Quick blurb from today’s Inside Radio further promotes the advantage radio stations have in the digital realm as no other traditional media has the number of online assets and opportunities. Enjoy…
Milestone: Local online tops traditional.
For the first time, digital media use exceeds that of radio, newspaper, television and other traditional media among small and medium-sized businesses. BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor study shows 77% of local businesses are doing some form of digital marketing. At the same time, traditional media usage slips to 69%.
Kelsey Group director of research Steve Marshall has been tracing the trend of digital replacing traditional media and the latest data is an “indicator of the broad shift to online platforms.” The firm says nearly four of every ten advertising and promotional dollars goes to digital, doubling last year’s level. Ability to track lead sources by counting clicks or emails is the biggest motivator.
The shift comes as local advertisers hold their marketing dollars tighter in hand. According to the study, they decreased spending on advertising and promotion over the last year by 24% from $2.7 billion to $2.1 billion.
BIA chief economist Mark Fratrik says, “There is some promise for radio and television stations.” He says many companies are already selling their station site as well as new city-based online destinations using their existing brand names and ability to cross-promote.
As Entercom Sacramento continues to expand its stations’ mobile platforms (4 now have robust text messaging systems), it seemed fitting to share an article from Brandweek that shows how the growth of mobile has not peaked yet.
Usage of Mobile Devices Still Growing Briskly
Aug 6, 2009 -By Mark Doliver
With so many Americans already in the ranks of Internet users, there’s now little change from year to year in the percentage of the population that’s wired. Even broadband access has grown so much in recent years that the rate of increase inevitably has moderated of late.
So, if you’re on the lookout for significant change in people’s engagement with new technology, where should you look? The results of a Forrester Research survey released late last month suggest it’s in usage of cell phones, smartphones and other wireless devices.
One question in the survey asked adults who have a mobile device to say whether they use it at least once a week to do various things. Fifty-one percent said they use it that often to send or receive text messages, up from 38 percent saying the same in a similar poll last year. There were also significant increases in the number saying they use their mobiles to send or receive picture messages (to 29 percent this year from 20 percent last year), to send or receive e-mail (from 14 percent then to 18 percent now), to access the Internet (from 11 percent to 15 percent) and to listen to music (from 5 percent to 10 percent).
For some functions, though, there’s been little or no growth from last year to this year in the use of mobile technology. For example, the number of respondents saying they use those devices at least once a week to watch TV/videos remains stuck at 3 percent; the number using them to check sports scores/updates is static at 5 percent.
With the economy making it less palatable to see how one’s stock portfolio is faring, there has even been a downtick (from 3 percent to 2 percent) in the number of respondents who use the mobile gadgets to check stock quotes at least once a week. Read more
