A 15% shift in budget from TV to online delivers great effectiveness

"With brand marketers always looking to get the most out of their advertising budgets, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today released “A Comprehensive Picture of Digital Video and TV Advertising: Viewing, Budget Share Shift and Effectiveness,” a Nielsen research study commissioned by the IAB investigating how moving dollars from TV ad budgets to digital media – especially digital video – affects reach and costs. Shared at the sixth IAB Annual Leadership Meeting, “Big Data & Big Ideas: Friends, Enemies, or Frenemies?,” at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, the report reveals that a 15 percent shift in media spend to digital will drive a distinct increase in advertiser reach across verticals.
The study benchmarked how real TV schedules across key advertiser verticals perform as money moved to digital. To accomplish this, the research examined 18 real TV schedules across advertiser verticals. Categories included Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), specifically Health & Beauty and Food & Beverage, as well as non-CPG verticals such as Technology, Automotive, Retail, Finance and Telecom. Findings pointed to various benefits from a 15 percent shift into digital:
- On average, CPG reach grew 3.4 percent (3.4 reach points) among persons 18 and older (P18+) when 15 percent of ad spend moved into digital
- In all other categories beyond CPG, schedules consistently averaged an incremental reach of 6.2 percent (or 6.2 reach points) at the same reallocation of 15 percent of budget to digital among P18+
- Across verticals, the 15 percent share shift results in more reach at lower costs per point, dropping from an average of $67.6K to $63.0K
Corresponding CPMs decline from $13.82 to $12.31
Not only did shifting TV ad budget to digital result in increased reach, but that reach was more effective. The combination of digital advertising and television commercials was found to be a particularly potent mix, with duplicated reach shown to be more effective on key brand effect metrics than either platform alone. Research demonstrated that planning and running video ads online prior to TV boosts brand recall for that same ad playing on television by 33 percent. There were similar gains when it came to online display ads, with consumers 25 percent more likely to recall the brand if they had seen the display ad before seeing the ad on TV.
“This study documents that brands need both online media, especially digital video, and TV to reach consumers effectively,” said Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President, Research, Analytics and Measurement, IAB. “It’s eye-opening to discover that viewers actually have an easier time naming the brand behind a TV commercial if they have had the opportunity to be introduced to the creative first on a digital screen. Marketers and media planners clearly need to start thinking about their digital buys – whether video or display – before they forge ahead with a traditional television buy, in order to optimize reach and effectiveness.”
Looking specifically at digital video – whether in short-form or full episodes – online video ads scored higher impact than TV ads when it came to general recall, brand recall, message recall, and ad likeability. Full episodes online are particularly effective. For example, general recall is 39 percent higher for video ads during a full episode online than on TV. Brand recall, message recall, and ad likeability of ads during a full episode online are almost double those of a TV commercial.
This trend is consistent within all ad categories, with Hospitality, Finance, Retail, Restaurants, Food & Beverage, and Pharma noted as the top performing sectors for brand effectiveness in ads that appear during full episodes online."
Source:  Press release from the IAB, 25th February 2013

Beauty brand Sephora says its Pinterest followers spend 15 times more than its Facebook followers

"Beauty products retailer and digital trailblazer Sephora says that per-capita, its Pinterest followers spend more money than its Facebook followers, and not just a little bit more. In fact, Pinterest users spend 15 times more on Sephora products than Facebook followers, Sephora’s head of digital Julie Bornstein told me this morning.
“The reality is that when you’re in the Pinterest mindset, you’re actually interested in acquiring items, which is not what people go to Facebook for,” Bornstein said. “Facebook continues to be just a great customer interaction tool that gives us the real-time ability to dialog with our customer; it’s a big customer-service venue for us.”
[...]
Sephora jumped on Pinterest hard, mostly because its largely-female marketing team were enthusiastic early adopters. When the company re-launched its website in April last year, it was one of the first retailers to integrate the ‘Pin It’ button sitewide. Individual users share their lists of what Sephora products they love and why — rather than just a putting together a list of fashion products, they can use Pinterest to tell a visual story about why a certain eyeshadow is so great and seek to inspire others. And a dedicated resource on the Sephora digital team helps Sephora staff craft Pinterest strategies."

Source:  VentureBeat, 27th February 2013

Also - Sephora on Pinterest

Instagram has 100 million users

"Now, nearly two and a half years later, over 100 million people use Instagram every month. It’s easy to see this as an accomplishment for a company, but I think the truth is that it’s an accomplishment for our community. Now, more than ever, people are capturing the world in real-time using Instagram—sharing images from the farthest corners of the globe. What we see as a result is a world more connected and understood through photographs."
Source:  Instagram blog, 26th February 2013
Note - this is where it gets complicated:
In Sept 2012 Mark Zuckerberg announced 100m users, and The Next Web did this handy table of its growth since launch.
However, those were only the number of registered users - and many people download apps and don't use them regularly.
The nearest comparable figure is this statement from Instagram that they had 90m monthly users from early February 2013 - so they've gained 10m in a month.  So much for privacy concerns!

Tweet patterns for films shown on TV repeat themselves

Click to enlarge

Source:  Blog post by SecondSync, 31st December 2012

20 million people pay for music subscription services

"Global recorded music industry revenues increased by an estimated 0.3 per cent in 2012, the first year of industry growth since 1999, to US$16.5 billion.

Digital revenues increased by an estimated 9 per cent to US$5.6 billion in 2012, now accounting for around 34 per cent of global industry revenues.

Download sales increased in volume by 12 per cent globally in 2012 and represent around 70 per cent of overall digital music revenues

The number of people paying to use subscription services leapt 44 per cent in 2012 to 20 million. Subscription revenues are expected to account for more than 10 per cent of digital revenues for the first time in 2012.

Digital channels account for the majority of record companies' income in an increasing number of markets including India, Norway, Sweden and the US

Digital retailers' rapid global expansion is opening up the potential for markets such as Brazil and India, to become major sources of future industry growth. At the start of 2011, the major international services were present in 23 countries. Two years later, they are in more than 100 countries.

Digital music consumption has become mainstream, as shown by consumer research by Ipsos MediaCT across nine markets in four continents. Two-thirds of internet users (62%) have used a licensed digital music service in the past six months. Among younger consumers (aged 16-24) this figure jumps to 81 per cent.

Consumer satisfaction with licensed music services is demonstrably high. 77 per cent of users of licensed services rate them as excellent, very good or fairly good. Even 57 per cent of those who use unlicensed services believe "there are good services available for legally accessing digital music."

Many non-digital revenue channels are also increasing. Performance rights income increased in value by an estimated 9.2 per cent in 2012 and now accounts for around 6 per cent of overall industry revenues, up from 3 per cent in 2007."

Source:  Press release from the IPFI 26th February 2013

Note - Full report (in English) is available at the link above, or here

Inocente is the first Kickstarter-funded film to win an Academy Award

"The true story of a 15-year-old homeless girl has become the first Kickstarter-funded film to win an Oscar.

Inocente was made with the help of $52,527 (£35,000) raised by 294 backers in June last year.

The documentary was awarded with the prize for best documentary short at the ceremony.

Two other crowd-funded films, Kings Point and Buzkashi Boys, were also nominated but came away empty-handed."

Source:  BBC News, 25th February 2013
Link: The project on Kickstarter

The 70m users of Nokia's Xpress cloud browser save $1m a day in data costs

"Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia, said that he is helping to bring the Internet to the emerging markets through basic phones that offer a lot of features. Yesterday, the company launched the Nokia 105, which will sell for around 15 euros. His lower end phones, however, have the Nokia Xpress browser, which is a cloud-based Internet service that runs faster and consumes less data. Elop said that in total, the browser saves users $1 million a day in data costs."

Source:  CNET, 26th February 2013

Note - according to this tweet Nokia's cloud browser has 70m users

Shazam has 300 million users

"The number of Shazam users and their level of engagement continue to grow rapidly. We now have over 300 million Shazamers globally with an increasing proportion of whom use our app on their iPad or Android tablet devices to interact with television. This new version of Shazam optimizes discovery, engagement, transactions and exploration in a tablet environment,” said Andrew Fisher, Shazam CEO. “It’s the most efficient way to experience more of the media around you whether you are in your home or in any other environment throughout the world."

Source:  Press release from Shazam, 25th February 2013

Earlier - 250m announced in September 2012

Earlier - 75m announced in May 2012

8.9 million tweets were posted about The Oscars 2013

"All in all, there were 8.9 million Tweets about the 85th Academy Awards: 2.1 million during the red carpet, and 6.8 million during the awards show. People at home (and in the audience) tweeted as the night’s most exciting and entertaining moments unfolded. The events that drove the most conversation on Twitter this evening, based on tweets per minute, were:
Best Picture award for Argo: 85,300 TPM
Adele performs “Skyfall”: 82,300 TPM
Best Actress in a Leading Role for Jennifer Lawrence: 71,600 TPM
Best Original Song for Adele: 64,000 TPM
Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Anne Hathaway: 60,400 TPM"

Source:  Twitter blog, 24th February 2013

Pre-Pay vs Pay-As-You-Go mobile contracts by market

Click to enlarge

Source:  NielsenWire, 19th February 2013
Note - the UK figures seem wrong (only 17% of UK smartphone owners on pre-pay) - & the second chart seems to contradict it - "50% paid for data using a fixed monthly charge" - see below

The number of mobile phones per user in the US & BRIC countries

Click to enlarge

Source:  NielsenWire, 21st February 2013

adidas receives an average of 5,300 likes or comments for each picture posted on Instagram

"Adidas has posted 49 photos over the quarter, and averages 5,292.4 likes and comments per photo. Over the last month, this has steadily increased as the brand has been posting more photos, averaging between 5-6 posts each week. Their engagement has climbed with the additional content, and last week Adidas saw over 50,000 likes and comments on their posts."

Source:  Simply Measured, 21st February 2013

Half of Tablet searches are cannibalised from PCs; half are 'new'

"For now it is a separate animal, [Gagan] Kanwar [Marin Software] says. In the United States half of tablet searches are net new searches, the other half are cannibalizing a desktop or notebook PC. Searches from smartphones are all gravy, or in slightly drier terms, incremental – searches for restaurants, movie times and clothing that wouldn’t otherwise happen."
Source:  Wired, 14th February 2013

There is a correlation between satisfaction with a company's social marketing, likelihood to purchase, & perception of the company

"The study finds that social marketing engagements vary by age group. Nearly one-third (39%) of consumers 30-49 years old and 38 percent of those 50 years and older interact with a company in a social marketing engagement context, while only 23 percent of consumers who are 18-29 years old interact with companies. In contrast, 43 percent of consumers who are 18-29 years old use social media for servicing interactions, while 39 percent of consumers who are 30-49 years old use social for servicing needs. Only 18 percent of consumers who are 50 years and older interact with a company via social for a service-related need.
[...]
The study finds a correlation between overall satisfaction with a company's social marketing efforts and consumers' likelihood to purchase and their overall perception of the company. Among highly-satisfied consumers (satisfaction scores of 951 and higher on a 1,000-point scale), 87 percent indicate that the online social interaction with the company "positively impacted" their likelihood to purchase from that company. Conversely, among consumers who are less satisfied (scores less than 500), one in 10 consumers indicate that the interaction "negatively impacted" their likelihood to purchase from the company."

Source:  Press release from JD Power Associates, 14th February 2013

Pinterest is valued at $2.5 billion

"Online scrapbook Pinterest has raised a new $200 million round of funding that gives it a valuation of $2.5 billion, the company said on Wednesday.
Pinterest, which allows users to create online bulletin boards based on various themes such as travel, decorating, or sports, said in a statement it would use the new capital to build new features, beef up its infrastructure, and make "strategic acquisitions of both talent and technology."
Long-short hedge fund Valiant led the investment round, joined by existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners and FirstMark Capital. Valiant has invested in several consumer-Internet companies in the past, including search engines Google and Baidu."

Source:  Reuters, 20th February 2013

Apple accounts for 20% of US consumer technology sales

"New data released by The NPD Group on Tuesday revealed that Apple accounted for 19.9 percent of all domestic consumer technology sales, based on revenue, from last year. That number was up from the 17.3 percent share Apple took in 2011.
Apple's revenue easily beat out rival Samsung, which came in second with 9.3 percent, up from 7 percent in 2011. The rest of the top five saw their share of revenue fall in 2012: HP dipped from 8.9 percent in 2011 to 8.2 percent last year, while Sony and Dell both slid to 4.4 percent and 3 percent, respectively."

Source:  Apple Insider, 19th February 2013

How the internet affects new product purchase decisions

Click to enlarge

Source:  NielsenWire, 19th February 2013

10% of American Netflix subscribers have seen House of Cards

"Netflix has been mum on viewership of House of Cards, preferring so far not to break out the number of subscribers who have watched it or how many hours they’ve watched. The company has said, however, that the program is its most-watched show. And research from financial services firm Cowen and Company suggests that Netflix’s original programming is already starting to pay dividends for the streaming service.
Cowen surveyed 1,200 people last week, of which about 28 percent were paying Netflix subscribers, and another 18 percent had access to a Netflix streaming account. Of those, about 10 percent had watched House of Cards during the first few weeks it was available. And they’re not just watching one episode — on average, Netflix viewers had streamed an average of six episodes of the new original series.
Viewers generally rated the series well, with 80 percent saying it was “good” or “exceptional.” Viewers also liked Netflix making all 13 episodes of the first season available at the same time. According to the survey, 90 percent viewed that release plan positively, as they gobbled up multiple episodes per viewing session."

Source:  Techcrunch, 19th February 2013

Note - Since he only asked approx 360 subscribers I consider this to be a small(ish) sample

34 London Fashion Week shows were streamed live online

"For the first time this season, the BFC have partnered with YouTube and will be live streaming 21 of the on-schedule catwalk shows through the LFW channel, youtube.com/LFWTV. The world’s largest video platform will be home to a customized London Fashion Week profile, broadcasting daily catwalk shows to a global audience. The BFC will once again be live streaming to www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/live. In total 34 shows - over 60% of the catwalk schedule – will be live streamed, including 21 from the Courtyard Show Space at Somerset House, 8 courtesy of Topshop from their venue at the Tate Modern, as well as shows outside the main catwalk venue including Burberry, Mulberry, Moschino, Henry Holland and Holly Fulton."

Source:  London Fashion Week, 13th February 2013

Topshop's London Fashion Week live video stream has had over 4 million views

"Topshop’s efforts seem to have paid off: since the Google+/Topshop live video initiative launched Friday, Cooke says the video stream has garnered 4,059,147 million views and counting across all platforms: Google+, YouTube, syndicated media players, Twitter, and the Topshop homepage. Perhaps more astoundingly: according to Cooke, during just the first five minutes of yesterday’s show, there were over 200,000 social media shares on Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr using the "Shoot The Show" feature."

Source:  Fast CoCreate, 18th February 2013

The average UK viewer watched 4 hours, 1 minute of linear TV a day in 2012

"New figures from BARB show that TV viewing in the UK is continuing to expand as people watch additional content on-demand via TV sets, tablets, smartphones and laptops - yet linear TV still rules the roost.
In total, the average UK viewer watched 4 hours, 1 minute of linear TV a day in 2012 - the year when British television became 100% digital following analogue switch-off.
In 10 years, the linear TV viewing average has increased by 27 minutes (23%). BARB further revealed that last year 89.8% of linear TV was watched live, though the BBC coverage of the Olympics did not significantly affect commercial viewing figures overall.
However, the figures do not account for non-television set devices, such as ITV Player, BBC iPlayer and 4OD. According to data supplied to Thinkbox by UK broadcasters, in 2012 people in the UK watched an average of just 3 minutes per day of audio-video content online, a fraction of the linear TV average."

Source:  MediaTel, 19th February 2013

Twitter users are limited to 1,000 Tweets per day

Update - It's now 2,400 tweets per day (Aug 2014)
"Current Twitter limits
The current technical limits for accounts are:
Direct messages: 250 per day.
Tweets: 1,000 per day. The daily update limit is further broken down into smaller limits for semi-hourly intervals. Retweets are counted as Tweets.
Changes to account email: Four per hour.
Following (daily): The technical follow limit is 1,000 per day. Please note that this is a technical account limit only, and there are additional rules prohibiting aggressive following behavior. Details about following limits and prohibited behavior are on the Follow Limits and Best Practices page.
Following (account-based): Once an account is following 2,000 other users, additional follow attempts are limited by account-specific ratios. The Follow Limits and Best Practices page has more information."
Source:  Twitter Support, retrieved 18th February 2013
Note - Coca Cola were unable to Tweet for 100 minutes during the Super Bowl because they'd gone over their limit

Zeebox has 3.7 million users

"The first automated platform to deliver targeted mobile ads sychronised with TV commercials has been launched in the US and UK by zeebox, which currently has 3.7m users worldwide."
Source:  Mobile Marketing Magazine, 13th February 2013

Note - Zeebox is currently only available in the US, the UK and Australia (Feb 2013)

30% of ad impressions aren't seen

"Nearly 6 trillion display ad impressions were delivered across the web in 2012 as brand marketers have become increasingly comfortable with a medium capable of delivering strong marketing ROI. Despite delivering so many impressions, comScore research showed that an average of 3 in 10 ads are never rendered in-view, leading to significant waste, weaker campaign performance and a glut of poor-performing inventory that imbalances the supply-and-demand equation and depresses CPMs. Through the continued adoption of a viewable impressions standard, the market is beginning to embrace a digital scarcity model that better aligns monetization with the value created by the inventory."
Source:  Press release from comScore, 14th February 2013
Note - comScore made the same point last year - see my comment

The demographics of American Pinterest users

Click to enlarge

Source:  Pew Internet & American Life Project, 14th February 2013

The demographics of American Tumblr users

Click to enlarge

Source:  Pew Internet & American Life Project, 14th February 2013

The demographics of American Instagram users

Click to enlarge

Source:  Pew Internet & American Life Project, 14th February 2013

The demographics of American Twitter users

Click to enlarge

Source:  Pew Internet & American Life Project, 14th February 2013

The demographics of American Facebook Users

Click to enlarge

Source:  Pew Internet & American Life Project, 14th February 2013

The penetration & demographics of social media sites in the US

Click to enlarge

Source:  Pew Internet & American Life Project, 14th February 2013
Note - full report is here

There is one Angry Birds download for every two new devices activated

Click to enlarge

Source:  Data from Flurry, quoted by Rovio in a press release, 14th February 2014

The first ever banner campaign had a click rate of 44%

"Joe McCambley, co-founder of The Wonderfactory, a New York digital branding firm, reminded us this week in the Harvard Business Review that he was responsible for the best — and worst — online ad invention the internet has ever seen: The first ever banner ad.
Since it first appeared in October 1994 to promote seven art museums, sponsored by AT&T, to the readers of HotWired.com, the banner ad has earned publishers billions of dollars in revenues.
[...]
The first banner ad was made by Modem Media, a digital agency where McCambley worked, that was later acquired and folded into Digitas.
Of those who saw the ad, 44 percent clicked, McCambley remembers"
Source:  Business Insider, 13th February 2013
Note - I'm assuming that the final sentence means a CTR of 44%, and it's lazy writing, rather than they could track clicks per user rather than clicks per impression back in 1994.

Norway has the highest average penetration of new technology

"Within these 19 markets (see the following page for a complete list) we have tracked the adoption of three new media technologies – IPTV, smartphones and tablets – and forecast their penetration to 2015.
Across these markets smartphones are the most prevalent device, with an average 36% penetration in 2012. Smartphone penetration varies widely among our 19 markets, from 73% in Sweden to 18% in Brazil. In all markets penetration is rising rapidly, and we forecast it to double to 72% across all 19 markets by 2015, reaching 33% in Brazil and 93% in Sweden.
Tablet penetration averaged 5% in 2012, but exceeded 15% in five markets: Australia, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and the USA. By 2015 we expect penetration to average 13% across the 19 markets, but to range as high as 45% in France and 50% in Ireland.
IPTV is the slowest-growing of the three technologies; we expect its average penetration to rise by 36% between 2012 and 2015, from 6.6% to 9.0%. IPTV also has the widest range of adoption among our 19 markets; by 2015 we expect its penetration to reach 91% in the Netherlands, but remain at 1% in Russia.
Looking at the individual markets, Norway had the highest average penetration in 2012, thanks to its high take-up of smartphones (65%, compared to an average 44% in these 19 markets) and tablets (13%, compared to a 9% average). Sweden and Denmark also feature in the top five, reflecting Scandinavia’s traditional consumer enthusiasm for the internet and digital media. In fact, despite the continued economic troubles in the region, all of the top five markets were in Western Europe. The highest-ranked market from outside Western Europe was Canada, in sixth place. Australia, in seventh place, was the highest-placed market from Asia Pacific, while Hungary was the highest-placed from Central & Eastern Europe, at 16th. Brazil, at 17th, is the only Latin American market among our top 19.
By 2015, however, we expect the Netherlands to take the top position. This is thanks to its extremely rapid adoption of IPTV, which broadband providers are competing to offer as a value-added service to take advantage of the fast-paced build-out of new fibre-optic infrastructure. The swift growth of IPTV has already started eroding the number of subscribers to cable and satellite TV. We estimate that in 2012 27% of households in the Netherlands had IPTV, up from 10% in 2010. By 2015 we forecast IPTV to be in 91% of Dutch households. This is much higher than the penetration we forecast in the second-ranked market for IPTV – Canada, where we forecast 69% penetration in 2015."
Source:  ZenithOptimedia New Media Forescast, 11th February 2013
Note - the markets were:  Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, UK, & USA

1.7 million British internet users only access via mobile

Click to enlarge

Source:  Data from comScore.  Chart presented by comScore at the UKOM & comScore presentation in London, 7th February 2013
45m access via PC, 29m access via mobile, the combined internet reach is 47m, so 2 million (actually 1.7m) only access via mobile (excuding wifi, apps and tablets)
Note - comScore have given me permission to re-publish this, and say:
"The more precise figure is 1.7 million users in the UK only access the internet via mobile.
The number will potentially be higher once we have wi-fi, apps and tablet included in the data."

40% of London taxi drivers use the Hailo app

"The app is now used by 9,000 London taxi drivers - about 40 per cent of all cabbies in the capital. Once the drivers' app was in place, connecting them to fares was easy. A (free) consumer app uses the passenger's location to alert the nearest driver. Once the fare is accepted, the passenger can see in real time where the cab is, when it will arrive and the driver's mobile number. Thanks to the high take-up among drivers, cabs in central London are often close by.
[...]

Every ten seconds a Hailo hail is accepted somewhere around the world
Nine thousand black-cab drivers in London are registered with Hailo
Twenty thousand drivers are registered worldwide
Three thousand pounds: Hailo's biggest fare, to transport a dog to Spain"

Source:  Wired, 11th February 2013

Note - I'm assuming that this is 40% of all Black Cab drivers, the only ones licenced to pick up on the street

Apple gets 75% of all Google search revenues on iOS devices

Update - Techcrunch have removed this stat from their story - so it may not be accurate.  Caveat emptor
"Apple and Google are enemies and partners at the same time due to asymmetric competition. According to a report from Morgan Stanley, Google could pay more than $1 billion in 2014 to remain the default search engine on iOS. In 2009, Google paid only $82 million for the privilege. Analyst Scott Devitt believes that it is a per-device deal growing every year.
For every dollar of revenue Google makes on iOS thanks to advertising and data collection, Apple gets 75 cents from Google. The number is only going to increase in the coming years if iOS sales keep growing.
To put it into perspective, the Mozilla Foundation should get $400 million in 2014. Google remains the main contributor to the organization as one can read in Mozilla’s reports. Opera is another longtanding partner, but Morgan Stanley doesn’t give figures for this deal."

Source:  Techcrunch, 12th February 2013

Grammy-related content attracted 43 million likes and comments on Facebook

"The most recent data is around the Grammy Awards last night. Facebook says that there were a total of 43 million likes and comments made around Grammy-related content. That’s supposed to represent the reach that Facebook can offer: It’s not measuring how many posts mentioned the Grammys, but instead the ripple effects of those initial mentions as people’s friends and followers engaged with them."

Source:  Techcrunch, 11th February 2013

The Grammys Were mentioned 290,000 times on Instagram

"People also flocked to Instagram to like and comment on their favorite celebrities’ photos. Timberlake gained 90,000 followers in one night (he launched his Instagram account Sunday afternoon). Clarkson also launched her Instagram account Sunday, gaining 32,000 followers.
Rihanna was mentioned on Instagram 80,000 times, Swift 69,000, Beyoncé 52,000, Ed Sheeran 46,000, Prince 43,000, and Perry 21,000. The Grammys were mentioned 290,000 times."

Source:  All Facebook, 11th February 2013

More than 14 million tweets were sent during The Grammys

"Tonight’s GRAMMY awards brought together the biggest stars from each corner of the music world. Fans tuned in to see who took home the hardware, and also to take in the blockbuster performances. Throughout the evening, fans sent more than 14 million Tweets about the GRAMMYs.
The biggest spikes in Twitter conversation about the show came during these memorable moments:
-Jay-Z, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, and The Dream win for best rap collaboration (and Jay-Z jokes about The Dream’s hat): 116,400 TPM
-Rihanna’s solo performance: 114,800 TPM
-Prince announces Record of the Year: 109,400 TPM
-Fun. wins best new artist: 100,600 TPM
The star-studded performances were big topics of conversation as well, as fans watched unique collaborations and jaw-dropping theatrics. The on-stage performances that generated the most buzz were:
-Rihanna’s solo performance of “Stay”
-Bob Marley tribute (featuring Sting, Bruno Mars, Rihanna, and Ziggy Marley)
-Carrie Underwood performs “Blown Away”
-Maroon 5 and Alicia Keys collaboration
-Justin Timberlake performs with Jay-Z
Whether it was because of their performance, their victory, or maybe their attire, these artists individually were the hottest topics of conversation on Twitter:
1. Rihanna
2. Frank Ocean
3. Taylor Swift
4. Beyonce
5. Justin Timberlake
6. Ed Sheeran"
Source:  Blog post from Twitter, 10th February 2013
Earlier - 2012 Grammy Awards were the most social TV event ever

Vine users shared over 110,000 videos over a weekend

"Vine users shared 113,897 videos on Twitter on Saturday and Sunday, or 2,324 videos every hour, according to data from SimplyMeasured, a social media analytics company. Much of that was due to a combination of three big events: the Grammys, New York Fashion Week and the snowstorm that hit the Northeast.
That's not quite as jaw-dropping as the 1.3 million photos that Instagram users shared during Hurricane Sandy — which some considered to be the photo network's big moment — but it's pretty impressive considering that Vine has been around for less than three weeks. It's also worth noting that these stats don't take into account the number of pictures that were posted within Vine, but not shared out to Twitter.
The most popular hashtag for the Vine videos posted this weekend was #marsiscoming, a reference to the band 30 Seconds to Mars, followed by #Grammys and #nyfw (for New York Fashion Week). #Snow was the fifth most popular hashtag for Vine videos, which is a bit surprising considering the popularity of the #nemo hashtag for the storm.
The volume of Vine videos was by far the highest on Sunday night during the Grammys broadcast, suggesting that Grammys videos would have been the most popular of any category if the study included videos posted from Monday as well."

Source:  Mashable, 11th February 2013

Note - I'm sure we're going to look back at this in a few months and wonder at how low this number is (especially if an Android version comes out)

US non-travel ecommerce sales grew to $186 billion in 2012

"comScore, Inc. a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its Full Year and Q4 2012 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates. For the full year, U.S. retail e-commerce sales reached $186.2 billion, an increase of 15 percent – the strongest annual growth rate since before the recession. Q4 2012 sales grew 14 percent year-over-year to $56.8 billion, marking the first ever $50 billion quarter. It also represents the thirteenth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
“2012 was a year in which – for the most part – e-commerce continued to grow strongly, despite an uneven macroeconomic environment showing signs of recovery but also cause for continued concern,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “With e-commerce growth rates consistently in the mid-teens throughout the year, it is clear that the online channel has won over the American consumer and will increasingly be relied upon to deliver on the dimensions of lower price, convenience and selection. The only real blemish on an otherwise outstanding year for e-commerce was a holiday season that fell shy of initial expectations, apparently due to consumers’ fiscal cliff concerns. To the extent that this pullback was just a temporary shock and not a sign of underlying economic weakness, we are optimistic that 2013 will build on the momentum of the past year.”
Other highlights from Q4 2012 include:
The top-performing online product categories were: Digital Content & Subscriptions, Consumer Electronics, Toys & Hobbies, Apparel & Accessories, and Books & Magazines. Each category grew at least 15 percent vs. year ago.
U.S. Retail E-Commerce spending reached 10 percent of Total U.S. Retail spending for comparable categories (excluding Food, Gas & Auto), the first time it has reached double-digits."

Source:  comScore, 7th February 2013

66% of internet users buy products online

"In the latest GWI report, we’ve stepped back from social media to analyse the vast amount of research data that we have on e-Commerce behaviour across our 31 markets.  Digging into the data revealed some very interesting finds. The foremost of these is that 90% of internet users around the world use the internet at some point in their purchase journey.  In addition, 66% of global internet users are buying products online in some form or another.
Other key finds include:
China is the largest and most active online retail market in the world. As the Social Engagement Benchmark (SEB) highlighted, social also plays a key role in Chinese e-commerce.
South Korea, UK, China, Germany and Japan make up the top 5 online markets for purchasing online via a PC.
On a global basis, there is a clear positive correlation between more affluent demographic groups and higher levels of online purchase behaviour. This is consistent across PC buying, mobile and post-purchase influence."

Source:  Data from Global Web Index, revealed in a press release, 5th February 2013

Global mobile data traffic grew 70% in 2012

"The Mobile Network in 2012
Global mobile data traffic grew 70 percent in 2012. Global mobile data traffic reached 885 petabytes per month at the end of 2012, up from 520 petabytes per month at the end of 2011.
Last year's mobile data traffic was nearly twelve times the size of the entire global Internet in 2000. Global mobile data traffic in 2012 (885 petabytes per month) was nearly twelve times greater than the total global Internet traffic in 2000 (75 petabytes per month).
Mobile video traffic exceeded 50 percent for the first time in 2012. Mobile video traffic was 51 percent of traffic by the end of 2012.
Mobile network connection speeds more than doubled in 2012. Globally, the average mobile network downstream speed in 2012 was 526 kilobits per second (kbps), up from 248 kbps in 2011. The average mobile network connection speed for smartphones in 2012 was 2,064 kbps, up from 1,211 kbps in 2011. The average mobile network connection speed for tablets in 2012 was 3,683 kbps, up from 2,030 kbps in 2011.
In 2012, a fourth-generation (4G) connection generated 19 times more traffic on average than a non-4G connection. Although 4G connections represent only 0.9 percent of mobile connections today, they already account for 14 percent of mobile data traffic.
The top 1 percent of mobile data subscribers generate 16 percent of mobile data traffic, down from 52 percent at the beginning of 2010. According to a mobile data usage study conducted by Cisco, mobile data traffic has evened out over the last year and is now lower than the 1:20 ratio that has been true of fixed networks for several years.
Average smartphone usage grew 81 percent in 2012. The average amount of traffic per smartphone in 2012 was 342 MB per month, up from 189 MB per month in 2011.
Smartphones represented only 18 percent of total global handsets in use in 2012, but represented 92 percent of total global handset traffic. In 2012, the typical smartphone generated 50 times more mobile data traffic (342 MB per month) than the typical basic-feature cell phone (which generated only 6.8 MB per month of mobile data traffic).
Globally, 33 percent of total mobile data traffic was offloaded onto the fixed network through Wi-Fi or femtocell in 2012. In 2012, 429 petabytes of mobile data traffic were offloaded onto the fixed network each month. Without offload, mobile data traffic would have grown 96 percent rather than 70 percent in 2012.
Android is now higher than iPhone levels of data use. By the end of 2012, average Android consumption exceeded average iPhone consumption in the United States and Western Europe.
In 2012, 14 percent of mobile devices and connections were potentially IPv6-capable. This estimate is based on network connection speed and OS capability.
In 2012, the number of mobile-connected tablets increased 2.5-fold to 36 million, and each tablet generated 2.4 times more traffic than the average smartphone. In 2012, mobile data traffic per tablet was 820 MB per month, compared to 342 MB per month per smartphone.
There were 161 million laptops on the mobile network in 2012, and each laptop generated 7 times more traffic than the average smartphone. Mobile data traffic per laptop was 2.5 GB per month in 2012, up 11 percent from 2.3 GB per month in 2011.
Nonsmartphone usage increased 35 percent to 6.8 MB per month in 2012, compared to 5.0 MB per month in 2011. Basic handsets still make up the vast majority of handsets on the network (82 percent)."
Source:  Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2012–2017, 6th February 2013

British music fans streamed more than 3.7 billion tracks in 2012

"British digital music has gone from strength to strength, giving consumers one of the world’s most innovative, diverse and advanced online music markets.  Innovation from British record labels and more than 70 legal services serving the British market have delivered record numbers in 2012:
Digital now accounts for 99.6% of singles sold, boosting sales to record volumes for the fifth successive year.  Digital has resurrected the UK market for singles – with 183.3m digital single tracks sold in 2012, a more than five-fold increase in the space of a decade.
30.5m digital albums were sold in 2012, up 14.8% year-on-year.
16 albums sold more than 100,000 copies as digital downloads in 2012.
UK music fans streamed more than 3.7 billion tracks in 2012 - 140 for every household.
More than 114m albums and 938m single tracks sold as digital downloads to date.
The music streaming market is now worth more than £49m to British record labels, accounting for 15.2% of digital trade income."
Source:  Press release from the BPI, 7th February 2013

Corporations founded by Stanford alumni have annual revenues of $2.7 trillion

"There are advantages to being an edge, as California long was, but Silicon Valley has made us the centre. Five of the six most-visited websites in the world are here, in ranked order: Facebook, Google, YouTube (which Google owns), Yahoo! and Wikipedia. (Number five is a Chinese-language site.) If corporations founded by Stanford alumni were to form an independent nation, it would be the tenth largest economy in the world, with an annual revenue of $2.7 trillion, as some professors at that university recently calculated. Another new report says: ‘If the internet was a country, its gross domestic product would eclipse all others but four within four years.’"

Source:  London Review of Books, 7th February 2013

Via Interesting Snippets

HBO has 114 million subscribers

"HBO has a total of 114 million subscribers across the globe, which is over three times the total number of subscriptions from Netflix (33 million worldwide). HBO is also producing multiple original series, including newcomers Girls and Newsroom as well as certified hits True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, and Game of Thrones. Additionally, the debut of HBO’s HBO Go streaming service to domestic subscribers helped boost overall usage (streaming and cable viewing) by 80 percent compared to the same period last year.
[...]
Still, HBO is forging ahead by increasing its international presence. Time Warner launched a standalone version of its HBO Go streaming service in the Nordic market, which doesn’t require subscribers to get HBO through a cable TV provider the way its domestic customers must do."

Source:  VentureBeat, 6th February 2013

The top reasons people in America take a break from Facebook

Click to enlarge

Source:  Pew Internet & American Life Project, 5th February 2013

Etsy has sold more than 100 million items to more than 14 million shoppers

"The Etsy marketplace is thriving as we enter our eighth year. Overall sales by the community in 2012 grew 70.3% over the previous year, to $895.1 million from $525.6 million in 2011. This continued growth was generated by the hard work of every seller and the support of every shopper. As you know, we also invested more than ever in marketing Etsy and your shops in 2012, including our Google Product Listing Ads program — which brought 14 million visits to Etsy — and the Etsy Holiday Shop in SoHo, where about half of all visitors had never bought anything on the site before. Our focus on mobile and international growth led to an acceleration of activity on the go and around the world. All of these factors added up to more shoppers coming to Etsy than ever before; in fact, new buyers increased by 83% in the last year.
You closed the holiday season with a bang. Overall sales in December 2012 were 72.9% higher than 2011 and November sales increased by 74.9% over the previous year. Our percentage growth rate for these key months increased for the second year in a row, representing stronger activity in the marketplace against the larger base of sales numbers from the prior year.
[...]
More people experienced this sense of magic in 2012 than ever before. We added 10 million new members last year, nearly doubling the total number of members to 22 million around the world. Since we opened our doors in 2005, more than 14 million shoppers have made a purchase and more than 100 million items have been sold. Etsy’s global reach expanded dramatically last year, with transactions taking place in nearly 200 countries. Today, Etsy is available in more languages than ever before, as we grew from one new language in 2011 (German) to five in 2012 (French, Dutch, British English, Italian and Spanish). We even collaborated with the Etsy community to help do the translations."
Source:  Blog post from CEO Chad Dickerson, 28th January 2013
Note - Press 'stats' page is here

Apple had a 44% share of global tablet shipments in Q4 2012

Click to enlarge

Source:  Preliminary data on tablet shipments from IDC, revealed in a press release, 31st January 2013

Facebook has 604 million mobile users; 126 million only access via mobile

"The presentation started by re-iterating the numbers Facebook released back in October: they have 604M mobile active users with a quarter of those (126M) being mobile-only over the course of a month."

Source:  Ben Galbraith, 25th January 2013

Facebook sold $302 million of mobile advertising in Q4 2012

"Facebook reported that its Q4 advertising revenue from mobile doubled on a Q/Q basis to $302m. In terms of the user base, the mobile Monthly Active Users (MAUs) grew 13% Q/Q and 57% Y/Y to 680m. Out of these 680m, almost 23% used Facebook only through the mobile, showing how important mobile has become for Facebook's future strategy. Facebook also informed us that the mobile Daily Active Users (DAUs) exceeded the web DAUs for the first time in Q4 2012, implying that the engagement on the mobile platform is strong. A 100% increase in mobile ad revenue from just 13% growth in mobile MAUs suggests that Facebook is moving in the right direction in finding ways to lever the monetization from mobile users. Zuckerberg told us on the earnings conference call that sponsored stories in the mobile newsfeed and app-install ads were proving to be very effective. Although the growth in mobile MAUs is expected to continue, it will do so at diminishing rates as you can see from the chart above. Therefore Facebook must continue to increase its Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) to ensure that it stays on track for continued revenue growth from mobile. And according to Zuckerberg, making the mobile ads targeted and more relevant would be Facebook's core focus in 2013 which, if successful, should help further improve ARPU."

Source:  Seeking Alpha, 31st January 2013

Whitney Houston's death led to her Wikipedia article receiving 425 views per second

"On February 12, 2012, news of Whitney Houston's death brought 425 hits per second to her Wikipedia article, the highest peak traffic on any article since at least January 2010.
It is broadly known that Wikipedia is the sixth most popular website on the Internet, but the English Wikipedia now has over 4 million articles and 29 million total pages. Much less attention has been given to traffic patterns and trends in content viewed. The Wikimedia Foundation makes available aggregate raw article view data for all of its projects.
This article attempts to convey some of the fascinating phenomena that underlie extremely popular articles, and perhaps more importantly to editors, discusses how this information can be used to improve the project moving forward. While some dismiss view spikes as the manifestation of shallow pop culture interests (e.g., Justin Bieber is the 6th most popular article over the past 3 years, see Tab. 2), these are valuable opportunities to study reader behavior and to shape the public perception of our projects."

Source:  Wikipedia Report, 4th February 2013

Instagram has 90 million monthly active users

"90 million Monthly Active Users
40 million Photos Per Day
8500 Likes Per Second
1000 Comments Per Second"

Source:  Instagram's official press info, retrieved 5th February 2013

Digital accounts for more than 50% of Future Publishing's ad revenues

"Future Publishing, owner of magazines including Metal Hammer and Total Film, has reported that digital accounted for more than 50% of total advertising revenues for the first time in the final three months of 2012.
In an interim management statement published on Monday, Future revealed that digital made up 54% of its total ad revenue, from 45% in the same quarter in 2011.
Future also reported a 24% increase in digital revenues year on year in the final quarter of 2012 following its prediction of a surge in e-edition sales thanks to a "tablet Christmas"."
Source:  The Guardian, 4th February 2013

One quarter of American homes use Netflix steaming video

"Consumers' insatiable love affair with streaming video — at home and on the go — is at the heart of Netflix's rebound and the continued rise of its competition.
Netflix is now used in one-fourth of U.S. homes, up from 20% a year ago, according to a new survey from consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates. Amazon Instant Video's audience jumped to 8% of U.S. homes, up from 5%, the survey found, and Hulu rose to 5% from 4%.
Overall, more than half of U.S. homes (55%) now stream TV episodes and movies, up from 49% in 2011, the survey of 1,500 U.S. homes in November 2012 found.
"Netflix certainly is the de facto brand for long-form streaming," says Maryann Baldwin, vice president of Magid Media Futures, a division of the consulting firm."

Source:  USA Today, 30th January 2013

The top 25 brands on Instagram

"The top brands on Instagram are still dominated by fashion, retail and media brands. Some less typical brand types include Starbucks, Audi, the Boston Celtics, and General Electric.
Here are the current top 25 brands on Instagram and their follower counts, and a few extras listed below. Special thanks to Simply Measured for their help on some of these Instagram metrics.
1. Victoria’s Secret
1,363,468 followers
2. MTV
1,125,591 followers
3. Starbucks
1,061,665 followers
4. Eonline
1,061,837 followers
5. Nike
838,177 followers
6. Forever21
673,560 followers
7. Burberry
651,199 followers
8. Redbull
536,320 followers
9. Top Shop
518,466 followers
10. asos
468,706 followers
11. H&M
456,614 followers
12. Adidas (Adidas Originals)
393,282 followers
13. Billboard
362,910 followers
14. Boston Celtics
357,397 followers
15. Tiffany
347,071 followers
16. Gucci
341,935 followers
17. NBC News
311,366 followers
18. Audi
292,587 followers
19. Today Show
292,061 followers
20. Playboy
289,389 followers
21. NPR
237,240 followers
22. CNN iReport
223,121 followers
23. Bergdorfs
158,572 followers
24. General Electric
134,239 followers
25. The Onion
132,064 followers"
Source:  Social Fresh, 23rd January 2013
Note - It's interesting that there are 33 people with more followers than the most followed brand

Oreo gained 35,000 followers on Instagram after 4 days

Oreo launched their Instagram account on 1st February 2013, and by the 4th February (after updating frequently during the Super Bowl) they had hit 35,000 followers.

Source:  Oreo on Instagram, retrieved 4th February 2013

There were 24.1 million tweets during Super Bowl XLVII

"The game is over, the confetti has descended, and #RavensNation is celebrating their big victory. During the Sunday matchup between the @ravens and @49ers, the roar of the crowd was comprised of 24.1 million Tweets about the game and halftime show (this leaves aside the ads, about which more below). By the beginning of the second half, the volume of Tweets had already surpassed last year’s Tweet total.
The moments generating the biggest peaks of Twitter conversation (measured in Tweets per minute, or TPM) during the game:
- Power outage: 231,500 TPM
- 108-yard kickoff return for Ravens TD by Jones: 185,000 TPM
- Clock expires; Ravens win: 183,000 TPM
- Jones catches 56 yard pass for Ravens TD (end of 2nd quarter): 168,000 TPM
- Gore TD for 49ers: 131,000 TPM
Tonight’s most mentioned players were (in order): Ray Lewis (@Raylewis), Joe Flacco (@teamflacco), Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) and Jacoby Jones.
[...]

The other superstar on the field tonight was @Beyonce. Her halftime performance lit up Twitter (did it affect the Superdome power grid, we wonder?), generating 5.5 million Tweets. Fans’ favorites reflected by Tweet volume:
 - Conclusion of her show: 268,000 TPM
- Destiny’s Child reunion on stage: 257,500 TPM
- Singing ‘Single Ladies’: 252,500 TPM"

Source:  Twitter blog, 3rd February 2013

Next Generation Media - January 2013

My new presentation on major stats and stories from the last 3 months is now online - have a look!

Next Generation Media Quarterly January 2013 from Dan Calladine