Now ranging in age from 18 to 34, Millennials are the first digitally native age group. They are also America’s most racially diverse generation. The Hispanic subgroup of this generation in fact are trailblazers when it comes digital media consumption.

According to BIA/Kelsey’s Consumer Commerce Monitor Study (CCM), Hispanic Millennials report higher likelihood of digital shopping activities than non-Hispanic Millennials. For example, they’re more likely to go online to qualify local purchases than non-Hispanic Millennials (33.3 percent vs. 26.1 percent).

Hispanic Millennials also report using devices when shopping for local products and services more frequently than non-Hispanic Millennials, with 30 percentof Hispanic consumers reporting they use a tablet daily for local shopping, and 40 percent report using a smartphone

Other Key findings from the study include: Hispanic Millennials:

— Used an average of 6.3 app for local shopping activities versus 3.4 app that non-Hispanic Millennials used for local shopping.

— Reported checking into a local business at least once within the last 6 months at a rate of 76.1 percent versus only 57.7 percent of non-Hispanic Millennials who checked in at local business.

— Reported increases in their social media use for local shopping in the last 6 months by 55.3 PERCENT Hispanic Millennials vs. 31.6 percent non-Hispanic Millennials.

The Hispanic Millennial Generation is the intersection of two groups which over index on digital and mobile technology adoption. Further understanding the Hispanic Millennial Consumer will help marketers and SMBs understand how early trends in our digital shopping future will go. Hispanic Millennials are on the forefront of digital.

The post Hispanic Millennials are on the Digital Forefront appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

In the overall advertising mix, digital will grow to make up one third of media spend in the next 5 years, according to Ducey. Within the audio ads, digital will take a 21 percent share in the next four years. That leaves less than 80 percent of audio ad dollars for “traditional” or broadcast radio. “This will be a blessing and a challenge to broadcast radio,” said Ducey.

Much of this opportunity in digital will lie in interactive forms of audio ads. The connected car is one area Ducey cites, due to a need for hands free interaction. Xapp Media, for example, pioneers an format that prompts users to engage through voice commands (see our previous video demo). The ads will appear within the growing inventory sources of streaming apps that serve audio ads in addition to standard display.

Download the report here (free report sponsored by Xapp Media).

The post The Internet Radio Revolution Has Arrived: A Conversation with Rick Ducey appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Baby boomers — those aged 55 plus — are often stigmatized for being behind the times when it comes to technology and the digital world. According to the results of a new survey conducted by Thrive Analytics and released by the Local Search Association, this generation — including Boomers and Seniors — are embracing mobile as a local shopping companion.

Our Consumer Commerce Monitor? survey data supports many of the results highlighted in that study. When it comes to smartphone use, according to the Local Search Association’s study, 69 percent of baby boomers and seniors use their smartphone at in-store locations for local shopping. Our CCM data supports their find with 61 percent of our respondents using smartphone for local shopping at in-store locations.

Our CCM results also showed that 47 percent of baby boomers and seniors use their smartphones at least once a week for local shopping. The Local Search Association’s study outlined that baby boomer and senior smartphone users said that price comparisons and discounts were their top reasons for searching via their mobile devices while shopping in-store (50 percent of baby boomers & seniors).

According to CCM, Baby boomers are also far more likely to use mostly search engines on smartphones or tablets when compared to mobile apps for local shopping (66 percent vs. 4 percent). They’re also more likely than other age groups to shop in-person.

SMBs and national brands need to retire the notion that baby boomers are not a “connected“demographic. Our data shows that advertisers need to learn how best to adapt their mobile strategies to reach this older and more experienced demographic. Mobile continues to shake up the local shopping chain but and leaves opportunities for SMBs to engage with their customers in a new innovative ways.

Learn more about Consumer Commerce Monitor here.

The post How Baby Boomers Are Embracing Mobile Shopping appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

ILM East is coming back to Boston March 26-28 with a lineup of doers and innovators who are transforming and redefining the local space. Highlights include a featured keynote from industry legend Ted Leonsis (Groupon vice chair/AmEx board member/sports team owner/AOL mastermind), along with keynotes/interviews from Jason Calacanis, Leslie Berland, Jay Herratti, Michael Zimbalist and Michael Silberman.

Other highlights of the two-day event includes a preconference rundown on local search run by Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide; a full plate of top BIA/Kelsey research and forecasts; a special venture capital panel; and innovator panels on social, mobile, deals, video and hyperlocal (the latter co-moderated by Merrill Brown).

KEYNOTES/KEYNOTE DISCUSSIONS
� Ted Leonsis: Owner, Monumental Sports (Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards); Vice Chair of Groupon; board member of AmEx, former vice chair of AOL; author, “The Business of Happiness”
� Jason Calacanis: CEO, Mahalo; investor. Calacanis’ career has been at the cutting edge of local and social media and reflects all the big trends, from his development of The Silicon Alley Reporter to Weblogs (AOL), Mahalo and the creation of TechCrunch50 and Launch.
� Leslie Berland, vice president, social strategy, American Express. Berland’s a major deal maker deeply involved in AmEx’ss mega Foursquare and Facebook deals.
� Jay Herratti, CEO, CityGrid Media. Herratti always gets top rankings at our events. He runs IAC’s super quad of the CityGrid Media Network, Citysearch, Urbanspoon and Insider Pages.
� Michael Zimbalist, VP, research operations, New York Times Co. Zimbalist leads the NYT’s 12 person-research unit. He’s deeply immersed in cutting-edge social, mobile, tablet and video efforts.
� Michael Silberman, GM, New York Magazine Silberman is the mastermind of NYMag’s development of a super set of verticals catering to the “New York state of mind.”

FEATURED SPEAKERS
� Bill Bice, CEO, SpaBoom
� Merrill Brown, Cofounder, MSNBC.com, Court TV
� Jim Douglass, EVP, Cartera Commerce
� Jere Doyle, CEO, EverSave
� Walt Doyle, CEO, Where
� Adam Japko, CEO, Digital Sherpa
� Maria Kermath, Director, New Tech & Sales Apps, AT&T Advertising Sales
� Mark Josephson, SVP, AOL Local
� Charlie Kim, CEO, Next Jump
� John McIntyre, CEO, Pixelfish
� Randa Minkarah, SVP, Revenue, Fisher Communications
� Randy Parker, President, SMB Apps
� Mark Schmulen, GM, Social Media, Constant Contact
� Andy Slater, VP, Digital Agency Sales, Katz 360
� Andrew Shotland, Publisher, Local SEO Guide
� Christopher Tippie, CEO, FindNSave
� Darren Waddell, EVP, Product and Corporate Marketing, Reply.com

Join hundreds of senior level local executives at ILM East for the local community’s best networking and insights. You can register here for earlier bird rates.

Internet Pioneer Ted Leonsis

The post The Super Lineup at ILM East March 26-28 (Boston) appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

BIA/Kelsey moderated a panel on “the Out-of-Home User Experience” (click on image for link to streaming video) at MediaPost’s Digital Out-of-Home Forum (DOOH) in New York. DOOH is the third-fastest growing ad medium after mobile and online video.

Paul Lindstrom, senior VP, Nielsen OnLocation, kicked off the panel with data showing video engagement is about 80 percent correlated to advertising recall. Andy Stankiewicz, executive VP and chief communications officer, Akoo International Inc., and David Veckerelli, co-CEO, Digital Displays Network, spoke to how their systems engaged users in unique ways to create video-based user experiences that could drive point-of-purchase sales.

In Akoo’s case, its model is to have large displays in food courts and college student unions playing music videos. Users can interact with the videos using their mobile phones (text, browsers or apps) to select content and make other choices which increases dwell time and user engagement. DDN built and operates the 7-Eleven network of video displays and uses a strategy of mapping content, dayparts and featured products to drive sales lifts.

Generally, the mood of the DOOH Forum was quite positive. The technology has matured into a more capable, cost-effective and efficient buying platform that bridges the physical (i.e., place-based) world to both traditional and digital media. Planning and buying has become easier within vendor platforms but there are still a lot of vendors. Video screens that are connected with an Internet Protocol (IP) address can be interactive, targeted and provide engaging content.

DOOH leverages social context, physical location and user passion (health clubs, bars other places where users select to be based on personal interests). The challenge now is for buyers to become educated about how to understand how their brand strategies can be served by DOOH media in combination with other media. This is a matter of multiplatform planning, buying and creative execution that leverages DOOH’s many digital and interactive capabilities to drive user engagement with compelling experiences.

The post Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) Screens Bridge Traditional and Physical Worlds appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

A couple of stories caught my attention today. First, Reach Media Group (RMG), a digital out-of-home company that we’ve previously written about, signed a deal to push New York Times content to its network of 800 coffee shops, cafes and eateries in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco.

According to the press release, RMG’s digital place-based network (formerly known as “Danoo”) has been entirely re-envisioned to emulate the familiar, trusted design of NYTimes.com. We think this move will add considerable credibility to the fledgling network. It can offer a more compelling content experience (assuming you find the NYTimes content compelling) and ultimately, a more legitimate advertising sales proposition.

For some time now, we’ve said that digital out-of-home or digital place-based advertising models will develop rapidly over the next five years. But this scenario relies on the consolidation of the market, more standardized advertising options, and more targeting and mobile content connectivity.

We think we’ll get there. The potential for consumers to view condensed content on a screen and then connect to www.NYT2day.com for the full story offers advertisers a proxy for performance, and the user a simple way to more fully engage in the content.

The second interesting story today comes from The Omaha World Herald, which reports that New York equity firm CCMP Capital Advisors has made an offer to purchase Omaha-based InfoGroup — formerly known as InfoUSA. A deal like this has been expected since late last year, when the company hired an advisor to essentially find a buyer.

According to The World Herald, the sale of InfoGroup has been supported by Vin Gupta, the company’s founder and former CEO. While Gupta is no longer an officer of the company, he still sits on the board of directors. In our view, InfoGroup’s sale makes good sense for the company and the shareholders. Taking it private will enable the company to continue its re-branding process from InfoUSA to InfoGroup.

For years we’ve been asked by companies around the globe if InfoUSA or any of its competitors offered similar business listing information. Shifting the name to InfoGroup would certainly enable the company to expand it offerings beyond its current borders.

Should this deal be finalized, it would presumably be the end of Gupta’s involvement, active or passive, in the company he founded almost 40 years ago with $100 and the vision to compile, aggregate and verify the names, addresses and telephone numbers of millions of businesses in America. Certainly, it has been a difficult job. But Gupta and his pioneering colleagues can proudly take credit for delivering hundreds of millions of qualified leads to SMBs.

The post BIA/Kelsey Commentary: Neal Polachek on InfoGroup Sale Rumors; NY Times and RMG appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

How about that fourth screen? This growing media sector is projected to grow at an annual CAGR of 13.5 percent through 2013 with a total category take of $3.7 billion. But, trying to define what DOOH is and how to make it an effective part of any advertising campaign is still a work in progress. However, important strides are being made and this morning’s panel participants are active players across the DOOH ecosystem.

This panel was moderated by Rick Ducey, BIA/Kelsey’s Chief Strategy Officer, and our panel participants were Sonya Rosas, practice leader, DOOH for the Interpublic Emerging Media Lab; Stephen Randall, CEO of LocalModa; and Adam Bleibtreu, CEO of Retail Media Co., an owner of DOOH networks.

First some basic facts. DOOH is any combination of media assets that include digital billboards that rotate several ad messages per minute to place based media seen where people congregate from health clubs and taverns to elevators and airports. While the general outdoor market is heavily consolidated (three companies accumulate 85 percent of all dollars spent), the DOOH sector is not. It’s expected that many of the existing outdoor companies will be in the market to acquire DOOH assets as the growth in this part of the out of home sector is expected to outpace the general outdoor market ( billboards).

The panelists discussed the need for DOOH to be easier to plan and buy. There has been some improvement in the metrics used to measure the ROI of these media assets. However, there was a warning to marketers that all screens used in a campaign must be connected. The phone plays a critical interactive role in DOOH campaigns and allows the consumer to take part in the call to action on the screen. The flexibility of this new platform is quite attractive as messages can be changed on the fly to address different audiences.

Some of the new face recognition technology is allowing marketers to see who the audience is and how it changes at different times of the days. Messages can then be adapted so that there is relevance to what’s being displayed. This ability to allow the consumer to make an emotional attachment to the screen is a critical element in the success of the message. Location is also essential. Some venues work better than others (think gas pumps and elevators). Public places can make it harder to make DOOH work but it’s not impossible to do so. (Think Times Square).

The grocery stores are also great laboratories as new shopping carts can allow shoppers to enter their shopping lists onboard the cart. The cart is aware of where the cart is in the store and specific sales and promotional messages can be passed along to the consumer based on the shoppers’ profile and based on what’s on their list.

Taxis have also proven to be a good venue for DOOH. These units have been mostly limited to New York and Chicago but that’s soon to change. The GPS coordinates of these taxis allow messages to be delivered to the passenger that are based in the neighborhood of where the taxi happens to be located. These units are quite popular with advertisers and have sold out even in this difficult advertising environment.

There was also some discussion on the successful selling of these new digital and place based boards. One panelist believed that they made the right decision to partner with ABC to sell their inventory. The second sale is the hardest to make and managing the account is critical to the seller. CBS and NBC are also both in the digital out of home business with existing partnerships.

This sector is ripe for consolidation and the next 12-18 months should be interesting to watch as this new and vital advertising platform continues its impressive growth.

The post ILM: 09: Digital Out-of-Home: Expanding the Interactive Experience for the Consumer appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.