Thursday, June 28, 2012

Android Claims More Than Half of the U.S. Smartphone Market in April 2012

Jason Hahn | DM Confidential | June 27, 2012

According to the latest numbers from comScore, Google’s Android took control of more than half of the U.S. smartphone market in April. Meanwhile, more than half of U.S. smartphone subscribers used downloaded apps in April, while a third played games on their phones.

More than 107 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in April, up 6 percent from January, according to comScore.

Using a three-month average ending in April, comScore found that 50.8 percent of U.S. smartphone users were on the Android platform, up 2.2 percentage points from the 48.6 percent share in January.

Apple followed with 31.4 percent of the market, up 1.9 percentage points from the 29.5 percent it had in January. RIM was third with 11.6 percent, down 3.6 points from its 15.2 percent share in January.

Microsoft followed with 4.0 percent of the market, down 0.4 points from its 4.4 percent share in January. Symbian was fifth with 1.3 percent of the market, down 0.2 points from its 1.5 percent share in January.

According to comScore, Samsung was the top mobile original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in April with 25.9 percent of the market, up 0.5 points from its 25.4 percent share in January.

LG was second with 19.2 percent of the market, followed by Apple with 14.4 percent, Motorola with 12.5 percent and HTC with 6.0 percent.

During the three months ending in April, 74.1 percent of U.S. smartphone users sent text messages to another phone, down 0.5 percentage points from the 74.6 percent who did the same in January. Meanwhile, 50.2 percent of smartphone users used downloaded apps in April, up 1.6 points from the 48.6 percent in January.

Forty-nine percent used a browser on their smartphones in April, while 36.0 percent accessed a social networking site or blog, 33.1 percent played games, and 25.8 percent listened to music on their mobile phones.

Separate numbers from inneractive take a look at the top three countries, by ad requests, in major app categories across all mobile platforms.

According to inneractive, the U.S. leads the arcade and action mobile app category with 19.75 percent of ad requests, followed by India with 10.51 percent and the U.K. with 6.01 percent.

The U.S. leads the news and info category with 10.72 percent of ad requests, followed by Russia with 8.70 percent and Germany with 5.48 percent.

The brain and puzzle mobile app category is led by the U.K. with 12.02 percent, followed by the U.S. with 10.73 percent and Turkey with 6.64 percent.

The U.S. leads the tools category with 11.26 percent, followed by Mexico with 11.17 percent and India with 8.63 percent.

India leads the entertainment category with 13.34 percent of ad requests, followed by Russia with 7.17 percent and the U.K. with 7.03 percent.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Hulu Serves 1.7 Billion Video Ads in May 2012

Jason Hahn | DM Confidential | June 27, 2012

According to comScore, Hulu led all U.S. online video ad properties when it came to video ads viewed in May, and Americans viewed a record number of video ads during the month.

comScore’s Video Metrix numbers from May reveal that U.S. online video viewers watched a total of 10.1 billion video ads in May, an all-time high. Hulu accounted for 1.7 billion of the video ads delivered during the month, with 55.5 ads served per viewer and a reach of 9.8 percent of the total U.S. population.

Google Sites followed with 1.4 billion video ads served in May, with 18.6 ads per viewer and a reach of 24.3 percent of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, BrightRoll Video Network served 1.1 billion video ads, with 10.3 ads per viewer and a reach of 35.8 percent of the population.

Adap.tv (966 million video ads), TubeMogul Video Ad Platform (897 million video ads), Specific Media (752 million video ads), Tremor Video (726 million video ads), SpotXchange Video Ad Marketplace (615 million video ads), Auditude Inc. (570 million video ads) and ESPN (490 million video ads) rounded out the list of the top 10 U.S. online video ad properties ranked by video ads viewed.

Separate numbers from Nielsen reveal the top online video destinations in May, ranked by unique viewers:
  1. YouTube (136 million)
  2. Yahoo (45.3 million)
  3. VEVO (42.0 million)
  4. AOL Media Network (25.6 million)
  5. MSN/Windows Live/Bing (24.3 million)
  6. Facebook (23.2 million)
  7. The CollegeHumor Network (22.9 million)
  8. Hulu (15.5 million)
  9. Perform Group (12.0 million)
  10. ESPN Digital Network (11.4 million)
Nielsen also listed the top online video destinations ranked by total streams:
  1. YouTube (16.5 billion)
  2. Hulu (968 million)
  3. VEVO (727 million)
  4. Yahoo (434 million)
  5. AOL Media Network (331 million)
  6. Netflix (301 million)
  7. Dailymotion (229 million)
  8. ESPN Digital Network (219 million)
  9. MSN/Windows Live/Bing (205 million)
  10. Facebook (121 million)
According to Nielsen, there were 163 million unique video viewers in the U.S. in May, and they streamed a total of 26.2 billion videos, good for 160.1 streams per viewer.

Original Article...

Tuesday Is the Best Day to Deploy a Facebook Campaign

Jason Hahn | DM Confidential | June 27th, 2012

A report from Yesmail titled “Using Digital Market Intelligence to Drive Multi-Channel Success” examines campaigns deployed via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and email. Among the findings is that Tuesday, surprisingly, is the best day of the week to deploy a Facebook campaign, while the five most engaging brands deployed 45-70 Twitter campaigns per month.

According to the report, Facebook campaigns deployed on Tuesday get the highest level of engagement, despite the fact that Tuesday ranks fourth in terms of number of deployed campaigns.

Meanwhile, Facebook campaigns deployed between 10 p.m. and midnight Eastern time get the most engagement. However, this is the least utilized time slot for deployments. The least engaging time of day to deploy a Facebook campaign is 1-4 a.m. Eastern time. The most popular time of day for deploying Facebook campaigns is 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Eastern time, though this slot is in the bottom 30 percent in terms of engagement, according to Yesmail.

While Yesmail didn’t see a clear-cut answer when it comes to determining the best frequency for Facebook campaigns deployed per month, a look at the five most engaging retail brands on Facebook revealed that they deploy 20-32 campaigns per month. Meanwhile, the five least engaging brands deploy an average of 54 campaigns per month.

Yesmail also found that on Facebook, photo content is the most engaging campaign type, probably because it’s easy to share, quick to browse and doesn’t require lots of time.

The study revealed that Facebook engagement increases by about 50 percent when one email campaign is deployed, and by 100 percent when two email campaigns are deployed in the same time frame. “Given the wide adoption of social share buttons, this relationship makes a compelling case for multi-channel marketing programs that are spearheaded by email,” according to Yesmail.

When it comes to Twitter, the highest levels of engagement happen on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. While 20 percent of all Twitter campaigns are deployed on Fridays, that day displays the lowest level of customer engagement.

Yesmail also looked at the commonalities between the most engaging Twitter campaigns. It found that they often adhere to one or more of the following practices:

  • communicate purpose by identifying the desired customer behavior
  • provide an incentive for performing a specific action
  • empower the customer by putting them in charge
  • feature a celebrity mention
  • include a famous saying or a celebrity quote
  • incorporate fun, feel-good tweets with fun, feel-good hashtags

Twitter engagement also benefits from email marketing, as engagement rises by more than 25 percent with one email campaign and by more than 40 percent with two campaigns.

For YouTube, Monday and Tuesday exhibit the highest levels of engagement. While Monday displays the highest engagement, it’s one of the three least utilized deployment days.

Yesmail also notes that a third of top performing YouTube campaigns are shorter than 30 seconds, while 28 percent are 60-90 seconds, 17 percent are 120-180 seconds and 11 percent are longer than 180 seconds.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Americans Spent 4.5B Minutes With Video Ads in May

Daniel Mickens | June 19, 2012 | ClickZ

Video ads have posted another record-breaking month in May, going over the 10 billion mark for the first time. ComScore reported Hulu was at the top of the list with over 1.6 billion video ads delivered. YouTube and Google sites followed with nearly 1.4 billion video ads. BrightRoll Video Network was the only other video ad property to break the billion mark with 1.1 billion video ads delivered.

ComScore includes only streaming-video advertising in its report, and does not measure other types of video monetization, such as overlays, branded players, matching banner ads, etc.

Americans spent over 4.5 billion minutes watching video ads in May. Hulu led this category as well with 725 million minutes. BrightRoll Video Network and Adap.tv were the next two leading properties with 673 million and 556 million minutes, respectively.

Video ads reached 52 percent of the U.S. population an average of 64 times during the month of May. Hulu once again topped the category by delivering the highest frequency of video ads to their viewers with an average of 56. ESPN was second in the category with an average of 29 ads per viewer.

Despite being a leader in those three categories, Hulu ranked near the bottom of the list in reaching the U.S. population. Compared to the leaders in this category - BrightRoll Video Network (35.8 percent) and Specific Media (31.9 percent), Hulu reached just 10 percent of the population.

ComScore also released data from the comScore Video Metrix showing that over 180 million U.S. Internet users watched 36.6 billion content videos last month. YouTube, VEVO, and Yahoo Sites topped almost every category of the video content rankings.

Top U.S. Online Video Ad Properties
Ranked by Video Ads Viewed, May 2012
Property Video Ads (000) Total Ad Minutes (MM)Frequency (Ads per Viewer) % Reach Total U.S. Population
Total Internet: Total Audience10,076,4994,51763.651.7
Hulu1,666,84672555.59.8
Google Sites1,385,27314318.624.3
BrightRoll Video Network1,130,98367310.335.8
Adap.tv966,20455613.124.1
TubeMogul Video Ad Platform896,78725917.416.8
Specific Media751,5423597.731.9
Tremor Video725,94440814.116.8
SpotXchange Video Ad Marketplace615,29032613.514.9
Auditude, Inc.569,86221911.616.0
ESPN490,10316928.65.6
Data provided by comScore Video Metrix.

Original Article...