• These new ads are a great way for companies who have apps to promote them to a wider base and do it in the Newsfeed on mobile which has proven very effective – this isn’t just for game developers, it can be for any company that has an app they would like to promote
• The ads are “social” and include info on how many of a user’s friends have installed the app, as well as the rating of the app
• ‘Install Now’ link directs to app store page with one-click install button
• App developers who have struggled with adoption and/or monetization now have a great way to promote their apps on mobile devices where the apps are being installed

Why is mobile advertising so important on Facebook? Let’s review the stats:

-    Conversion rates are up to 3x higher on mobile vs desktop ads

-    CPCs (cost per click) ~50% lower for mobile ads vs desktop

-    CPFs (cost per fan) up to 6x lower on mobile vs desktop

-    Initial results for Mobile App Install Ads have been impressive

Worried that Newsfeeds will now be cluttered with these ads? With Facebook’s massive reach, inventory constraints have not been a problem. Thus far, Facebook has proven to take all measures necessary to protect the user experience while finding new ways to monetize their products and help the greater ecosystem at the same time.

Alchemy Social, a part of Experian Marketing Services, launched this product in our Ad Manager tool the day it was announced publicly by Facebook. Contact us at info@alchemysocial.com with any questions about Facebook’s mobile ads.

The segments come from the PoliticalPersonas consumer segmentation system, which classifies U.S. adults into one of 10 unique segments based on the individual’s political outlook and party ID as well as their attitudes and opinions towards key topics.

The segments we will focus on in this post include the Super Democrats and Ultra Conservatives segments, which represent the most party loyal voters for Democrats and Republicans, respectively. We will also profile the TV preferences of three important swing voter segments during this election cycle, including: Mild Republicans, On the Fence Liberals and Green Traditionalists. For more information about the PoliticalPersonas segments, download the PoliticalPersonas Report.

The shows in each list include those cable and broadcast TV shows with the highest concentration of viewers from each segment. For example, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central has the highest concentration of Super Democrats of any non-news cable or broadcast show on TV. Likewise, Rules of Engagement on CBS has the highest concentration of Mild Republicans. Candidates, political organizations, and even traditional advertisers trying to connect with any of these voting segments would be wise to consider advertising on the programs listed below.

For more information on PoliticalPersonas, watch our Webcast.

Experian CheetahMail has compiled trends from last year’s Halloween campaigns to help ensure this year’s campaigns are spook-tacular.

2011 Key Trends:

• Over half of Halloween-related email volume was sent from Catalogers and Multi-Channel Retailers.
• ‘Costumes’ and ‘candy’ were key topics for Halloween subject lines, as well as basic ‘Happy Halloween‘

greetings.

• Over a third of all Halloween mailings are sent in September.
• Thirty-seven percent (37%) of volume was sent within one (1) week of Halloween, but only twenty-seven percent (27%) of revenue was received during that week.

Subject line tricks

• Urgency in subject lines worked well for driving higher transaction rates and revenue per email.
• You do not have to wait until just before the holiday to create a sense of urgency. Mailings in early October saw higher than average transaction rates when they included phrases such as ‘final day for free shipping’ or ‘time is running out to shop our sale’ in the subject line.
• Halloween offers are popular, and mailings with offers in the subject line had both higher transaction rates and revenue per email. Offers that “treated” marketers well had ‘$ Off’ deals in the subject line, with over 60% higher transaction rates than the Halloween average.

There was never really any question that the Olympics would attract a rich and demographically diverse audience of consumers. A more pressing question for Olympics sponsors and advertisers is “how good of a match is the audience with respect to the characteristics of my potential brand users?” In other words, “to what extent will I be reaching the type of consumer who is most likely to be interested in my brand?” Tools like the Experian Ad Relevancy Score help to answer these questions. The score, developed from television viewing behaviors and purchase data collected by Experian Simmons, is derived from profiles of actual brand users compared to the corresponding profile of the Summer Olympics television viewing audience. The higher the score the more benefit and overall sales lift that can be hypothetically derived by the advertiser from placing spots that reach this audience. Think of the score as a general measure to quantify the degree to which the ad will be seen by an audience that is most appropriate and relevant for the brand being advertised. Scores are benchmarked against an average of 100.

After applying the Experian Ad Relevancy Score to a subset of key Summer Olympics sponsors and advertisers, we found that the highest scores are attributed to airline brands. The top five include United Airlines (142), American Airlines (133), American Express (129), Delta Airlines (128), and Citibank (126).

United’s investment in the Summer Olympics appears to be a match made in heaven. The brand’s top score of 142 means that the Summer Olympics viewing audience is 42% more likely to be comprised of consumers who are United flyers. United has been the official airline of the U.S. Olympic team since 1984 and clearly has a nice marketing match with this global event. Nike and McDonald’s, also official sponsors of the U.S. Olympic Team, had scores of 109 and 107, respectively.

A more in-depth analysis and profile of Summer Olympics enthusiasts provides further evidence of a strong connection between interest in the London Games and airline travel. Experian’s Mosaic® USA lifestyle segmentation solution shows that consumer segments including Kids and Cabernet, Jet Set Urbanites and Silver Sophisticates, are among those with a 50% or greater likelihood to be avid fans of the Summer Olympics. Consumers from all three of these segments also have a high propensity to be frequent flyers.

Interested in ad relevancy? Take a look at posts comparing advertisers to audience for these events:

NCAA Tournament

Academy Awards

Super Bowl

From archery and athletics (that’s Olympics-talk for track & field) to weighlifting and wrestling, there are 32 medal sports on the Olympic program for the 2012 London Games. It’s a pretty sure bet that the most popular events from a television ratings point of view will include gymnastics, swimming, and track & field. Since Americans would most prefer to watch events where their fellow Americans have the greatest chance of winning (out of 921 all-time Summer Olympics gold medals won by U.S. athletes, 60% have come from these combined disciplines), it’s no coincidence that NBC will devote the lion’s share of primetime network programming to these premiere attractions.

The Olympics craze that is soon to be unleashed has advertisers in the starting blocks and at the ready to launch their own Olympic-size marketing campaigns. The composite television and online audience for the Olympics will span a wide range of demographic characteristics.  It’s one of few sporting events that captures the interest and attention of as many women as men. In other words, lots and lots of people will watch. That means these Games will reach a massive audience and represent an advertising bonanza the likes of which marketers have rarely seen before.

How Should Marketers Capitalize?

Despite its obvious drawing power, a target marketing approach still plays a prominent role in determining the likely success or failure of any Olympic-themed marketing campaign. So, what is an Olympics advertiser to do? What types of consumers are more or less likely to be tuning and checking in?

In keeping with the Olympic spirit, we undertook our own exercise of classifying U.S. households into gold, silver, and bronze categories based on their overall interest level in viewing and following the Games. The analysis is based on television viewing behaviors captured by Experian Simmons.  The segments are drawn from Experian’s Mosaic USA lifestyle segmentation solution.  Topping the podium are such key targets as Platinum Prosperity, Fast Track Couples and Picture Perfect Families.  Here’s a look at six medalist segments (ranked by overall interest in the Summer Olympics), all of which have an above average propensity to be frequent viewers of the Games compared to the overall population.

1. Platinum Prosperity. They see themselves as citizens of the world with a strong global consciousness and keen interest in international affairs. How’s that for embodying the Olympic movement? A bit older (mainly in their 50s and 60s) and wiser (they are 4.3 times more likely to have earned a graduate-level degree), these wealthy empty-nesters and retirees are a prime target for marketers of luxury goods, products, and services. Many are also fitness fanatics who belong to health clubs, enjoy aerobic sports and watch professional sports events. More than twice as likely to own a second home, they travel frequently both domestically and abroad.
2. Picture Perfect Families. Due to their mainstream media tastes, you’ll most likely find members of this segment taking in the Olympics parked in front of the family room HDTV. Predominantly in their mid-30s to 50s, married and college-educated, the buying decisions of these consumers are heavily influenced by teenagers who largely rule the nest.
3. Fast Track Couples. Younger, career-focused, upscale couples who have recently started a family or are on the verge of having children, these time-starved households are frequently on the go. Convenience is critical to meeting their discriminating demands. That means they are highly likely to take the Olympics everywhere with them by following the Games online and via their mobile devices.
4. Kids and Cabernet. Highly affluent, well educated, and chock full of moms with kids, these brand-conscious suburbanites are the next best thing to a marketer’s “dream team.” They like their products family-sized. Preferring SUVs outfitted with the latest technology, they make frequent trips to athletic fields and school activities. Parents in this segment also spend a significant portion of their leisure time engaged in athletic pursuits including tennis, golf, skiing, and biking.
5. Wired for Success. An eclectic collection of younger and digitally savvy adults, these consumers will lead the charge to a customized Olympics viewing experience by taking full advantage of online and video streaming options. Without children, these households have plenty of discretionary income to spend on the latest fashions and electronic gadgets. Many plan their shopping trips online before making a purchase decision. They are prime targets for Olympics advertisers planning to utilize social media marketing initiatives.
6. Status Seeking Singles. Highly influential among their peers, these urban, upwardly-mobile singles latch onto the latest fads and fashion trends. Mainly in their 30s and 40s, unattached and childless, they strive to be “in the know.”  Their penchant for a highly social lifestyle and all things digital makes them among the heaviest users of smartphones, tablets, Facebook and Twitter.

Companies whose products and services appeal to users in these key segments – think travel, electronics, financial products, retail and more – can take full advantage of a captive Olympics audience via many touchpoints. Let the Games, and the marketing mania, begin.

On average, advertisers will spend over $1 million for a 30-second spot aired during the men’s tournament championship game.

Because the event is stretched out over a three-week long period and reaches a relatively affluent consumer base, the tournament has broad appeal to advertisers. While perhaps not as impactful as a single sporting event with a much larger audience, such as the Super Bowl, advertisers can still benefit by delivering their message to a healthy-size audience with increased frequency. Based on an analysis of television viewership data tracked by Experian Simmons, the men’s tournament will reach nearly 20% of adults age 18 or over. That’s counting all games over the full length of the tournament.

Several national advertisers targeting men’s tourney viewers can expect to reach a large percentage of their brand users. In fact, the five advertisers with the greatest brand penetration among likely men’s tournament viewers include Coca-Cola (65%), AT&T (50%), Ford (24%), LG (21%) and Honda (15%).

But it isn’t necessarily the biggest brands that reap the greatest reward from advertising during an event with the staying power of March Madness and the NCAA basketball tournament. This is one conclusion from an analysis based on Experian’s Ad Relevancy Score. The score is an estimate of how closely a targeted audience that is exposed to an ad (in this case, the audience that is likely to be viewing the men’s tournament) matches up against the profile of a brand’s existing customer base. A high score indicates that the audience is a strong match and good fit for the brand. In other words, the ad should be particularly relevant to those who are viewing. A low score indicates that the ad could be less relevant because the targeted audience misses the mark relative to the characteristics of the brand’s most likely users. The average Experian Ad Relevancy Score for a brand is set at 100.

When ranking brands based on an analysis of the Experian Ad Relevancy Score for the men’s basketball tournament, we narrowed the advertiser field down to an Elite Eight. Five of the top eight scores are for automotive-related brands. The qualifying brands and their associated scores are as follows:

It is impossible for a marketer to ignore technology’s ever-growing role in the customer’s life. Mobile apps and tablets are just two examples of how emerging digital tools can create fundamentally new marketing channels. Luckily, on the technology side, audience targeting has evolved in tandem so advertisers can better connect with customers in this increasingly fragmented digital world.

Now, with the advent of data-driven online display advertising, multi-channel marketers can convey the same tailored offline message through any digital channel, whether online, television, mobile, tablet or social. This discipline is often referred to as “addressable advertising.”

Addressable advertising campaigns run by Experian Marketing Services have demonstrated that data-driven display ads yield uplift not just in Internet sales channels, but also in mail-order and retail channels.

Addressable advertising campaigns run by Experian Marketing Services have demonstrated that data-driven display ads yield uplift not just in Internet sales channels, but also in mail-order and retail channels. This is of significant interest because it demonstrates the positive multi-channel effect of display ads and the ability to tie online exposure to offline sales.

It may sound a little complicated, but running an addressable advertising campaign is not daunting, particularly when working with an experienced provider.

There are four basic steps to run an addressable campaign:

1. The advertiser selects the criteria for its target audience, whether it’s traditional demographics or psychographics, or perhaps overlaid with more relevant attributes derived from its own customer file.
2. A trusted marketing services provider, like Experian, matches the target audience attributes to their digital addressable audience database in a privacy compliant, de-identified manner.
3. Customized display ads are shown to target audience recipients via various digital channels.
4. The marketing services provider generates multi-channel attribution metrics to quantify the campaign lift.

It’s as simple as taking the basic principles of direct marketing and applying them online. Seek addressable advertising platforms that rely on the proven principles of direct marketing in order to ensure the flexible implementation of integrated marketing programs, as well as to harness strong measurement capabilities. These new advertising platforms should be coupled with advanced media-delivery technologies to help reach customers online, on television and on mobile devices in an efficient and privacy-centric manner.

Pre-order the 2012 Digital Marketer, set to release in April, and check back weekly for more exciting previews of what’s to come. If you missed our earlier posts, click here to read them now.

Put into direct marketing terms, the question becomes “how much lift in purchase likelihood is potentially realized when directing a marketing message to viewers of the Academy Awards?” Using the Experian Marketing Services (EMS) Ad Relevancy Score, a measure of the overall attractiveness of a target audience relative to the characteristics of a brand’s existing customers, we set out to conduct an investigation. The methodology is based on data collected by Experian Simmons.

And the winning brands are . . .

Coca-Cola and McDonald’s

Based on the sheer volume of viewers, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola have the luxury of claiming the highest brand penetration among adults who are likely to watch the Academy Awards. But audience size is only one piece of the equation when measuring ad relevancy. The EMS Ad Relevancy Scores for McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are 109 and 105 respectively. This means there is a hypothetical 9% lift in purchase likelihood for McDonald’s when targeting the Academy Awards audience. The corresponding lift for Coca-Cola is only 5%. But brands with such universal appeal and large reach will rarely see double digit lift from an ad relevancy score.

Other brands perform even better and are well-served by reaching out to the Academy Awards audience. These include JC Penney (118), AT&T Wireless (120), and MetLife (144).

Then there are brands that get top billing. This is the ad sponsorship equivalent to being nominated for Best Picture. The analysis shows that American Express (162), Travelocity (181), and Stella Artois (200) are likely to see the largest gain and benefit the most from their advertising investment (the score for Stella Artois is based on viewers age 21 or older).

The Academy Awards do not necessarily deliver an audience that is the best match for all brands. For example, an EMS Ad Relevancy Score below 100 indicates that the characteristics of the target audience are not maximally aligned with the characteristics of likely brand users. The good news is that this also presents an opportunity to grow brand share by targeting new segments of consumers. Hyundai, with an EMS Ad Relevancy Score of 79, Sprint Nextel (90), and Samsung (95) all fall into this category and stand to benefit by attracting new customers among Academy Awards viewers.

An audience as large as that delivered by the Academy Awards is comprised of a wide variety of consumer market segments. Using Experian’s Mosaic lifestyle segmentation solution, some key segments stand out as having a high propensity to watch the show. These include Jet Set Urbanites, American Royalty, Silver Sophisticates, Golf Carts and Gourmets, and Wired for Success. Consumers from these segments are all at least 1.7 times more likely to watch the Academy Awards.

When controlling for gender, the EMS Ad Relevancy Scores change. Ads from Stella Artois, Travelocity, and American Express are more likely to be relevant to male Academy Awards viewers compared to female viewers.

EMS Ad Relevancy Score: Men Compared to Women

When comparing women to men, the largest differences in EMS Ad Relevancy Scores are for Hyundai, JC Penney, and Sprint Nextel. Ads from these brands are more likely to be relevant to female Academy Awards viewers.

The airing of the Academy Awards is a time for casting a spotlight on the best performances that the motion picture industry has to offer. The winner in the Best Picture category is guaranteed to see lift in future box office revenue. Brand advertisers will also get their chance to shine. Based on our investigation of ad relevancy, some brands will achieve increased lift in future sales and greater return on their marketing investment than others.

Display Advertising! Solutions such as Experian’s Audience IQ^SM recognize the changing behavior of digitally-savvy consumers, and supplements email marketing campaigns with data-driven display ads. What this means is that you have more than one opportunity to engage your consumers in making a lasting impression.

For example, you can create different use cases based on what actions the consumer takes regarding the email.

• If the email is opened but the consumer didn’t click through, a similarly-themed display ad with a more aggressive offer can be shown.
• If the email is not opened, then a display ad featuring a different product and offer can be shown.

Data- driven advertising allows marketers to coordinate messages to the same consumer segment so that a particular ad campaign shows up in their inbox, and also on the websites they are visiting. This kind of synergy can drive website traffic by up to 4x if executed correctly.

Candidates and those groups that support them need to know where to allocate their ad dollars to either connect with their base or reach swing voters. Experian Simmons analyzed the viewing audiences of over 600 broadcast, cable and syndicated TV programs that were measured in our most recent National Consumer Study in order to pinpoint opportunities for politicians to reach partisans and middle of the road voters. This analysis has already gathered the attention of major media outlets, including Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, AOL, Huffington Post and more.

Below are the entertainment and news programs that score the highest concentration of liberal Democrats among their viewers, Conservative Republicans and Middle-of-the-Road Voters registered with any party.

Be sure to check out our free 2011 PoliticalPersonas report in which Experian Simmons delivers the mindset of the American voter, including attitudes, brand preferences and their penchant for social media. You can also check out a similar analysis of TV preferences of political partisans that we conducted last year here and here.