Online Ad Revenues On the Rise

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers released their latest Internet advertising numbers for the third quarter. According to the organizations, Internet advertising revenues reached nearly $5.5 billion for the quarter. That is an increase of 1.7% from the second quarter.

The numbers are still significantly down from the same period last year, but any increase is a good sign of things to come. There has been a 5.4% decline from last year.

"The Internet has transformed the consumer experience of media, providing marketers with unprecedented opportunities to engage with their customers," said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. "The advertising sector overall has been hard hit by the economy, but digital media has been a bright spot within the larger economic downturn as it is capturing an ever-increasing piece of marketers’ advertising spend."

"While all segments of the media industry have experienced declines, online advertising remains resilient and is once again showing signs of growth," said David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

The information from the IAB/PWC is considered the most accurate measurement of interactive ad revenue, the IAB says, because its compiled directly from info supplied by companies selling advertising on the web. The IAB releases a full report twice a year to reflect half-year periods. It will be interesting to see how the second half of the year plays out in its entirety.

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Churchill Downs Buys Youbet.com For $126 Million

Churchill Downs Inc. (CDI), home of the Kentucky Derby, has agreed to buy online horse wagering firm Youbet.com in a cash-and- stock deal valued at $126.8 million.

The deal would give Churchill Downs over $700 million worth of the $1.4 billion online horse wagering market. Churchill Downs already owns online horse betting site TwinSpires.com.

The deal will give Youbet shareholders 97 cents a share in cash for each Youbet.com share, plus 0.0598 shares of Churchill Downs stock. Based on the closing price of Churchill stock on Tuesday, the transaction represents a per-share value of Youbet stock of about $2.84. Once the deal closes, Youbet shareholders will own 16 percent of Churchill stock.

Churchill says less than 14 percent of all wagering on U.S. Thoroughbred racing is estimated to be placed online, but it anticipates that percentage will continue to grow.

"We believe this combination should enable us to accelerate the development of new technology-enabled features and services that horse racing customers who wager via the Advanced Deposit Wagering channel want, and that can attract new customers to racing, said Robert L. Evans, Churchill President and Chief Executive Officer.

"While we expect to make many exciting improvements for customers, our existing TwinSpires.com customers will be able to continue to access their accounts and make wagers, deposits and withdrawals in the same manner they do today."

Churchill said the deal will result in annual saving of $10 million. The transaction is scheduled to be completed in the second quarter of 2010.

 

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Mobile Phone Market Shows Signs Of Improvement

The global mobile phone market saw slight growth in the third quarter, according to IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

Year-on-year growth remained negative, but improved from the first half of 2009. Mobile shipments totaled 287.1 million units worldwide in Q3, down from 6 percent from the previous year, but up 5.6 percent from the second quarter.

"The mobile phone market is showing the first signs of improvement since the onset of the economic crisis," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team.

"During the third quarter, we saw a number of channels promoting older devices at significantly lower prices. For many, this was enough to spur demand and push volumes higher. Now that we have moved into the fourth quarter, vendors are setting the stage for further gains by launching their flagship devices to meet pent-up demand."

The North American market posted mixed results for Q3. The United States posted positive results, with mobile devices and prepaid handsets once again driving growth. The Canadian mobile phone market declined for the third straight despite double-digit mobile device growth.

Nokia took the top spot in market share with 37.8 percent, but its year-on year growth dipped 8 percent. Samsung landed in the second spot with 21 percent market share and positive year-on-year growth of 15.9 percent.

 

"Although some regions are still reeling from problems associated with the economic crisis, the third quarter served to cleanse the channel while providing the signs of stability necessary for additional improvement in the fourth quarter," said Will Stofega, research manager of IDC's Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team
 

 

 

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Email Open Rates Up 18%

For the fourth quarter in a row email open rates were up across a number of industries, according to a new report by direct marketing firm Epsilon.

Open rates increased 18.2 percent from the second quarter of 2008 with click rates (5.9%) remaining stable.

The quarterly analysis was compiled from 6.5 billion emails sent by Epsilon in April, May and June 2009, across multiple industries and 200 clients.

Average volume per client rose 10 percent from last quarter and 20 percent year-over-year.

Seven of the sixteen industries measured saw an increase in opens, clicks and non-bounce rates compared to the previous year. None of the industries measured saw a decline across all three metrics.

Our research has shown that while email marketing volumes have increased substantially, email remains a highly-effective channel for communication," said Kevin Mabley, Senior Vice President of Strategic & Analytic Consulting, Epsilon.

"The top performers are those taking advantage of lifecycle triggers to send timely, relevant emails. These marketers are capturing preferences, both explicit through preference centers and opt-in pages and implicit such as web activity, response and engagement activity. With this data, they are able to deliver targeted, relevant content to each individual consumer."
 

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