六月畢業潮

不知不覺今年已經結結實實的過了一半，六月要見底了。

好像有很多事情自己其實都沒友好好得交待，不過想想也只是缺乏一些勇氣做最後的決定罷了。選項一直都很多，自己考慮的也很多，常常看到一些自己所不理解的事，也覺得自己可以做的更好，但說不定也只是看不到另外一面而已。

所以嘍，學生畢業，我也該畢業了！

美國調查顯示每個人一天內接受訊息來源的時間長短與網路短片在各國家的接受比例

How Much Online Video Do Viewers Watch?

JUNE 16, 2009

Screen crazy!

If you feel like you are stuck in front of a viewing screen all day, you are not imagining things.

According to the “Video Consumer Mapping” study from the Council of Research Excellence (CRE), the Ball State University Center for Media Design and Sequent Partners, US consumers are screen crazy, spending 524 minutes (nearly 9 hours) a day in front of some sort of screen.

But not all screens are created equal.

Throwing cold water on the sizzling-hot online video space, the study found that little of the screen time was spent viewing “computer video,” which only accounted for an average of 2.4 minutes per day. That’s less than 0.5% of the average US consumer’s screen time on a given day.

Mobile video only accounted for an average of 6 seconds of viewing a day.

Even taking account of movie and out-of-home video screens, 98% of video is still viewed on a television screen.

However, several pieces of research contrast with the study’s findings, particularly on the subject of online video.

Nielsen observed that in May 2008, people spent 4.5 minutes per day watching online video, higher than the CRE estimate—but then Nielsen surveyed Web users only.

In addition, Universal McCann estimated that 74.2% of US Internet users watched online video daily or every other day in 2008.

But TubeMogul found that 54% of online viewers didn’t make it past 60 seconds of video in late 2008.

CRE has an explanation for the conflicting figures: Online video watchers overstated the amount they watch by “an extreme.”

“This suggests that online video may be more important to viewers than the short running times of the clips would indicate,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst.

“The CRE’s findings on viewing duration highlight one of the limitations of online video,” added Mr. Verna. “Despite the best efforts of TV networks, film studios, sports leagues and other purveyors of long-form, premium content, the Web remains a haven for ‘snack’ viewing—user-generated videos, music videos, news clips and game highlights.”

美國調查顯示消費者認為網路購物比較環保。

Shoppin’ Where the Trees Ain’t Droppin’

JUNE 16, 2009

Green sites are sprouting up everywhere.

Consumers primarily shop online for convenience, product selection and price. But now another reason can be added to the list: environmental responsibility.

Fully 35% of respondents to a Shop.org survey believed that online shopping is better for the environment than store shopping.

Even better for online retailers, 60% of those who believed in the environmental merits of online shopping said they would shop online more as part of a greener lifestyle.

“A crop of green shopping sites has emerged to help consumers find eco-friendly products and get tips on how to incorporate green practices into their lives,” says Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Green E-Commerce: Gaining Momentum. “In addition, savvy consumers use the Internet to evaluate the legitimacy of brands’ eco-friendly product claims, and social network sites are becoming hubs for a wide range of environmental causes.”

Surprisingly, the recession has not stymied consumers’ plans to buy green products.

In a Cone survey, over four times as many respondents said they were more likely to buy green products today than expected to buy fewer.

Overall, eight out of 10 respondents indicated they planned to spend at least as much on green products today as they did in the past.

“Brands are ramping up their green product launches in response to growing consumer demand,” says Mr. Grau.

According to Datamonitor, the number of eco-friendly product launches more than doubled in 2008 compared with the year before.

“For green consumerism to really take hold, marketers need to be creative in targeting people who are likely to benefit from their products,” says Mr. Grau. “Then they must explain how their products improve these people’s lives.”

And the Internet may be the perfect place to start the conversation.

置入性行銷接受度起起伏伏，使用者反應不一

Does Product Placement Work?

JUNE 15, 2009

Brands are ready for their close-up.

Does seeing the latest model of the Corvette Stingray in “Transformers” or hearing the new Rihanna hit on the soundtrack of “Gossip Girl” motivate consumers to buy?

“The way product placement works best,” said Adam Erlbacher of PlaceVine, a brand integration service, “is maybe the hero drinks a branded soft drink in one scene, then it’s used as a murder weapon later.”

According to Myers Publishing, branded entertainment, including product placement, is one of the fastest-growing advertising media. In 2009, $9 billion will be spent in the space, growing 4% from the previous year and accounting for 4.5% of the total media share.

How much of the branded entertainment spending is for product placement is impossible to tell, but the latter probably accounts for a small percentage of the total.

Many consumers find product placements bothersome.

Less than one-third of Internet users in a fall 2008 GfK Roper survey thought product placements were “quite acceptable,” and 36% found them annoying. In contrast, 42% and 37% of respondents said TV commercials were acceptable and annoying, respectively.

In addition, a BIGresearch survey indicated product placements were not highly effective. The method worked best for grocery items (such as branded soft drinks), with nearly 15% of consumers believing such placements influenced their purchases, followed by electronics, apparel, home improvement and restaurants.

African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians tended to be more influenced by placements than whites.

Seeing a product on the big (or small) screen might boost a brand’s image, but it may not increase sales. Of course, you could say the same about seeing an ad.

Marketing isn’t easy. In product placement, as with all other tactics, you have to find what works best for your product.

音樂市場朝向數位化，傳統方式日漸衰退

The Entertainment Industry Plays a Sour Note Online

JUNE 15, 2009

The tryouts have not been boffo.

Three pillars of the entertainment industry—music, movies and video games—are facing economic challenges due to the disruptive influences of digital distribution.

“The music industry was knocked off balance by the emergence of the MP3 in the late 1990s and has not recovered, and Hollywood’s two core businesses, box-office receipts and DVD sales/rentals, have stopped growing,” says Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Digital Entertainment Meets Social Media. “And while the sales of video game consoles and software titles remain relatively strong, the industry’s future is shifting to digital distribution and ad-supported models.”

To take music as an example, spending on CDs and other physical sound carriers dwindled to $5.8 billion in 2008, down 60% from a peak of $14.6 billion in 1999.

“In 2009, the US recording industry will mark 10 consecutive years of declining CD sales,” says Mr. Verna.

US sales of recorded music will drop to $5.52 billion in 2013. This downward trajectory will extend a pattern that began in 2000, when physical sales started to decline after rising dramatically during the heyday of the CD.

“Online will experience healthy growth, mobile will trend slightly downward and physical will continue to plummet at accelerating rates,” says Mr. Verna. “Unfortunately, the sum of online and mobile will not compensate for losses in physical, but it will slow down the rate of those losses to a 2.9% drop in 2013.”

In 2008, single downloads made up the bulk of digital music sales, over $1 billion.

An NPD Group survey revealed a nexus between music and social media, finding that the percentage of US teens who downloaded or listened to music via social networks increased from 26% in 2007 to 46% in 2008.

Many music fans are gravitating to social sites via iPhone applications.

The Pandora app has been a huge success, with more than 4 million users as of May 2009, and about 20% of the 1 million songs per month downloaded through affiliate links were from Pandora’s iPhone app.

“The iPhone was game-changing for Pandora,” says Jessica Steel of Pandora. “It was the first device where the light bulb went off for listeners and those in the industry that Internet radio isn’t about just a Website and a PC anymore.”

“Clearly, this is a period of experimentation for the music business and social media,” says Mr. Verna. “The next step for these services will be to broaden their offerings into a user experience that straddles platforms and devices.”

環太平洋地區行動應用調查（香港、日本、新加坡）

Japanese Mobile Moves Online

JUNE 11, 2009

E-mail is important, too.

For many years the mobile market in Japan has served the rest of the world as a model of the future of mobile development. If that holds true, expect more mobile users online.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, mobile Internet in Japan reached nearly 83% penetration among mobile phone users.

A total of 75.1 million users in Japan accessed the Internet via mobile phones in 2008.

One of the most popular mobile phone activities for young adults in Japan was e-mail, with 72% of users ages 8 to 24 reading and answering e-mails on the go.

Japan’s culture of connectivity pushed penetration far above the 13% average for Asia-Pacific, according to a Synovate study sponsored by Microsoft Advertising, MTV and Yahoo!.

Marketers should be cautious about tapping into this tech-savvy demographic with tried-and-true e-mail marketing, however.

According to a survey by Point On Research, 86% of mobile phone users in Japan check their e-mail every day—but they are highly sensitive to spam.

Mobile spam was seen as unsettling by more than 85% of respondents surveyed by goo Research.

The same survey found that 33% of those users received at least one piece of spam in their mobile e-mail each day.

Mobile marketing campaigns should take a more personal route.

“The ability to stimulate user action will be the key to success in mobile advertising,” said Yeunsil Lee, an ROA Group analyst.

Just don’t “stimulate” them with anything that looks like spam.