DSA Online | New Media Updates

I have been very fortunate in the past few years with my phone choices (besides some mobile carrier headaches) and have been able to take part in the growing app revolution. The estimation that 2010 would be the year that mobile would become the primary browsing source for most North Americans was not so far fetched as more and more smart phones came to the market. No longer were Blackberries restricted to business professionals and the cost differences between a smart phone and a generic calls-only phone became irrelevant with 3-year contract deals. However, a few reports have stated that while Canadians are stepping up their technology purchases, the reality is that mobile use in Canada is still strongly skewed to primarily voice use.

While Comscore stated that 35% of Canadian mobile users (May 2009) are taking advantage of their phone’s features beyond voice (up from 30% in 2008), 65% of Canadians are still using their phone for voice and text only. More recently, a report from Delvinia Interactive called “Managing the Hype – The Reality of Mobile in Canada” stated that of total minutes of use – 89% of time spent was on voice calls and only 15% of time spent was browsing.

Then, to take the debate a little deeper, companies like Google (who have definitely learned their Netscape history lessons) predict that applications for the mobile are just a fad as web code catches up to allow easy mobile accessibility through browsers. Apps we’re currently depending on will be plugins in the future and will be contained within browsers (such as IE, Firefox, etc) on mobile. However, with all the proprietary fighting going on in mobile land, I don’t think that Google should hold their breaths – especially with their current decision in the land of net-neutrailty. And while the occasional hack gets through Apple’s restrictive browser offering, if you’re on an iPhone – you’re unlikely going to see much of that functionality built into Safari in the future.

These numbers made me a little wiggy as I am such a lite user of voice communication and an app addict. However, since I can rarely use my own habits to represent any demographic population, I decided to poll the DSA Network to ask them what their favourite app or phone use were in the past year. The answers back supported the research and while I am the first to proclaim that mobile is here to stay, it is no small wonder that Canadian advertisers are slow to pick up this emerging media. I’ll be posting the DSA poll results over the next 2 days.

Here are my favourite apps, what are yours?

Gowalla, Foursquare and Groupon for after,
Movies, Urban Spoon have the local answer,
Bump, I-Nigma Reader and Google Maps
These are a few of my favourite apps.

Games looks so groovy on the tiny screen,
Drop7, Sudoku, so good it’s obscene,
Secret of Monkey Island from my past.
Lightsaber Unleashed is a Jedi blast.

I prefer Twittie for my twitter addiction, Reddit‘s mobile app give  daily non-fiction,
Bump makes business cards all paper-waste traps, these are a few of my favourite apps.

When I don’t know, what the song is, I just launch Shazam.
But my all time favourite app is DropBox it’s a productivity grand-slam!

Lately, there has been a counter-buzz about social media suggesting that we are seeing a decline in usage amongst Canadians, so we put our Raving Rabbids research hats on, played some video games, and (after putting our wii-motes down, & doing some real research) came up with some solid information. Essentially what we confirmed was that the face of social media is evolving, not necessarily declining. In January of 2010 almost all Canadian online teens (85%) had a Facebook account, so what we are seeing now is some stabilization and seasonal habit changes. ComScore shows that in January that youth (aged 2-17) logged 49 monthly Facebook visits per user, spending a monthly total of 8:15 hours chatting and updating their status. These numbers in June are lower at 39 monthly visits at 6.5 hours total, though during the same period for the same demographic total internet use has also declined from 80 visits a month to 63, so the Facebook decline mirrors overall internet use. This reduction may be a decay in interest in Facebook, although it also could be a seasonal trend which will change again once the blustery weather of fall and winter hits. I know I’ve been spending more time on the patio than I have playing Farmville lately. That brings me to the next point. Now that the teens have been on Facebook for a few years, the demographic that is seeing the most growth is the females aged 50+. They are finding old classmates and keeping informed of what their kids are up to. More and more studies are starting to pop up showing Moms as key brand influencers via social networks. I know many people who are taking a look at how they use Facebook, and some are deciding that they would prefer it to be used more as a social tool, to coordinate events etc rather than a way to interact with their best buds. Read more

I have found that one of the fun parts about entering into the world of Media is the ability to indulge yourself in trashy magazines. We all see them, standing there, staring at you while you wait at the checkout at the local grocery or convenience store… Always teasing you to look inside and see if Jennifer Aniston really is having a baby or if that’s just how the tabloid twisted her words to sell the magazine. You know it’s not real but you have to know what it says! (She’s not pregnant, but she says she wants to have a baby someday). I’m usually really good at laughing at the cover and moving on, but since what the celeb world is doing out there can have such an impact on media and there is a pile of them sitting on the counter in the office kitchen…

I started innocently enough, flipping the pages while waiting for my lunch in the microwave, but I got sucked in last week. I blame it on Twilight. I’m not a Team Edward or Team Jacob kind of girl, but the romance in the story gets me and I loved the most recent movie from the saga: Eclipse. It is for this reason that I picked up the July 2nd Issue of Entertainment Weekly and took it outside while I lounged in the sun. Bella (Kristen Stewart), Edward (Robert Pattison), and Jacob (Taylor Lautner) are all on the front cover which obviously meant there was some brain candy for me to read about the movie inside.

The kids are sweet (though Kristen has quite the potty mouth) but the thing that stood out most to me in this interview is Robert and Kristen’s take on the “Key to Marketing”.  Our favourite Vampire/Human couple believe that it doesn’t matter what you say, just have your face everywhere. Have your face in everyone’s face all the time and that’s all.

WOW THAT’S EASY. I am heading right to the mall this afternoon to get some headshots printed out and I’m just going to start postering my face places. I’ll be famous tomorrow and probably won’t even finish writing this blog post.

Alright.so not so much. But at the very least they were able to pick up on some very basic Media 101 rules.

1. Know your Audience and where they are – yes, you will be a blockbuster if your movie is like Eclipse, Ironman 2, Clash of the Titans etc. and advertised on a My Space homepage take over because that’s where the people who watch these movies are! You won’t see As Good As it Gets being advertised on My Space, because that’s not where you would find the people who want to go see that movie
2. Use Reach and Frequency – after you know who your audience is, be where they are. It’ll do you no good if you reach every person in the world just once. Find the right mixture of reach and frequency. Kristen said that My Space is where you want to advertise if you want to be a blockbuster; to a point this is true, but you need more than one publisher to reach your full audience, plus, the more places you advertise, the higher chance of reaching a frequency that will keep your advertisement lingering in the users mind.
3. Have a strong, but simple message – The Twilight Saga uses the faces of their stars to speak to their audience. It’s not the storyline that racks in the girls (they all know it by heart); it’s the package that the story comes in. All Taylor has to do is flash a stern but sexy glance and the tweens go wild. He’s saying (with his eyes) “your fantasies from the book are being shown on the silver screen, come watch me melt your heart”. That is why so many girls are seeing this movie! They want to fall into the deep romance and passion it shows. (Replace Taylor with Robert for the girls on Team Edward).

Those are the three most basic things you can do when you’re advertising.  Although packaged a little differently than my point form above, these kids have a simple understanding.  Just be careful with the literalness of “everywhere, all the time”. You don’t want to make your audience sick of you.

As Kathryn has discussed, the 2009 Mixx Roadshow was full of interesting, relevant and regional presentations, each outlining innovative and successful campaigns. However, what impressed me the most this year was the IAB’s segues between each presentation. When compiled together, these bits of information created an overview of online advertising that I found extremely relevant and practical on any scale. While many of the presentations offered great ideas on grand scales; the information that the IAB presented can be used by all online advertisers regardless of budget.

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