Despite some bright spots on the economic horizon, shopping remains more of a battle than a pleasure for financially skittish consumers. Some of them cope by using digital tactics to help save money.

A SymphonyIRI Group MarketPulse survey on how the economy affects behavior and attitudes when buying consumer products found that US consumers were more optimistic in Q4 over Q3 2011, but still relied on frugal habits developed during the recession.

For example, 39% of survey respondents downloaded coupons from manufacturer websites in Q4, while 37% downloaded coupons from retailer websites, up slightly from 35% for both activities in Q3. Twenty-seven percent researched products on websites, an increase of 3 percentage points from Q1.

Dubbed “downturn shoppers” by IRI to describe the way they approach grocery shopping in a prolonged downturn, these consumers increasingly view digital as an important tool, but rely on traditional offline methods more. Some 55% used coupons in Q4, and 49% checked newspaper circulars. Those numbers, already high, have been steady since Q3.

“What we are finding is that consumers are holding on to the old way of doing things—clipping coupons and circulars—but they are using the internet as an incremental way to save money,” said Susan Viamari, head of consumer insight market polls at SymphonyIRI.

Armed with coupons and sales promos, consumers continue to do research via their smartphones while in-store. A WSL Strategic Retail study cited by Internet Retailer showed that 56% look to their devices to compare prices in-store, while 46% continue to seek coupons or discounts and 53% use their photo feature to snap images of products.

The lesson for retailers and manufacturers facing this diversity of consumer tactics is “use media that complement each other,” SymphonyIRI’s Viamari advised. “Communicate with both traditional and digital media.”

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Check out today’s other article, “US Online Ad Spend to Close in on $40 Billion.”

Source:eMarketer
 

Bloggers, from hobbyists to professionals, often write about brands, and their growing influence should make brand representatives continually evaluate the relationships they have with these bloggers.

Most bloggers write about brands in some way or another. According to the “State of the Blogosphere 2011” report from blog directory website Technorati, 38% of all bloggers post about brands that they love or hate and 34% write product or service reviews. Professional full-time bloggers or part-time professional bloggers who write as a way to supplement their income are more likely to blog about brands than their hobbyist, corporate or entrepreneur counterparts.

Bloggers are increasing in their influence over readers and other bloggers. Last year’s Technorati “State of the Blogosphere” reported that 29% of bloggers are influenced by other blogs they read. This year, that number jumped to 68%.

As bloggers gain influence and write about brands, the relationships between blog writers and brand representatives are important for companies to focus on. Most bloggers have a good relationship with brand representatives. Nearly half of all bloggers (49%) characterized their interactions with such representatives as somewhat or very favorable. Only 3% said their interactions were not at all favorable. However, 40% of all bloggers said they didn’t know how to characterize their interactions with brand representatives.

This large group of unsure respondents could have mixed feelings about the communications they receive from these brand representatives, affecting their relationships with the reps and their brands. Of all bloggers, 17% said brand representatives had asked for things that would compromise the credibility or content standards of the blog. This is roughly the same percentage of those that said the representatives were knowledgeable about their blogs and content (14%), are genuinely interested in building a relationship (16%) and provide information that has value for readers (23%).

As bloggers continue to grow in influence, their coverage of brands and their interactions with brands’ products, services and employees will be of greater interest to companies. Brand representatives who connect with bloggers must be sure to work with these writers to keep the relationships thriving.

Source:eMarketer
 

London: Music mogul Simon Cowell is reportedly in talks to bring "X Factor – The Musical" at a West End theatre.

Cowell is said to have already held talks with TV comedian Harry Hill and a top music producer to put together a humorous script which will appeal to the singing reality show's fans.

"Simon is excited by the idea of taking 'The X Factor' brand on to the London stage. He is looking at great new songs and some laughter. It would be a perfect night out for ­'X Factor' fans and former stars of the show could be involved in it," mirror.co.uk quoted a source as saying.

Musician Steve Brown is already coming up with ideas for music.

"Steve is excited to be working with Simon. He has recently been invited into his inner circle, helping last year's X Factor runner-up Rebecca Ferguson on her debut album. He also knows how to create songs which get a laugh, so he could be perfect," said another source.

This article titled "Joanna Yeates murder: Daily Mirror and the Sun fined for contempt of court" was written by Josh Halliday, for The Guardian on Friday 29th July 2011 19.00 UTC

The Sun and the Daily Mirror were found guilty of contempt of court for publishing a series of "extreme" articles about a suspect who had been arrested by police investigating the murder of the landscape architect Joanna Yeates.

The Daily Mirror was fined £50,000 and the Sun £18,000 after the high court ruled that the papers posed a "substantial risk" to the course of justice in their reporting on the arrest of Christopher Jefferies, Yeates's landlord, who was later released without charge and was entirely innocent of any involvement.

The Daily Mirror fine is the biggest against a British newspaper for contempt since 2004, when the Daily Star was fined £60,000 for revealing the identities of two Premiership footballers at the centre of high-profile gang rape allegations.

In a separate legal action eight national newspapers, including the Daily Mirror and Sun, collectively paid six-figure libel damages to Jefferies following allegations made about him in January, when the police hunt for Yeates's killer was at its height.

In a written judgment on the contempt of court action handed down at the high court, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Owen described the Daily Mirror articles as "extreme" and "substantial risks to the course of justice". The judges said the Sun's coverage of Jefferies created a "very serious risk" that any future court defence would be damaged.

Lord Judge said: "The articles in the one issue of the Sun were written and laid out in such a way that they would have conveyed to the reader of the front page and the two inside pages over which the stories were spread that he was a stalker, with an obsession with death, who let himself into the flats of other occupants of the building where Miss Yeates lived, and that he had an unhealthy interest in blond young women."

The court gave the Daily Mirror publisher Mirror Group Newspapers extended time in which to launch a petition for permission to appeal to the supreme court.

Vincent Tabak, a 33-year-old engineer, pleaded guilty to manslaughter but has denied murdering Yeates, who was found dead on a roadside verge in Failand, Somerset, on Christmas Day 2010. Tabak, who lived next door to Yeates, is due to go on trial accused of murder at Bristol crown court in October.

Tabloid media coverage at the time of Jefferies's arrest was intense, with speculation about the suspect rife in newspapers and the internet. Dominic Grieve, the attorney general who brought the court action against the two papers, issued a rare warning to the press at the time about their reporting.

Two of the three articles found in contempt of court were published the day after Grieve's warning, on New Year's Day. The attorney general welcomed Friday's judgment, saying: "[The Daily Mirror and Sun] breached the Contempt of Court Act and the court has found that there was a risk of serious prejudice to any future trial."

Ken Clarke, the justice secretary, echoed the attorney general's warnings in March when he said that media focus on suspects in recent criminal cases had been "startling" and "far removed" from what it was just a few years ago.

Contempt of court proceedings are infrequently issued against newspapers. It is more unusual still for the attorney general to take action in defence of an individual who has not been charged.

Eight national newspapers separately issued a public apology to Jefferies over libellous claims made about him in the aftermath of his December arrest. The Sun, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record, Daily Mail, Daily Star, the Scotsman and Daily Express agreed to pay the retired public-school teacher damages.

Lawyers acting for Jefferies said he had been the victim of "regular witch hunts" in more than 40 articles in the tabloid papers. Bambos Tsiattalou, the solicitor who advised Jefferies after he was taken into police custody, said that the newspapers had ignored warnings to be careful about what they published.

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London : Wall's, one of the UK's leading food brands, is heralding the return of its iconic dog to its UK advertising campaign. The new ads, set to break during the semi-final of ITV1's ‘Britain's Got Talent' on the 21st May, form part of a wider multimillion pound campaign which spans TV and online.

The 30' ads, created by Saatchi & Saatchi London, feature a new-look miniature dog that is used by the male stars of the ads to express their feelings to their loved ones.

In the first ad, a husband is overcome with joy after his wife serves him a plate of meaty Wall's sausages – he uses ‘Allan' to demonstrate his gratitude through song. In the second ad, due to be unveiled later in the year, a van driver uses the dog to thank the garage attendant for giving him his tasty Wall's sausage roll.

Phil Chapman, Chief Marketing Officer for Kerry Foods UK, said: "Wall's is a much loved British brand, so who better to talk about the brand than a much loved British character. I've worked with the Wall's Dog for a number of years so I'm proud to be bringing him back after a three year break. He's changed significantly since we first launch him in 1993, so I'm really looking forward to seeing the response from the new generation of Wall's fans."

Paul Silburn, creative partner Saatchi & Saatchi said: "We're very excited to launch our version of the Wall's dog – a tiny one that lives in a ring box and plays the keyboards. He's a dog specially created for today's media landscape, with his paw on the pulse of social media too."

The Wall's dog was originally devised by the advertising agency McCann Erickson in 1993, inspired by the talking dog from Sunday Night's TV show ‘That's Life'. His first television appearance was in an ad where his owner tried to train him to say "sausages", but all he could say was "Wall's". The Wall's dog come-back marks the latest in a long run of major brands returning to their advertising heritage.

Chicago : Illustrating the link between creativity and success, AbelsonTaylor, the world's largest independent healthcare advertising group, has been named Agency of the Year for the fourth time, making it one of the top winners in the history of the industry.

The latest award, sponsored by Med Ad News, was the culmination of the 22nd Annual Manny Award ceremony, held in New York and attended by more than 600 industry peers. Citing the agency's dramatic growth in 2010—when it was awarded 17 new brands, 11 of them without a full-blown pitch—the award paid tribute to AbelsonTaylor as the most outstanding healthcare advertising agency in the category of companies with revenue over $50 million. Sixteen other awards were presented earlier in the evening. 

Accepting the award, Dale Taylor, president and CEO of the 30-year-old agency, acknowledged the frequency of its Agency of the Year wins—one for every decade and one to grow on—and pointed to staff retention as the key factor in its success.

"The numbers speak for themselves," he said. "In the last ten years, we have more than doubled in size. Yet the majority of people who were here in 2001 are still here today, serving many of the same giant pharmaceutical companies and producing the outstanding work that is recognized by the awards."

In addition to being named Agency of the Year four times—three in the Mannys and once by Medical Marketing & Media—AbelsonTaylor has received more than 140 other awards, including several from the Rx Club and PM360.  Since 1996, it has won 11 times as Most Creative Agency, seven for Best Ad of the Year, four for Most Admired Agency and once for Most Feared Agency.

"My favorite is the Most Admired," Taylor continued.  "It confirms that our staff is known—and perhaps envied—throughout the industry. Morale is exceptionally high, at every level, which is why we have such low turnover."

Low turnover is part of the agency's credo.  "We became the world's leading independent healthcare agency by implementing a fundamental transformation in the  business model, allowing many of our employees to share in the ownership of the company and its successes.  That translates into a huge benefit for our clients, who keep coming back," said Jay Carter, Senior Vice President and Director of Strategy Services. 

AbelsonTaylor also won the 2011 Manny Award for Best Disease-Awareness Campaign.  The ads, designed to develop awareness of GERD as a principal cause of heartburn, show an electrical-looking stomach with dozens of switches, each one set to turn on acid production at different times of day. 

Reston :comScore, Inc.  has released an overview of the U.S. online display advertising market for Q1 2011 based on data from comScore Ad Metrix, indicating that nearly 1.11 trillion display ads were delivered to U.S. Internet users during the quarter. Facebook accounted for 346 billion impressions, nearly double the number it delivered in Q1 2010, and accounting for nearly one third of all display ad impressions delivered.

"The U.S. online display advertising market maintained its strong momentum from last year with a terrific first quarter," said Jeff Hackett, comScore executive vice president. "We are now seeing more than one trillion display ads delivered every single quarter and nearly 300 individual advertisers spending at least $1 million a quarter on display, numbers which underscore just how large and vibrant the online medium has become. And it's not just about the volume but about the quality of the advertising experience that can be delivered as we see continued investment in compelling, high-quality creative that helps cultivate long-term brand equity."

Popular social networking site Facebook.com led all online publishers in Q1 2011 with 346 billion display ad impressions, representing 31.2 percent market share. Facebook's market share has increased 15 percentage points from 16.2 percent in Q1 2010. Yahoo! Sites ranked second during the most recent quarter with 112 billion impressions (10.1 percent), followed by Microsoft Sites with 54 billion impressions (4.8 percent) and AOL, Inc. with 33 billion impressions (3.0 percent).

AT&T ranked as the top online display advertiser in the first quarter with 19.5 billion impressions, accounting for 1.8 percent of display ads. Experian Interactive ranked second with 16.6 billion impressions (1.5 percent), followed by Scottrade ranked third with 11.2 billion (1.0 percent) and Intuit with 11 billion (1.0 percent). Groupon entered the top ten display advertisers at #7 with 7.7 billion impressions (0.7 percent).

The top advertisers in Q1 by estimated share of online display ad spending were: AT&T (2.1 percent), Experian (1.9 percent), Scottrade (1.6 percent), Toyota (1.2 percent), and Netflix (1.1 percent). Rounding out the top ten were Intuit, Verizon, Progressive, Sprint Nextel and ING, each with 1.0 percent.The top consumer goods advertisers ranked by display ad spending were: Procter & Gamble, Mars, Kellogg's, General Mills and Kraft Foods.95 different advertisers delivered at least 1 billion display ad impressions and 293 advertisers spent at least $1 million on display ads during the quarter.
 

Temecula : Outdoor Channel, America's Leader in Outdoor TV, today announced the launch of the network on Charter systems in Texas, effective immediately. Outdoor Channel will be available in the Fort Worth, Park Cities, Denton, Duncanville, Rockwall and Spring, Texas systems, giving Charter subscribers access to the sights, sounds and thrills of the network's genre leading programming.

"Outdoor Channel recognizes the importance of expanding in key markets, such as Texas, where there are large, existing communities of hunters, anglers and shooting enthusiasts with a great affinity for the outdoors," said Tom Hornish, Chief Operating Officer, Outdoor Channel. "We're excited to deepen our affiliation with Charter."

"Texas, with its expansive terrain and picturesque views, serves as the backdrop for many of our programs," said Randy Brown, Executive Vice President, Affiliate Sales & Marketing, Outdoor Channel. "We are happy to broaden our availability to Texans by providing our premium outdoor lifestyle programming throughout the area."

Outdoor Channel will be available on Channel 293 as part of Charter Communications' Sports View Plus package.

Each season, Outdoor Channel airs the highest quality outdoor action adventure programming that captures the excitement of the great outdoors through the eyes of esteemed talent and renowned celebrities. The network's second quarter programming lineup includes "BASSMASTER Elite Series," "Fear No Evil," "Madfin Shark Series," "Tecomate Whitetail Nation" and "Wardens."

Chicago : Beam Global Spirits and Wine has named Euro RSCG Chicago its creative agency of record for Pucker Vodka, a new product entry in the flavored vodka category. This news comes on the heels of recent momentum at the Chicago agency that includes wins from Groupon, Sears and Sonic, to name a few.

Euro RSCG Chicago, which also works on Hornitos Tequila, Sauza Tequila, Effen Vodka and Tres Generaciones for Beam Global Spirits and Wine, was awarded this business based on the creative success they have had as a roster Beam agency. The agency has been tasked with launching the new intensely-flavored vodka in the most creative way possible. The launch campaign will appear nationally spanning TV, print and online.

"We're very excited to launch our new Pucker Vodka and for the team at Euro RSCG Chicago to help us creatively showcase this newest addition to our portfolio," said Kevin George, Chief Marketing Officer/ SVP Beam Global Spirits and Wine. "Euro's creative ideas continue to stand out and we're looking forward to bringing many of them to life."

"This is a great addition for us and really reinforces our new creative leadership, under Chief Creative Officer Jason Peterson. To launch an entirely new product is always exciting, especially when it's something as unique and creative as Pucker Vodka," said Ron Bess, president of North America at Euro RSCG Worldwide.

Reston : comScore, Inc. has  released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending January 2011.
The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 24.9 percent market share. Google Android took the lead among smartphone platforms with 31.2 percent market share, after two short months in second place.

For the three month average period ending in January, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 24.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up 0.7 percentage points from the three month period ending in October. LG ranked second with 20.8 percent share, followed by Motorola (16.5 percent), RIM (8.6 percent) and Apple (7.0 percent).

65.8 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in January 2011, up 8 percent from the preceding three-month period. Google Android captured the #1 ranking among smartphone platforms for the first time in January with 31.2 percent market share. RIM ranked second with 30.4 percent market share, followed by Apple with 24.7 percent. Microsoft (8.0 percent) and Palm (3.2 percent) rounded out the top five.

In January, 68.1 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, while browsers were used by 37.0 percent of subscribers (up 0.8 percentage points). Subscribers who used downloaded applications comprised 35.3 percent of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 1.6 percentage points. Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 1.1 percentage points, representing 25.3 percent of mobile subscribers. Playing games represented 23.7 percent of the mobile audience, while listening to music represented 16.5 percent (up 1.1 percentage points).