This post was originally published at ClickZ.asia on October 13, 2010.

Across much of Asia and the world, online video consumption has become nearly synonymous with Web usage. Of the six markets in the Asia-Pacific region currently reported in comScore Video Metrix, nearly all see more than 80 percent of their online audiences watching online video.

Not only does online video reach a large number of visitors, but it is also one of the most engaging online activities. In Japan, viewers spend nearly 17 hours a month consuming video with double-digit hours also spent in Hong Kong (12.7 hours) and Singapore (10.4 hours). As high-speed broadband continues to gain adoption enhancing the user experience, it is expected that visitors will continue to consume more video content online.

Online Video Goes Mainstream

Online video used to be considered an activity largely for younger users, but as content options have continued to expand, online video viewing has become ubiquitous across demographic segments. A look across Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia revealed that although there are higher engagement rates among some segments, online video viewing is no longer dominated by a single age group of users. Malaysia experienced the greatest disparity in demographic usage with viewers age 15-24 accounting for 39 percent of video viewers in July.

In terms of viewer engagement, viewers age 15-24 represented the most “tuned in” segment across the three markets. Hong Kong saw viewers in this segment consume more than 20 hours of online video during the month, with Singapore viewers 15-24 watching nearly 15 hours per month. Interestingly in each market, visitors age 55 and older represented another strong segment of engaged users.

Although each market has its unique demographic patterns, it’s important to note that online video viewing is a mainstream Web activity with a far reach and engaging quality.

Online Video and TV: What’s Next

There is no doubt that video will continue to play a strong role in the online consumer experience. In an arena that was once dominated by user generated content, online video is maturing considerably as a medium with more professionally produced content – including broadcast TV content – capturing consumers’ attention, and shifting the dynamics of “where, when, and how” people consume video content.

In Singapore, MediaCorp recently launched xinMSN with Microsoft and offers users the ability to catch up on the broadcast local shows that they have missed. Media Prima in Malaysia, the largest free-to-air TV stations, has offered “catch-up TV” since last year and just launched Tonton for video-on-demand over the Web. There are other similar plans in the region.

Where will these initiatives lead? A look at cross-platform TV viewing in the more matured U.S. showed that 35 percent of viewers are either cross-platform (Internet and traditional television) or online-TV viewers only as the dynamics of TV-viewing continue to change with a growing number of content options available online.

Broadly, audiences are increasingly enjoying the option of tuning in to their favorite scripted TV programs online because they value freedom and personal empowerment. This has both a time and a space component – in time, with on demand viewing on one’s own schedule, and in space, with the convenience of watching wherever you want, and on the screen that is most convenient to you.

What will be important for the industry is how to effectively monetise online video content, an area that is still in its infancy. Questions such as which types of video ads are most effective, the debate on the free versus paid model for content viewing, and the cross-platform synergies that exist will be important for the industry to address as the online video space continues to evolve.

Yesterday marked the 150th running of the Melbourne Cup, Australia’s major thoroughbred horse race. Deemed The Race that Stops a Nation, the tradition captures national and worldwide attention as one of the premier horse races of the year.

This year’s race saw a major upset on the track as American-bred, French-trained and Australian-owned Americain won the Melbourne Cup, upsetting the favorite So You Think, which took third in the finish. Maluckyday captured the #2 spot to round out the podium.

Using comScore’s Social Analytix™ service (powered by Radian6), we followed global activity across social media destinations (including social networks, blogs, discussion boards and video/image sharing sites) before and after the race to see how a real-time event such as the Melbourne Cup plays out in the social media landscape.

An analysis of social media mentions for the top three finishers throughout race day revealed that favorite So You Think carried the momentum into the event, comfortably leading the other two horses. Shortly following the 3:00 p.m. race time, mentions of the victorious Americain skyrocketed with smaller gains realized for both #2 finisher Maluckyday and #3 So You Think as social media activity closely reflected the race results.

The Race that Stops a Nation did not stop people from heading to their favorite social media channels to post on this year’s race and contenders.

With more and more people both in Australia and across the globe turning to social media outlets as a way to engage during real-time events, one can surmise that social media itself is becoming a national as well as global pastime in the digital age – odds are in its favor.

What a night! The comScore Campaign Essentials Carnival was a great time for all, and not just because of the snow cones with a kick! I was thrilled to some of our top clients and good friends having fun at the party, and to hear from many of them how excited they are about our newly enhanced Campaign Essentials. This Carnival was a wonderful social event with an important underlying message: comScore’s new Campaign Essentials product is just as essential to a good ad campaign as spending time with friends is to a good life.

• With Campaign Essentials we can test the strength of digital campaigns to traditional media using GRPs that are equivalent across all mediums. JT Batson, President, Donovan Data Systems proved their strength with a hammer at the Strong Man booth.
• During the Crazy Car Race we learned that Campaign Essentials gives you all the insights you need to change directions during your campaign and to optimize your success. There were clearly some talented optimizers there, but I’d trust Roger McLeary, Research Manager, Time, Inc. to drive me around NYC any day after watching him play.
• Only Campaign Essentials offers audience and geographic verification based on the same quality standards used in our Media Metrix planning tools, allowing an objective and consistent 360 view of a campaign from conception through delivery. I saw Vitals, hit their mark at the Carnival during the Ball Toss.
• Even though Halloween is over, there were some folks were able to continue to disguise their identity by having their picture taken in the photo cut outs. With Campaign Essentials, you can ensure your campaign delivery isn’t distorted to the wrong audiences and served at ineffective frequencies.
• It’s the customization that clients seem to really love about Campaign Essentials because they can get answers to their most burning campaign questions, easily in the interface. Thankfully we had Zoltar answering our questions at the Carnival. The future for campaigns look bright

A night of essential fun was had by all! Check out more pictures from the event and talk to your comScore rep about how Campaign Essentials can help make your campaigns hit their mark!

This post was originally published at Adweek on November 10, 2010.

The advertising industry is evolving at an unprecedented pace. One can imagine how the titans of 1960s Madison Avenue would marvel at the complexity, agility and creative potential of today's advertising landscape. But they would also be dismayed to see that, with digital's emergence, we have in some ways lost our roots as an industry founded on truly great creative that captured the hearts and minds of consumers.

But before tackling the issue of creative, let's take a look at what, in a way, has been holding it back.

As digital advertising enters its third decade, branding dollars continue to lag in the medium. Approximately 20 percent of people's media consumption time occurs online, yet the medium attracts just 5 percent of branding advertising dollars, according to the TVB Media Comparisons Study. This isn't entirely surprising - after all, an industry that thinks in terms of the "science" of ones and zeroes does not have a natural inclination toward valuing the "art" of the creative. It's all too easy to forget that these ones and zeroes are simplified representations of human behavior and the highly complex thoughts, feelings and emotions behind them.

And so, this measurable medium naturally tends to reduce digital advertising to impressions and clicks. Capturing the very essence of why digital has been a laggard in attracting branding dollars - the commoditization of impressions - marketing executive Wenda Millard implored advertisers to "educate one and all about the value our digital offerings provide marketers and not trade advertising space like pork bellies."

Over the years, display ads have been treated mainly as commodities. Because these "pork bellies" generated almost no click-throughs, advertisers and their agencies were reluctant to give the creative the time of day. It wasn't until a few years ago that our industry began to give credence to the importance of latent branding impact, aka the "view-through." This shift in thinking is helping to illuminate the need for considering display ads in terms of their creative elements, but it's clear that we still have a long road ahead of us.

Now that the industry has come to accept the fact that display ads actually have a latent branding impact, it's time to advance the industry into the next critical phase of its ascent. It's no longer sufficient to simply acknowledge that creative may be important in online advertising - it's time to demonstrate the value of our medium by turning online creative testing into a discipline.

Research from comScore ARS indicates the importance of creative in driving sales lift. In fact, we've found that 52 percent of sales lift variance is attributable to the quality of the advertising creative, four times the importance of the media plan. In other words, advertisers are currently assuming no control over the single most critical variable in determining sales performance.

By way of comparison, consider the amount of emphasis currently being given to the media plan. This is, of course, an important component to a successful strategy and well worth optimizing. But if the creative isn't persuasive in the first place, then what's the point? Even the most perfectly optimized media strategy cannot make a weak campaign effective.

The stakes have never been higher in the digital ad arena. Advertisers are plowing more money into the medium than ever before, with the largest individual placements - like roadblocks on large portal home pages - topping $1 million a day! With that much money on the table, one might expect advertisers to hedge these risks through testing the quality of their creative. And yet, many continue to resort to the "spray-and-pray" approach -- slapping banners up wherever they can and hoping that they work.

There truly has never been a better time to begin optimizing digital creative. As rich media gets richer, and new and interesting digital ad units emerge, advertising creatives finally have the canvas they need to develop their masterpieces. Digital also serves as an important extension of broader multimedia campaigns with the ability to effectively engage consumers and reinforce the message of the campaign. But this canvas needs to be utilized to the fullest extent possible, and not merely as an afterthought.

As advertisers begin to gear up for the all-important holiday season, the question is how many advertisers will continue to adopt this basic approach to advertising in the digital environment and how many will get smarter and start testing their creative? Those who get their creative right can amplify their effects tremendously, while those who don't will run the risk of flushing those valuable marketing dollars down the drain. It is time for advertisers to ask themselves: What would Don Draper do in a digital world?

This post was originally published at SearchEngineWatch on November 7, 2010.

Last Tuesday was Election Day (I voted, I promise!) in the U.S. One of the most prevalent themes on the campaign trail this year was the size and role of the federal government.

All of the recent coverage got me thinking about how, even though many Americans would like to see government play a more limited role, it has always served an important function in our lives. One way to better understand its influence is through Americans' search behavior and how that has changed over time.

For the sake of this analysis, we looked at the top search terms driving traffic to government websites, which include sites containing information on voting, the election, and government and state agencies (e.g., FBI.gov, Texas.gov, Army.mil).

Traditionally, we've used search click-throughs and their volumes as a proxy for relevance. The more often a search term drives click-throughs across the Internet, the more relevant it is to the searcher base at large.

Intent of these terms is further refined by analyzing their website and industry destinations. By analyzing the top search terms driving traffic to government websites at any given moment, we can determine what is politically relevant to the U.S. population at that time.

Big Government

Looking back at this data over the past three years tells a fascinating story of our fluid relationship with the government and how it serves us in times of not only administration and general information assistance, but also in times of irritation, preparation, and need.

Since 2007, the government category has averaged between 180-190 million search clicks in any given month, generally peaking around 235 million during tax season, everyone's favorite!

This year is different, however. Instead of falling back to normal levels by May, searches maintained historic highs throughout the year, even registering 240 million search clicks in September.

This consistency of volume throughout 2010 would point toward a greater increase in government related searches (most probably driven by the recession and the heated election cycle), as well as the U.S. government's efforts to better establish their online presence under President Obama.

Irritation, Preparation, Need

But not all government searches are as benign as downloading IRS forms and avoiding the DMV. A timeline analysis of the most popular topics offers insight into events that can have the greatest impact on our lives and the trust we have in our government to provide answers at a particular moment in time.

In September 2007, the government search landscape looked relatively serene, with the top 10 search phrases included:

• AKO (Army Knowledge)
• NOAA (Weather)
• FAFSA (Student Aid)
• IRS
• Social Security

These same terms consistently rank near the top, year in and year out, and as a result don't represent any particular societal event. "Do Not Call" searches also ranked high, representing the most pressing non-systemic issue of that time.

September 2008 tells a far different story from the prior year, as Hurricane Ike arrived in the gulf. Ike was the third major hurricane of the 2008 season, and the U.S. population turned to search and government websites to prepare. The top five search terms driving traffic to government websites that month were all weather-related:

1. NOAA
2. National Hurricane Center
3. Hurricane Ike
4. National Weather Service
5. FEMA

In times of crisis and disaster, we can see the important public service governments provide when citizens need to prepare. Government's most intrinsic reason for existing is to protect its citizens, and the ability to efficiently inform and prepare the populace for a disaster like Hurricane Ike is a great example of why a government search strategy is so necessary.

By September 2009, the economy took a severe turn for the worse as we were mired in a full blown recession. No news there, but the clear cut objective at that point for the government was to stave off a depression and address the financial needs of Americans.

With that understanding, unemployment-related searches become the single largest traffic driver to the government section. Unemployment search clicks had more than doubled since the year prior to the government category, reaching to almost 4 million by month's end. (Interestingly, "swine flu" related clicks gave "unemployment" a run for its money for awhile, but even at peak were less than half the size of the "unemployment" need.)

Fast forward to September 2010 and "unemployment" still tops the list of search topics driving traffic to government websites (nearly 4.4 million search clicks).

Even more unfortunate is a review of the top paid search phrases driving traffic to the category. The first six are military recruiting related (noteworthy for the military's efforts in adopting an online paid strategy), but the seventh most popular paid search phrase driving traffic is "Chapter 7 Bankruptcy."

This seems macabre on the surface, but in the grand scheme of things not an awful indicator, because the volume on this term in general hasn't risen considerably. It's just that government websites have invested dollars to better inform the populace on how to address this situation as opposed to first hearing from a for-profit entity.

Summary

So as we review the evolution of government searches over the past four years, clearly search plays an important role in providing citizens with the information they need for their most pressing areas of need and assistance, in good times and bad.

Whether it's as simple as downloading student loan forms or as complicated as applying for social security disability, search is an integral part of the 21st century citizen's idea of government.

Related industries should take note and consider where they fit into the government funnel of information gathering, crisis management, and policy resolution, and adapt accordingly.

Each year for the past few years, leading online retailers Amazon and Walmart have competed for e-commerce supremacy during the holiday season. Though Amazon remains the undisputed leader in the space, Walmart has improved its position in the market through aggressive holiday promotions and pricing strategies. In 2009, Walmart announced significant online discounts for books, a move that was interpreted by many as ratcheting up the competition with Amazon. Amazon responded to the strategy with price cuts of its own on books. This year, Walmart announced to a great deal of fanfare that it would be offering free shipping on more than 60,000 products with no minimum purchase price. Once again, Amazon responded in kind.

So why all the recent fuss over free shipping? As it turns out, it’s a pretty important driver of e-commerce activity, a trend that has been growing over the past several years. Free shipping really began to emerge as an important incentive around Cyber Monday promotions, but it has increasingly become an everyday promotion in the online retail environment.

comScore data highlights the emerging importance of this trend. In Q3 2010, 41% of all online retail transactions included free shipping, up 6 percentage points from two years prior. During a recent survey, we asked consumers how important free shipping was to them when making a purchase and 55% of respondents indicated that they would be at least somewhat likely to abandon their shopping cart without that promotion.

While there’s a tendency to think that having to offer free shipping is a margin-eater for retailers, it can actually be to the retailer’s benefit if utilized effectively. For example, during the third quarter, the average order value for transactions involving free shipping was 41% higher than transactions without free shipping.

There’s no reason to think the free shipping trend will be going away anytime soon. With free shipping becoming more prevalent every year, consumers have become conditioned to expect it when shopping online. In a recent comScore survey, 84% of consumers indicated that free shipping was somewhat or very important when making a purchase this holiday season. Interestingly, 31% of consumers said they decide what gift to purchase based on the availability of discounts or coupons. In other words, the existence of a coupon actually determines where an online purchase will be made. Another 42% of consumers concurrently browse coupons while comparing potential purchases to help them reach a buying decision.

So retailers should be aware of the importance of free shipping, because it could make or break their holiday season. Consumers have come to expect it and in many cases require it to purchase online, so retailers would be wise to accept this reality and figure out creative ways to maximize average order values and loyalty. Ultimately these factors, more than simply offering attractive discounts and free shipping, will help determine which retailers walk away winners this season.

The other day I was interviewed by CNBC about the rapid growth of group buying sites such as industry leading Groupon and I thought you would be interested in the following statistics I compiled from the comScore database, as well as some information I obtained directly from Groupon in preparation for the interview.

Groupon was founded in Chicago in November 2008 and claims to have been profitable since June 2009. That in of itself is a staggering accomplishment. But there’s much, much more. In October, comScore data show that 6.4 million people visited Groupon.com, up 657% from a level of 849,000 a year ago. On a worldwide basis, comScore reports that groupon.com attracted 21.4 million unique visitors, with 34% coming from the U.S., 14.5% from Germany and 11.4% from the U.K. The amazing growth in visitors in such a short period of time clearly reflects the popularity of the group buying business model.

comScore data also reveal that Groupon’s visitors are skewed towards females (58% of all visitors), upper income households (with those earning over $100,000 being 22% more likely to visit the site than the average Internet user) and visitation from home computers (60% of traffic).

Groupon uses a database they’ve assembled of some 30 million global subscribers who are e-mailed its daily deal offers. About 17 million of these are located in the U.S. Groupon now covers 300 markets in 31 countries, which includes 130 North American markets. They run about 400 deals per day worldwide with 175 per day in North America. The Groupon business is supported by 3,000 employees.

According to comScore data, the majority of Groupon transactions fall into the $10 to $30 range. Groupon says that they offer discounts of 50% to 90% off with an average deal being 60% off. They take about half of the revenue but say that this can vary depending on the size of the business and how many deals they anticipate selling. The most popular category of deals is restaurants, followed by health / beauty, activities, events, retail and services for home / auto. Groupon says that 16 million Groupons have been purchased since inception of the service and that this has saved consumers more than $730 million.

Not surprisingly, the success of Groupon has spawned a wide variety of competitors, the most notable of which is Living Social. comScore data show that livingsocial.com attracted about 4 million unique visitors in October, up 812% from a year earlier. But, Living Social is only one of hundreds of group buying sites that have been launched. As has happened in other Internet businesses, we have also seen the emergence of “aggregators”, who sweep up all the deals that are being offered and summarize them in one neat e-mail that is sent to subscribers. Dealradar.com from Local Area Network in Chicago is one leading aggregator. They claim to collect and distribute approximately 500 offers per day across 86 markets in four countries.

It will be very interesting to see the impact of group buying on holiday shopping this season. As befits the industry leader, Groupon has invented its own holiday, Grouponicus, celebrated with the opening of the Grouponicus Holiday Store. The store will offer a host of deals in the top 20 Groupon markets – deals that are available for 3 – 5 days covering a mixture of new merchants and some of consumers’ favorite deals from the past year. That said, it’s important to note that the Groupon Daily Deals will be featuring some major national retailers on occasion but that the lion’s share of deals will be local merchants. This indicates that the big retailers still need to rely on other means to communicate their promotions. Fortunately, on the Internet there is no shortage of ways to accomplish this, from the use of display ads to social network communities on Facebook to the growing use of Twitter. With Groupon and the e-commerce market in general, it’s shaping up to be a very merry and busy Christmas season online.