Thursday, August 2, 2012

Video Ads Pump Up Mobile User Engagement

If you're wooing mobile users, spice up your ads with video. According to a new study by Medialets, a mobile rich-media ad firm, in the first quarter of 2012, mobile rich-media ads containing video had an average of 35% higher engagement rates, and mobile-device users spent three times longer interacting with the ads. Users who expand mobile ads spend about 20 seconds within the advertisement, but if video or product catalog information is integrated with the ad, average expand time rises to over one minute. Yet only 30% of mobile ads on tablets contain video, and only 12% of ads on smartphones -- for now. To read about the mobile ad study, see http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2182049/study-video-boosts-mobile-engagement-rates

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Consumers Still Prefer Direct Mail to E-Mail

If you ignore direct mail, consumers may ignore you. Consider the findings of this recent Epsilon study: 50% of U.S. consumers prefer direct mail to e-mail. That holds true across markets and age groups. Direct mail is the top choice of U.S. consumers for receipt of brand communications in almost every category, from "health to household products, to household services, insurance and financial services," and the preference for direct mail "extends to the 18-24-year-old demographic." By the way, social media was considered a trustworthy channel by just 6%. So if you want response, target consumers with the media they prefer -- and that means good old direct mail. For more, see http://ernanroman.blogspot.com/2012/04/value-of-direct-mail.html