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New Zealand by the numbers

// January 25th, 2012 // No Comments

28%: Estimated percentage of NZ homes which now have a Personal Video Recorder

1,780,015: Stream views of TVNZ’s Ondemand service in July 2011

1000: Number of readers that separated NZ Woman’s Weekly from Woman’s Day when the Day finally took over the Number 1 slot for weekly women’s titles in the most recent (Q3 2011) Nielsen CIM survey

0.2%: decrease in electronic card spending for November 2011 (adjusted for seasonal effects), according to Statistics New Zealand

11,000: number of individual items listed on the new and much-downloaded SaleFinder app, which helps Kiwi iPhone users compare prices and find the best deals in retail stores

9.0: average rating for TV3′s election night coverage for the 25-54 demographic (Nielsen TAM)

7.3: average rating for TV One’s election night coverage for the same demographic

120,000: estimated number of active Twitter users in New Zealand

0.4%: increase in the Consumers Price Index in the September 2011 quarter compared with the June 2011 quarter

134.6 million: number of shares issued to new shareholders through the Trade Me IPO

34%: percentage of Trade Me ownership that the new shares represent

Facebook Hits Number 1

// January 25th, 2012 // No Comments

In mid-November Facebook finally overtook Google to become New Zealand’s most-visited web destination, according to Experian Hitwise New Zealand, with a market share of 9.27% of all internet visits for the day 15/11/2011.

Facebook has long received more page views and has longer session times, as you would expect given the nature of the two websites. This latest change however, shows that Facebook is now also visited more than Google.co.nz, a development that has been threatening for some time.

Google remains in the top slot in the USA, UK and Australia. Once again, New Zealand leads the way in social change.

Why we should pay attention to Google+

// January 25th, 2012 // No Comments

We wouldn’t blame you if you were sceptical about the need for Google+. Just what the world needs, another social network.

As it happens, however, Google+ has rather more strategic importance than you might think. Here’s what Google CEO Larry Page had to say about this latest venture into the social sphere, according to Computerworld UK:

Forget about building a popular social network. Google CEO Larry Page wants to use Google+ to transform the entire Google experience.

That’s the plan Page touted during Google’s third-quarter earnings call with analysts in October [2011]. Page [noted] that the social network has passed the 40 million user mark [since its launch at the end of June], its users have uploaded 3.4 billion photos and its designers have added 100 features in the network’s first three months.

“Our ultimate ambition is to transform the overall Google experience, making it beautifully simple, almost automagical, because we understand what you want and can deliver it instantly,” Page said. “This means baking identity and sharing into all of our products so that we build a real relationship with our users. Sharing on the Web will be like sharing in real life across all your stuff.”

In other words, Google is planning to integrate elements of Google+ across all its properties, adding a SOCIAL LAYER to virtually everything Google does (oh, little things like Search, YouTube, Picasa, Adwords, that kind of thing).

Here’s why Google thinks Google+ is important. According to Google+ product manager Christian Oestlien (in a presentation he gave to AdTech New York in November 2011 — you’ll find the full video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH0JQKNHdCQ), five key challenges impact on social media marketing today:

1. Fragmented marketing
   Imagine if you could take the power of search and have that influence social  – and vice versa.
2. Recommendations that lack staying power
   90% of people rely on personal recommendations from their friends. What if they could find those recommendations easily on Google when they need them (through Google+ and +1 tags)?
3. Comments instead of conversations
   How many times have you posted something to a brand and really not gotten a response? That’s going to impact loyalty to that brand.
4. Impersonal messages
   In the real world, I change what I’m talking about depending on who I’m talking to. I don’t have one message for everybody. The internet is the same. You can’t just post one thing and expect everybody to react to it, everybody to like it. That’s why Google created Circles.
5. A real lack of insight
   You want to get some insight into how people are interacting with your content. You want to know what content’s popular, who’s sharing it and how it’s getting consumed. How are people reacting to it? That matters to you as advertisers because 77% of all the content around brands that’s being shared on the internet is being shared by the user not by the brand.

Google+ may not deliver on all its creators’ dreams and promises, but that’s beside the point. What’s important is that Google is integrating the social layer across all its properties. That’s why Google+ matters.

Digital Life in NZ

// January 25th, 2012 // No Comments

TNS’s recently-released (November 2011) Digital Life study provides some useful insights into how Kiwis spend their time online:

• 39% of our time is spent on Entertainment (including multimedia, online gaming & shopping)
• 34% Communications (social networking and email)
• 22% Information (pre-purchase research, knowledge & education, news, sport and weather)
• 7% Management (personal admin, planning & organising)

The Digital Life global study also reveals that we tend to be behind other countries in terms of the devices that we use to access the internet (other than PCs):

Time-Shifted Viewing

// January 25th, 2012 // No Comments

Late January 2012 sees a major change in the way that Nielsen reports on television viewing, with the addition of time-shifted viewing data to the mix. As Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) grow in popularity – more than a quarter of New Zealand homes (and 40% of Sky homes) have a PVR – it’s become more and more important to track viewing through those devices, to get a better picture of how Kiwis watch television.

To cope with the changed environment, the Nielsen Company has increased the number of peoplemeters in New Zealand homes from 500 to 600, and introduced a new generation of peoplemeters with the capability of tracking viewing and playback across today’s wide range of devices.

Nielsen will now be reporting television viewing in two different ways:

1. Overnights
   Viewing of television broadcast content that occurs on the same day as it is broadcast. Includes viewing that is live and that which is time-shifted within the same broadcast day (2am-2am).
2. Consolidated
   Viewing of recorded television broadcast content which occurs between 1 and 7 days after original broadcast

As a result of these changed measurement techniques we can expect to see a small increase in total consolidated viewing (on the order of 2-5%). Preliminary studies conducted by Nielsen suggest that:

• Peaktime viewing is 17% higher in homes with PVRs
• 82% of viewing in PVR homes is live, 7% is watched within the same day
• 11% is time-shifted and watched later
• 84% of viewing (and 99.4% of ratings) occur within three days of the broadcast

The new trading currency for all broadcasters will be the Consolidated rating, which represents the cumulative viewing total across seven days. For time sensitive Advertisers (for example, for One Day Sales) alternative currencies may be considered on a campaign by campaign basis.

Only viewing taking place at standard speed playback will be included in viewing data; pausing, fast-forwarding and rewinding is specifically excluded.

The Igloo Initiative

// January 25th, 2012 // No Comments

Intriguing television alliances are not always confined to Survivor. The latest gossip down our way is about the joint venture between Sky and TVNZ to bring a new pay television offering to market by the middle of next year.

Code-named Igloo, this new service will make use of Sky’s old UHF frequencies to broadcast the existing Free to Air channels plus up to 12 pay channels into Kiwi homes. Reports suggest that this package will cost subscribers around $25 a month, about half the current cost of Sky’s entry-level Startup package.

Sky will own 51% of this new venture while TVNZ takes a 49% stake, reflecting perhaps the relative values of the ingredients each broadcaster brings to the table.

Consumers will need a new set-top box to receive the Igloo service, but not a satellite dish; this is a Digital Terrestrial Television service, with signals broadcast from local transmitters around the country and received in the home via UHF aerials. Those who are currently able to receive Prime or FOUR over the airwaves (rather than by satellite) should easily be able to receive Igloo. 

There are definite benefits to both players in this unexpected alliance. Ever since Sky transitioned its last analogue subscribers to digital satellite services, the paycaster has been pondering alternative uses for the UHF frequencies which up until 1997 were its only broadcasting platform. The NZ Government enforces a “use them or lose them” policy for scarce resources such as broadcasting spectrum; if Sky didn’t use the frequencies they would have been obliged to hand them back (and the frequencies might have subsequently found their way into the hands of a competitor).

Igloo also represents a number of strategic benefits for Sky:

• the company becomes its own low-cost competitor, removing that entry path for other players
• the partnership with TVNZ is a useful response to those who argue that Sky has a monopoly position in NZ television
• as New Zealand transitions to digital, the Igloo offering represents a more affordable alternative to a full Sky subscription as well as perhaps being more attractive than the basic Freeview option   

As for TVNZ: the company has been trying for some years to regain a foothold in Pay Television (TVNZ owned a strategic shareholding in Sky Television many years ago, before government policies of the time saw the shares sold off). Our state broadcaster recognises that most of the television revenue growth of the past decade has been in subscription fees, and wants access to the pot. That desire was one of the main driving forces behind TVNZ’s investment in TiVo; unfortunately that ultimately-failed venture was caught in a Catch-22 loop (too few subscribers = little reason to supply expensive programming = little to attract subscribers).

And what about TVNZ’s involvement with Freeview? In reality, that particular relationship ceased to be important the moment that TVNZ gained permission from the government to add TVNZ 6 and TVNZ 7 onto the Sky platform. Up until then, the only way to receive those two channels was via Freeview; once the channels were readily available on Sky, there was no compelling reason to go with Freeview except for the obvious one, the closedown of analogue channels (happening in 2012 and 2013).

There’s another key player who also benefits from the Igloo initiative: Kordia, state-owned provider of transmission sites and broadcasting equipment. Sky’s satellite-delivered services provide little revenue opportunity for Kordia; on the other hand, ongoing terrestrial broadcasts from local sites around the country are a nice little earner.

Igloo will have negligible impact on marketers, at least in the short term. It is just another platform for delivering existing content. If there are any new TVNZ pay channels that are Igloo-only (which seems unlikely), they’ll only attract small audiences at first anyway. Nielsen will have their hands full with yet another variant to plug into the Peoplemeters universe (“How do you watch TV One? Analogue? Sky satellite? Freeview satellite? Freeview Terrestrial? Telstra Cable? Igloo?”) but that’s about all.

Why we should pay attention to Google+

// January 13th, 2012 // No Comments

We wouldn’t blame you if you were sceptical about the need for Google+. Just what the world needs, another social network.

As it happens, however, Google+ has rather more strategic importance than you might think. Here’s what Google CEO Larry Page had to say about this latest venture into the social sphere, according to Computerworld UK:

Forget about building a popular social network. Google CEO Larry Page wants to use Google+ to transform the entire Google experience.

That’s the plan Page touted during Google’s third-quarter earnings call with analysts in October [2011]. Page [noted] that the social network has passed the 40 million user mark [since its launch at the end of June], its users have uploaded 3.4 billion photos and its designers have added 100 features in the network’s first three months.

“Our ultimate ambition is to transform the overall Google experience, making it beautifully simple, almost automagical, because we understand what you want and can deliver it instantly,” Page said. “This means baking identity and sharing into all of our products so that we build a real relationship with our users. Sharing on the Web will be like sharing in real life across all your stuff.”

In other words, Google is planning to integrate elements of Google+ across all its properties, adding a SOCIAL LAYER to virtually everything Google does (oh, little things like Search, YouTube, Picasa, Adwords, that kind of thing).

Here’s why Google thinks Google+ is important. According to Google+ product manager Christian Oestlien (in a presentation he gave to AdTech New York in November 2011 — you’ll find the full video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tH0JQKNHdCQ), five key challenges impact on social media marketing today:

1. Fragmented marketing
   Imagine if you could take the power of search and have that influence social  – and vice versa.
2. Recommendations that lack staying power
   90% of people rely on personal recommendations from their friends. What if they could find those recommendations easily on Google when they need them (through Google+ and +1 tags)?
3. Comments instead of conversations
   How many times have you posted something to a brand and really not gotten a response? That’s going to impact loyalty to that brand.
4. Impersonal messages
   In the real world, I change what I’m talking about depending on who I’m talking to. I don’t have one message for everybody. The internet is the same. You can’t just post one thing and expect everybody to react to it, everybody to like it. That’s why Google created Circles.
5. A real lack of insight
   You want to get some insight into how people are interacting with your content. You want to know what content’s popular, who’s sharing it and how it’s getting consumed. How are people reacting to it? That matters to you as advertisers because 77% of all the content around brands that’s being shared on the internet is being shared by the user not by the brand.

Google+ may not deliver on all its creators’ dreams and promises, but that’s beside the point. What’s important is that Google is integrating the social layer across all its properties. That’s why Google+ matters.

Digital Life in NZ

// January 13th, 2012 // No Comments

TNS’s recently-released (November 2011) Digital Life study provides some useful insights into how Kiwis spend their time online:

• 39% of our time is spent on Entertainment (including multimedia, online gaming & shopping)
• 34% Communications (social networking and email)
• 22% Information (pre-purchase research, knowledge & education, news, sport and weather)
• 7% Management (personal admin, planning & organising)

The Digital Life global study also reveals that we tend to be behind other countries in terms of the devices that we use to access the internet (other than PCs):