COI head of media, Jeremy Found, used his keynote speech at this year’s MRG Conference in Budapest to reassure delegates that media research has never been more important to the advertising industry. He argued passionately that media research deserved its place at the “top table” and insisted that it has never be harder to get… Continue reading Media Research Has Never Been So Important, Says COI

Online leisure travel spending in the US is set to rise from $22.7 billion this year to $50 billion in 2007, according to Forrester Research. Airline tickets account for more than half of all sales and expenditure is predicted to increase from $12.8 billion in 2002 to $27.8 billion in five years time. Similarly, revenues… Continue reading Online Holiday Revenues Set To Double

Online consumer sales have increased by almost 10% in the past year, according to research carried out by Gfk. B2C revenues are expect to total E4.7 billion in 2002, up from E4.3 billion this year. However, average spend has remained stable and the rise in sales is due largely to the increase in the number… Continue reading New Shoppers Drive Up German E-Commerce Sales

City analysts do not share the optimism of senior executives at Carlton and Granada and have downgraded the ITV companies following the release of their full-year results this week. The media research team at Morgan Stanley marked down the stocks from “equal weight” to “underweight”, essentially a recommendation to sell shares in the two companies.… Continue reading Carlton And Granada Hit By Downgrade

Merrill Lynch expects that advertising at the FT Group of newspapers will fall by around 13% on underlying basis in the second half of the year. The decline will be driven largely by a 15% fall at the Financial Times, a 13% fall at Les Echos and a 5.5% decline at Recoletes, excluding Argentina. Circulation… Continue reading FT Group’s Ad Forecasts Are Optimistic, Says Merrill Lynch

Internet service providers have been keen to promote high-speed access as the major benefit of the broadband revolution. However, a new report from an influential think-tank has cast doubt on this policy and advised marketers to alter their strategy. The Work Foundation carried out research among broadband subscribers in London and Leeds and concluded that… Continue reading High-Speed Is A ‘Red Herring’, Says Internet Study

At a time when advertisers are becoming increasingly concerned about audience fragmentation, an American study has sought to quantify levels of concurrent media usage and produced some interesting findings. The BIGresearch survey found that watching television is the most popular media-related activity during peak hours. Nearly 70% of those questioned said that they watched television… Continue reading US Turns On To Dual-Media Consumption

Young people’s media habits are changing so rapidly that in ten years’ time traditional forms of advertising may no longer be so effective. This was the argument put forward by Mindshareworld’s global head of consumer insight, Sheila Byfield, at the 2002 MRG Conference in Budapest on Wednesday. Presenting research from the recent Snapshot of Youth… Continue reading Traditional Forms Of Advertising Come Under Threat

Advertising revenues at Associated Newspapers fell by 9.6% during the year to 29 September 2002, contributing to a fall in operating profit from £83 million in 2001 to £80 million this time. However, the Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday titles both increased their share of the national newspaper market, despite their cover price increases… Continue reading DMGT Sees National Newspaper Revenues Up 5% By Christmas

Advertising group WPP has confirmed that it has bought the Italian agency Media Club for an undisclosed sum. The deal, which is subject to competition authority clearance, will result in Media Club becoming part of WPP’s Mediaedge:cia operations in Italy. Media Club is based in Milan and Rome and is the country’s leading independent media… Continue reading WPP Acquires Top Italian Agency