Scarborough's newest infographic is particularly useful for digitally-minded yet location-specific media companies and marketers. Specifically, it tells the local story of how online media consumption has evolved over the past few years by identifying the top markets in key areas of online media to paint a picture of national trends.

One interesting nugget of info: Atlanta, Austin, San Francisco and Washington, DC are almost always in the top 10 for every online media activity in every year measured.

The infographic can help media and marketers narrow their focus, using layers of data to reach digital audiences and consumers more efficiently. Download the full infographic here.

Did any of the data surprise you?

The buzz word “SoLoMo” is a combination of the words “social,” “local” and “mobile.” Solomo represents a concept which is a tidal wave in our evolving society: the convergence of social, local and mobile technology. Our lives are changing dramatically as technology becomes more mobile, empowers deeper social connections and becomes localized.

What is SoLoMo?

• —Is it using social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter?
• Or is it local like Foursquare, checking in on Facebook, advertising on my phone?
• What about the “mo” – is that mobile like seeing ads in my ipad or my browser if I search on my phone?

In short, the answer is yes to all of the questions above, and how they all work together and why it matters to consumers or to marketers. SoLoMo is a heady combination that when used well can dramatically improve lives and help companies increase their ROI on ad spends, and connect with consumers in a meaningful way.

SoLoMo is must for digital marketers because it allows them to target and communicate with your prospects in new and unique ways because technology has evolved in such a way that it allows us to intereact with consumers throughout the sales cycle.

How are you seeing marketers and agencies use SoLoMo effectively?

 

• Click here to listen and subscribe for free in iTunes (Featured by Apple as a "New and Noteworthy" podcast!)
• Click here to download the mp3 of this episode
• Click below to listen in your browser

About Tim Bingaman

About The Media Mic

The Media Mic is an interview series from Kantar Media SRDS with leaders in the media business about the roads they’ve taken, and the stories and people that make up our vibrant industry. Bandwidth and hosting for The Media Mic is provided by Wizzard Media and Libsyn.

February was a busy time for the Kantar Media SRDS data team. This time of year the team is really focused on 2013 rates for newspapers, consumer magazines and business publications.

With 16,850 updates to the SRDS databases, they more than doubled their January number. But look at all the updates for the other databases!

• 3,896 radio updates
• 3,551 digital updates
• 3,290  newspaper updates
• 2,910 business publications updates
• 1,909 consumer magazine updates
• 778 TV & cable updates
• 616 out-of-home updates

If you have any questions about the data you find in SRDS online, just let us know!

For years, many businesses focused their marketing and advertising efforts at a national level. But with the rise of social media, search and mobile, the game has changed. It’s clear that the key to cost-effectively reaching your best prospects is to laser-target campaigns and go local. In fact, an updated BIA/Kelsey forecast expects advertising revenue for all local media to reach $147.1 billion by 2016, at a 2.1% annual growth rate.

On the surface it may seem difficult to adapt a national marketing plan for a local market, but the creative itself doesn't necessarily need to change too much. It's all about determining how to best make it resonate for that audience and more importantly, where to place it so it reaches your target audience. Many marketers use SRDS.com to get the data they need to make informed decisions about local advertising opportunities. Here's why:

1. Any Media Type: Access detailed information on every available media property that accepts advertising, including websites, newspapers, radio stations, TV & cable stations, magazines and out-of-home opportunities.
2. Every Market: Conduct a DMA drilldown with comprehensive local media data for all 210 DMAs across the U.S.
3. Background Check: Research new markets with consumer demographic data.
4. Due Diligence: Even if you work with an outside agency, guarantee that they are selecting the right ad opportunities for your brand in markets you may be unfamiliar with.
5. Actionable Data: Listings include all the data points you need to compile a plan, including rates, contact info, audience metrics and much more.
6. Smart Spending: Small businesses, retailers and restaurants all use SRDS.com to find innovative and affordable ad placements that go beyond the budget-breaking TV buy.
7. Ask Around: Don’t miss out on this unique service. Marketers from Kohls, Dr Pepper, Crate & Barrel, Shoe Carnival and possibly your direct competitors already rely on SRDS.

See SRDS in action and let us know how we can help with your local marketing needs.

Mark and David discuss his pioneering work using database-driven marketing for ad sales and his experience launching the first b-to-b site for professional travel. Along the way they talk about the importance of giving web users what they want, the vital importance of using and understanding third-party web audience metrics and the return of relationship selling.

• Click here to listen and subscribe for free in iTunes (Featured by Apple as a "New and Noteworthy" podcast!)
• Click here to download the mp3 of this episode
• Click below to listen in your browser:.

About Mark Browning

Mark Browning, has 30+ years travel marketing experience, traveling extensively in 45 states, Europe, the Caribbean and attending over 200 travel industry shows. From 1977-1992 Mark's firm represented the South for 13 successful publication launches by major New York and New England based publishers.

In 1993 he launched TRIPsouth, the start of TRIPmedia Group, Inc. He has addressed dozens of groups on travel marketing, and has worked through the U.S. Travel & Tourism Administration to promote inbound tourism to the U.S.A. Mark holds a degree in marketing from Vanderbilt University, was inducted into Who's Who in Advertising in 1990, and was honored with the STS Spirit of Southeast Tourism award in 2000.

He serves on the Board of Directors of the 900-member Southeast Tourism Society, with the House Corporation of his college fraternity, is president of his neighborhood community association, and has co-hosted an annual reunion of Vanderbilt alumni since 2005. Mark lives with his wife of 27+ years in their native North Atlanta. Not surprisingly Mark & Sheala greatly enjoy traveling, especially with their two grown children.

About The Media Mic

The Media Mic is an interview series from Kantar Media SRDS with leaders in the media business about the roads they’ve taken, and the stories and people that make up our vibrant industry. Bandwidth and hosting for The Media Mic is provided by Wizzard Media and Libsyn.

I live in a household that still "takes" a printed newspaper - actually two: the Chicago Tribune and our local community weekly, The Landmark.

The local paper keeps us up to date with weekend events, house prices, town and school government gossip. We always read (and recycle) it within 24 hours. But in eight years, I've only gone to the Landmark's website a few times.

We have a different relationship with the Chicago Tribune.

Here's a typical day: Before 7 a.m., someone in our family walks the 50 feet out to the end of the driveway to get the Trib, without a coat most days. (I wear a coat.) My husband looks for work-related stories, checking to see if his own quotes made it into print, and he opens to the comics. Both kids read (and discuss) the comics, pointing out funny Dilberts to me. The older one checks the front page looking for a story that will get him extra credit in Western Civ. I flip through the front section quickly.

Both of us rely on the Trib website (and alerts) for breaking news. One of us is on the site constantly, and the other checks it at least once per day, sometimes through the iPad. You could say we're fairly immersed in the brand.

Over the last six months, the Trib is clearly trying to find a sustainable digital strategy. I'm not sure how well it's working.

Last winter, the Trib announced its Printer's Row Journal, sent me a few print issues, invited me into its fledgling online community, then asked me to pay for it. We're a bookish family, we were interested, until we saw the pricetag - $99 a year for current print subscribers, just to get the print and digital edition delivered weekly. No way. The Trib doesn't have enough credibility around book reviews to ask us to pay that price. 

Half a year later, they added free tickets to the Printer's Row events and a discount on purchases, and offered the booklet/digital edition for just $49 a year - to current print subscribers. Digital only is $29 a year. Not for us. Although I do know a family where the 80+ year-old parents take the print and the 40ish kids take the digital.

Then in June, the Trib launched a new website and reports 80,000 registered users in 4 months.

But as of November 1, like many other papers, the Trib put a paywall up on its website. Seven-day print subscribers get unlimited access - if you know your password. They'll let you read 5 premium stories a month for free.

A few weeks ago, we started receiving the digital edition of the Trib. We didn't ask for it, we don't pay for it. We took a look. It is literally just the digital edition of the daily printed paper. We'd rather go online and browse the website, which is part of why we never opened the digital edition again. The main reason we'll never open it? It comes at 6:15 p.m. That's more than 12 hours after I've seen the print edition and I've already been to the site a few times that day.

I understand the rationale behind extending a product line and searching for new revenue opportunities, especially as audiences move online. As a consumer with a relationship and fairly heavy print and digital engagement with this brand, I'm confused. I'm worried that instead of offering several ways to reach audiences in more formats, the Trib is going to push me where I don't want to go. I can get my news elsewhere, online or mobile.

Are you bundling all your print, online, digital, tablet space in newspaper brands into one buy?

Are you (and your clients) placing any value on the digital editions, or are they just thrown in?

Are you using the space in different formats for different objectives? 

For years, mega-sized advertising agencies beat out their smaller counterparts 9 times out of 10 because they could access large-scale media buys for a better price. But Matt Murphy, Founder and Executive Director of fusion92, believes that this trend may be slowing, as hyper-local advertising allows “mid-sized and smaller firms with broad regional knowledge and full-service advertising capabilities that include digital expertise” to gain a clear advantage.

Hyper-local advertising targets individuals at the neighborhood or ZIP code level and delivers timely, relevant ads that often have a local component in the creative or messaging. Consumers are inundated daily with ads on every media channel, with most being ignored because they don’t have any relevance to the user. But hyper-local advertisers can create smarter, more targeted approaches that vary by location.

Agencies already use SRDS.com to reach targeted markets by DMA. They have access to media planning data for local websites, print magazines, newspapers, radio, TV and out of home.

But just because these agencies are tailoring their campaigns for local markets doesn’t mean they are ditching large national campaigns. On the contrary, it’s more about using data and technology to customize a large campaign so that it is better matches the targeted audience.

It makes sense that a message incorporating something about your neighborhood (a free appetizer at the Chili’s down your street, for example) has a greater chance of resonating. And not just for you, for everyone in your ZIP code. For users in Chicago, Chicago Bulls imagery or a sound clip from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra might make strike a personal (and memorable) note.

Another reason agencies should consider hyper-local advertising is that it’s cost-effective. Digital technology such as Foursquare encourages users to share location information, making it easy for advertisers to reach their target markets, both through traditional methods and digital channels. According to Murphy:

“Advertisers can segment target audiences to ZIP-code levels, build customizable creative for local components of national campaigns and use digital and traditional advertising channels to distribute hyper-local ads and generate market share gains across multiple regions.”

The ad industry is only going to get more competitive, but if smaller agencies can take the bull by the horns and become more agile, then they have a big opportunity. Plus, the technology and data is already there, so why not use it? 

The local newspaper is still a key information source for Americans, according to the Pew Research Center. Adults cited newspapers as the most relied-upon source for information about crime, taxes, local government activities, schools, local politics, local jobs, community events and more.

Since 2007, the Local Media Association, a professional trade association serving the suburban and community newspaper industry, has supported local papers by hosting an annual contest to honor the top papers in the U.S.

This year, the award for “Newspaper of the Year” (in the category of dailies with a circulation of less than 30,000) went to the Joplin Globe. The Joplin Globe paper is published in Joplin, Missouri and covers the southwestern part of the state. It’s owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. and employs around 45 journalists.

The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at Missouri University’s School of Journalism conducts judging for the award. Judges’ comments this year include:

“The Joplin Globe serves its readers well with a comprehensive news report coupled with in-depth articles and features. ‘Faces of the Storm,’ a compilation of biographies and photos of all the victims of the May tornadoes, is an especially noteworthy effort. Thoughtful design continues throughout the sections, and the advertising is modern and inviting. Headlines are appropriate in size and design and accurately written. This is a newspaper that is paying attention to its readers and its community.”

The contest awards newspaper of the year honors in six different circulation classes (two for dailies and four for weeklies). See the other winning papers, in their respective categories below. Click here to view full list of judge’s comments.

Non-Dailies

Circulation: Up to 10,000
The Taos News –Taos, NM

Circulation: 10,001-22,500
The Longboat Observer – Longboat Key, FL

Circulation: 22,501-37,500
The Sarasota Observer – Sarasota, FL

Circulation: Over 37,500
Prince George’s County Gazette (Landover, Lanham, Largo, New Carrollton) – Gaithersburg, MD

Dailies

Circulation: Under 30,000
Joplin Globe – Joplin, MO

Circulation: Over 30,000
Sioux City Journal – Sioux City, IA

When using SRDS, when should I use the database search and when should I use open? That’s a question I get all the time when I’m conducting training sessions, so I wanted to share my two cents in the hope that it’ll make your searching easier and more efficient.

Sometimes it’s a matter of preference and other times it’s a matter of task. Are you researching a category or market or are you grabbing a specific piece of information? Let me give you an example of two different users who asked similar questions about these search options.

In both instances, the user was having trouble finding what they wanted; in one case, a specific set of healthcare pubs and in another, consumer fashion magazines. In both situations, the user became frustrated using the Open Search.

If you think you know exactly what you want to find (say, a specific print media listing), then the results of a general open search can sometimes seem like overkill. This particular client phrased it more colorfully, but his confusion stemmed from the fact that he didn't narrow the open search by using the “Options” drop-down. By default, the Open Search is a keyword search that returns ALL the listings that contain your keyword, from within ALL media types that you subscribe to. If you leave “All Media” selected you will get just that.

When using Open Search, be sure to change the default to the specific media you are interested in and select “Title Only” if you are searching for a specific media listing. Be sure to enter the entire exact title when searching Title Only, not just the first word in the title.

Is there anything else that both users could have done to solve their problem? If you answered “go to the database and search by Classification,” you would be correct! In some cases, it might be easier to do a Class search to see all Healthcare titles or Fashion, Beauty and Grooming titles.

Then if they wanted to see if they were missing anything that wouldn't be in the class, they could have done an Open Search.

Open Search is ideal for getting a high-level perspective on a category or market, but if you want a narrower set of results, use the more specific search tools at your disposal and select a media type or title-only option first.

So, without further ado, here are the 3 must-have guidelines for searching in SRDS.com:

1. Looking for a specific listing? Do a title search.
2. Exploring new opportunities? Do a keyword search.
3. Investigating options in a specific category? Do a database class search. 

Gain an understanding of the marketing trends driving one of the highest spending sectors in the media landscape. Over the past dozen years, financial services companies have pursued new innovations and aggressive marketing campaigns to combat a recession and historical financial crisis. Confronted with increased competition, federal regulation, and turbulent market conditions, these marketers have adapted their strategies and messaging to echo the realities faced by millions of Americans today.

Topics covered will include:

• Ad spend breakdown by advertiser, category, and media (Syndicated, Network, Cable & Spot TV; Newspapers; Magazines: Radio: Outdoor) 
• Overview of financial services marketing by category, including insurance, consumer banking, credit card, and investment & retirement products
• Best practices for television advertising, digital marketing, and creative messaging

Presenters: 

• Richard Fielding - Chief Client Officer, Kantar Media North America
• Julie Liesse - Reporter, Advertising Age

Financial Services: Navigating Rough Seas

Thursday, October 25, 2012 • 12:00 - 1:00PM ET

Register today!

One thing that came up repeatedly at this year's DMA Conference in Las Vegas was: How do you optimize your direct marketing content across media channels?

The three themes of the conference – big data, customer engagement, and marketing accountability – all point to integrating channels as direct marketing's new frontier. Specifically, it's about how to make social media dance to your overall branding identity.

So far, nobody is dominating in the multi-channel direct marketing game, so the field is wide open for innovation. Blue Cross Blue Shield is one company that has been able to turned its weakness into a winner by combining phone sales with mobile search. Instead of creating a killer app or mobile website, BCBS built in click-to-call functionality, so that mobile users could contact their customer service center directly from the SERP.

Another leader exploiting the strengths of different channels for an integrated campaign is Coach. They whipped up a buzz on Facebook for a new look-book, so the print campaign came with a built-in audience ready to buy.

There's an old saw that goes “Marketing makes plans while sales makes money.” That's what marketing accountability is going to change through big data's insights on consumer behavior. The DMA expects sales from direct marketing to grow at about 5 percent this year, and most of that will be the result of cross-channel marketing.

One way to foster tighter integration of your campaigns is to start with the customer and work backwards, according to Shar Van-Boskirk, an analyst at Forrester Research. She suggests that patterns in your customer data will point the way to your next logical step.

“Organizationally align people who are responding to different channels into the same database. Integrate a loyalty program with an outbound email program and online booking engine, for example. Instead of thinking of them as three separate groups with three separate goals going after the same customers, try to nurture the customer in a holistic way.”

As you develop your integrated campaign, don't forget that we are here to help no matter what medium your message demands. Whether you need sources, selects, costs and other valuable information to help you find and evaluate lists and refine your list strategy (using the SRDS direct marketing database) or are looking for ways to integrate your message across digital or local media, SRDS can help. 

What about you—what have you heard or learned about at this year's DMA?

Dan Kennedy wrote an interesting piece on the rapidly changing "alternative weekly" landscape for MediaShift, titled "Alt-Weeklies Struggle to Reinvent Themselves for the Digital Age."

Kennedy covers the decline and occassional rebirth of alt presses, noting:

"As it turned out, the alternative press was just a few years behind the dailies -- and when the Internet apocalypse hit, it hit hard."

He also points to The Phoenix (an appropriately named rebirth of The Boston Phoenix) as a prototypical example.

It seems to me that if alternative weeklies are going to survive and thrive, they need to play to their traditional strengths -- progressive politics, long-form narrative journalism, and deeply intelligent coverage of the arts -- while seeking out new ways of making money. Reinvention as a glossy magazine, the route The Phoenix has taken, is one way, even if the new publication can no longer be considered an alt-weekly in the strictest sense. Separating the journalism from the adult ads, as the Village Voice and its sister newspapers (and The Phoenix) have done, is another.

Half a century ago, the alternative press represented something fresh and exciting. The excitement is long since gone, but the need for a diverse range of high-quality local media is as great as ever. Alt-weeklies -- or whatever we should call them -- can still be a vital part of that. I hope they are.

Read the full article at PBS MediaShift, and keep abreast of changes to alt-weeklies across the nation with the continuously updated Newspaper Media Advertising Source from SRDS.

New research from the Media Behavior Institute bolsters what many of us have long suspected: that we—the media and advertising pros who claim to best understand consumer behavior—are rather different than the consumers we often represent. As reported in MediaPost:

While the data is based on a small sample, the findings are striking, because the media pros reporting were so dramatically different than average consumers, especially when it came to their use of Internet-connected computers and mobile devices.

Amazingly, the media pros spent 53% of their waking day interacting with email, vs. 20% for the general population, and they spent 28% accessing the Internet vs. 15% for average consumers.

Their use of mobile apps and social networks were similarly distorted, which may go a long way toward explaining Madison Avenue’s obsession with those media platforms.

Ninety-two percent of the media pros utilized mobile apps, and they used them for 11% of their waking day, on average. Only 25% of consumers utilize mobile apps, and use them for 6% of their waking time on average.

Exactly half of the media pros used a social network and accessed it for 19% of their waking time vs. 19% of consumers who used it for 7% of their waking time.

Also notable was the finding that, "When it comes to 'traditional media,' consumers utilize all forms—especially radio—more than industry pros with the exception of print."

The research was presented by the Media Behavior Institute during MPG’s Collaborative Alliance session during Advertising Week.

(Note: Kevin Moeller, Executive Director of Research & Analytics for the Media Behavior Institute is a speaker at the fall 2012 Chicago and New York Media Mixology events.)

Newspaper media advertising continues to be at the heart of local market media plans, but the landscape changes quickly and can be hard to keep up with. Whether you are basing your analyses on Metros, Micros or DMAs, Circulation 2013 from SRDS (available this month) provides an in-depth view of which newspapers papers circulate in each area, with updated circulation and market data.

• Click here to listen and subscribe for free in iTunes (Featured by Apple as a "New and Noteworthy" podcast!)
• Click here to download the mp3 of this episode
• Click below to listen in your browser:

About Gabrielle Austin

Until July 2012, Gabrielle was the Vice President of New Business Development at Valassis. Gabrielle joined Valassis in March 2010 and was responsible for leading the Valassis sales team focused on the acquisition of new customers in both well established market segments as well as new customer verticals. 

Prior to joining Valassis, Gabrielle was President of Ethnic Print Media Group, a boutique Multicultural agency, where she was charged with new business growth, relationship management, and corporate development.

Gabrielle’s professional experience includes ten years with NSAMedia, a general market newspaper planning and buying agency. As the President of Strategic Print Marketing, a division of NSAMedia in Atlanta, she spearhead media research, analysis, and strategy development for large entrenched major US retail brands. Gabrielle managed in excess of $630 million of her clients mass print advertising expenditure. She was instrumental in obtaining and retaining the following full stewardship accounts for NSA; The Home Depot,  Toys R Us, Golfsmith, Eye Care Centers of America and Bed Bath & Beyond / CTS.

Gabrielle's mass print media experience includes several newspaper advertising sales management positions with Knight Ridder and Gannett newspapers. She is also well versed in magazine publishing from her experience as the Midwest Director for Essence Magazine.

Gabrielle lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband Wayne and the youngest of her three sons, Tyler.

About The Media Mic

The Media Mic is an interview series from Kantar Media SRDS with leaders in the media business about the roads they’ve taken, and the stories and people that make up our vibrant industry. Bandwidth and hosting for The Media Mic is provided by Wizzard Media and Libsyn.

SRDS is a terrific tool for discovering new media options, but sometimes we know exactly what we're looking for. If you're looking for a specific media listing in SRDS, use the "Open Search by title" feature.

Enter the name of the media property, click the "Options" drop-down, select "Title Only," and click "Go."

For extra specificity, select a media type since some media properties have profiles across multiple media. For example, Glamour Magazine has a consumer magazine, website and direct marketing lists in SRDS.

In August, our awesome SRDS media data experts updated over 2,146 local, b-to-b and consumer media property listings in the SRDS media search engine.

We know how important it is for you to have current data for media comparison, advertising rates, and media contact information. If you have any questions about the data you find in SRDS online, just let us know!

The latest Spot Radio and TV Cost-Per-Point estimates are now available in SRDS.

As broadcast buyers well know, one of the key ways to measure cost-efficiencies is by CPP or cost-per-point (e.g., per Gross Rating Point). Cost per point is the cost, per 1 percent of a specified audience, of buying ad space in a given media vehicle. Buyers rely on SQAD to tell them what a CPP should be in an upcoming quarter, by market, by daypart.

As a reminder radio and tv/cable subscribers can find the SQAD information in SRDS as follows:

SQAD Spot Radio CPP Estimates by MSA

Go to the Radio Media database and you will see a link to the MSA PDFs on the Radio welcome page:

TV Cost-Per-Point Levels by DMA

Go to the TV & Cable Media database and you will see a link to the DMA profile PDFs on the TV & Cable welcome page:

Need help calculating CPPs now? Use our simple calculator.

Spoiler alert: SRDS will soon be releasing an iOS app for easily determining CPP and other calculations on the fly!