In a recent New York Times article, Mickey Meece describes her news consumption routine: pick up the paper, toss it on the table with intentions to read later, get the news on her iPad instead. She lists out her regular rotation of news sources, which are different than mine and probably different than yours as well. Unlike the days when everyone received the same newspaper and without the myriad additional sources available online, our consumption of printed news is becoming more instant, customizable, and as a result, more segmented.

But this comes at a price. Not only for the newspaper industry feeling the pressure from an ever increasingly digital world, but also for the consumer. Meece points out numerous news aggregating apps for tablets that were created as a way to access all the information a newshound could want, all in one place and exactly how you want it…if you’re willing to work for it. Until the day when apps can read our minds and know what we want, we still have to go through the manual labor of telling the app to build something full of must reads while leaving out the clutter.

Is it worth it to today’s ever-on-the-go consumer though? We could be content to sit back and have the news companies deliver to us, either physically or electronically, the stories their editors deem important enough to print and simply pick and choose which sections we want to take in. Or we could be proactive and use those electronic sources to become our own editors to get precisely the newspaper we want, thus becoming more engaged and empowered readers.

These one stop shops are not only a convenient way to gather all of our favorite news sources and content sections, it should also be a way for advertisers to conveniently target interested consumers. Yet while sampling 5 of the aggregating apps Meece mentions, I was not served a single ad unless I clicked through a headline to read the story on the source website. A lack of ads seems such a waste since I am consciously handing the apps my interests along with my attention. The increasing customization available through these apps will benefit consumers as well as advertisers, if only they’re willing to put in the effort.

The number one search engine is celebrating its 13th birthday this month. According to the company the exact date has changed over time based on when employees feel like having cake, so we haven’t missed it just yet!

Google has clearly come a long way in the last 13 years though it feels like it has been with us forever. As the history and advancements of Google could provide for a novel, it would be easier to check out the company timeline.

This debuted earlier in the week but still worth viewing. The PayPal show what future-shopping might look like their their new payment platforms.

The options include everything from “bump” payments and transfers where consumers need only bump their phones to transfer funds to the always popular QR code check-out.

It’s hard, if not altogether impossible, to make a move online that isn’t being tracked by someone. Companies that want to know what you’re doing with your time in cyberspace can fairly easily find out through cookies, tags or site registrations, and they can then use this data to direct you where they want you to go. Why shouldn’t you make the data work for you too?

That’s the philosophy of the new startup, Voyurl. By registering and installing a browser plug-in, all you have to do is surf the web as usual and the data collection begins. What sets this service apart is that instead of selling your data to someone else, Voyurl simply gives it back to you with colorful charts and fun facts about what you do online. It then recommends websites that it thinks you will like based on other users who behave like you, all without sharing this data with anyone else.

Voyurl’s main goal is all about empowerment, giving you the opportunity to receive benefits by voluntarily sharing your data. How this will specifically happen is unclear, and the site is still in private Beta-testing mode.

In the meantime, I have activated an account and am excited to see what recommendations my browsing yields. Whether or not I’ll end up handing over my data to interested parties will depend on what the proclaimed “benefits” of doing so will be. It’s one thing to know they’re collecting data on me, but it’s another to actively make the decision to help them. If the benefits are good enough and specific enough to my interests, a future of online opt-in only tracking might start to seem more feasible.

Keep watching for Voyurl Part 2 – Fun Facts and Colorful Charts

Media Post reported in their Daily News newsletter on Thursday 9/22/11 that Nielsen had a major ratings glitch.

While the newsletter implied that the reported C3 ratings starting in January 2011 were incorrect and would impact millions of dollars invested in national television advertising,  the news of this major glitch appear to be wildly exaggerated.

As we first reported, the glitch in ratings was discovered in one application, NPower.  The latest information from Nielsen is that the problem is confined to the reach and frequency part of this application and does not impact the C3 ratings used for negotiation, purchase and posting of national television buys.

This situation exposes three very important challenges for our industry.

• First, before newsletters are distributed, a careful examination of all the available facts with corroboration (or what the news business refers to as 2 independent sources) should be part of the process.
• Second, the huge databases that Nielsen produces on a daily basis must be carefully scrutinized and maintained as they have become part of our daily review of rating performance.  This is an important process required by audits of most major rating services and carried out by the government manditated MRC (Media Ratings Council).
• Any new service which attempts to enter the very complicated measurement arena of US national television ratings must be prepared to operate under the same audit process if it is to become an auxiliary metric used for the evaluation of television viewing behavior.

In sum, measuring a medium which spans multiple time zones, four broadcast networks, over 100 cable networks, numerous syndicated programs, 210 individual markets and a multitude of television stations in each DMA is not easy.  The amount of data that needs to go through the daily rating calculation processes is enormous.

We must be sure that as changes are made and new services enter this marketplace they offer improvements which lead to better measurement, and not just changes or enhancements which cannot be validated over time.

As part of their integrated campaign in support of the company’s 2012 Versa Seda model, Nissan is leveraging a previously widely unexploited Apple iAd feature to help deliver the campaigns’ young, tech savvy target consumer.

The Versa iAd utilizes gyro technology–offered on the iPad and iPhone–to allow the user to take in a 360-degree view of the car as they pan their device to the left or right while viewing the ad.  True to its name, the iAd also offers elements of jazzy interaction to the experience: when a viewer shakes their phone, for example, the people in the ad will put on different hats. 

A classy convergence of technology and targeting!

If you happen to be riding the 2/3 train over the next few weekends you may find yourself riding in a very different kind of subway car.

Though the MTA has sold ad space at subway stations and within train cars for quite a while (I often wonder how Dr. Zizmor has been able to afford it all these years) they have taken a visually stunning next step.

I have heard that HBO is paying the MTA in excess of $150,000 per weekend (4x in Sept) to run a Prohibition-era train along the aforementioned lines to promote the 2nd season of Boardwalk Empire- set in 1920s Atlantic City.

HBO has also hired street teams which will be walking around random locations in Manhattan handing out free Boardwalk Empire branded Metrocards (single rides only). This is a really great “guerilla” effort, promoting an even better show (check it out if you haven’t already). I only find it slightly disturbing that the cost of a monthly metrocard is now $104 and yet this 1920’s era train looks much more comfortable than what I ride on now:

Talk about a back fire. Only one month into the company split of Netflix (into Netflix – Streaming and Qwikster – DVD’s), the once skyrocketing video entertainment powerhouse has lost over 1 million subscribers. Also, they have employed a more than backwards business strategy. Netflix CEO is effectively eliminating his core business prospects from the funnel, making it more difficult to convert new users. If Netflix remained as just Netflix, cross selling opportunities or possibily upselling opportunities would have remained from DVD to Streaming. Now, a user of Netflix DVD is automatically enrolled in Qwikster DVD, not only losing brand loyalists, but also making it more complex to be signed up for both services. Two companies. Two contracts. Too many issues. Without the brand Netflix for the DVD business, there is an increased concerned that users will become brand agnostic and switch to a different provider.

Check out the articles here

Yesterday Google released their Wallet app, a handy tool they originally announced back in May.  The app makes your phone a quick and easy means to pay for virtually anything payable by credit card and provides an answer to the George Costanza wallet.  Google Wallet is made possible through a partnership with Citi, MasterCard, Sprint and First Data.  Currently, it is only available to Citi Mastercard holders as well as holders of the Google Prepaid Card (fundable through any “existing plastic credit card”).

Google’s goal is to make it possible to add all payment cards to Google Wallet, and as a thank you to early adopters, it is offering a $10 free bonus to the Google Prepaid Card when users set it up in Google Wallet before the end of 2011.

Read more…

Intrigued as we are about the communication habits of America’s consumer, we looked at Millennials and other generations’ interest in advertising and media usage and found some interesting – and surprising – nuggets of information.

Overall, Late Boomers (47-55) don’t have strong feelings for or against advertising or a specific medium, but other generations’ interest in advertising generally corresponds to the medium they use most. Specifically, Millennials (18-34) are the only age group to show significant interest in alternative advertising places.

Below are more detailed findings.

Interest in advertising:
Not surprising…
-Pre-Boomers (65+) view newspaper and magazine advertising as useful and informative
-Millennials view Internet advertising as more useful and amusing than advertising in other media
Surprising…
-Early Boomers (56-64) and Pre-Boomers dislike TV advertising

Media quintiles:
Not surprising…
-Early Boomers and Pre-Boomers are heaviest newspaper readers and TV (Total and Primetime) viewers
-Late Boomers’ highest indices were for radio and outdoor, but were only borderline significant
Surprising…
-Millennials and Gen X (35-46) are the heaviest Internet users

While older consumers say that they dislike TV advertising and distrust and dislike the advertisements, TV is still their most utilized medium. At the other end of the age spectrum, Millennials trust and are amused by the advertising found on their most used medium, the internet. As the web continues to permeate into more aspects of everyday life, advertisers should be careful not to over-saturate and potentially jade this currently captive audience.