Where families are moving online in 2008: Peter Grunwald reports

Peter Grunwald has gotten the respect (and ear) of organizations such as the National Association of School Boards. His Grunwald Associates LLC is said to be a pioneer with “new media market intelligence and industry surveys including Children, Families and the Internet.” Grunwald’s “Social Networking Study” has established useful benchmarks regarding the media habits and attitudes of American households, according to the Ypulse newsletter.

Grunwald has now gotten interested in the “multi-generation networked family,” which, of course, has those of us involved in WuduPlz interested. A polite email from him last week said he’ll have more data later this year.

It will be interesting to see if he has something to say about WuduPlz when it’s released, considering how Grunwald sees the major trends shaping up.

Here, in a nutshell, is how he sees 2008 shaping up, according to an article he wrote for YPulse.:

• Collaboration: Web users will seek “sites where their contribution, in collaboration with others, realizes a common higher purpose.”

• Ubiquitous networking: Constant networking is blurring the line between our online and offline lives. “While most consumers will appreciate the novelty, convenience and immediacy of information anytime/anywhere, advertisers will face challenges mastering associated short-form communications and optimizing drill-down.”

• Technology is a family affair: Grunwald Associates Social Networking Study found more than a third of parents already text message with their children and two-thirds of kids say they’ve gone online with mom or dad at least once in the past month, including more than 60% of teens. “Look for new applications and communication tools designed with families in mind as a unit for both entertainment and communication,” Grunwald says.

• Schools are driving home internet use:  Now many districts, even poor districts, are directing their students to use the Net outside the classroom

• Marketers need to move toward “integration and interaction” instead of “intrusion.”

It’s his last point where we believe WuduPlz best makes the case for sponsors. WuduPlz demands that the user creates content. WuduPlz is a highly-personalized environment. Users will, therefore, have a heightened sensitivity to advertising and news they see on the service.

“Smart marketers have begun to provide tools, information and environments that enhance online experiences and user control, building brand loyalty through voluntary participation,” says Grunwald.

WuduPlz links family niche into prime products

It was good to read in Kubas Consultants’ report today that reported that “over 70 percent of newspaper executives and managers have online on their agenda for 2008 in terms of both content development and improving advertising programs.”

WuduPlz offers unique online content with a different ad program, so the report helps us sleep at night.

But, also encouraging to read was where their survey reveal  a high percentage of publishers have plans to look at offering marketers more niche and lifestyle targeted products.

Kubas warns here, however, that “while it is easy to identify what ad revenues a non-core publication brings in, it is far more difficult to correctly allocate costs against it to produce a true profit/loss picture.”

Amen. This is very true of new mobile applications, even simple ones such as those texting a few headlines each day. That cannot be done automatically, so there is some manpower considerations as well as technology to learn. WuduPlz makes it simple and easy to target a worthwhile niche (families with preteen and teenage children) without burdening editorial staff.

With WuduPlz, the ad sales pros get a new and innovative product to talk about (always a good idea) that is tied to the primary news channel–the website and the print newspaper. Otherwise, the readers provide the content. Not bad.

Borrell forecasts 48 percent growth in local web ads

Borrell and Associates is forecasting a 48 percent increase in local online ad spending in 2008.
The executive summary is here: Borrell forecasts 48 percent growth in local web ads for 2008
Driving most of the growth is the popularity of local search (Google) and online video advertising.
Local search advertising will more than double next year, to $5 billion, while
locally placed online video will triple, to almost $1.3 billion.
A major component of local video advertising will be long-form pieces for home, automotive and health-related categories.

“Most yellow pages publishers, cable companies, newspapers,
radio stations and TV stations are still pinning their hopes on their
traditional sales reps being able sell online ad packages,” the reports says.

We’re seeing the same thing, but I haven’t come to the conclusion Borrell &Associates
came to. Borrell’s report says:
“There is increasing evidence to support the idea that a greater
investment in an independent online sales force will be necessary to continue the growth these
properties have enjoyed for the past few years.”

Sure, local pure-play Internet companies are getting more and more share.

But, that is just because it is possible to sell the web now. Instead of breaking apart the web/print package,
traditional publishers instead need to think about channels (web, broadcast,
billboards, newspaper, direct mail) publishers need to focus on markets:
Families, auto buyers, retired people, young career, etc. This in nothing new.
Good targeting and accountability has always appealed to advertisers.

In other words, if you deliver a package with good value, it doesn’t matter who sells it.

How many parents buy their preteen kids a cellphone? 35%

WuduPlz’s market is expanding. More parents are buying phones for their young children.

Texting isn’t just for teenagers, according to this December 2007 report from Nielsen Mobile. Younger kids are getting into texting as well. (The pdf of the release is attached here.) Preteens using cellphone: Nielsen report

The report estimates that:

• 35% of tweens own a mobile phone.
• 20% of tweens have used text messaging.
• 21% of tweens have used ring & answer tones.

“Tweens use their mobile phones, and media in general, in very unique and important ways,” Jeff Herrmann, VP of Mobile Media for Nielsen Mobile was quoted as saying in a press release. “Marketers and media executives need to understand these ‘digital natives’ as they mature and reshape the way we all think about new and traditional media.”

Regarding cross media behavior of tweens, Nielsen reports that tweens spend less time surfing
the Internet than their teen counterparts. In this report, 48% of U.S.
tweens said they spend less than one hour per day online. When they
are online, 70% of tweens use the Internet for gaming. Comparatively,
81% of U.S. teens say they spend one hour or more per day online, with
e-mail being the most pervasive online activity for this age group.

“In addition to the differences between adult and youth media consumers,
there’s an important gap between the media behaviors of teens and
tweens,” said Herrmann. “This report, which includes insights from
more than 5,500 teens and tweens, dissects how these demographic
segments are engaging with mobile and traditional media.”

The report, “Kids on the Go: Mobile Usage by U.S. Teens and Tweens,” was
conducted by Nielsen Mobile and BASES, two services of Nielsen. It
also provides insights on teen and tween use of specific content
brands, genre preferences, overall use of leisure time and demographic
profiles. The full report will be released on December 14.