listeners between the ages 35-64 listened to 17.5 hours of radio every week.

In spring 2009, listeners between the ages of 18-34 were listening to almost 15.75 hours of radio a week.

“Digital for us is a tiny portion of our overall listening,” said Brian Lakamp, president of digital at Clear Channel Media and Entertainment. “For us, it's about creating new occasions and using technology to do new things with the radio experience and really doubling down with the relationship that we have with our big brands ... taking the best of radio and using technology to supersize that.”

He said the technology was allowing them to expand their major brands such as KISS FM. And he said that users are responding to the strategy; during the past 14 months, 25 million people have registered to use the iHeartRadio app. Representatives for CBS and Clear Channel also said they view their digital and terrestrial radio services as complementary offerings that don't compete with each other. Instead, they said digital offerings simply made it easier for audiences to listen to their stations where they might not have been able to before.

In Case You Missed It January 2013

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 20:40:00 GMT

Gracenote’s Ad Replacement System That Personalizes TV Commercials Will Start Trials In 2013

TechCrunch by Josh Constine 12/26/13

Most TV commercials are poorly targeted and show things you’d never buy. But not for long. Gracenote‘s new ad replacement system combines viewing habits with personal info to show you more relevant commercials. Gracenote will demo it at CES and start trials in 2013. The rev-share is still in talks, but higher CPMs could enlarge the $70 billion TV ad market and give Gracenote and partners a nice cut.

A smart TV or set-top box with Gracenote’s ad replacement technology uses video fingerprinting to identify what you watch and when a show is about to go to a commercial. It integrates your viewing habits data with another tech provider like INVIDI’s ad decisioning engine that pulls in public information about your gender, age, income, if you rent or buy your home, if you have a car lease, and other credit profile info. The ad decisioning engine’s algorithms crunch the data and decide what ad would be most relevant to you.

Gracenote will begin live trials with several large TV manufacturers and hopes to be shipping production units to market in 2013. The technology could shift the balance of power in TV ads by giving TV makers a seat at the table with broadcasters and advertisers.

Worldwide, More Money Goes Mobile - Mobile search and display advertising up 220% in US alone

eMarketer 1/4/12

Mobile ad spending around the world more than doubled last year, eMarketer estimates, and though growth will moderate this year, double-digit increases in mobile ad spending will continue in coming years as outlays approach $37 billion by 2016.

In 2012, mobile spending was at $8.41 billion, according to eMarketer’s forecast—up from just over $4 billion the year before and $2.34 billion in 2010. eMarketer’s estimates of worldwide mobile ad spending include dollars going toward display and search advertising only, and exclude spending on messaging-based formats. Spending on tablets is also included.

The fastest growth in 2012 came from North America, especially the US, where mobile search and display ad spending was up 220%. Spending doubled in the Middle East and Africa, from a very small base, while growth in the rest of the world’s regions was below average. In Asia-Pacific, spending was up a comparatively small 40%.

How Are Smartphone and PC Internet Users Different?

eMarketer 1/8/12

eMarketer estimates that 1.7 billion people around the world will access the internet via a mobile device in 2013. By 2016, there will be a staggering 2.5 billion mobile internet users worldwide.

The most striking difference GfK found was that PC internet users were considerably less social than their smartphone counterparts. PC internet users spent a sizeable 18% of their internet time on social media activities, but on smartphones, social media truly dominated, accounting for a 31% share of internet time - users spent 13% of their computer internet time watching video, while smartphone users spent just 9%.

eMarketer estimates that mobile accounted for 11.7% of daily media time in 2012, compared to about 25% spent online on nonmobile devices.

Digital to Account for One in Five Ad Dollars

eMarketer 1/9/12

Worldwide, digital ad spending passed the $100-billion mark for the first time last year, according to new eMarketer estimates, and will increase by a further 15.1% in 2013 to $118.4 billion.

North America accounts for the greatest share of all digital ad spending, at 39% as of the end of 2012. As emerging markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America up spending, however, North America and second-place Western Europe will lose share slightly throughout the forecast period. By 2016, 36.7% of spending will come from North America, and 23.7% from Western Europe. By the same year, Asia-Pacific will contribute 29.8% of all digital ad spend in the world.

Borrell: Online Ads To Surge 31%

MediaPost by Mark Walsh 1/9/13

A new forecast from Borrell Associates suggests 2013 will be a big year for local online advertising. The firm projects revenue will surge almost 31% this year -- from $18.7 billion to $24.5 billion as more small and medium-sized businesses shift ad spending to digital from traditional media.

Total advertising nationally is expected to grow just 7.5% to $157 billion, while overall local advertising -- offline and online -- will increase 8.2% to $89 billion. Online will account for 34% of spending at the national level, or $57 billion, and 25% of local ad spending, or $24.5 billion.

While digital spending is forecast to rise 17.6% nationally in 2013, Borrell projects that dollars going to newspapers and radio will fall more than 1% each, while other segments will see even larger declines: local TV stations (-11.5%), direct mail (-7.3%), directories (-23.9%), and telemarketing (-5.7%).

Online spending is expected to jump 30.8% at the local level, but newspapers will gain just 0.6%, while the budget earmarked for other print media will shrink 2.5%, and radio will fall 5.9% from last year. Conversely, the only category projected to outstrip the growth of online locally will be in-cinema advertising, at 42%.

Pandora Expected To Generate $214M In 2013

MediaPost by Laurie Sullivan 1/10/13

Music lovers tuned into Pandora, the Internet radio service, in December 2012 for more than 1.4 billion hours, up 54%, compared with the prior year. Active listeners also rose 41% to 67 million for the month. And on Dec. 24, Pandora members collectively listened to the equivalent of more than 5,692 years of music.
There are 67 million U.S. users, about 20 million listeners daily. One million are paid subscribers. The company is on track to generate $424 million in revenue this year, according to Pandora CRO John Trimble.

Obama Signs Video Sharing Bill - Netflix to launch social feature this year

Adweek by Katy Bachman 1/11/13

President Obama signed a bill Thursday that frees Netflix to launch in the U.S. a feature that lets users automatically broadcast on Facebook what movies and TV shows they're watching. Netflix has already launched the feature in other countries.

Online Poised To Break 25% Budget Milestone, Mobile Fueling Half Its Growth

MediaPost by Joe Mandese 1/11/13

Online advertising will pass a symbolic milestone this year, becoming one out of every four dollars spent by U.S. advertisers, according to new projections from the equity research team at J.P. Morgan. The growth, writes Internet sector analyst Doug Anmuth, is being fueled by advertisers shifting budgets from analogue media to follow consumer time spent with digital media, especially Internet-connected mobile devices, as well as the continuing momentum of social media platforms like Facebook.

That tally, which represents a 17.4% gain over 2012 online ad spending levels, puts online media at 25% of all U.S. ad budgets.

Streaming Video Delivers Blow To Paid Cable

MediaPost by Gavin O'Malley 1/11/13

Driven by the rise of streaming video and better over-the-top technology, cable-led paid-TV services peaked in 2011, and are now on track to decline through 2017.

What will really accelerate the demise of pay TV is when consumers adopt new OTT technology -- from Apple and Intel-- as their primary entertainment services, according to Greeson.

Today, 87% of U.S. broadband households currently subscribe to a pay-TV service, a decline of almost five percentage points since 2010, according to TDG.

The majority of cord-cutters (71%) cite the high cost of paid TV as their primary reason for ditching such services, while 28% cite free online video-on-demand services, such as Hulu. In addition, 25% cite paid VOD services services like Hulu Plus and Netflix as reason enough for cutting their cords.

Americans Watched More Online Video Ads in December Than in Any Prior Month

Marketing Charts 1/15/13

Americans watched 11.3 billion video ads in December, setting a new peak, and a sharp 10% rise from November’s 10.3 billion, according to comScore data. The 11.3 billion video ad views in December is twice as many as in January 2012, and represents 59% year-over-year growth. Video ads accounted for 22.6% of all videos viewed in December, and 1.9% of time spent viewing video online.

- The American online population watched 38.7 billion online content videos in December.
- The average online content video was 5.4 minutes in length, while the average online video ad was 0.4 minutes.
- Google Sites overtook BrightRoll Networks to rank as the number one video ad property, with almost 2 billion ad views during the month.
- Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, was once again the top online video content property with 153 million unique viewers. Facebook was next with 58.8 million, followed by VEVO (51.6 million), NDN (49.9 million) and Yahoo! Sites (47.5 million).
- For the first time, Fullscreen moved ahead of Maker Studios for the second spot in the YouTube partner rankings. VEVO retained its top ranking.

SoundExchange Ends 2012 With $462 Million In Royalty Distributions

FMQB 1/16/13

SoundExchange has announced a new record for 2012, with total year-end royalty payments reaching approximately $462 million (up 58 percent from the prior year). Fourth quarter 2012 distribution also increased with more than 22,000 payments totaling approximately $134.9 million, a nearly 10 percent increase from its Q3 2012 distribution of $122.5 million. The royalties are paid by Internet radio, satellite radio and cable radio services for their performance of sound recordings, and are distributed by SoundExchange to recording artists and record labels.

In Case You Missed It December

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 21:15:00 GMT

Netflix One Step Closer to Video Sharing on Social Media

Adweek by Katy Bachman 11-29-12

Netflix is moving closer to offering its subscribers in the U.S. the ability to share through the service what movies or TV shows they watched on social media sites like Facebook. The Judiciary Committee voted today on a House bill that would update the Video Privacy Protection Act, a decades-old bill that prohibits the disclosure of video rentals without written permission for each one.

Though U.S. Internet users can share their book or music lists on Facebook, they can't share their video choices because of the 1988 law, passed in the age of video tape rentals.

Digital Keeps Driving Ad Spending Upward in New ZenithOptimedia Forecast

AdAge by Alexandra Bruell 12-2-12

U.S. ad spending will grow at a modest but fairly steady rate over the next few years, aided in large part by the continued surge in digital media, including social and mobile platforms, according to ZenithOptimedia's latest ad spending forecast.

The Publicis Groupe media agency network predicts an increase in overall ad spending in the U.S. of 4.3% in 2012, 3.5% in 2013, 4.4% in 2014 and 4.7% in 2015.

Digital continues to outpace predictions for spending in other categories, particularly as use of online video rises and viewers spend more time with it. Internet ad spending is expected to grow at a rate of 18.2% in 2012, 18.1% in 2013, 18.3% in 2014 and 17.6% in 2015.

Radio will continue to see slight increases -- 2.9% in 2013, 1.9% in 2014 and 1% in 2015 -- due to new formats, according to ZenithOptimedia.

Pandora Shares Fall On Lowered Outlook, Ad Revs Rise

MediaPost by Mark Walsh 12-4-12

Since reports that Apple was planning to launch its own streaming music service began circulating in September, Pandora has faced increased investor uncertainty. Concerns about the company’s ability to compete directly with the tech behemoth have pushed down Pandora’s stock more than 25%.

The company’s results for its fiscal third quarter ending Oct. 31 were better. Pandora reported a profit of one cent per share on sales of $120 million, up 60% from the year-earlier period.

The company said total listener hours -- a key audience metric -- grew 67% to 3.5 billion during the third quarter, compared to 2.1 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2012. It recently reported that listener hours in October alone grew 65% to 1.2 billion. Active listeners In October increased 47% to 59 million, down slightly from 49% growth in September.

Advertising, which generates the bulk of Pandora’s revenue, rose 60% to $106 million in the quarter, while subscription sales contributed $13.7 million, up 52% from a year ago. Building up advertising on the mobile side has been a key focus this year for Pandora, which gets the vast majority of its usage through mobile devices.

In Spotify Refresh, a New Canvas for Advertisers: Spotify Now Has 5 Million Paying Customers Globally

AdAge by Jason Del Rey 12-6-12

But in an interview after the event, Spotify Chief Advertising Officer Jeff Levick talked about the potential that one of the new features holds for marketers. The new section, which Spotify is labeling "Discover," surfaces content such as songs, playlists, and live-performance videos that Spotify users haven't discovered yet but which they may like based on their past listening habits. The section is laid out in a visual-driven experience incorporating images and videos in a big-tile grid that has some traces of Pinterest.

"Ads can be and should be about content and we plan to use this content-rich experience to let brands test out new things," he said, successfully avoiding saying the already cliched term "native advertising."

Up to now, Spotify has made money from marketers in two ways: through audio and display ads on the free version of the service. (Spotify also offers two paid tiers which are ad-free.) It also helps brands like McDonald's and Reebok build their own Spotify apps, which they often promote through ads on the service.

Mr. Ek announced at the event that Spotify now has 5 million paying subscribers globally -- paying either $4.99 or $9.99 a month -- and 1 million who pay in the U.S. Another 15 million or so use the service, but don't pay for access, meaning they are being hit with advertising.

Radio TSL

Inside Radio 12-17-12

Weekly time spent listening to radio declines by 28 minutes. The average American aged 12+ spent 13 hours and 51 minutes listening to radio a week, according to Arbitron’s RADAR 113 report, which covers March 31, 2011–March 28, 2012. While that’s a healthy number – nearly two hours a day – it’s down 28 minutes a week from one year earlier: 14 hours and 19 minutes in Arbitron’s RADAR 109, which covers April 1, 2010–March 30, 2011. More alarming are year-over-year declines among young adults.

•    Men 25-34 spent 51 minutes less with radio per week in RADAR 113 (15 hours) than in RADAR 109 (14 hours, 9 minutes).
•    TSL among women 25-34 also fell by a significant amount, from 12 hours, 55 minutes to 12 hours, 13 minutes, a year-over-year drop of 42 minutes.
•    Men 18-24 are spending 36 minutes less per week with radio, women 18-24 are listening 38 minutes less.

Demos with smaller declines than the 12+ average include women 35-54 (down 21 minutes), men 45-54 (down 17 minutes), women 45-54 (down 26 minutes), men 55-64 (down 15 minutes) men 65+ (down 26 minutes) and women 65+ (down 18 minutes). Teen listening declined only eight minutes but the demo already had the lowest listening level of any: about eight hours a week for teenage boys and nine and a-half hours for girls. The biggest TSL surprise: a 43-minute weekly decline among women 55-64. Both RADAR 113 and RADAR 109 include data from all 48 Arbitron PPM markets.

Kantar: U.S. Advertising Spending Up 7.1% In Q3

MediaPost by Wayne Friedman 12-17-12

Following earlier similar U.S. advertising reports, Kantar Media said total advertising spending grew strongly in the third quarter of 2012 -- due to heavy political and Summer Olympics expenditures. Kantar says some $1.8 billion from these two spending areas helped the period pull in $34.5 billion, with the total spending for the first nine months of the year now up 3.8% to $101.3 billion.

The biggest gains were to TV. Network TV spending climbed 29.9%, and the London Olympics Games added $1 billion of incremental money. Spot TV spending also spiked up 19.8%.

Spanish-language TV budgets gained 17.8%, also as a result of political advertising with spending on local TV stations. Kantar says syndication TV expenditures were up 9.3% from big gains on consumer package goods, insurance and restaurant advertising.

Cable TV had weaker results -- climbing 2.9%, mostly from TV dollars going to TV stations with Olympic coverage. Internet display advertising was even lower, dropping 4.3%. Kantar says these results suffered from poorly performing mid-size Web sites.

Radio, like TV, had strong results. Network radio was up 26.3% and national spot radio climbed 9.4% higher. Political advertising also did well here.

Print media continued its downward trend -- national newspapers down 17.2% and consumer magazines off 3.2% (from weaker pharmaceutical and direct-response marketer spending). Only local newspapers made it into positive territory -- up 0.8% -- albeit from an extra Sunday in the reporting period.

Freestanding inserts climbed 17.3%, also helped by a longer reporting period. Outdoor media was up 4.9%.

Jon Swallen, chief research officer at Kantar Media North America, said in a release: “Looking beyond these special events and focusing on indicators of core health, our data show that more than 60 percent of the Top 1000 advertisers increased their budgets year-over-year. This proportion has been stable for several quarters and indicates marketers are holding the course.”

Holiday Surprise: U.S. Mobile Ad Spend Reaches $4 Billion

MediaPost by Steve Smith 12-18-12

Driven by strong performance for native ad formats from Facebook and Twitter, mobile ad spend in the U.S. ended the year considerably better than expected, according to revised estimates from eMarketer.

Display, search and message-based advertising across devices will increase 180% over 2011 to reach $4.06 billion this year, the research firm expects. The 180% spike in growth is revised from a previous projection of 80% growth for the year to a total spend of $2.61 billion. eMarketer explains that the popularity of newsfeed ads into Facebook and Twitter's Promoted Tweets were among the reasons for the striking change in estimates. The increase in Facebook mobile ad revenues stood out and beat most analyst expectations handily.

Mobile Phones Now Account for 17% of Total Time Spent With the Internet

Marketing Charts 12-19-12

People are spending more time accessing the internet from a variety of non-PC connected devices, finds GfK in a new report. While desktop and laptop computers accounted for 83% of total time spent online last year, that dropped by 10% points to 73% this year. Picking up the slack were mobile devices: mobile phones now account for 17% of time spent with the internet (up 42% from 12%), and tablets 6% (double last year’s 3%).

The GfK study analyzes the breakdown of how internet time is spent on smartphones versus computers, identifying some interesting differences. For example, social media captures 31% of smartphone internet time, compared to 18% of PC internet time. (That result aligns neatly with recent data from Nielsen, which found consumers devoting 30% of their mobile time to social networks in July of this year, versus 20% of their PC time.)

Other Findings:
GfK’s data reveals that consumers spend almost twice as much time accessing social networks from their smartphones as they do emailing from their devices. On computers, the amount of time spent with email and social was the same.

Time spent on PCs accessing online video has almost doubled, from 7% share in 2011 to 13% this year. The share of time spent with email and social media also grew. According to the Nielsen report (see link above), while social media’s PC audience size actually decreased by 5% year-over-year in July, time spent with social media via PCs jumped by 24%.

Online Sets New Ad Record, Posts First $9 Billion Quarter

MediaPost by Gavin O'Malley 12-19-12

Continuing to break records, domestic online ad revenues reached $9.2 billion in the third quarter of the year, according to new data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PwC US. Year-over-year, third-quarter ad revenues were up an impressive 18%; that's 6% better than the second quarter of 2012.

During the first half of 2012, online ad revenues climbed to an all-time high of $17 billion -- representing a 14% increase year-over-year.

Sleeping with the Enemy

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:30:00 GMT

Posted via iMedia Connection

BIA/Kelsey forecasts, local online, interactive and digital advertising revenue will sail smooth waters for the next few years with a 12.4% compound annual growth rate. Traditional media (read: broader broadcasters, casting a wider net), on the other hand, will see their ad revenue stagnate at a negative 0.4% annual rate over the same time period.

As figures like this become the norm, it’s clear that media’s charter has changed. Beyond a slight course correction or even a pivot, we’re talking 180-degree change. Continue down the same path and you’re hot on the heels of dinosaurs.

Media delivered the mail for marketers for a long time. You thought it was there to provide you with programming you’d relate to, learn from, and fall in love with? Puh-lease. Make no mistake: you’re the mark, the advertiser is the hunter, and the media channel is pointer nosing you out, flushing you, and chasing you relentlessly until you give in and get bagged. Media companies gave away stuff free or dirt cheap because what consumers gave was found money – a rounding error in the grand scheme of things. The entire enterprise was funded by Madison Avenue.

Media math was simple: deliver enough quality content and reach audience scale. Achieve scale and advertisers will pay you for delivering the quarry.

Now it doesn’t add up like it used to.

You see, a funny thing happened. Some “up with the people” technologists figured out the equation and decided to do something about it. Seemingly overnight, most towns went from one paper, three television stations, and a handful of radio stations to hundreds or thousands of each from around the globe. Content became liberated from form. Newspapers became synonymous with “news” not “paper.” Radio became audio and emanated from phones, iPads, and even cable channels (in addition to your car stereo). Television became decoupled from the video that fueled it, relegated to just an appliance, not a magic box as it was once regarded.

Seeing where things were heading, media companies did the Big Boomerang out of enlightened self-interest. As the marketplace became fractured, efficiency flagged. Their hand with their ad masters became diminished as they brought less eyes and ears (and wallets) to the party every year.

So they switched allegiances. Media became Mediators.

Now, they create content much more with the consumer in mind. Things got specialized and relevant. Their “big tent” approach where they played to the middle to keep everyone (somewhat) happy gave way to working the corners, moving audience out of a nameless and faceless herd and into little groups of similar tastes, perspectives and locations.

Ultimately, media will not only deliver content to these little groups but they’ll deliver messages from them to advertisers as brokered by the media property. “They’re willing to give you the following personal information in exchange for limited, highly specific adverting and equally relevant content on a purely opt-in basis. And PS—they want a vote in the narrative as well.”

If you want to listen to Yiddish Dance Music, there are plenty of stations to choose from. Want to learn the intimate thoughts and life stories of albino hoarders? Tune in and find out. These slivers of special interests sometimes get aggregated together with others and packaged up for advertisers with huge scale. Equally, they can be spoken-to very personally in smaller groups without being shouted at.

Danish-loving-fetishishts of the world rejoice!

In Case You Missed It November

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 19:20:00 GMT

MediaVest Teams With Millennial Media On Analytics

MediaPost by Mark Walsh 11-5-12

MediaVest USA and mobile ad network Millennial Media have struck a partnership giving the agency access to Millennials' proprietary data set and the ability to beta-test new mobile ad technology with clients.

Specifically, MediaVest will be able to use the ad network’s “Audience Insight” reports, which enable brand advertisers to see how their campaigns performed across more than 600 difference audience categories. That means they can obtain results even for segments that are not directly targeted in a given campaign, but overlap with the intended audience.

For example, a campaign targeting “gadget geeks” might also include golf fans or business travelers. That information can be used to optimize mobile and digital ad efforts.

Study: Netflix Dominates Web Streaming During Prime Time

AdAge 11-8-12

Netflix increased its dominance of the online viewing market in a study, defying predictions that newer players would carve into the company's market share.

Netflix captured 33% of prime-time web viewing based on internet traffic in September, eclipsing Amazon.com, Hulu and Time Warner's HBO Go by a multiple of at least 18, Sandvine Inc. said in its "Global Internet Phenomena Report" released Wednesday.

The company's share of peak internet viewing traffic has climbed from 20.6% in the second half of 2010, Sandvine said. It stood at 32.7% a year ago. By comparison, Amazon's market share amounted to 1.75% in September, while Hulu garnered 1.38% and HBO Go had 0.52%, according to the study.

U.S. households have more than doubled their monthly internet use over phone and cable lines in the past year, consuming the equivalent of 81 hours of downloaded video, according to data compiled from 200 Sandvine customers.

Internet Radio Closing in on Traditional Music Listening

PC Magazine by Angela Moscaritolo 11-8-12

A whopping 96 million individuals — or about 50 percent of the U.S. Internet population aged 13 and older — listened to an Internet radio or on-demand music service in the past three months, according to new data from The NPD Group.

More than a third (37 percent) of U.S. Internet users jammed out to music on Pandora and other Internet radio services, while nearly the same amount (36 percent) fired up an on-demand music service like YouTube, Vevo, Spotify, Mog, Rhapsody, or Rdio. The popularity and convenience of Internet radio appears to be cutting into traditional music listening.

The audience for Internet radio grew 27 percent year over year, as the on-demand music audience increased by 18 percent. As Internet radio and on-demand listening has risen, the number of consumers who reported listening to music on CDs dropped 16 percent, while the music audience for AM/FM radio fell 4 percent, and the number of consumers listening to digital downloads declined 2 percent.

The decline in radio and CD listening can partially be attributed to the fact that 34 percent of Pandora users now listen to the service in their car, NPD said.

Google ad revenue surpasses all of print media

Smarter Investing by Statista 11-12-12

We played with the numbers a little bit and found an interesting piece of information that nicely illustrates how ad markets have changed in the past decade: in the first six months of 2012, Google raked in $20.8 billion in ad revenue, while the whole of U.S. print media (newspapers and magazines) generated just $19.2 billion from print advertising. That is, Google, a company founded just 14 years ago, attracts more advertising money than an industry that has been around for more than a hundred years. Given the fact that Google operates globally, the comparison is obviously unfair and shouldn’t be judged scientifically, but nonetheless it shows how big Google’s ad business really is and how small print advertising has become.

Spotify gets investment dollars from Coca-Cola, Fidelity

RBR by Carl Marcucci 11-15-12

Coca-Cola is becoming a minority investor in Spotify, as part of a new round of financing that will bring in $100 million and value the streaming music service at about $3 billion. Spotify has completed the financing round, according to The NY Times. Of the $100 million, half is from Goldman Sachs, and Coke is contributing about 10%. Another new investor, Fidelity Investments, is also said to be chipping in about 15% of the financing round, with the remaining quarter coming from Spotify’s existing investors, said the story.

RAB: Ad Revenue Up 1% In First Nine Months Of 2012

FMQB 11-16-12

The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) reports that while radio ad revenue was essentially flat in Q3 2012, for the first nine months of the year it was up slightly over the first three-quarters of 2011. In the third quarter, spot revenue was flat at $3.648 billion and off-air revenue was flat at $388 million, but digital revenue grew eight percent to $205 million. Overall ad revenue for the quarter was flat at $4.241 billion.

For the first nine months of 2012, spot revenue has been essentially flat at $10.455 billion, while digital grew seven percent to $561 million and off-air revenue is up by two percent to almost $1.12 billion. Total radio ad revenue so far in 2012 is up by one percent at $12.133 billion.

Forecast: Massive Jump In Social Spending

Radio Ink 11-25-12

BIA/Kelsey is forecasting U.S. social media ad revenue will grow from $4.6 billion this year to $9.2 billion in 2016. And, the local segment of U.S. social media ad revenues will grow from $1.1 billion in 2012 to $3 billion in 2016.

BIA says social display advertising will continue to account for a higher percentage of revenues, due in large part to Facebook’s Marketplace Ads and YouTube’s multiple display units (video, traditional banners). BIA/Kelsey expects growth to also come from native social ad formats, "which are emerging as viable display alternatives." Native social advertising is defined as branded content integrated within a social network experience (e.g., the newsfeed or content stream). "Spending on native social advertising will grow from $1.5 billion in 2012 to $3.9 billion in 2016. Growth will be driven by the higher premiums native social ad units command."

ComScore Debuts Cross-Platform Reporting System

MediaPost by Mark Walsh 11-29-12

With a growing share of Web sites’ traffic coming from mobile devices, the need for tracking a media property’s full digital audience has become increasingly acute.

To that end, comScore on Thursday unveiled a beta version of its cross-platform measurement system offering consolidated audience metrics across Web sites, apps and video content on PCs, tablets and smartphones. The rollout of Media Metrix Multi-Platform reporting will give a boost to more mobile-centric sites, like Pandora, Twitter, Yelp and Instagram.

There were also some losers. Craigslist, with just 16 million mobile users compared to 49 million on the desktop, dropped five spots to No. 25. Similarly, music video hub Vevo dropped from 19th in the rankings to 24th because it has just 5 million mobile users versus 55 million on the traditional Web. (Yes, Vevo does have a mobile app.)

The Case For Internet Radio Music Royalty Reform

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:10:00 GMT

Posted via Forbes

This week, Congress held hearings on the Internet Radio Fairness Act. They heard that the music royalty burden is too great to endure for all but the largest web broadcasters and even those are financially handcuffed, preventing real growth.

To me, it’s what they didn’t hear that is the real story and where the real debate should be focused. Even the name of the Act is a misnomer. This is not really a question of whether royalties should be lowered for Web and mobile broadcasts. The real question is whether royalties should finally be implemented for traditional, terrestrial radio.

Today, if I listen to a local station on my car radio on the way to work the station monetizes my listening through advertising. That revenue is offset by no cost in terms of royalties. If when I get to the office I listen to the same station on my computer, the station must pay a royalty to the rights holder. When I go to the gym at lunch and continue listening to the same station, again the station must pay.

Royalty amnesty made sense when terrestrial radio was the only way for the masses to hear music without buying it. Radio played a critical role in music discovery. Discovery lead to ‘record’ purchases, ticket sales, and so on.

Why Music Royalties Reform Makes Sense: Leveling the Playing Field

Today, that entire dynamic has changed. Purchases of ’records’ or CDs in their entirety is sharply down from decades ago. Instead, consumers graze music, buying tracks individually in many cases rather than the whole release. One of the primary ways that process is enabled is through listening to tracks online – whether via Internet radio pure plays or the digital arm of terrestrial stations. Pandora, Slacker and many others allow for nearly infinite choice compared to the narrowly formatted offerings available over-the-air where most markets are served by only a handful of stations. Online the truly infinite dial exists. In addition to music discovery across a broader spectrum of genres and artists, online consumers peruse song lyrics, bios, concert schedules, merchandise and other dimensions of artists not feasible offline.

Some terrestrial radio stations have similar features online too, but for many others the specter of online royalties inhibits them from building out a truly robust digital offering. In truth, they’d rather listeners listen over the air. Terrestrially, zero percent of their revenue goes to royalties. Pandora says it pays over 50% of its revenue to royalties – and they negotiated a “better” deal than most. Over the air, they pay nothing per song. Terrestrially they profit from audience growth. Online they’re captive to their own success. The better their offering, the more people will listen online. The more they listen online, the more the station has to pay in royalties. Few are willing to step out of a certain revenue equation to a variable one. ‘What if this thing really takes off?’ they wonder.

To me, it’s therefore not a question of how much Internet royalties should be for Web broadcasts that enable Web and traditional broadcasters alike to build audiences and therefore businesses, but how much should those artists be paid per song per listener regardless of listening device. Consumers don’t distinguish online and offline. Why do royalties?

It is absolutely critical to answer this question now as these are actually early days in term of technology’s impact on radio. As more and more dashboards become wired for Web, choice and access to Web broadcasts will further proliferate. What then? As the ubiquity of smartphones becomes undeniable, the issue grows and grows.

OK, But What About The Artists?

Not to be lost in all this, I believe artists will actually benefit financially. The breadth of music available online simply cannot be replicated in a mainstream terrestrial context. Artists that have had no airplay can find sizable audience online and be compensated accordingly. The more equitable the royalty terms, the more likely online radio will flourish. The more it flourishes the more artists stand to benefit. Now that’s a deal.

I deal with both traditional and Web broadcasters every day. While they’re operating in very different realities financially, they’re generally very well aligned around the fact that digital and mobile is here to stay. In creating an underlying cost structure that allows everyone to put their best foot forward digitally by evening out royalty expense, artists and rights holders will win and so will the public. More choice will flourish, and that sounds sweet to me.

Unsung Heroes

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:45:00 GMT

Please join us this weekend in supporting our fellow online audio lovers as they raise their voices to raise money for those in need.

This Saturday, November 24^th at noon, several podcasters are coming together to support the Sandy relief effort by participating in a “24 Hour Live Podcast for Hurricane Sandy”. Some of the podcasters already on-board include Ben Glieb (Last Week on Earth, Chelsea Lately), Mike Zapcic & Ming Chen (I Sell Comics, AMC’s Comic Book Men), Greg Proops (The Smartest Man in the World, Chelsea Lately), Kelly Carlin (Waking from the American Dream), and DJ James (Tha’ Breaks).

The funds that are raised through the event will be donated to two great organizations helping those affected by the hurricane: Staten Strong, which is helping fulfill immediate needs on the ground in the Staten Island community, and the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund, which is working to aid, comfort, and rebuild New Jersey.

Stitcher Radio, the leader in Internet Radio for the world beyond music, is promoting and hosting the event, and Triton is providing the live stream. We are thrilled to be working with so many awesome people in the industry and to be part of such a great cause.

These one-of-a-kind podcasts will keep you entertained for hours (24 to be exact) and will support a still much-needed cause. So, if you’re sitting around with your family on Saturday wondering what you can do that doesn’t include eating more leftover turkey, tune in to the 24 Hour Podcast for Hurricane Sandy!

To donate to the Podcastathon, please visit the 24 Hour Podcast for Hurricane Sandy crowdrise page . Also, be sure to follow the event on Twitter at @24HourPod4Sandy for updates. Thank you in advance for all your support!

In Case You Missed It October

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:50:00 GMT

Zenith Re-Forecast Spending

Inside Radio 10-2-12

Auto is driving radio’s current gains but retail will be difference-maker in years ahead. ZenithOptimedia is make a tiny adjustment to its radio forecast for 2012 as it predicts “slight increases” in the next two years. While auto may be driving the current year’s gains, Zenith forecasters predict a “resurgence” in retail advertising that will make the difference in 2013 and 2014. “Radio continues to be the choice medium of retailers, seasonal products and automotive, providing heavy frequency and drive to retail messages,” the ad giant says. Zenith estimates radio revenue will grow 2% in 2012, off one-tenth of a percent from a forecast released earlier this year...“While we are past the worst of the economic downturn, economic growth remains slow,” Zenith says. It’s making some adjustments from its June forecast that offer a mixed view of the future. Zenith now projects total U.S. ad spending will grow 4.3% in 2012, up from a forecasted 3.6% increase with $1.1 billion more ad dollars being spent than earlier thought. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen this level of downgrading and upgrading which comes back to the diversity of where we see the recovery coming,” Zenith CEO Tim Jones said. He told an Advertising Week panel in New York yesterday that political and Olympic-related ad spending are the primary reasons for the increase. Not surprisingly Zenith projects internet spending will growth the most (+18%) followed by political ad-filled local TV (+12%). It expects newspapers (-8%) and magazines (-3%) to have a down year. Zenith also forecasts slightly smaller gains for total U.S. advertising spending in 2013 and 2014 compared to a rosier outlook released earlier this year.

Study: The Ad-Supported Internet Added $530 Billion to U.S. Economy in 2011 - 3.7% of GDP

AdAge 10-1-12 by Jason Del Rey

The ad-supported internet and the ecosystem that supports it contributed $530 billion to the U.S. economy in 2011, according to a study by Harvard Business School researchers that was commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. This total would account for 3.7% of the country's GDP, up from 2.1% in 2007.

The study found that this ecosystem directly employed about 2 million people last year, up from about 1 million in 2007. The study also found that the ecosystem is also "indirectly" responsible for another 3.1 million jobs at companies that service the businesses at the core.

SMBs Pour Money into Mobile: Half of SMBs likely to incorporate mobile into ad and marketing campaigns within a year

eMarketer 10-3-12

The poll found that 72% of SMBs planned to increase or maintain mobile spending over the next 12 months.

Those that planned to bump their spending on mobile media within the year were not shy about pouring dollars into the effort. In fact, 42% of those planning a budget hike foresaw an increase of 11% to 20%. One-fifth of those increasing their mobile budgets expected them to climb by 21% to 30%, and one in 10 expected spending to spike by more than 50%. This willingness to spend indicates that mobile budgets are still playing catch-up with the lightning-fast adoption of smartphones by consumers.

SMBs also saw potential in mobile to attract new customers, and remind existing ones of their goods and services. Almost half of respondents said it was at least somewhat likely that they would incorporate mobile elements into ad or marketing campaigns over the next 12 months to hit their target audience. Still, there was a sizeable group that had taken a “wait-and-see” approach to mobile—38% admitted it was not very likely or completely unlikely that they would fold mobile into the mix within the next year.

Mobile Music-Listening Audience on the Uptick

MarketchingCharts 10-3-12 by MarketingCharts Staff

During the 3-month average ending in August, comScore reports that almost 3 in 10 mobile phone owners listened to music on their devices, up about 5% from the previous 3-month period. While that’s not a huge jump, it’s the continuation of a gradual trend that has seen a more than one-third increase in the mobile audience listening to music since the same period last year. This increase is having an effect on music sales. As Nielsen points out in an October blog post, the proliferation of mobile devices – and their presence in everyday life – has been a key contributor to growth in digital music, with digital album sales increasing 15% year-over-year through August, on pace to surpass last year’s peak of 1.3 billion digital track sales. That’s good news for the industry, given an expected 9% decrease in physical music sales this year.

The mobile audience is becoming increasingly engaged in other activities on their devices, too, according to the comScore data. 34% played games during the 3-month average ending in August, up slightly from 33.5% the previous period, while mobile social networking (38.3% v. 36.7%), browser use (52% vs. 49.8%), and use of downloaded applications (53.4% vs. 51.1%) saw more rapid growth.

Texting remained the most popular measured activity, done by 75.6% of the mobile audience, up from 74.8%.

1 in 3 US Smartphones Now An iPhone

Ad Support Is the Future for Mobile Music

eMarketer 10-4-12

Advertising revenues, which already make up the bulk of US mobile music revenues, will gain an even greater share in the coming years, eMarketer forecasts, and by 2016 will account for more than 86% of all such revenues.

This year, the figure is closer to 69%—still a solid majority, and far ahead of the 17.2% of revenues brought in by subscriptions to services like Pandora or the 14.1% of revenues from per-download fees. Mobile music revenues in the US, including revenues generated from downloads or streams direct to mobile devices and excluding multiplatform services or sideloaded music, will total $429.3 million this year. By 2016, they will reach $1.68 billion.

2012 Forecast: U.S. Mobile Ad Spend No. 1 Worldwide

MediaPost 10-10-12 by Gavin O'Malley

According to eMarketer, however, stateside spending on mobile Internet advertising will top all other countries in the world for the first time this year.

As such, eMarketer estimates that spending on mobile Internet ads in Japan will grow 27% to $1.7 billion in 2012 versus 35% growth in 2011.

Mobile Internet advertising spending in the U.S. is expected to grow nearly 97% to $2.3 billion in 2012 -- up from $1.16 billion last year.

Worldwide, mobile ad spending should hit $6.4 billion this year, according to eMarketer.

Billboard Shakes Up Genre Charts With New Methodology

Billboard 10-11-12 by Billboard Staff

Billboard today unveils new methodology for the long-standing Hot Country Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Latin Songs charts. Each receive a major consumer-influenced face-lift, as digital download sales (tracked by Nielsen SoundScan) and streaming data (tracked by Nielsen BDS from such services as Spotify, Muve, Slacker, Rhapsody, Rdio and Xbox Music, among others) will now be factored into the 50-position rankings, along with existing radio airplay data monitored by Nielsen BDS. The makeovers will enable these charts to match the methodology applied to Billboard's signature all-genre songs ranking, the Billboard Hot 100.

Concurrently, Hot Rock Songs, which launched as an airplay-only chart in 2009, and Rap Songs, in existence as a radio survey since 1989, will also include digital download sales and streaming data for the first time.

"The way people consume music continues to evolve and as a result so do our genre charts, which now track the many new ways fans experience, listen to and buy music," says Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard Director of Charts. "We're proud to be offering updated genre charts that better reflect the current music landscape as well as a new R&B Songs chart that finally shines a spotlight solely on core R&B acts like Frank Ocean, John Legend and Anthony Hamilton."

Consumers Spend More Time with Mobile as Online Growth Slows

eMarketer 10-23-12

The shift to mobile is on. According to eMarketer estimates, time spent using mobile devices for activities such as internet and app use, gaming, music and others has more than doubled in the past two years.

This year, the amount of time US consumers spent using mobile devices—excluding talk time—will grow 51.9% to an average 82 minutes per day, up from just 34 minutes in 2010, eMarketer estimates.

While mobile advertising is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years—eMarketer estimates that overall US mobile advertising spending will reach $2.61 billion this year before rising to nearly $12 billion in 2016—there are some significant barriers that both marketers and ad publishers will have to overcome before mobile ad spending will achieve parity with the share of time spent by consumers on mobile devices.

With Streaming and Sharing, Teens Find Ways Around Paying for Music

eMarketer 10-30-12

According to StageofLife.com, in August, 49% of teens and college-age consumers reported spending zero dollars per month on music. Rather than buying iTunes singles or CDs of even their favorite artists, this age group copies music from friends, downloads free songs from music websites and streams music online.

The 16-to-20-year-old age group streams the most music content, according to EMI Insight. Almost half of that US demographic streamed music in 2011. The second-highest demographic concentration of streamers was the 21-to-24 age group, with 46% penetration.

While streaming is especially popular with younger consumers, downloading music through services like iTunes is still a prominent way to listen to music, according to research by AYTM. AYTM’s survey indicated that 37% of US internet users used free music streaming services like Pandora in October. Moreover, 32% paid to download music through a music service like iTunes. Only about 9% paid for a music streaming service like Spotify on a subscription basis that month.

In Case You Missed It September

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:00:00 GMT

Pandora Reports 2Q13 Financial Results

Yahoo! Finance, 8-29-12

•    2Q13 total revenue of $101.3 million grew 51% year-over-year
•    2Q13 total mobile revenue of $59.2 million grew 86% year-over-year
•    2Q13 total listener hours of 3.30 billion grew 80% year-over-year
•    Active users reach 54.9 million growing 48% year-over-year

Total Revenue: For the second quarter of fiscal 2013, total revenue was $101.3 million, a 51% year-over-year increase. Advertising revenue was $89.4 million, a 53% year-over-year increase. Subscription and other revenue was $11.9 million, a 36% year-over-year increase.

Google TV Ads Shuttered

MediaPost by David Goetzl, 8-31-12

After five years, Google is shuttering its auction-based TV ad sales system and “doubling down” on the growing online video space. The decision comes after the company earlier this year said Google TV Ads had expanded such that it could sell inventory reaching 42 million homes.

Throughout its tenure, Google pitched TV Ads as an easy-to-use platform for advertisers that had never used TV before and touted multiple success stories. The company plugged the opportunity to pay only for delivery, based on Google’s AdWords system and the chance to receive granular performance metrics, used in part for set-top-box data.

US Newspaper Ad Revenues Fall 6.4% Y-O-Y in Q2

Marketing Charts, 9-7-12

US newspaper advertising expenditures continue to decline, according to the latest figures from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). In Q2, total expenditures stood at $5.61 billion, down 6.4% from roughly $6 billion a year earlier. Online revenues grew by 2.9%, to $826.7 million, representing 15% share of overall revenues. Print revenues dropped by 7.85% year-over-year to $4.8 billion. The overall 6.4% drop year-over-year in Q2 follows a 6.9% drop in Q1, but this year’s Q2 drop is the smallest year-over-year fall for any quarter since Q2 2010 (-5.55%).

Print ad expenditure decline was most pronounced in national ad sales, which dropped 9.73% year-over-year to $889 million. Classifieds revenue fell 8.39% year-over-year to $1.14 billion, though that was a smaller drop than the 9.85% year-over-year decline from Q1. Retail spending, which represents the majority of expenditures, saw a comparatively smaller decline of 7%, down to $2.75 billion.

Within the retail category, the apparel and accessories and computers/electronics verticals, which represent 6.9% and 11.6% share of retail spending, respectively, were the only to buck the downward trend, with ad dollars rising in each. Coupon marketing organizations increased their national ad spend from $208.9 million in Q2 2011 to $228.2 million in Q2 2012, accounting for 25.7% share of national ad sales in Q2 2012.

Apple Plans Digital Radio Service

MediaPost by Erik Sass, 9-7-12

Apple is planning to launch a digital radio service to compete with Pandora, including customized listening and on-demand options, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the project.

The tech giant, which has formed relationships with most major music publishers in support of its iTunes business, is still negotiating terms for digital music rights for its planned radio service, the same sources tell the WSJ.

As with other digital music services, the central issue will probably be royalties, which have been a point of contention between Pandora and publishers. It still constitutes a major drain on its profitability, as royalty costs more than outweigh advertising revenues.

While Pandora eventually broke off negotiations with publishers, opting to pay royalties on a default basis determined by Federal statute, Apple is negotiating directly with publishers, according to the WSJ. The move could make royalties more expensive, but would also give Apple more options in terms of how listeners can interact with music.

Apple would probably seek to offset costs with digital (and possibly display) advertising, and could also offer a subscription model.

Even if the business model remains unclear, Apple may feel compelled to establish a presence simply to round out the Apple-branded app offerings for devices, including the iPhone, iPad and iPod. Among other things, a digital radio service could serve as a discovery mechanism that helps drive consumers to purchase songs outright via iTunes.

One thing is clear: The marketplace for digital audio is growing fast. Pandora has signed up about 150 million registered users, at least 33 million people have used Spotify, and Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio has about 45 million listeners per month. Considering that much of this listening happens via Apple devices, a pre-installed radio app that offers a wider range of listening options might make headway against these established players.

US Ad Spend Inches Up 0.9% Y-O-Y in Q2

Marketing Charts, 9-11-12

US advertising spending increased 0.9% year-over-year in Q2 to reach $34.4 billion, slowing from Q1’s 2.9% year-over-year increase, according to September 2012 figures from Kantar Media. For the first half of the year, expenditures increased by 1.9% to $67.1 billion. (Online spending estimates only include display advertising). Spending among the 10 largest advertisers in Q2 stood at $3.58 billion, representing a 5.5% decrease compared to the previous year. Procter & Gamble maintained its top-ranked position, though its spending dropped by 13.2%. Among other top 10 advertisers, General Motor’s expenditures fell by 30.1% year-over-year, while Unilever and Toyota Motor Corp both increased spending significantly, by 48.6% and 22.7%, respectively.

Expenditures for the 10 largest categories grew by a modest 1.3% in Q1, to $21.5 billion. Retail was the top spending category with $3.84 billion in expenditures, up 0.9% from Q2 2011. Automotive was the next-largest, with expenditures of $3.37 billion, up 7.7% from a year earlier. Direct response registered the largest increase among the top 10 categories, of 6.5%.

Further data from the Kantar Media report indicates that print media spending continues to fall, with newspapers and magazines experiencing year-over-year declines of 3.1% and 2.7% in Q2, respectively. (September figures from the Newspaper Association of America pegged US newspaper ad spending’s drop in Q2 at a more precipitous 6.4%.)

Contrary to print media’s overall spending drop in Q2, radio ad revenues grew by 1.9% year-over-year, led by a 20% rise in network radio investments. This growth offset a 3% decline in national spot radio spending. Local radio expenditures were relatively flat (0.6%).

For H1, radio ad revenues increased 1.4%, with network radio spend growing 21.4%, national spot radio expenditures dropping 3.2%, and local radio spend marginally down, by 0.5%.

Nielsen shows how people use TV differently

Yahoo! News by David Bauder, 9-11-12

The number of U.S. homes that don't get traditional television service continues to increase, but that doesn't mean they don't have TVs. The Nielsen company said in a report issued on Tuesday that three-quarters of the estimated 5 million homes that don't get TV signals over the airways or through cable, satellite or telecommunications companies have televisions anyway.

Many of these homes are satisfied to use their TVs for games or get programming through DVDs or services like Netflix or Apple TV, said Dounia Turrill, senior vice president for client insights at Nielsen.

Because of the changes, Nielsen is considering redefining what it considers a television household to include people who get service through Netflix or similar services instead of the traditional TV signals, Turrill said.

During the first three months of 2012, the average consumer spent about 2 percent less time watching traditional TV than the previous year, Nielsen said. They more than made up for that by spending more time watching material recorded on DVRs or on the Internet through TVs, computers and mobile devices.

The typical consumer spends 14 minutes a day using gaming consoles, although it's more for owners of Wii, XBox and PlayStation 3, Nielsen said. Many of these devices are also popular sites for accessing video, Turrill said.

US Digital Ad Spending to Top $37 Billion in 2012 as Market Consolidates

eMarketer, 9-20-12

eMarketer estimates that marketers will spend $37.31 billion on digital advertising in 2012. Digital ad spending will rise 16.6% this year, and will experience double-digit growth through 2014.

Based on the Interactive Advertising Bureau/PricewaterhouseCoopers data for the first two quarters of 2012, and because the digital ad spending market is approaching maturity faster than expected, eMarketer has lowered the projected rate of increase for US digital ad spending slightly from its earlier forecast of 17.7% in 2012. However, eMarketer’s outlook remains optimistic—despite slower percentage gains, big dollar growth will continue.

Search continues to be the leading digital ad spending format, although its share will begin to drop this year as the shares of rich media, sponsorships and video increase.

Display ad spending, which includes banner ads, video, rich media and sponsorships, will rise from 40.2% of total digital ad spending in 2012 to 45.6% of the total in 2016. Search’s share of total digital ad spending will decrease from 47.1% in 2012 to 44.2% in 2016. Combined, spending on paid search and display advertising will account for more than 87% of all US digital ad spending this year

This year, display ad spending growth will outpace that of paid search ad spending, driven by digital video advertising and sponsorships. At a 46.5% growth rate, digital video ad spending will continue to post the strongest gains—though it is starting from a much smaller base. Online and mobile video viewing is becoming increasingly popular. According to eMarketer forecasts, more than half of the US population will view video content through desktop or mobile devices in 2012.

Ongoing migration to digital radio platforms documented in new study

Inside Radio, 9-25-12

Offering the most dramatic snapshot yet of how quickly radio consumption is moving to internet-delivered platforms, nearly half of respondents (46%) to a new Alan Burns/Triton Digital poll say they listen daily to AM/FM radio on a computer. That’s significantly higher than the 29% of Americans who said they listened to online radio in the last week in Arbitron & Edison’s survey conducted in January and February of this year. The difference in methodologies — Burns/Triton used an online opt-in survey, Arbitron/Edson conducted a national telephone survey — may be as much of a factor as the ongoing shift to online listening. Burns/Triton also report nearly one in four smartphone owners (23%) say they listen to broadcast radio daily on their smartphone. The poll finds radio’s smartphone audience is using both station-specific apps and ones offered by aggregators. The percentage of smartphone owners that have downloaded a specific radio station app (22%) is about the same as those who have downloaded the iHeartRadio app (21%). Aggregator TuneIn’s app is further down the list, downloaded by 8% of the sample. The study finds nearly one in four (39%) listen weekly to music on their smartphones while one in four do so daily with 17% listening for an hour or more daily. Meanwhile, consumers with in-car internet access are not using radio significantly less — perhaps 7% less, the study suggests. Among the two in ten (19%) that report having internet access in the car, the vast majority (70%) say they listen most to AM/FM radio in the car. The study also calls into question industry theories that Pandora listening takes more time away from recorded music collections than radio. Of those who listen weekly to the pureplay, 28% say they are listening less to CDs, MP3s and records — the same percentage that say they’re listening to less radio. But the majority (52%) says they aren’t listening less to other music sources or they just don’t know. “Radio AQH may be nibbled at by other media but consumers don’t sense themselves using it less.

In Case You Missed It August

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:15:00 GMT

Millennial Media: Travel vertical up 200% YoY

Biz Report By Kristina Knight

"Travel was the number three vertical on the Top 10 Global Brand Advertising Vertical ranking," writes the company. "While present among the top verticals throughout 2011, travel advertisers were particularly active in Q1 as they targeted mobile users with post-holiday getaway ideas and travel deals."
•    Travel advertisers spent 200% more YoY on the mobile category
•    62% use mobile to sustain an in-market presence
•    57% of travel campaigns, run with Millennial Media, were from Book Agents/Travel sites
•    18% from hotel/resort or cruise lines

Samsung wraps iTunes, Spotify and Pandora into one with new Music Hub service

By: Zach Epstein BGR

Samsung offers two versions of its new Music Hub service, a free version that provides a music store, cloud locker and Web player, and a premium version for $9.99 per month that adds a scan and match feature to make your current music catalog available online, streaming radio and on-demand streaming, and customized recommendations that learn your taste and get better the more you use the service.

The Music Hub service will be offered as both a free and premium version.

Music Hub Store (free) allows users to:
•    Access millions of songs from the 7digital catalog – which includes music from all four major labels (Sony, EMI, Universal, and Warner), plus select independents– from which users can buy tracks and albums, as well as listen to 30-second previews of all songs
•    Store purchased music in the cloud, allowing it to automatically load on all registered Music Hub devices, while still being available on those registered devices locally for offline listening
•    Use the Music Hub web player, in addition to the mobile app, with which users can access their music library and the Music Hub catalog/store online at www.musichub.com

Music Hub Premium ($9.99 per month, with a free 30-day trial offered) offers access to all of the free version features

New York Times 8-1-12 By Tanzina Vega

On Tuesday, the company eMarketer released its first projections for ad spending on mobile marketing and found that the total market for advertising in the globally will reach $6.43 billion this year. Advertisers are expected to spend $2.4 billion on mobile advertising in the United States in 2012, up from $1.23 billion in 2011. The company estimates that spending on mobile ads in Japan will reach $1.36 billion in 2012.

The data includes spending on advertising in mobile applications, mobile Web and search, display ads, games and tablets. Data from text message advertising was not included.

Despite the huge gains in the mobile marketplace, spending will still only represent 1 percent of total ad spending worldwide, Mr. Fredricksen said. “It’s going to be a really long time before mobile challenges other mainstay global ad channels.”

Musicians Getting 'More Than Half Of Royalty Income From online Streaming

The Telegraph By Katherine Rushton

Many musicians now receive more than half of their royalty income from online services such as Spotify and Deezer, the founder of Adele’s record label has claimed.

“Some of our catalogue artists earn more from streams than downloads of individual tracks [or] any other format,” he said. “If we didn’t have digital we wouldn’t have a business. Physical is still important to us but the lesson we learned over last few years is that you have to strike a balance between giving people what they want on the one hand and actually being a business [and charging for content].”

In June, the UK’s digital music sales overtook those of physical music formats such as CD’s for the first time. Mr Mills’ comments came as Spotify revealed that it paid $180m in royalties to musicians last year and is on track to double that figure to $360m in 2012.

Facebook Reveals 83 Million Fake Accounts

Clickz

Facebook has revealed that it has some 83 million fake accounts on its site, almost 10 per cent of its user base, in a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The 10-Q filing reveals that the firm is aware of a large portion of accounts plaguing the site that shouldn't be there, with 4.8 per cent of users owning "duplicate accounts", which is not allowed under the terms and conditions of the service.

Lastly, some 1.5 per cent of users, around 10 million accounts, are "undesirable", which refers to user profiles that "are intended to be used for purposes that violate our terms of service, such as spamming", the firm explains in the filing.

Based on the last reported user base of 901 million, there are around 83 million fake accounts in total on the site.

Media Buying Agencies Optimistic About H2 Growth

Marketing Charts

About 94% of US media buying ad agencies expect business conditions to improve or stay the same in the second half (H2) of 2012, according to August survey results from STRATA. Among the agencies surveyed, roughly 40% project growth, while just 7% forecast a decrease in growth in H2. That 7% is the lowest negative sentiment that STRATA has recorded since launching its survey in 2008. The report suggests that as the advertising industry is commonly thought of as a leading indicator for consumer spending, this result may mean that the economy will improve at a faster rate than projected by economists.

STRATA’s Q2 survey reveals that 52% of agencies saw their business increase in Q2 compared to a year earlier, up 12% from Q1.

Political Ads Up To 40% Of Total –Even as political advertising heightens demand and drives up ad costs, 42% of non-political advertisers claimed they will compete for ad space during the campaign season, while another 40% will use alternative mediums to avoid the political ad costs. Less than a quarter of non-political ad buyers will wait until after the elections to advertise.

•    44% of respondents said they use more than 3 mediums for campaign advertising.
•    Spot radio advertising saw a 16% increase in purchase by advertisers, up 80% over last quarter.
•    Among social media sites, 87.3% of advertisers use Facebook while second-place Twitter is used by 38%.
•    Pinterest was used in 15% of advertising campaigns in the second quarter of 2012, beating out the more established social network Foursquare (7%), and not far behind Google+ (18%).
•    Digital advertising is up 26% year-to-date and has seen steady growth in 12 of the last 14 quarters.
•    79% of agencies will focus on online display advertising, which continues to see steady growth, up from 69% in Q2 2010.
•    Although digital media spending has grown, 44% of STRATA survey respondents still do not see it outpacing traditional media expenditure.

Streaming Music Boosts Warner’s Bottom Line

All things Digital By Peter Kafka

Warner Music Group says streaming services contributed 25 percent of the digital revenue that its “recorded music” group saw last quarter. That works out to be about $54 million, or about 8 percent of Warner’s total revenue for the period.

*Warner defines “streaming” revenue as money it gets from subscription services like Spotify and Rhapsody, along with Web radio revenue from the likes of Pandora, Sirius and Clear Channel. It doesn’t include the new cloud/locker services from Apple and Amazon.

Driven By Streaming Services, Digital Music Revenue Will Pass $8.6 Billion In 2012

Strategy Analytics

A new study from Strategy Analytics predicts that online streaming revenues will grow at almost five times the rate of download revenues in 2012. According to Strategy Analytics' latest Global Recorded Music Forecast, streaming revenues will increase 40 percent in 2012 to $1.1 billion while download revenues will increase by 8.5 percent to $3.9 billion. If this prediction holds true, streaming services will take over as the leading revenue growth engine for the music industry in 2012, generating an extra $311 million, which is $8 million more than downloads at $303 million.

Overall digital music spending, including mobile, will increase by 17.8 percent $1.3 billion in 2012 to $8.6 billion compared to a 12.1 percent decline $1.9 billion in physical sales. This means that digital music will increase its share of global recorded music spending to 39 percent in 2012. However, this is still much smaller than physical music sales which will account for 61 percent of spending. Strategy Analytics forecasts that digital spending will overtake physical on a global basis in 2015, However, some countries such as the U.S., Sweden and South Korea, are making the transition to digital taking the lions’ share of spending at a much faster rate#

Looking at U.S. music revenue in Strategy Analytics' study, 2012 U.S. streaming revenues will grow at four times (27.8 percent) the rate of downloads (6.7 percent). This growth means online streaming and downloads account for double the share of music spending in the U.S. than globally (41 percent vs. 22 percent).

Average American Viewer Watched Over 200 Videos in July

Clickz

First, 184 million U.S. Internet users watched 36.9 billion online content videos in July 2012. This is up from 180 million in July 2011, 178 million in July 2010, 158 million in July 2009, 142 million in July 2008, and 134 million in July 2007. So, over the past five years, the number of Americans watching online video has increased 37.3 percent.

Second, the duration of the average online content video was 6.7 minutes in July 2012, which is up from was 5.3 minutes in July 2011, 4.8 minutes in July 2010, 3.7 minutes in July 2009, 2.9 minutes in July 2008, and 2.7 minutes in July 2007. So, over the past five years, the duration of the average online content video has increased 148.1 percent.

Third, the average American viewer watched online videos for 1,336.8 minutes (22.3 hours) in July 2012. This is up from 1,107.0 minutes (18.5 hours) of video viewing in July 2011, 882.0 minutes (14.7 hours) in July 2010, 500 minutes (8.3 hours) in July 2009, 235 minutes (3.9 hours) in July 2008, and 181 minutes (3 hours) in July 2007. So, over the past five years, the time spent viewing online videos has increased 638.6 percent.

In other words, there are nine YouTube Partner channels with larger audiences than the top ranked program on cable TV and five YouTube Partner channels with larger audiences than the top ranked program on network TV.

Spotify To Launch In Canada As Its Net Losses Grow

FMQB

Spotify's popular music-streaming service will soon launch in Canada

The report also showed that as Spotify has expanded, its net losses have grown. The WSJ reports that Spotify's net loss in 2011 was approximately $56.6 million, up from loss of roughly $35.7 million in 2010. Spotify's owners have taken the hit for its losses and in the report the company said it "cannot exclude the need or desire to raise more funds in the future," noting that the source of any more capital would have to be through equity.

Spotify's revenue has also grown, as revenue reached approximately $235.4 million in 2011, up from $92.6 million a year before. The revenue increase was attributed to growth in Spotify's music subscriptions, which brought in $196.7 million in 2011. However, ad sales growth has been slower, from under $26.5 million in 2010 to $34.6 million last year. By the end of 2011, Spotify had 32.8 million registered users.

Why Would Radio Give Up Its Digital Inventory?

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 19:30:00 GMT

Most broadcast radio stations can also be heard streaming on the internet. It seems broadcasters came to the conclusion long ago that it made sense to provide their station’s programming to the growing portion of the audience that expects to listen online. While some stations began experimenting with streaming back in the 1990’s, widespread adoption happened in the middle of the last decade. At that time, rights issues related to the online use of talent, music, and other components of radio commercials emerged. In response, stations began to extract those commercials from their internet streams. This was a technical hurdle to be sure, but once overcome, one that made radio safe to stream, and provided the industry with the unexpected bonus of a new tier of inventory to sell. This streaming inventory is unique in that it is the only digital audio advertising play available to radio.

The rights issues described above still exist. Notwithstanding that fact, one mid-sized radio company recently announced a decision to discontinue the practice of replacing over-the-air commercials with internet-only commercials on their streams. The company’s leadership publicly laments the cost of ad replacement and cites technical issues that reduce the quality of the user experience. They also complain that there is no clear path to adequately monetize the internet-only audio spots. Given the inexorable transition of advertising spend from “broadcast” media to connected, targetable, track-able, digital media, why is radio’s digital audio play still under-valued, and why are some operators even thinking about giving up on it altogether?

Let’s parse the issues. As a percentage of the overall cost of streaming, the cost of ad replacement is inconsequential. This alone should not be reason enough to stop the practice. Further, with careful setup and normal maintenance the claimed technical issues are not insurmountable. So let’s get to the real problem: revenue.

One of the traditional barriers to streaming revenue is the lack of audience scale related to any individual station. For that reason, and in order to liquidate their streaming inventory, broadcasters have turned to the national rep firms. These rep firms do a good job of selling the inventory, but that inventory is largely being sold in the network radio marketplace. Network radio exists at the lowest point on our industry’s pricing spectrum, largely because of its reduced capabilities vs. spot radio. When a local station operator complains about getting a $5.00 effective CPM for streaming inventory, what they may not realize is that $5.00 is actually the high end of the scale for network radio. Streaming audio spots are already selling at a premium, just in the wrong marketplace.

So, if a $5.00 CPM for streaming inventory is not enough (and it’s not) how do we raise the price? Some streaming radio operators, both traditional broadcasters and pure plays, have achieved the scale necessary to move out of the low price point network market and sell their inventory in spot. This new scale, combined with the metro-market level measurement produced by Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics Local, will enable internet radio’s entry into the spot market where its inherent capabilities will command higher CPM’s. This is a logical next step in the evolution of internet radio. However, even with this new scale and capabilities, we’re likely just re-slicing the same stagnating (0.3% CAGR 2012-2017) radio budgets. Eventually, the industry must set its sights beyond the undeniably challenged broadcast radio budgets and access the increasing digital media spend.

Consumption of streaming radio on smart-phones and tablets is growing at a remarkable pace. Video pre-rolls and display ads don’t work well in the mobile environment (see the disappointing results Facebook and others have had in monetizing mobile display inventory). Digital audio will be the pre-eminent ad type for reaching people on the move. Radio needs to own this space.

While radio ad spending is flat, digital is growing both nationally and locally. This local growth should be particularly troubling for radio. The digital capabilities driving this growth are targeting, accountability, and attribution. Much of the growth in digital is being powered by programmatic trading; which provides an advertiser with direct access to highly segmented audience and targeted impressions in real time. In the television business, virtually all of the growth is in the national cable segment, with many companies focused on providing targeting and performance data that leverages the inherently connected nature of cable television. These still-nascent segments of the market improve efficiency for the buyers, and increase yield for the sellers. They match the campaign to the consumer with the greatest efficiency in the history of advertising.

The key factor that differentiates digital inventory from broadcast inventory is its connectedness. That connectivity provides a two-way path, enabling all of the targeting and accountability that marketers have come to expect. Simulcasting a radio station’s analog and digital inventory constrains the digital inventory to the capabilities of the analog. The only way broadcast radio can participate in the high-growth segments of the advertising marketplace is if it has the right type of inventory to sell, and this means connected, digital inventory, such as provided by discreet audio streaming.

There is a huge transformation underway in media today. While there will likely always be a market for broadcast advertising impressions, it is unlikely that the value of those impressions will increase. If radio wants to escape the perils of flat revenue projections it will have to find ways to participate in the growing digital marketplace with something other than over-the-air commercial inventory. Measured against GDP, and probably even in absolute dollars, there is an inevitable decline coming to radio ad spending. If the industry is to slow that decline, and eventually return to growth, it will have to sell what advertisers want to buy. Radio has started down the path to a digitally connected future. Why are some thinking of turning around now?

Discover the Sweet Spot of Online Advertising

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 19:18:00 GMT

You’re an agency or a brand with a message. That message needs to be seen and heard online by a specific audience. Seems easy, right? Not when that message is competing for the attention of multitasking, convenience-craving digital consumers. From traditional to trendy, there are a plethora of online advertising options to choose from including display, online audio, and online video. Which is most effective in reaching consumers on the highway of entertainment?

The choice is yours.

In Case You Missed It July

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 21:00:00 GMT

Neflix: Subscribers Stream 1 Billion Hours, Analysts Remain Skeptical

MediaPost by Gavin O'Malley 7-3-12

Seemingly back on track, the company now reports that subscribers streamed over 1 billion hours of movies and TV shows last month. Netflix comprised 45% of online movie revenue in 2011 -- up from a mere 1% the year before, according to recent report from HIS iSuppli. In April, Netflix boasted $870 million in revenue for its fiscal first quarter. The company also reported adding nearly 3 million subscribers to its streaming service -- 1.74 million domestic, and 1.21 million international -- which brought the total number of streaming subscribers to 26 million.

Read More

Survey: Radio Listening Isn’t Decreasing, It’s Just Shifting Devices.

InsideRadio 7-13-12

The online study conducted by Alan Burns and Associates in May among a sample of 2,010 women concludes that radio listening isn’t decreasing, it’s just shifting devices.

•    Listening to radio on cell phones is becoming significant with 13% of women reporting listening to AM/FM radio on their cell phone virtually every day, up from 8% last year.
•    One in four listens daily to broadcast radio online, the same number that listen daily to online custom music streams.
•    On a weekly basis, listening to radio on a cell phone nearly doubled from 15% to 26%
•    Usage of broadcast streams via computer or laptop rose from 34% to 43% and weekly over-the-air tuning declined from 95% to 87%.

Inside Radio 7-16-12

Nearly one in five people said they check social media on their smartphone and 28% access a site via tablet when they wake up each day. The Interactive Advertising Bureau survey is the second in two weeks to document the early morning competition that radio faces from digital. About four times as many women said they wake up to their mobile phone than a clock radio in a survey of women who listen to CHR and AC radio by Alan Burns and Associates.

Digital Ad Revenues for Local Media to Grow 13.1% in 2012, According to BIA/Kelsey

BIA 7-16-12

BIA/Kelsey forecasts local online/interactive/digital advertising revenues to grow 13.1 percent in 2012. According to the forecast, several local media segments are on target to exceed this overall growth rate, such as mobile search, which will grow 77.2 percent. Online video will grow 51.6 percent and social will grow 26.3 percent. For some media, like newspapers, digital ad revenues will be the only source of growth.

CAGRs for the forecast period, 2011-2016, for digital/interactive revenues in key media segments are as follows:

Radio Info 7-18-12

“24% of our sample said they use or listen to the internet in their cars weekly. 16% do it every day. But usage of built-in access is even higher: almost half the women whose cars are so equipped use the internet in their cars daily.” Burns says women report the #1 reason they don't spend more time with Pandora or other streaming services is that they "can't get Internet in the car."

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Honda Reveals New Cloud-Based Infotainment System

Autoblog 7-18-12

Honda today unveiled HondaLin, a new in-vehicle connectivity system that will debut this fall on the all-new, ninth-generation 2013 Honda Accord. Featuring the first automotive OEM application of Aha™ by Harman, HondaLink will provide a personalized experience connecting drivers to thousands of cloud-based news, information and entertainment feeds from around the world, using an intuitive, audio-system based interface.

Through the Aha service, for example, HondaLink users can listen to Facebook and Twitter audio newsfeeds, podcasts from NPR, location-based personalized restaurant listings from Yelp!, and access internet music services such as Slacker. The service is free and instantly accessible from the cloud.

FMQB 7/19/12

New legislation could level the playing field for online radio royalties, as Rep. Jason Chaffez (R-UT) is writing a bill that would lower Internet royalty rates. Chaffez told The Hill, "It seems screwy that royalty rates change so dramatically based on the platform" and said his potential legislation would even things out for online broadcasters.

“When you’re listening to music in your house or in your car, you may be listening to it on your iPhone, you may be listening on the satellite radio or the FM radio,” he added. “Does that mean the royalties should be so vastly different? It doesn’t seem to make sense to me. We need to play catch-up here.”

Chaffetz’s bill, the Internet Radio Fairness Act of 2012, proposes to put online radio under the 801(b) standard of the Copyright Act, which is the same standard used by the Copyright Royalty Board when setting royalty rates for cable and satellite radio. The bill is still in draft form and Chaffetz says it isn't ready to be formally introduced yet, but he will continue moving forward with the legislation. He added, "There’s plenty of money to be made by all the various interests, it’s just I think moving toward parity is an important principle."

The Telegraph via MediaPost 7/24/12

The figure was released by the Swedish streaming company to mark the first anniversary of its launch in the US. Spotify chose not to reveal how many US users it has managed to attract in its first 12 months. However, it did also disclose that 27.8 million songs have been shared by its users across a range of services. Unsurprisingly Facebook was the service that most people chose to share song recommendations with each other – as Spotify teamed up with the social network at the same time it launched in the US in a bid to boost its membership and global footprint.

Inside Radio 7-27-12

One third of female top 40 P1s say they listen weekly to radio on a cell phone, Nearly half listen to a radio station’s online stream. While still the dominant delivery vehicle, weekly listening to radio on an actual radio declined from 93% of female top 40 P1s last year to 86% this year. The shift is happening across all demos within the women 15-44 age cell. Women who listen to top 40 are at least 60% more likely to listen daily to AM/FM radio on their cell phone

eMarketer 7/30/12

July research from Nielsen indicated that 22% of US smartphone users had made an online purchase via PC after seeing a mobile ad, more than quadruple the percentage who had purchased on their phone. Notably, tablet users were even more likely to buy something on a PC after seeing an ad on their device.

Managing Disruption

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 15:30:00 GMT

While preparing for a recent meeting, I came across this cartoon:

It epitomizes the changing media landscape of today. You have read all about that point in many different places, so redundancy here is not my intention. This is about managing disruption.  Radio has been disrupted many times since its inception. And survived. However, the challenges of the past – TV, the Walkman, MTV, Satellite Radio, and the iPod – did not impact radio to the extent the Internet and mobile devices do today. Interesting though, “internet and mobile” were not designed to disrupt radio. The others actually were.  The technology available today has changed every facet of our lives – in both a business and personal context. The reason is quite simple. When used properly, technology makes us more productive, efficient and effective.   We once marveled at The Jetsons, thinking “Imagine if we could do that.” Today we mostly can.

So what does this have to do with streaming?

Our company provides a specific set of tools to anyone who wants to publish audio. Like most technology these products are there for the disruptors and the disrupted. Some use these capabilities in a defensive manner – and as such are likely facing disruption. Others use them to go on the offensive – to be the disruptor rather than the disrupted – even if it means disrupting themselves. That is the critical point.

Defending during disruption rarely wins because it is not a battle of one product vs. another. Rather, it is a change in the battlefield itself. And you can’t fight the battlefield. You need to adapt to it.

Adapt by playing offense, meaning use the latest tools of engagement and monetization to better serve the audience and the advertisers. Think of all the things you brainstormed over the years in programming, sales, and marketing meetings. “Imagine if we could…” Again, today you likely can.

The reason some play defense or don’t optimize their digital tools is because “there is not enough revenue”. I have heard this many times and it is usually followed by “we stream because we have to”. This mindset is a clear sign that disruption is not being managed, and instead steering toward real danger.

Think about this very simple point. There is no such thing as “digital dollars” or “radio dollars”. There are only “dollars”. Each advertiser has a single and finite budget. They allocate that budget into the different media sectors they believe will best serve their needs. The “digital” spend is dramatically increasing because traditional and new media are using online and mobile capabilities to create more compelling and effective programs for advertisers. They also create greater accountability.

So optimize your online audio assets. Better engagement means better results for advertisers. They win. You win.

The dollars may be small at first. But you will be preparing your business to cross over the bridge of disruption well prepared for the road ahead.