Broadband broadens its penetration
Residential subscriptions to broadband Internet services surged 20 percent in 2006 to exceed 50 million U.S. households, according to Digital Lifestyles: 2007 Outlook, a study from Dallas research firm Parks Associates. The report estimates U.S. residential broadband subscriptions will surpass 60 million households by year-end 2007, accounting for 55 percent of all U.S. households.
“The foundations of digital lifestyle applications and products are built on access services, including broadband Internet and television,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst with Parks Associates. “With the penetration of high-speed Internet exceeding 50 percent in 2007, we’re also witnessing shifts in the way companies are positioning their communications, entertainment and information services as home technology solutions.”
The report reveals that providers are delivering both broadband and television services with greater emphasis on the value-added services they enable, rather than just the services themselves. The report also finds that, in recent years, service providers have been partnering more closely with equipment vendors to strengthen the linkages between digital lifestyle services and the end-user products that enable them, including set-top boxes, home computers, home networks, gaming consoles and other fixed and portable consumer electronics devices.
“With the demarcation points in access services migrating closer to the customers, service providers can provide much more in the way of personalized and enhanced communications, entertainment and information services,” Scherf said. “A key trend is the tightening of the value chains that enable end-to-end and seamless services. These stronger linkages will lead to greater choice and convenience in the ways customers interact with digital lifestyle amenities.”
The scans have it: why Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl ad won
Los Angeles-based FKF Applied Research LLC and Professor Marco Iacoboni of the UCLA Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center released their second annual ranking of the most effective Super Bowl ads using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) brain scans. Many of the Super Bowl ads stoked regions of the brain associated with anxiety, including the amygdala. The best-testing advertisements, such as the :60 video game ad for Coca-Cola, fired the region of consumers’ brains associated with positive emotions.
“This clearly was the year of the amygdala, the brain’s ‘threat detector.’ Compared to last year’s ads there was much more anxiety and far less positive emotion in these highly-touted commercials,” said Joshua Freedman, UCLA clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and a co-founder of FKF Applied Research. “Much of the anxiety seemed to be caused by violence but was also rooted in economic fears. The Nationwide ad had a spike when Kevin Federline was revealed to be working in fast food, and also when the GM robot turned out to be OK but afraid for its job.”
Arguing about which ads are best has been an integral part of the Super Bowl experience. Now, UCLA and FKF are employing technology to look more deeply into the question of which ads are really effective with consumers.
This year’s top-ranking ads were: Coca-Cola - Video Game; Doritos - Live the Flavor; Bud Light - Hitchhiker. The bottom-ranking ads: Emerald Nuts - Robert Goulet; Honda - CRV Crave; Sprint - Connectile Dysfunction.
FKF and UCLA’s empirical approach measures activity in regions of the brain known to help control whether a consumer will buy or reject a marketer’s sales pitch. The fMRI displays activity in parts of the brain responsible for elemental responses, including wanting, reward, surprise, fear, disgust, conflict and attempts to control emotions.
“Asking someone what is going on in their brain is in some ways like asking them what is going on in their heart,” said Freedman. “Much of the important activity is outside of their awareness. Coke’s ad did well because it engaged a full range of emotions, including the mirror region, which is associated with connection and empathy. Typically, between one-third and one-half of ads are filtered out and are essentially ignored by viewers’ brains. Usually the Super Bowl ads do somewhat better, but not this year. The majority elicited very little response.”
FKF Applied Research and Iacoboni’s group at the UCLA Ahmanson Lovelace Brain Mapping Center recruited men and women ages 18-34 to watch this year’s Super Bowl ads. The subjects viewed the ads while in UCLA’s high-field fMRI scanner, which monitors the activity in their brains. The group’s Super Bowl rankings, along with color images of peoples’ brain responses to the ads, are posted on www.fkfrank.com.
More consumers voting via mobile phone
The Mobile Marketing Association reported findings of its annual attitude and usage study on mobile marketing effectiveness. The youth market reported the highest rate of interest and usage, ranging from 30 to 40 percent. Forty-eight percent of the respondents reported their wireless phone usage has increased significantly over the last year. The average consumer uses approximately 4.8 features on their mobile phone. Sixty-nine percent of survey respondents indicated that they use text messaging, and 44 percent use it daily (up from 41 percent in 2005).
The study, conducted with market research firm Synovate, measured both the perceptions and usage for wireless and text messaging, as well as overall receptiveness and participation in mobile marketing initiatives. More than 1,800 consumers between the ages of 13 and 65 were queried, with results indicating that mobile consumers are more educated about the features and functionality of their devices and are engaging more frequently in mobile marketing campaigns.
Of those respondents who have participated in mobile marketing campaigns, their participation in voting campaigns has significantly increased, from 8 percent in 2005 to 29 percent in 2006. The highest-regarded mobile marketing services include downloads, coupons and alert-based services. For more information visit http://mmaglobal.com.