Why Earned Media is More Effective than Advertising

“Nielsen survey research shows that earned presence is more likely than traditional paid marketing investments to influence consumers to switch brands. Recommendations and reviews, in particular, are forms of earned media that are more persuasive.”

via Nielsen

Why Online User Reviews are Gaining New Momentum

Long considered a helpful tool for consumers to make informed decisions, online user reviews have become a subject of scrutiny, according to a new eMarketer report.

While reviews are primarily posted and read online, their influence is felt in the offline world as well.

Nearly 70% of U.S. internet users sometimes compared prices or read reviews — before visiting a brick-and-mortar store.

via eMarketer

10 Things You Don’t Know About Smartphone Users

First Thing: people are using their smartphones to talk about you! And they’re not holding back.

Whether it is to their own social network, responding to your surveys, or contributing to a review site, they’re giving feedback and commentary on the products and services they buy.

Want to know the full deal on our list of ten things consumers are using their smartphones for?

via Ipsos

Why Customer Reviews are Preferred Over Gadget Experts

When selecting consumer electronics, people seeking product reviews are most likely to search for them online, according to new research.

They seem to believe that other consumers — even strangers — are more likely to have had the kind of hands-on experience with a product that is relevant to their own purchase decision.

via eMarketer

National Brands Betting on Local Digital Marketing in 2013

Some 91% of national brands say they plan to spend more or the same on local marketing (i.e., campaigns directed at customers in their local markets) in 2013 compared with 2012 spending levels.

They cite mobile marketing, local blogs, and online customer reviews as their top 3 digital priorities for the coming year, according to a survey from Balihoo.

Across the board, digital tactics are playing an important role in brand success.

via MarketingProfs

New Consumer Electronics Online Product Reviews

Regarding computer and consumer electronics (CE) sales, are people that purchase new devices showing a significant preference for online retailers over traditional stores?

These are the key questions that eMarketer asked as they conducted their latest market assessment of the typical CE product purchase path.

However, while the market is in transition, sales of consumer electronics on the web are growing. In fact, eMarketer projects that online sales of consumer electronics will climb from $48.6 billion in 2012 to $80.2 billion in 2016.

via Digital Lifescapes

How People Discover, Research, and Share Information

Social media plays an important role in how people discover, research, and share information about brands and products. In fact, 60 percent of consumers researching products through multiple online sources learned about a specific brand or retailer through social networking sites.

Active social media users are more likely to read product reviews online, and 3 out of 5 create their own reviews of products and services. Women are more likely than men to tell others about products that they like (81% of females vs. 72% of males). Overall, consumer-generated reviews and product ratings are the most preferred sources of product information among social media users.

On the flip side, another interesting trend is the interest of consumers to act as ambassadors and advocates for brands through social media. A majority of active social networkers (53%) follow brands.

via Nielsen Wire

Practical Guidance on Transmedia Project Development

Practical Guidance on Transmedia Project Development http://ping.fm/hDNTf

Terrence Malick’s Epic Film: The Tree of Life

 “Terrence Malick’s mad and magnificent film descends slowly, like some sort of prototypical spaceship,” writes the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw: “[I]t’s a cosmic-interior epic of vainglorious proportions, a rebuke to realism, a disavowal of irony and comedy, a meditation on memory, and a gasp of horror and awe at the mysterious inevitability of loving, and losing those we love…. I will admit I am agnostic about the final sequence, which suggests a closure and a redemption nothing else in the film has prepared us for. But this is visionary cinema on an unashamedly huge scale: cinema that’s thinking big. Malick makes an awful lot of other filmmakers look timid and negligible by comparison.”

via Mubi.com