Tricks, Treats and Increased Retail Spending

While spending forecasts for the upcoming holiday season look down right scary, new research from the National Retail Federation is showing that Halloween looks sweet.

• On average, consumers plan on spending $72 on
  candy and Halloween decorations this year.
  That’s an increase of 9% over last year and 28% over 2009
• Total Halloween spending is expected to eclipse
  $6.8 billion
• 70% of consumers plan to participate in
  Halloween this year
• Top Halloween purchases, candy (96%),
  decorations (69%) and costumers (65%)
• Just 6% of consumers said they were not
  participating in Halloween due to cost cutting

What Does This Mean To You?

Halloween is still a week away and there is still time for you to capitalize on the holiday even if you  aren’t selling traditional Halloween merchandise.
Here are just a few ideas:

• Give away logo’d bags for kids to use during trick-or-treating to increase awareness,
• Hold a costume contest to drive affinity
• Sponsor events to create connections

There are many things that you could do to make  Halloween a great lead-in to
the November and December holidays. For more information on how you can grow your business by leveraging Halloween, please contact your Orlando Sentinel Media Group Representative or:

Al Fiala
407.420.5702
afiala@orlandosentinel.com

Source: EMarketer; National Retail Federation

Young Adults And Brands On Social Networks

While older adults are warming to the idea of connecting with brands on social networks, millennials (Age 16-34)  users are fully engaged with them.

• 53% of millennials like to check out brands on
  FaceBook & Twitter
• One-third of them like brands more once the
  brand starts using social networking
• Nearly one in four millennials interacted with content
  from a brand on a FaceBook page at least once a day

What Does This Mean To You?

Connecting with brands on social networks is part of the shopping cycle.  For millennials, it one of the main ways they find out about new products and
recommend them to others.  How are you managing your social networking offerings?  It’s important that your social presences portray your business in the best possible light.  For more information on how your social networking offerings can increase awareness and help you grow your business, please contact your Orlando Sentinel Media Group Representative or:
Al Fiala
407.420.5702
afiala@orlandosentinel.com

Source: Center for Media Research

How Consumers Interact Through Social Media

For many consumers, interacting with brands through social media is an almost everyday occurrence. Understanding the frequency of this interaction can help you manage how your business uses social media.

                                                               Ages 16-34___Ages 35-74

Multiple times per day                           11%                             8%

Once a day                                                12%                             9%

3-4 times per week                                  13%                            9%

1-2 times per week                                  14%                           13%

2-3 times per month                              12%                           10%

Once a month                                           9%                           10%

Less than once a month                        15%                           15%

Does Not Apply                                      14%                          26%

What Does This Mean To You?

Social media offers your organization a great way to create awareness and build a customer base.  To make sure your social media offerings are as effective as possible you need to support them with other forms of marketing. Just using social media to expose your brand means a limited audience for your message.  Remember that over three quarters of consumers who “liked” a brand on
FaceBook did so because of advertising. For more information on how to make you social media presences more effective, please contact your Orlando Sentinel Media Group Representative or:
Al Fiala
407.420.5702
afiala@orlandosentinel.com

Source: Emarketer; Compete

Why You Need A Mobile Optimized Site This Holiday Season

Currently, over 60% of shopping behaviors start on a mobile devices and 44% of holiday searches this year are expected to come from smart phones & tablets.
If your business does not have a mobile optimized site you will likely miss out on this lucrative shopping trend.

• From 2009 to 2011, mobile search queries tripled
  in number and continue to climb
• 61% of shoppers are frustrated by sites that are
  not mobile optimized are unlikely to return
• 40% of those shoppers will visit their competitors site

What Does This Mean To You?

Everyday there is new information on how many people are using mobile technology and it’s part in the buying process.  But now we are seeing mounting evidence that your business needs to have a mobile optimized site.  The danger in not adapting mobile optimization is more than just losing customers, it’s the fact you are driving customers to your competitors. For more information on how to effectively and efficiently take your business mobile, please contact your Orlando Sentinel Media Group Representative or:
Al Fiala
407.420.5702
afiala@orlandosentinel.com

Source: Mobile Commerce Daily

Just Who Clicks Through

Recent posts have detailed the fact that the fastest growing group of social networkers is older adults.  New information points to the fact that they are also very engaged.

• FaceBook users age 50+ are 23% more likely than than
  average to click through to an ad on the social networking platform
• They are also 8% less likely to “like”
• Women age 50+ are 31% than females age 18-29 to
  click through
• Against all users, women age 50+ are 22%
  more  likely to click through

What Does This Mean To You?

Older adults are not only using social media, they are reacting to ads there.  Just because you may be targeting older segments of the population doesn’t mean you can forget about social media.  Since so many new social networkers are older, they are not as jaded as younger users  and are more open to
advertisers.  For more information on how you can effectively target the audiences you want to reach, please contact your Orlando Sentinel Media Group Representative, or:
Al Fiala
407.420.5702
afiala@orlandosentinel.com

Source: Center for Media Research

Mobile Couponing Activities Growing Rapidly

In past posts we’ve shown you that over 60% of shopping behaviors now start on a mobile device. New research is pointing to the fact that mobile couponing is going to effect the way consumers use smart phones and tablets.

• This year, 20 million US adults will redeem a
  mobile coupon
• Since last year, mobile coupon usage has grown 117%
• By 2013, over 16% or 36 million US adults expected to redeem a
  mobile coupon

What Does This Mean To You?

Mobile devices are all the rage and they are rapidly becoming the
go-to-device for shopping, purchasing and now, consumers are also using them to save. QR codes, apps, mobile display and permission
based SMS campaigns are great ways to put coupons in the hands of mobile
consumers. For more information on how to take advantage of mobile & couponing opportunities, please contact your Orlando Sentinel Media Group Representative or contact:
Al Fiala
407.420.5702
afiala@orlandosentinel.com

Source: Emarketer

2011 Holiday Shopping Projections

The National Retail Federation has released it’s first sales projections for the 2011 holiday season.  There looks to be slight growth over the 10 year average, but lower than last year.

• Retail sales are expect to rise modestly – 2.8%
• Last year sales were up 5.2%
• Over all holiday spending is expected to hit
  $465 billion
• Retailers are expected to hire 480,00 to 500,000
  seasonal workers for the holidays

What Does This Mean To You?

Tough economic conditions means consumers will be watching their penny’s and earlier posts showed us that shoppers will be doing more comparison shopping than ever before.  To make sure your business get’s its share of holiday shoppers, you’ll need to maximize your awareness and visibility.  Mobile is also going to be a huge factor for the holidays.  44% of all holiday related searches are expected to take place on a mobile device.  For more information on how to get the most
out of this holiday season, please contact your Orlando Sentinel Media Group
Representative or:
Al Fiala
407.420.5702
afiala@orlandosentinel.com

Source: Mobile Commerce Daily; National Retail Federation; Emarketer

Online Video Delivers High Performance

Online video is extremely popular and very engaging as an advertising vehicle.  Recent information points to many reasons why online video should be part of your media mix.

• Online video brings a click through rate 10 to
  50 times higher than the typical banner ad
• Consumers who watch online video typically spend
  20% more time with the ad unit
• 63% of internet users are reached by video
  advertising
• Consumers who watch online video ads account for
  83% of online sales

What Does This Mean To You?

Not only is there a large audience for online advertising, consumers spend
more time with it and those consumers don’t just watch – they buy.  In previous posts there has been data showing that pre-roll ads increase recall by over 50%.
Increased recall, increased time spent with ads and higher click through
rates are just a few reasons why video advertisements can help grow your
business.,  For more information on digital video advertising, please contact your Orlando Sentinel Media Group Representative or contact:
Al Fiala
407.420.5702
afiala@orlandosentinel.com

Source: Emarketer; The 2011 Scarborough Report,
Release 1

Ads Engage Smart Phone Users

Smart Phone users spend the majority of their time using their phones connecting with others.  Just 7% of the smart phone users time is spent shopping on the device.  But that time equals large ad recall and engagement

• Over 65% of smart phone users could recall ads they saw while shopping on their mobile device and over one-third had clicked on an ad

This ad recall extends to other tasks people perform on their smart phones
as well.

•  Over 50% of users recalled ads while searching or using entertainment services
• More than 45% recalled ads while using navigation services
• Nearly 40% recalled ads while connecting with others (communicating via voice, text, IM, email or social media)

What Does This Mean To You?

Nearly 475,000 Metro Orlando adults own a smart phone and we are a top 5 Metro Area for planned smart phone purchases.  These are consumers have high household income and are in the market to purchase your goods & services.  With so many prospective customers using mobile devices. along with the high recall & engagement behavior patterns they display, shouldn’t you have a mobile
optimized message?  For more information on how to take advantage of mobile opportunities, please  contact your Orlando Sentinel Media Group Representative or contact:
Al Fiala
407.420.5702
afiala@orlandosentinel.com

Source: Emarketer; The 2011 Scarborough Report, Release 1

X Marks The Spot for Loyalty

If you are looking to build your business, there is one group you need should really target – Generation X consumers. Gen X’ers were born between 1965 and 1976 – not only are they in the prime earning periods of their lives, recent research shows us they have high brand loyalty and have developed a taste for the finer things.

• More than 40% of Generation X adults stick with
  brands they like
• The average member of Generation X spends over
  37 hours a month online
• 73% of them use social networks
• Over 60% “liked” a brand on Facebook
• Over 40% of younger Generation X adults (35-44)
  own smart phones

What Does This Mean To You?
In Central Florida, there are 500,000 adults in the Generation X age group.
They are much more likely than the market to have high household incomes, be
homeowners, work in white-collar occupations and have children in their household. They are also more likely to be in the market to buy furniture, appliances, mattresses, consumer electronics and many other major purchases. For more information on how to effectively and efficiently connect with Generation X adults, please contact your Orlando Sentinel Media Group Representative or:
Al Fiala
407.420.5702
afiala@orlandosentinel.com

Source: Emarketer; ComScore; The 2011 Scarborough Report, Release 1