US travelers of all types are buying tablets, but airline passengers are adopting these devices at a particularly fast pace. A recent study, “The Growing Use of Tablets and other Portable Electronic Devices on Intercity Buses, Trains, and Planes,” conducted by the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at Chicago’s DePaul University, developed data from observations of 7,770 passengers on 92 air, bus and train departures in December 2011.

The data shows that travelers are increasingly abandoning simple, audio-oriented activities in favor of devices with LCD screens that allow for surfing the web, watching movies, listening to music and reading books. Over the past two years, audio usage fell from 9.1% of passengers on commercial flights to 5.2%.

Tablets, in particular, account for a growing share of the multi-use devices travelers are adopting. The survey noted that 8.4% of airline passengers were observed using a tablet at some point during their flight, compared to 5.9% of Amtrak passengers and 3.7% of travelers on curbside bus companies like BoltBus and MegaBus.

While 8.4% may not seem like an overwhelming figure—it’s approximately one person every two rows in a three-and-three seat arrangement—tablets share of electronic devices used in travel overall tells a deeper story. Tablets accounted for just under 30% of all mobile devices used on planes, including smartphones, portable DVD players, iPods and the like.

According to the April 2012 release of TripAdvisor’s annual air travel poll, which surveyed more than 1,000 US travelers, the use of tablets and iPads in-flight is up 15%, with more than one in four travelers now calling theirs a carry-on essential.

Much of the reason for that increased usage is increased sales: Tablet sales worldwide are expected to nearly double in 2012, then increase by 50% between 2012 and 2013, and double again between 2013 and 2016, according to Gartner’s “Forecast: Media Tablets by Operating System Worldwide, 2010-2016, 1Q12 Update,” released in April 2012.

For many travelers, tablets have several advantages over laptops, notebooks and bulkier devices, specifically on airplanes: Their small size makes them easy to use in crowded coach cabins; their quick activation speeds are convenient for short trips and where electronic and Wi-Fi disruptions are common; and their suitability for reading, watching videos and game playing makes them ideal for passengers seeking to pass the time with minimal hassle.

via : emarketer.com

In March, the number of blogs Tumblr hosted passed the 50-million mark. Last month,Google released search results forecasting that the search term “Tumblr” would overtake “blog” by the end of the year, meaning the platform could become the brand name stand-in for the generic web term. Needless to say, Tumblr is experiencing a healthy growth spurt—and now brands may be able to capitalize on it.

Tumblr founder and CEO Dave Karp, who was once adamant about not leaning on advertising for monetization, announced at the Ad Age Digital conference on April 18, 2012, that the platform would introduce new ad units for sale on the site’s “Radar” post, which is where Tumblr highlights popular and selected content. The ads appeared on user dashboards beginning May 2. At the conference, Karp told the audience that the paid units may be new to the platform, but some brands have already been creatively partnering with Tumblr to promote events and products. Moreover, Karp underscored the creative opportunities that Tumblr provides brands.

Tumblr is heavy on consumer engagement. According to a February report from comScore, web users worldwide who visited Tumblr spent, on average, 89 minutes on the site during January 2012. This, of course, pales in comparison to Facebook’s whopping 405 minutes, yet when compared with Twitter’s 21 minutes, it’s evident that Tumblr users are actively engaged with the platform’s content.

comScore data from January 2012 showed that US unique visitors to Tumblr grew significantly from November 2010 to 2011. Over the course of a year, Tumblr garnered an additional 9 million unique visitors, reaching nearly 16 million unique visitors by November 2011.

Although some marketers may be clamoring to tap into Tumblr, others may have reservations about Tumblr as an advertising platform. A January 2012 survey by social marketing software company Awarenessillustrated that in terms of social media priorities for marketers, Tumblr was fairly low on the list. Marketers prioritized platforms such as YouTube, foursquare, SlideShare and Flickr above Tumblr—and to a significant degree. Only 30% of marketers said they had plans to increase usage of Tumblr.

Although Awareness surveyed marketers before Tumblr announced its new advertising opportunities, the results still demonstrate that marketers may be less familiar with Tumblr than other social media platforms. Brands that already use Tumblr for content-sharing might be more eager to advertise on the site than those that have yet to experiment there. It’s still early to tell what kind of effect Tumblr’s paid advertising strategy will have, but it opens the door for more creative solutions on a social media platform that is growing quickly in popularity.

via : emarketer.com

Armed with fast, high-powered smartphones, a new class of consumers, 100 million strong and growing, is rerouting the path to purchase and redefining cultural norms in the US.

Members of the “smartphone class” stand apart from other Americans in the way they shop, communicate, consume media—even how they use their spare time. Its members define themselves by their connectedness and their sense of empowerment through unfettered access to real-time information.

“What others do with a PC, they do with their smartphones,” said Catherine Boyle, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “The Smartphone Class: Connected Consumers Transform US Commerce and Culture.” “Their phone is their workplace, entertainment center and their marketplace. They watch videos in coffee shops, social network at concerts, play games in waiting rooms, scan barcodes in stores and shop with their smartphone from anywhere at any time. Their behaviors are rerouting the traditional path to purchase and they are proving to the rest of America that spare moments can be productive ones, too.”

eMarketer estimates nearly 116 million Americans will use a smartphone at least monthly by the end of this year, up from 93.1 million in 2011. By 2013, they will represent over half of all mobile phone users, and by 2016, nearly three in five consumers will have a smartphone.

The smartphone class is not defined by age, gender, income or race. Instead it is defined by its members’ shared behaviors. Understanding the common behavioral traits that unite the class makes members easy to recognize and underscores the influence this class of consumers is having on how Americans communicate, consume media and shop.

One of those behaviors is to always be “snacking.” The smartphone class doesn’t tolerate dull moments; members turn to their phones for instant gratification. Depending on their mood in the moment, gratification might mean completing a quick task or finding a fun distraction. For marketers, this rising content consumption means an increasing number of touchpoints where they can reach consumers. eMarketer forecasts double-digit growth in mobile gaming as well as music and video consumption among the smartphone class through 2015.

“Snacking on mobile in small amounts throughout the day can be as lucrative to brands as it is gratifying to members of the smartphone class,” said Boyle. “The five minutes grazing on news in the morning, the 15 minutes playing a game at lunch and the two minutes watching a video at the grocery store are all opportunities for marketers to get a message across or close a sale.”

via : emarketer.com

Search advertising continued its strong worldwide growth in Q1 2012, according to research from digital marketing solution provider IgnitionOne. The company found that global search ad spending grew 30% year over year, double the growth rate of Q1 2011. The figure was also the highest year-over-year growth rate for search ad spending in any quarter since Q4 2010.

Unsurprisingly, dramatic mobile search ad spending growth continued in the US, with year-over-year growth in Q1 up an astonishing 221%. The ongoing popularity of tablets has clearly captured the attention of advertisers, who spent 67% of the total mobile search ad budget on the devices in Q1.

Ad clickthrough rates, however, were slightly higher on mobile phones with full browsers than on either tablets or PCs.

Travel had a breakout quarter for search advertising, with marketers increasing their global search ad budgets in the sector by 59% year over year in Q1. According to IgnitionOne, the travel search advertising growth rate outpaced that of the retail sector, with travel also seeing increases in both impressions and clickthrough rates.

News was good for the Yahoo!/Bing search partnership, which snagged a 21% market share in Q1, the highest since the two companies brokered their search deal in Q3 2009. The survey found that US search advertising on the engine climbed 46% year over year in Q1. Yahoo!/Bing also shrugged off the normal drop off in search spending that follows the holiday season, instead experiencing a 14% increase in quarter-over-quarter spending. IgnitionOne credited Yahoo!/Bing’s banner quarter to changes in its search engine that resulted in increased competition during ad auctions.

eMarketer estimates search ad spending in the US will reach $19.51 billion this year, up 27% over 2011. Search will garner 49% of all online ad spending in the country and 49% of mobile dollars as well.

via : emarketer.com