Nielsen/NetRatings – The Beyondness of Things

U.S. Internet users are spending nearly half their online time visiting content, a 37% increase in share of time from four years ago, according to a study produced by the Online Publishers Association (OPA).

The OPA’s Internet Activity Index segments monthly usage by content, search, commerce and communications. While use of search has shown massive growth during the four-year term of the study, it accounts for a share of just 5% of online user time; while use of communications sites, such as MSN Groups and Yahoo! Mail, have plunged 28% since 2003, thanks to the rise of apps such as MSN Messenger.

Four Year Summary of OPA Internet Activity Index:

                       Share of Time Share of Time    Share of Time Online
                        Online 2003    Online 2007*       Change 03 – 07
    Content                 34 %            47 %               + 37 %
    Search                   3 %             5 %               + 35 %
    Commerce                16 %            15 %                – 5 %
    Communications          46 %            33 %               – 28 %
    Total                  100 %           100 %                 —

* 2007 includes January through May.

Tables detailing trends in user behaviour during the last year can be found here.

The OPA believes the key themes driving behavioural change are:

— A more accessible, and much faster, Internet is driving increased
overall time spent online.

— The increased popularity of video is leading to more time being spent
with online content.

    — The improvement in search allows consumers to more easily and quickly
       find the exact content they are looking for, increasing the likelihood
       they will engage more deeply with that content.

— The Web simply offers far more content than it did even four years ago,
increasing content’s share of time.

    — The rise of instant messaging (IM) as a key communications tool has
       been a factor in communication’s reduction in share of time. IM is a
       more efficient communications vehicle than email.

Wave, after wave, after wave of research suggesting that consumers (especially younger ones) are spending more time watching video online; tet the ad $ have been slow to move in. Why?

Take Procter & Gamble – the biggest advertiser in the world – which over recent years has accelerated the amount of spend away from traditional media and towards online. What aren’t the rest getting?

Well there’s the small problem of measurement, for starters: Nielsen/NetRatings may have made a bold announcement about standardisation, yet implementation is still some way off.

Meanwhile, eMarketer claims 2007 is the year where ad spend on online video will rise by 89% . What are we waiting for?

In a word (or several): the big trucks rolling into town.

It’s unlikely the effects of new launches from the NBC Universal / NewsCorp. ‘newsite’ launch, Comast’s major web drive, Joost out of beta and the BBC’s non-public service iPlayer launches will be fully felt at least until next year. Which is why next year the figures for ad spend suddenly start to leap. Advertisers need proof-of-concept, not stuff for shareholders.

Then there’s honing understanding of the type and duration of advertising which will work with online users.

The same eMarketer study, suggests existing approaches remain fragmented and confusing. The one thing that’s overwhelmingly clear, the ad-funded model is here with us for good, as only a tiny minority of users are prepared to pay for online video:

More granularity still when it comes to exploring consumer attitudes towards the context of accompanying ads:

And then re-posing questions concerning ad durations:

Category: Nielsen/NetRatings

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