HARKER BOS GROUP
Friday Harker Roundup
Friday, December 1, 2017
Thursday Sales No Turkey
November 27, 2017
Online retail sales were up 17.6% Thanksgiving morning over the same time last year, Adobe Inc reports, maintaining a trend of holiday e-commerce sales soaring in November. And, record numbers of consumers were shopping Thursday morning on their smartphones. As of 10 a.m. Eastern time, consumers had spent $360 million online. The 17.6% early year-over-year sales increase was in line with the 17.9% growth in online retail sales from Nov. 1 to Nov. 22 compared to the comparable period last year, the report says. Early Thanksgiving shoppers pulled out their smartphones to shop, and mobile phones alone accounted for a record 44.2% of early Thanksgiving Day traffic to retail websites, up 16% over last year, according to Adobe. The average ticket for Thursday’s orders was $137, 0.8%, higher than the pre-Thanksgiving. Conversion rate also was up across all devices.
Can You Really Grow Revenue With Analytics?
November 27, 2017
The president of analytics firm Decentrix says that you can. By closely monitoring and analyzing the sale operation and taking action based on the data, a TV station "should reasonably expect" to grow spot revenue by more than 11% and achieve a return on its investment in the analytics within months. The broadcast industry has become a complicated place. In addition to dealing with an ongoing period of flat spot TV ad sales, broadcast stations face the prospect of declining ratings and increasing competition from over-the-top (OTT) providers. They are unsure about the true impact of “cord cutting” on their business. They realize they need to develop a strategy for moving into the world of ATSC 3.0, but they don’t know how to chart that course — or even what their end goal should be.
And We’re Off: Holiday Shopping Analysis Is Green
November 28, 2017
Early analysis of Black Friday sales appear to be nice and green. Online retail sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday in the U.S. were up a staggering 17.9% from last year, hitting $7.9 billion, according to Adobe Analytics, which looks at sales at the 100 biggest web retailers in the U.S. For brick-and-mortar retail, research firm ShopperTrak said store traffic fell less than 1% on Black Friday, bucking industry predictions of a sharper decline. In-store sales still account for about 90% of retail purchases, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, although the balance is shifting rapidly. Adobe said $7.9 billion worth of merchandise was purchased online on Thursday and Friday, and expected Cyber Monday to be the largest online shopping day in history, with sales up nearly 17% to $6.6 billion. In fact, according to deals website RetailMeNot, the majority of Americans—56%—said they’ll shop on Cyber Monday, up from 39% last year. Shoppers were projected to spend an average of $205 that day, a 58% increase from last year’s $130.
TV Ad Industry Leaders Gather to Discuss Industry's Future
November 28, 2017
More than 100 of the top executives in the TV advertising, media buying and marketing industries gathered in New York Tuesday morning (Nov. 28) to tackle issues around audience measurement and advertising effectiveness. The meeting was arranged by Linda Yacccarino, chair of advertising sales and client partnerships at NBCUniversal. The TV business has been facing issues involving viewers shifting to non-commercial programming on streaming and on-demand services like Netflix. It has also been struggling to measure viewership as more people watch on their own time and different digital devices. And they are challenge by digital competitors that promise data that does a better job of showing who they reach and how much reaction and sales they generate.
Wanted By Listeners: More Relevant Commercials
November 29, 2017
A majority of music radio listeners say “most commercials don’t apply” to them, according to the latest NuVoodoo Ratings Prospect Study. This theme has been magnified by the fact that these same consumers are served daily messages that focus on their browsing and online purchasing history. They see ads that are relevant to them and have come to expect that. In a blog post, NuVoodoo’s Leigh Jacobs suggests that taking a closer look at radio spot creative could lead to ads that are more relevant for the listening audience. “Stations need to be focused on keeping commercials relevant, interesting and, most importantly, effective,” Jacobs writes. “It’s critical to have as many bodies as possible inside clusters thinking about maximizing effectiveness of the commercials the stations play.” Jerry Lee, owner of AC “More FM at 101.1” WBEB Philadelphia is one of the industry’s strongest proponents for making commercials more engaging and effective.
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