MaxxoMedia Digital Media and Entertainment Trends

From Kenradio.com 

Spending on alternative media in the US jumped 22% from 2006 levels to reach $73.43 billion in 2007, and that rapid growth is expected to continue in 2008 despite a slowing economy. Alternative media, including 18 digital and non-traditional media segments, accounted for 16.1% of total advertising and marketing spending in 2007, up from only 7.9% in 2002 , according to a new report from PQ Media. By 2012, we anticipate one out of every four dollars spent on advertising and marketing will be earmarked for alternative media. Alternative media spending grew at a compound annual rate of 21.7% from 2002 to 2007.

Authored by Guy Kawasaki This piece was originally published on Guy’s blog How to Change the World Guy’s bio can be viewed here.

Avenue A Razorfish released the 2008 Digital Outlook Report yesterday. The purpose of the report is to help Avenue A’s clients understand consumer behavior in the digital space. In the report experts cover topics such as media spending, mobile web usage, social influence marketing, the state of search, and behavior targeting. Here are some tidbits from the report:

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 48% of internet users have been to video-sharing sites such as YouTube, and the daily traffic to such sites on a typical day has doubled in the past year. The basic findings in a national phone survey show:

• In December 2006, 33% of internet users said they had ever visited such sites. That represents growth of more than 45% year-to-year.
• 15% of respondents said they had used a video-sharing site the day before they were contacted for the survey. A year ago, only 8% had visited such a site the previous day.

Though YouTube usage generally increased in 2007, according to Harris Interactive, reports eMarketer, a solid majority of YouTube users surveyed said they had visited only once or a few times.David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, concluded “The fact that younger Internet users are far more likely to be regular visitors to video-sharing sites points to a fork in the road… marketers looking to target the under-30 demographic can more reliably find them on these video sites… (while) TV broadcast and cable networks… (can) bulk up their online offerings…”

From Kenradio.com
Mobile instant-messaging (IM) is growing among IM users, especially teens, according to a new survey by AP, which found that 25% of respondents send IMs from their cell phones, including 32% teens. The proliferation of cell phones with full keyboards has made it easier to send mobile instant messages; also, the major instant messaging services let users have their instant messages forwarded directly to their cell phones; moreover, IM users are instant-messaging from within their social-networking profiles. Instant messaging is popular not only at home and on-the-go but also at the workplace: 27% users say they use instant messaging at work, and half of at-work IM users say that instant messaging makes them more productive at work – a 25% increase over last year. The most-popular IM service was AOL’s, cited by 54% of teens and adults surveyed; next were Yahoo’s with 41% and Windows Messenger with 35%; MySpace IM was cited by 15% (23% of teens).

70% and 24% send more instant messages than emails.

NEW YORK: Findings from State of the Media Democracy, a new-media survey by Deloitte & Touche, were leaked late last week to The Hollywood Reporter. The data, which will not become officially available until next month, underscore the rise and rise of online media platforms.

Based on an online sample of 2,081 people during the last week of October, the study shows that 38% of respondents watch TV online; 36% use their cellphones as an entertainment source; and 45% create online content such as websites, music, videos and blogs.

But it is the pace of growth that astonishes. In a similar survey conducted only eight months earlier, usage of cellphones as entertainment devices was just 24% – a leap of fifty percentage points.

The Nielsen Company announced some of the findings of an in-depth study, “Kids on the Go: Mobile Usage by U.S. Teens and Tweens,” on the mobile media and cross media behavior of U.S. “tweens” (ages 8-12), finding that 5% of tweens access the Internet over their phone each month.

While 41% of tween mobile Internet users say they do so while commuting or traveling (to school, for example), mobile content such as the Internet is also a social medium for this audience. 26% of tween mobile Internet users say they access the web while at a friend’s house and 17% say they do so at social events.

The report estimates that:

Mobile users as walking production studios. User-generated and shared content will account for one-quarter of the world’s entertainment within five years, according to Nokia‘s “A Glimpse of the Next Episode” report, conducted by The Future Laboratory.

Nokia said that nearly three out of 10 tech-savvy mobile users ages 16 to 35 blogged, and nearly as many used social networking sites. The company also said that these early adopters consumed a lot of entertainment on their mobile phones.

As a result, argues Nokia, mobile users are poised to consume more user-generated entertainment on their handsets in the future.

Online identity management and search in the age of transparency

Pew Report | Mary Madden Susannah Fox Aaron Smith Jessica Vitak

Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint; 47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago. However, few monitor their online presence with great regularity. Just 3% of self-searchers report that they make a regular habit of it and 74% have checked up on their digital footprints only once or twice.

Indeed, most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information. Fully 60% of internet users say they are not worried about how much information is available about them online. Similarly, the majority of online adults (61%) do not feel compelled to limit the amount of information that can be found about them online.

Cell phones and the internet are becoming more and more an essential part of our daily lives. So essential, in fact, that the majority of 1,011 people when asked how long they would feel OK without online access, 15% of respondents said just a day or less. 21% said a couple of days and another 19% said a few days. Only a fifth more said they could go for a week. Men were more likely to say they could not go without the internet with 59% choosing one of the three options above; vs. 50% of women. Response did not vary significantly among age groups. Similarly 48% of respondents agreed that, “If I cannot access the Internet when I want to, I feel like something important is missing.”

Some other trends discovered in the survey results:

More than a quarter of respondents (28%) admit they spend less time socializing face-to-face with peers because of the amount of time spent online or otherwise occupied with their gadgets-a full 20% said they’re spending less time having sex.

According to the just released Deloitte’s study on Media & Entertainment practice, looking at how American consumers between 13 and 75 years of age are using media and technology today, Millennials (13-24) are leading the way, embracing new technologies, games, entertainment platforms, user-generated content and communication tools. Data from the survey show that user-generated content is in tremendous demand across the generations, with 51% of all consumers watching and/or reading content created by others.

Some key highlights of the findings include:

• 51% of all consumers are watching/reading personal content created by others; the number jumps to 71% for Millennials
• 55% of Millennials and 42% of Xers read blogs
• 62% of Millennials and 41% of Xers watch YouTube or other video streaming sites
• 40% of all consumers are creating their own entertainment, such as editing movies, music and photos.
• 56% Millennials are creating their own entertainment
• 25% of Matures report creating their own entertainment

Online video activities are outpacing the growth in popularity of other digital media, while social networking is quickly becoming the dominant online behavior globally according to a new study by Ipsos. Over the past few years, the growth of digital music behaviors, particularly downloading music files online and burning CD-r’s, introduced millions of Internet users globally to the virtues of the digital medium, blazing a path for other entertainment media to follow. At the end of 2006, it appears that online video activities seemingly have taken over the torch as the driving force in the next stage of digital media’s growth, having a profound impact on the way consumers access and view video content around the world. Participation in online video activities is climbing quickly in many developed markets of the world. Growth in these behaviors was most prevalent within the U.S., where today well over one-third of recent Internet users (36%) have watched a TV show or other video stream online, compared to 28% at the end of 2005, while three-quarters of these adults have done so in the past 30 days.

Guy Kawasaki posted this recently published report from Avenue A Razorfish entitled 2007 Digital Outlook Report (6230.6K). The report examines trends in the way consumers, publishers, and advertisers employ digital media to have a conversation with each other.

It’s very useful reading for anyone involved with digital media, so check it out.