TV Tweet levels broadly correlate with TV channel & viewing figures over time

"Based on detailed examination of a year’s worth of exclusive data from both Twitter and BARB, excluding news and live sports programmes, its key findings include:
There is a ‘Twitter TV Top 30’: In terms of volume of tweets, the top 30 TV series (excluding live sport and news programmes) account for 50% of all measured UK Twitter TV activity and 9% of viewing volume.
TV Tweet levels broadly correlate with TV channel shares and programme/series viewing figures across a broad time period, although some channels over-perform on Twitter relative to audience share.
Of the TV Tweets analysed, there was a noticeable skew towards entertainment, talent shows, constructed reality, documentaries, soaps, special events and some dramas, including Sherlock, Downton Abbey and Doctor Who, where there is a cult or younger following.
Twitter TV activity correlates with audience size at a broad level: the shows with the largest volume of Twitter TV activity tend to have higher audiences. However smaller shows can gain disproportionate levels of Twitter activity if they are ‘social TV friendly’, for example encouraging participation or skewing to a younger audience.
Twitter activity has a direct, positive influence on viewing figures during broadcast for 11% of programmes, boosting audiences by an estimated 2% during those shows."

Source:  Press release from Kantar, 24th September 2014

Apple sold over 10m iPhone 6s in the first weekend

"Apple today announced it has sold over 10 million new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models, a new record, just three days after the launch on September 19. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK and will be available in more than 20 additional countries on September 26. The new iPhones will be available in 115 countries by the end of the year.
“Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We would like to thank all of our customers for making this our best launch ever, shattering all previous sell-through records by a large margin. While our team managed the manufacturing ramp better than ever before, we could have sold many more iPhones with greater supply and we are working hard to fill orders as quickly as possible.”"
Source:  Press release from Apple, 22nd September 2014r

46% of American broadband homes have a gaming console connected to the internet

"Parks Associates today announced new Consumer Analytics research,Connected Game Consoles, that shows 46% of U.S. broadband households have a game console connected to the Internet and over one-quarter (28%) use the connected gaming console as their primary connected CE device. Among these primary console users, roughly three-quarters use the gaming console to access non-gaming content online at least weekly, and nearly 40% access such content for more than 10 hours per week.
“Gaming consoles are the most frequently used connected CE device because of their high adoption rates—of the broadband households that have only one connected CE device, nearly 60% have a game console,” said Barbara Kraus, Director of Research, Parks Associates. “As the non-gaming capabilities of consoles have expanded, so too has the potential for consoles to become an entertainment platform for online content such as video, music, and apps.”"
Source:  Press release from Parks Associates, 23rd September 2014

4 of the 10 most-used smartphones in South Africa are Blackberries

"The most used smartphones in South Africa are the BlackBerry 8520 Curve, the BlackBerry 9320 Curve, and the BlackBerry 9300 Curve. This is according to Vodacom’s data about the number of active devices on its network.
The data further revealed that the top 10 most used smartphones on the Vodacom network included four BlackBerry devices, three Samsung phones, two Nokias, and an iPhone.
While there is a great deal of hype around high-end devices like the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy range, the more affordable BlackBerry 8520 is the smartphone which many South Africans use."

Source:  MyBroadband, 16th September 2014

85% of WSJ's app usage is on iOS

"More than 85 percent of WSJ app usage is on iPhone, iPad or iPod touch."
Source:  WSJ, 17th September 2014

52% of the traffic to UK retail sites came from mobile devices

"IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) is the UK’s industry association for e-retail, and in conjunction with consultancy Capgemini they sponsor a quarterly benchmarking report on the retail industry.
The study ran from May through July 2014, and was based upon information from some 40 retailers, including Addict, Airport Parking & Hotels, B&Q, Bank, Blacks, Brora, Cartridge People, Clarks, Crocus, Debenhams, Deckers, Dune, Dunelm Mill, Freeman Grattan Holdings (Freemans, Grattan, Look Again, Kaleidoscope, Curvissa, Swimear365, Witt International UK), Get The Label, Hobbs, Home & Cook, JD Sports, John Lewis, LK Bennett, M and M Direct, Marks & Spencer, Matalan, Millets, Moss Bros, New Look, Philip Kingsley, Schuh, Scott, Silentnight, Size, Sparkling Strawberry, Super GA, The Body Shop, The White Company & This is Pulp.
Overall, 52% of the traffic to retail sites came from a mobile device, either a smartphone or a tablet. Tina Spooner, chief information officer at IMRG commented “considering that as recently as 2010 mobile visits to e-retail sites accounted for less than 3 per cent of traffic, this latest milestone represents staggering growth of 2,000 per cent over the past four years.”
In addition, the study found that over 1/3 (36%) of online purchases were made over mobile. For retailers in clothing and apparel, the figure was over 40%.
With the total UK online sales reaching just over £24 billion (about US$40 billion) for the months May, June, and July, sales using smartphones and tablets was over £8 billion.
One of the most interesting findings was that about 80% of the mobile sales were using tablets, and only 20% were with smartphones, indicating that customers still value larger screens."

Source;  MobiAdNews, 4th September 2014

Roku has sold 10 million streaming players in the US

"Today we’re happy to announce that we have sold 10 million Roku players in the United States! This is a huge milestone for our company and we want to thank all of you for helping us to achieve it. We are dedicated to bringing consumers the best streaming TV experience and we’re grateful that our fans continue to support and recognize us for making America’s favorite streaming players.
Just over six years ago we shipped the very first Roku player to stream Netflix to the TV and now our players are synonymous with TV streaming. Today Roku players feature more than 1,800 channels – that’s 1,000 more channels than available on other streaming players. And because of this vast selection of entertainment, Roku players stream more than other streaming players. In fact, new NPD data1 found that Roku is the popular choice among streaming players and accounts for an aggregate 37 million hours of video streamed per week compared to Apple TV at 15 million hours, Chromecast at 12 million hours and Amazon Fire TV at six million hours. You’re also referring your friends to Roku more than any other streaming device, according to NPD. Thank you!"

Source:  Roku blog, 16th September 2014

Ad revenues at Mail Online rose nearly 50% y-o-y in 2014

"Mail Online’s advertising revenues increased by nearly 50% to £53m in the 11 months to the end of August, offsetting a further decline in print advertising at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.
The Daily Mail website, which had 180 million global monthly unique users in August, up 30% on the same month in 2013, had total ad revenues of £53m, up £17m (49%) year on year. It set a full-year target of £60m.
Print ad revenues were down £10m, a 5% fall, over the same period, to £172m according to the company’s trading update on Wednesday.
Parent company Daily Mail & General Trust said revenues at DMG Media, the umbrella division which houses the Mail business as well as Metro and daily deals service Wowcher, were down 4% over the 11-month period.
Underlying revenues, adjusting for currency fluctuations, disposals and other items, were flat, with a 5% fall in circulation cancelled out by a 5% rise in ad sales.
For the three weeks since 24 August, underlying ad revenues were up 7% on last year.
Overall, DMGT reported a 1% year-on-year rise in revenues for the 11-month period, with a 5% increase on a like-for-like basis."

Source:  The Guardian, 17th September 2014

In the first half of September 'Christmas' was the most popular search term on the John Lewis site

"According to John Lewis, since September 3 the most frequent term typed into the search box is not ‘iPad’ or ‘coffee machine’ but ‘Christmas’. As a result Christmas is now the first tab on the John Lewis home page."
Source:  The Telegraph, 15th September 2014

Apple's U2 album giveaway 'cost $100m'

"Lucky you. You may have downloaded that U2 album for free, but it cost Apple a lot of cash.
Right around $100 million, to be exact, according to multiple sources including The New York Times.
The band ‘s 13th album, Songs of Innocence, was available without charge to any and all iTunes subscribers — right around 500 million people –in celebration of Tuesday’s huge Apple event in Cupertino, Calif. (The one where they unveiled to the world “the best phones ever made.”)
But it wasn’t that easy to get one of the biggest rock bands in history to give out a freebie. Apple, according to The Times, struck a $100 million deal with the band and its label, Universal, that included an undisclosed fee and a marketing campaign."

Source:  Entertainment Weekly, 12th September 2014

Shop Direct reduced the number of catalogues it prints from 29 million to 4 million

"With a history rich in catalogue retailing, Littlewoods.com owner Shop Direct knows a thing or two about product presentation.
But in recent years, as the company has embarked on a digital-first strategy, the vast majority of the business's time and energy has been spent increasing customer engagement and maximising revenues of its five online brands, which also include Very.co.uk, Isme.com, KandCo.com, LittlewoodsIreland.ie and Woolworths.co.uk.
Having outsourced its customer service operations and reduced catalogue production from 29 million in 2005 to around four million this year, Shop Direct announced its first annual profit for a decade in the summer. And as it looks to maximise revenues over the next ten years, the retailer is pinning its hopes on virtual fitting rooms and other rich technologies to attract, retain and delight its customers, and present its products in a modern way."

Source:  Essential Retail, 13th December 2013

Microsoft is buying the Minecraft maker Mojang for $2.5bn

"Microsoft will acquire the maker of the popular game Minecraft for $2.5 billion.
The technology company said it will buy Stockholm-based game maker Mojang. Minecraft, which lets users build in and explore a virtual world, has been downloaded 100 million times on PC alone since its launch in 2009. It is the most popular online game on Xbox, and the top paid app for Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating system in the U.S.
The deal is expected to close in late 2014. Microsoft expects the acquisition to be break-even in fiscal 2015."
Source:  NY Daily News,. 15th September 2014

Facebook has over 100M MAUs in Africa

"Facebook just keeps on growing. The number of people accessing its social network each month has reached 100 million in Africa, further highlighting the opportunity for expansion through emerging markets.
According to Facebook, more than 80 percent of its monthly active users in Africa are now accessing the platform from a mobile device. That’s a high attachment rate for feature phones, smartphones and tablets, suggesting usage on laptops and desktop PCs is slowly being left in the dust."

Source:  The Next Web, 8th September 2014

Over €2 billion was spent on programmatic advertising in Europe in 2013

"At its panel at dmexco 2014 today, IAB Europe announced that it has joined forces with IHS Technology to size the programmatic market at a European level.
Recognising the growing importance of programmatic within the digital advertising ecosystem, IAB Europe sees the need to deliver greater insight on this area. This is the first such initiative by a digital advertising industry body.
The research shows that the programmatic market in Europe leaped 111% from €0.98bn in 2012 to €2.08bn in 2013.
IAB Europe and IHS Technology took a holistic approach to aggregating the data to ensure all stakeholder perspectives were included. The numbers are based on ad spend reported by IABs, transactional data, statistical and econometric models to infer a European market size and knowledge from industry experts. This programmatic research will complement the IAB Europe AdEx Benchmark report, the definitive guide to the state of the European online advertising market. Further development of research into the Programmatic market will continue to be undertaken in consultation with the IABs across Europe.
The European figure released today includes online display and mobile display to ensure all corners of the ecosystem are captured."
Source:  Press release from IAB Europe, 11th September 2014

The Starbucks mobile app accounts for 15% of its transactions in the US

"The Starbucks app is on track to process over $1.5 billion in payment volume in the U.S. in 2014, according to our estimates. In the second quarter it accounted for 15% of the transactions in U.S. company-operated stores, averaging 6 million transactions per week."

Source:  Business Insider, 6th September 2014

More than 2.4 million Ice Bucket Challenge related videos have been posted on Facebook

"There have been in excess of 2.4 million ice bucket-related videos posted on Facebook, and 28 million people have uploaded, commented on or liked ice bucket-related posts.
On image sharing website Instagram there have been 3.7 million videos uploaded with the hashtags #ALSicebucketchallenge and #icebucketchallenge. Justin Bieber's has been the most popular - with about one million "likes".
The stunt is typically intended to raise money and awareness for the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Association. Its British equivalent, the Motor Neurone Disease Association, has also benefited.
From 29 July to 28 August this year ALS received $98.2m - compared with $2.7m donated during the same period last year.
Pre-ice bucket, the MND Association would receive on average £200,000 a week in donations. From 22 to 29 August, it received £2.7m.
In the UK, other charities have benefited with Macmillan Cancer Support raising £3m from challenges. Water Aid has seen a spike in donations, including £47,000 in one day - 50% higher than it ever received in a single day before. The money came in part from people bemoaning the water wasted in the challenges."

Source:  BBC News, 2nd September 2014

Note - The full post looks at how interest grew and was shared

Monocle is valued at appriximately $115m

"Tyler Brûlé, the FT columnist known for his luxurious lifestyle, has sold a minority stake in his global affairs magazine Monocle to Japanese newspaper publisher Nikkei Inc.
The deal values Monocle, which was launched in 2007, at about $115m. The size of Nikkei’s investment was not disclosed, but was below $10m.
“This says we’re in a very good place,” Mr Brûlé said. “We started with €10m-ish of capital in 2007.”
Partnering with Nikkei is intended to allow Monocle to develop its media franchise, while giving Nikkei an English-language platform to expand its presence in Asia.
[...]
Mr Brûlé said Monocle was profitable mainly thanks to its monthly magazine. The title’s print circulation rose 4 per cent year on year in the first half of 2014 to 77,030, mostly outside the UK – and now sells about half as many copies as Condé Nast’s GQ. The upcoming October edition has attracted more than $1m in print advertising, he said."

Source:  FT, 1st September 2014