Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

For years, marketers have been predicting that the advent of DVR technology meant consumers would no longer watch ads. And if they no longer watched ads, they wouldn’t be out buying products. TV media companies and marketers can breathe a sigh of relief. A new study by Duke University researchers shows that there has been little change in behavior when it comes to DVR-owning households watching ads or buying products that are marketed via TV.

Marketers remain committed to green business principles despite the recent recession. According to the 2010 State of Green Business report, many experts expected a steep decline in 2009 investment in this sector. Yet investments dropped only 36% from 2008 levels. And the total investment was still high, about $4.8 billion last year.

Besides high-definition televisions (HDTVs) and laptops, which are becoming more popular, usage of all other CE devices by kids ages 4-14 is stable or down from 2009, according to a new report from The NPD Group. Televisions (both standard and high definition) remain the most widely used consumer devices among kids with 74% of kids in this age group watching TV, while computers (both desktop and laptop) are second at 70%. Thanks in part to lower price points for HDTVs, when asked about their future purchase intent in the next 12 months, parents are just as likely to purchase HDTVs for their kids as they are to purchase cell phones or digital cameras, showing the increasing popularity of this CE device. In fact, 18% of parents surveyed stated they plan on purchasing an HDTV for their kid in the coming year, while only 17% plan on purchasing a cell phone or digital camera.

A quick glance at the top-spending brands in the U.S. confirms that telecom companies allocate billions of dollars trying to attract consumer attention. Businesses in this sector and in high-tech services also market to the BtoB sector. The good news is that over 40% of these companies plan to increase BtoB marketing efforts in 2010 while another 44% will level-budget the activity according to Gartner.

While the B2B community has been buzzing about cloud computing lately, consumers are interested in this technology, too. The basic idea behind cloud computing is being able to access digital information from any location at any time. The ability to access email remotely appeals to nearly half of online U.S. consumers according to a Harris Interactive poll. But these consumers have reservations about immediate access to information such as pictures or tax information. For the most part, these reservations are linked to security.

As the use of mobile phones becomes nearly ubiquitous, about 87% of U.S. consumers now own these devices, marketers can begin targeting users by type to improve the effectiveness of their campaigns. Experian Simmons has divided U.S. mobile phone users into several types based on how they most frequently use these devices.