The Future belongs to Digital

A few years ago I saw many in my generation with their iPhones, but not many of the younger generations; that has changed as prices have dropped and expectations have risen:

Millennials High on Digital and Friends

According to the "American Millennials" study from Barkley, with Service Management Group and The Boston Consulting Group, Millennials, compared to other generations, reported greater awareness of newer, youth-oriented cause marketing campaigns and greater exposure to campaigns through social media, while Non-Millennials rely on newspaper and direct mail.

Jeff Fromm, senior vice president, Barkley, says "... since the Millennials generation is larger than the Baby Boomers... and three times bigger than Generation X... understanding of Millennials' needs, tastes and behaviors will clearly shape... future business decisions... "

Highlights from the Study:

• Millennials watch significantly less TV than Non-Millennials, says the report, watching 20-plus hours/week (26% versus 49%). When not watching live TV, Millennials are much more likely to watch shows mainly on their laptops (42% versus 18%), with DVR (40% versus 36%), or On-Demand (26% versus 18%)
• 70% of Millennials reported feeling more excited when their friends agreed with them about where to shop, eat and play. Only 48% of older adults were as heavily influenced by their friends and colleagues. Additionally, more Millennials than Non-Millennials reported using a mobile device while shopping to research products (50% versus 21%)
• The majority of all respondents shop alone (60% Millennials, 69% Non- Millennials). However, Millennials report more shopping than Non-Millennials with family unit, spouse and children (13% versus 6%) and with adult friends (4% versus 2%)
• 70% of Millennials want to visit every continent in their lifetime. Fewer than half of older adults report that goal
• Millennials accounted for 18% of their monthly restaurant spend in the fast-casual format, compared to only 13% for Non-Millennials. Additionally, Millennials crave snacking opportunities, and are more than twice as likely as older people to seek them out mid-morning, mid-afternoon and late at night
• Millennials demand more knowledgeable and fashionable sales associates (29% versus 19%) while Non-Millennials value sales associates who know to apply discounts and offer promotions (65% versus 51%)

And, additional study information reported by EMarketer, shows that a third of Millennials like brands more if they use social media, nearly double the percentage of older adults who said the same. In addition, over 30% of Millennials thought it was annoying for brands to be on sites like Facebook and Twitter, making this group less tolerant of social media marketing.

23.5% of Millennials interacted with content from a brand's Facebook page at least once a daily, vs. 17% of older adults who did the same. Millennials were also 4.4 percentage points more likely to interact with brand content between one and six times per week. Overall older adults were nearly twice as likely never to engage with brand content on Facebook.

(Source: The Center For Media Research, 09/7/11)

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Moms Want to Connect

from Mediapost recently:

Moms And How They Value Information: Yours

Moms are easily recognized: women with children. Of course, they vary in age, income, education and where they live, but today they all share a common experience: they are time starved. Advertisers recognized this years ago, identifying "the juggler," the now-familiar busy Mom who is great at multi-tasking, but could really use one more thing to make her life a little easier, or her home a little cleaner, or her family behave a little better.

Recognizing the Jugglers' priorities is one step. Understanding how to reach them as they make decisions about products whether rushing down a supermarket aisle, or clicking across the Internet, requires more.

What can a brand do to grab their attention and keep it long enough to change their minds or their buying habits?

The answer lies in how they value marketing information, whether presented in an ad or a web site. What value does it have and when do they need it? Most Moms want to be informed, but for some marketing information holds almost no value at all. For others, it's all about when they get it; can they claim the "First to Know" badge?

We recently took a look across two well-known Online Mom* segments -- Health Committed Moms and Brand Loyal Moms -- to discover if there are more effective ways for brand marketers to serve up marketing information.

• Health Committed Moms (39% of online Moms) place an immense value on marketing information. Their focus on health would seem to demand it. Information is the most valuable thing a brand can offer. Health Committed Moms "are very likely to act on what they learn". Brands need to be careful with their own language and make sure they monitor the competition.

Brands have another more unique opportunity with Health Committed Moms. These Moms reward brands that help them win the "First to Know" badge. New product launches targeting these Moms should include tactics for positioning this information as exclusive and reaching Moms who are most likely to value and share this information.

But these Health Committed Moms with their First to Know badge surprisingly spend less time on "health" sites. In fact, if we were to recommend how to reach them online we'd be looking at fashion and beauty sites (82% more likely to spend time), as well as family and food (84% more likely time).

• Now let's look at the easiest segment to categorize, but a challenge for any new brand, or want-to-be #1; Brand Loyal Moms (32% of Online Moms). As we expect, loyalists don't seek out information at all. They just stay with their brands. Can anything get them to change a brand? How about a shift in their own personal values? Admittedly, this is difficult to predict and seldom occurs, but right now something is going on.

For the last several years we have been watching as Brand Loyal Moms become increasingly concerned with the environment. In the last several months, there have been more Brand Loyal Moms on "green" sites than ever before. More time, in fact, than any other Mom's segment, including Health Conscious Moms.

Motivating Moms requires moving beyond the idea of the Juggler to an understanding of how they value marketing information, from ads to tweets. What they need and how those needs shift as their own values shift will give brand marketers a new edge, one they will need as the Juggler moves faster and faster.

*Resonate Networks' Online Moms sample size is approximately 35 million.

Bryan Gernert is CEO of Resonate.

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Paper vs Digital Study

from Mediapost this week:

Print Pervasive and Persuasive, But Digital Overtaking

According to new research from Nielsen, reported by Todd Hale, SVP Consumer & Shopper Insights, 60% of shoppers from the survey say they look at printed paper material either mailed to the home or in newspapers at least once per week. With 82% of Americans online, 93% owning mobile phones and 155 million using Facebook, access to digital technologies is pervasive, yet retailers still spend an estimated 60-70% of their marketing budget on printed ad circulars.

The only electronic tactic that matches printed paper's weekly reach is email. But while far fewer people are looking at sales and product information from digital methods like social media sites, store sites using a tablet PC, or from smart or mobile phones, the weekly usage conversion rates are strong.

Weekly Usage of Retail Advertising Material
Sales Product Information	Weekly Usage
Materials mailed to home	67%
Emails from retailers	67
Newspaper	69
Social Media	45
Smart or mobile phone	39
Printed material in store	38
Store site on computer	37
Store site using PC	35
In store kiosk	24
In store TV	21
Source: Nielsen, July 2011

When shoppers are asked what they want for the future, demand goes up for high tech information sources. While nearly 90% of consumers still want print, more than 70% want email and traditional websites and about one-third are interested in social and smartphone applications. These numbers are even higher among younger generations of shoppers who say they still want paper, but they are more accepting of all information sources.

Future Desires For Information Sources
Source	% of Respondents
Paper
Direct mail	87%
Newspaper	86
In store	86
Digital
Store website using computer	75%
Emails from retailers	72
Store website using tablet	59
In store kiosk	43
TV in store	42
Social media site	37
Smart or mobile phone	31
Source: Nielsen, July 2011

The research showed that while printed material gets shoppers in the store, digital tactics reinforce and reward loyal shoppers. Printed campaigns help shoppers find deals about their favorite products and locate widespread sales and high-tech touch points such as tablets, social sites and in-store kiosks are used to more so for research purposes.

Printed circular response promotion lifts are less effective than five years ago, delivering about a 20% return on investment in 2010, compared to a 28% boost in 2005. The report suggests that an improved mixture of items with an overall higher lift profile and/or timing improvements can counterbalance smaller average lifts.

Printed Circular Ad Principles

Do

Advertise for broad appeal

Deep discounts, but not excessive

Compare lift by category

Price multiples

Manage national brand ad composition

Don't

Worry about page count

Advertise multiple competing items

Use price multiples on new items

Deal low penetrtion

Source: Nielsen, July 2011

In study after study, Nielsen finds that the online circular is the most widely used part of a grocery/drug retailer's web site, but the lift gained is a bit less than the lift seen for the site overall. The research also shows that:

• Online display ads drive offline sales
• ROI is generally higher than traditional media
• Every online campaign does not work
• Success is driven by new shoppers, not greater spending among existing shoppers
• The best responding offline segments are not always the most responsive to online ads

For many brick and mortar retailers, figuring out how to effectively draw people to online offerings and then determining what contribution online efforts are having to offline sales is a challenge. Few of these retailers get more than 20% of store shoppers to visit their site, despite the fact that the majority of shoppers spend 25+ hours per week online.

The presentation concludes with these recommendations:

• Put a process in place for both print and media campaigns that tracks ongoing optimization. A department-by-department win/loss weekly scorecard that includes display compliance should be deployed to get below the surface of the ad.
• An understanding of past shopping behavior makes a big difference in the ROI of online campaigns on driving offline sales. Customer-based reach tactics can be effective, but requires a level of analysis beyond what is known about existing brick and mortar segments. Creative messaging with price and promotion on specific items is particularly effective.
• Digital is necessary to bring about the type of consumer relevancy that future shoppers will expect. It will evolve along with development on the web and in social media, and will be driven to a large degree by younger and more diverse population segments.

For additional information from Nielsen, please visit here.

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