Average Web Users Spend 13 Hours/Week Online

A new Harris reports shows the average person spends 13 hours /week online surfing the Web (does not count email). I know I work in the business but I spend more than 13 hours online. So does my wife. And maybe even my 5 year old.

Here are the details:

The average person now spends about 13 hours online each week, according to a Wednesday report from Harris Interactive.

Online times differed greatly depending on who you talk to. Of the 2,029 adults polled by Harris, about 20 percent of adults are only online for two hours or less a week, while 14 percent are on for 24 or more hours a week.

The reported times exclude e-mail -- only time spent surfing the Web.

The results are down slightly from last year, when users were online about 14 hours per week. But usage is up from 11 hours per week in 2007.

Harris said the increase is likely due to increased access to the Web, as well as the recession. "It probably reflects a growing ability to use the Internet, an increase in sites and applications, increased TV watching online and increased purchasing online," the company said in a statement. "Also, hours online may have increased because of the recession. Going online is free; going out usually costs money."

http://www.appscout.com/2009/12/average_web_users_spend_13_hou.php

Recessional Impact on Marketing. Product Development and Values

It is pretty fascinating to think about the long term impact the "Great Recession" will have on us in the years to come. How people who lived through the Great Depression still keep canned food in the basement, and invest in lower yield CDs vs. riskier stocks. Now I know why.

The predictions are, for many reasons, people will remain more frugal and cost conscious in the months and years to come. An interesting WSJ article here gets into specific examples. The one I really like sheds insight into that Hyundai campaign promising to buy your car back if you lost your job. Did it really work? Guess so! :

After focus groups showed widespread fears of job loss, Hyundai in January made people a special offer: If they bought a Hyundai but lost their job within a year, they could bring the car back. Then, from February through April, the company said it would also write buyers a check covering three car payments if they wanted to keep the car. "We're all in this together and we'll all get through this together," said Hyundai's advertising tagline.

Fewer than 200 people took the company up on those job-loss promises, but Hyundai believes consumers reacted to the sense of camaraderie its ads conveyed. Hyundai credits the pledges in the campaign for 15% of its 2009 sales, which have jumped -- up 6.2% through November from a year earlier, according to Autodata.

I Want My Vevo

New music video site based on the Hulu model (backed by big music co's), supported by ad dollars, and partnered with YouTube:

http://www.vevo.com/

Pretty cool concept - taking MTV.com to the next level. However the load times are ridiculously slow, and they do not really have a very full selection yet (no Replacements? Come on!).

Here is an Adweek article on the subject:

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=140970

Forrester: Few Brands Make Just One Stop For Interactive Shops

An interesting article from Media Post and Forrester re: how marketers leverage interactive shops. Highlights = 50% of marketers use 2 interactive shops. 25% use 3 or more, and only 25% believe their traditional shops are equipped to handle digital work. Roughly 25% marketers using interactive agencies for brand strategy, 26% using them for offline creative, and 33% using them for social marketing.

Despite the appeal of one agency handling all of a brand's digital duties, an increasingly complex and specialized marketplace requires that marketers tap multiple agencies to execute their interactive strategies. That's according to a new report from Forrester Research, which finds that multiple agencies are key to success because interactive marketers need to outsource certain skill sets, and because agencies help marketers stay ahead of the curve in a fast-changing industry.

"The complexity of the interactive landscape is creating a fragmentation of interactive agencies, which in turn is creating a whole new set of challenges to marketers," said Forrester analyst and the report's author Sean Corcoran. "Interactive marketers should prepare their organization for even more agency partners and educate their procurement teams on the value of these relationships."

According to the report, interactive marketers have a wide range of responsibilities, so it makes sense that they typically rely on their agencies to cover a wide range of services from creative, to Web development, to search marketing and more. Yet, technology has forced the overall agency landscape into flux, and this creates challenges for marketers.

Four out of the five interactive marketers surveyed by Forrester between August and September reported using at least one agency. Agencies have to cover a wide range of responsibilities, and have in fact built specialized skills to help fill the gaps in their capabilities. Yet few agencies, if any, can offer best-in-class services to meet all of their clients' needs, according to Corcoran. "More than half of the marketers we surveyed use at least two agencies for interactive services, and one out of four use three agencies or more," he said. "Yet most interactive marketers would prefer one agency to handle it all."

Interactive marketers need agencies to keep them ahead of the curve, as one of the major roles of an agency is to stay abreast of the emerging trends in the industry and educate its clients.

According to Forrester, agencies are typically in a better position to do this than their clients because the agencies often have dedicated teams working across several clients at once. What's more, many agencies invest heavily in these areas. For example, R/GA has Future Vision, a team dedicated to providing its clients with a perspective of the digital world in the near future to help them prepare their strategy.

Unfortunately, most interactive marketers don't feel they can turn to their traditional agencies for much help. Only a quarter of the interactive marketers Forrester surveyed said they believe traditional brand agencies are equipped to handle digital work.

And while some agencies with traditional roots have grown successful digital capabilities, many still lag behind, leaving interactive agencies with significant opportunity to make inroads in their clients' businesses.

As technology's role in marketing continues to become more important, it also is creating a fragmentation of media consumption and a complex landscape overall, according to Forrester.

While interactive marketers mostly use their agencies for staple services like creative and Web development, the agencies are beginning to adapt and take on new roles outside of their typical walls.

For instance, one out of four interactive marketers Forrester surveyed reported using their interactive agencies for brand strategy, while 26% reported using them for offline creative. To boot, nearly one out of three reported using their interactive agencies for social marketing.

While all are necessary evils, Forrester does concede that more agencies will lead to more administrative work, higher costs, and more reliance on "the often dreaded" procurement team.

Also, while the big agency holding companies such as WPP, Omnicom Group, Publicis, and Interpublic offer their clients a wide selection of agencies, most of the marketers Forrester surveyed aren't taking advantage of the offering when it comes to their traditional brand agencies and interactive agencies.

Only one out of four interactive marketers that Forrester surveyed had primary interactive agencies that were affiliated with their primary traditional agency.

Meanwhile, less than one in four of the interactive marketers surveyed by Forrester believe they were ready to assume full responsibility for a brand's livelihood.