Manhattan Marketing Maven

Players & Pervs Come Out After Dark on the Internet

An provocative study of Internet traffic by Arbor Networks, an online security firm, suggests that Americans jump online after dinner to play games and watch porn. 

The study based on traffic data from dozens of ISPs, tens of millions of subscribers and petabytes of daily Internet traffic indicates that "US Internet traffic reaches its peak at 11p ET and stays relatively high till 3 am." This suggests that 8p-Midnight is prime time on the west coast and Pacific Time. The traffic consists largely of consumer traffic which climbs later in the day and accounts for the bulk of after-business-hours activity.

By looking at the sources of traffic and analyzing traffic by host sites, Arbor discerned that video usage increases later in the day peaking at midnight. Similarly servers hosting adult material draw a traffic spike daily between 10p and 1 am. 

Its reasonable to assume that gamers, prohibited by policy, sensibility or bandwidth at school or work flock to the web at night to unwind and to lose themselves in the games, the avatars and their alter-egos. With similar limitations, those seeking more prurient stimulation do likewise.

The implications for marketers are:

1. Primetime TV has serious competition. Either people are bailing out on network fare in favor of more interactive, involving or targeted programming or they are multi-tasking and only partly paying attention to the new Fall season. A roadblock strategy should integrate online and offline media to truly cover the waterfront. Its a fair bet that covering both bases is the only sure way to penetrate the male 18-34 demographic. 

2. Commercial or product placement and/or integration into games and porn have the potential to reach and persuade more people than previously thought. Maybe the early adapters of product placement tactics in games were no so crazy. Naturally this is a sensitive issue in terms of content compatibility, but I have a hunch that daring marketers can achieve breakthrough awareness and brand affinity by strategically embedding brand messages in related online properties.

3. Consider online "appointment" events to reach selected audience segments. Midnight madness sales, special hour-by-hour promotions or pricing, night owl content or copy might have added value and pulling power for those up late and active online.

Crowdsourcing Marketing Research

What if somebody used social media techniques to gather research about the adoption of social media by marketers? Wouldn't it be cool and provocative?

That's the premise behind the 2009 Marketing Industry Trends Report instigated by Christina Kerley and produced by Equation Research with the participation of many marketers in framing the questions and 1469 respondents representing clients, agencies, consultants, vendors and non-profits. The survey, fielded between June 3 and July 2, 2009, is believed to be the first time the community both crafted the questions and the answers to figure out what's going on.

And while the technique is novel, the results are not. They are predictable and practical.

The survey found that there is a "boundless enthusiasm" for social media and widespread experimentation but there is no consensus on what it is or how best to use it. Is this news to anyone?

Some believe social media is media. Others see it as a distribution or communications channels. Still others see it as a concept or a consciousness about how brands engage their customers. But with 59% of respondents currently using social media it's fair to claim that social media --however its defined-- has reached critical mass.

The biggest names with the biggest traffic (Facebook & Twitter) and established tactics (online videos and blogs) get the most play. Though most marketers are using more than one tactic, often in tandem with each other. Most respondents reported playing around with 5-7 social memes usually in the same time frame though its not clear if or how they are synchronized or syncopated. 

These activities account for approximately one-third of current marketing spend; slightly higher in smaller firms. It's a fair bet that in a sustained tight economy, these lower cost, buzz-oriented media will continue to grow as a percentage of overall marketing allocations. Social media have significant "promise" for the near term future along with other low cost-high return tools like search engine advertising, outbound e-mail and PR.

Mobile media has less traction than social media probably because its perceived to be intrusive, complicated and technically challenging. Easily a third of respondents are content to sit on the sidelines and wait-and-see what happens. 

The data confirms what anyone paying attention could surmise. The technique -- drawing together the marketing community to build a research agenda and then field the survey is cool.

B2C marketers are more aggressive experimenters than their B2B counterparts and smaller firms are quicker to embrace these new tools than larger, more bureaucratic organizations. For many inertia and the usual reasons why not (no plan, no budget, no strategy, no risk appetite, no metrics) are the barriers to adoption.