Lovely infographic on ad budgets… so long that I’ve not posted, but here’s the link

eConsultancy have launched a guide on how to launch amazing Facebook pages – the free excerpts include a few useful stats too…

2. Facebook statistics

Facebook is huge. Here are some useful numbers to help you understand the scale of the opportunity, while hopefully convincing the boss that this is something worth spending a little time and money on.

2.1. Facebook usage

 Facebook has more than 500 million active global users. [Source: Facebook Pressroom, January 2011].

2.2. Facebook pages

 The average user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010].

 Purpose-built Facebook pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans. [Source: Facebook, January, 2010].

2.3. Facebook in business

 65% of companies use Facebook as part of their marketing strategy. [Source: Econsultancy / Guava UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, April 2009].

 More than 700,000 local businesses have active pages on Facebook. [Source: Facebook, January, 2010].

I’d love to get a transcript of this to dig out all the facts, but great little video from Time Videos. Click the link to see a better quality version live on Time’s site, but the fuzzy version is on YouTube…

Source: Online Education

It’s not running anymore (and I slightly wonder if that isn’t part of the pull that it has – i.e., being available only at christmas, rather than year-round), the OfficeMax ‘Elf Yourself’ Christmas/Holidays promo now has some results attached to it… and they make one hell of a case study…

Reported in full here.

But, here’s the excerpt you need:

“In the six weeks from Nov. 20, 2007 to Jan. 2, 2008, the site had over 193 million visits and over 123 million elves were created–which is 60 elves per second. Users spent a combined average of 2,600 years on the site.

In the five weeks from Dec. 1, 2006 to Jan. 7, 2007, the site had over 36 million site visits and over 11 million elves were created (41,00 per hour at its peak.) Users spent a combined equivalent of 600 years on the site.

The success of “Elf Yourself,” created by EVB San Francisco and Toy NY, is in part due to three fundamentals, according to a spokesperson for the agencies: 1)Keep it simple, 2) Make it personal and 3) Give people a reason to pass it on.”

This is new – Anheuser-Busch have made Jay-Z a Co-Brand Director for Budweiser Select.

It’s not clear exactly what he’ll do, but they’re pitching him as being integral to the planning and direction, rather than just a face on the commercials… which at least sounds like a more fundamental role.

The question will be whether this produces more than a PR release at launch… But, it could be interesting and will at least lead to some fairly entertaining meetings!

Read the full article on AdAge: “Jay-Z Gets a Marketing Title at Anheuser-Busch”

Discussing this with a fellow planner, Roisin, she pointed out that it’s a bit like when the Czech Republic made Frank Zappa as “Special Ambassador to the West on Trade, Culture and Tourism” back in January 1990.

There are no new ideas, but that doesn’t mean there are no good ideas left!

Sourced from USA Today

This year, marketers will spend a record $175 billion on ads in major media, such as TV, radio, print, outdoor, movie theaters and the Internet, says ad-buying firm ZenithOptimedia. That’s up 5% over 2005. Add direct mail and other direct-response ads, and the total will hit $269 billion.

The increase comes from advertisers trying to out-yell each other, says J. Walker Smith, president of the consulting firm Yankelovich. If a marketer feels drowned out, “They just turn up the volume.”

Here’s how loud it’s getting:

• The average 1970s city dweller was exposed to 500 to 2,000 ad messages a day, Smith says. Now, it’s 3,000 to 5,000.

• In 2005, MTV (VIA) viewers had to put up with 21% more prime-time commercials per hour than in 2004, says TNS Media Intelligence and media firm MindShare.

• Marketers shelled out 71% more — $941 million — to integrate brands into TV shows in 2005 vs. 2004, PQ Media says.

• There are now ad-supported TV screens at airports, gas stations, health clubs and on buses and subways. Wal-Mart has its own network. ABC (DIS) signed with the In-Store Broadcasting Network to promote TV shows in Kroger supermarkets.

• Spending for on-screen movie theater ads swelled 21% to $453 million in 2005 vs. 2004. Off-screen ads, such as lobby promotions, rose 18% to $75 million, according to the Cinema Advertising Council.

• Marketers raised “out-of-home” spending, from billboards to elevator ads, by 9% last year to $6.3 billion, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America says.

There’s more to come. Marketers see small-screen devices — iPods, cellphones, laptops and video games — as the growth frontier:

• Spending for ads on Web-enabled mobile phones is expected to be $150 million this year, up threefold vs. 2005, according to consulting firm Ovum. By 2009, that will swell 766% to $1.3 billion.

• In 2005, $21 million was spent to place products in video games, a 38% rise over 2004, PQ Media says.

• Last year, companies shelled out $13 billion on Internet classified, search and display ads, JupiterResearch says. That’s expected to double to $26 billion by 2011.

Brain freeze

“The human brain doesn’t process things any better than it did 30 years ago. But there are more people competing for that processing time,” Yankelovich’s Smith says. “It’s no surprise that consumers are pushing back.”

They’ve put more than 130 million phone numbers on the federal government’s telemarketer-thwarting national Do Not Call Registry as of Sept. 5.

Use of pop-up ad blockers on computers nearly tripled from June 2003 to January 2006, to 71%, according to Arbitron/Edison Media Research provided by eMarketer. Users with spam blockers more than doubled to 73%.

Web gives consumers voice

The Internet has emerged as a soapbox for irate consumers.

After Columbia Pictures (SNE) said it would cover Major League Baseball bases with Spider-Man 2 logos in 2004, tens of thousands voted against it in ESPN.com and AOL.com polls. Within 48 hours, the studio called it off, citing the polls.

…

Marketing under pressure

Companies are under more pressure than ever to deliver rosy quarterly results, and top marketing executives have less time than ever to prove their mettle. The average tenure of a chief marketing officer at a major U.S. company has declined to 23.2 months, according to search firm Spencer Stuart.

It’s no wonder they’ll sign off on increasingly bizarre ideas.

For instance, a recent promotion for the Paramount Pictures film Jackass: Number Two appears on urinal mats when the mat is hit with a stream of “number one.”

…

In May, Robert Reames III, 27, a father of three girls who was looking for money to replace the family car, sold rights to a permanent tattoo on his neck to Web-hosting company Globat.

The company also bought a temporary tattoo ad on the pregnant belly of Asia Francis, 21, of St. Louis. Globat would not disclose what it has paid for “body art.”

No space is too odd. US Airways (LCC) is in talks to sell ads on airsickness bags, spokeswoman Valerie Wunder says. It already makes about $10 million a year from ads on tray tables and napkins, she says.