40% U.S. Mobile Broadband Adoption

To the extent that U.S. consumers are not using mobile broadband, availability is not the problem.

Well over 90 percent of locations now are 3G enabled.

ComScore says the United States caught up with Western Europe in the adoption of 3G in June 2008, with 28.4 percent of American mobile subscribers having 3G devices versus 28.3 percent in the largest countries in Europe.

U.S. 3G penetration went past 40 percent in the first quarter of 2009, says wireless data analyst Chetan Sharma.

Enterprise C Suites Now are "Digital"

A generational shift is occurring in U.S. enterprise "C" title ranks, but one trend already is clear: the Internet has become the top information resource. Some 81 percent of respondents 50 or younger are on the Internet daily while 62 percent of executives older than that did so.

Also, most C-title executives at firms making more than $1 billion in annual revenue have shifted their information-gthering strategies away from traditional media and to Internet-based media.

When consuming "traditional media" at work, 70 percent of respondents say they get that information online. When consuming "traditional broadcast media" at work, 69 percent use the Internet.

C-suite executives do their own searches. That is a sharp break from the way most such executives probably worked decades ago, when "middle managers" gathered information and passed it up to the C suites. These days, the C suite knows it can get information directly, and does so.

Also, video and social communities are growing in importance, the survey reveals. About 33 percent of 50-and-under executives view work-related videos "daily," while 31 percent use a Web-enabled mobile device to search for information related to business.

The mean age of all executives taking this survey was 46.7 years. But there remains one glaring exception to the trend: only one percent of those over the age of 50 provide daily contributions to a work-related blog. Another four percent in this age group say they contribute several times a week, the Forbes Insights study found.

In contrast, 35 percent of executives ages 40 to 49 say they maintain a work-related blog daily. That figure increases to 56 percent of the executives under the age of 40.

That probably matches what you would have guessed: younger and "middle-aged" people have gotten comfortable with the new technologies while older people tend to resist. That same pattern was found for computer use, Internet use or email in the ealier days as well.

Overall, about three percent of surveyed executives over 50 participate in Twitter or another microblog. In contrast, 34 percent of the executives ages 40 to 49 participate. Among users under the age of 40, 56 percent of the executives under 40 participate.

The top three research topics that C-level executives seek are competitor analysis (53 percent), customer trends (41 percent), and corporate developments (39 percent).

Of those executives in sales and marketing, 76 percent say they seek customer trends. Of those executives in finance, 63 percent said they seek competitor analysis. Of those executives in IT, 59 percent seek technology trends.

The study, "The Rise of the Digital C-Suite," is based on a survey of 354 executives at U.S. companies with annual sales in excess of $1 billion. It also included one-on-interviews. Nearly half held C-level titles, such as CEO, CMO, and CIO; the others held senior-level titles, such as EVP, VP, and director. A total of 12 percent identified themselves as working in sales and marketing.

http://www.forbes.com/forbesinsights/digital_csuite/index.html

U.S. Will Leap Over Europe in Mobile Advertising Within 2 Years

Alex Moukas, CEO of Velti, the top European mobile ad company, said he fully expects the U.S. to leap ahead of Europe in mobile advertising within two years. That would be a switch, as U.S. practitioners have lagged their European counterparts up to this point.

So far this year, mobile advertising is the second most-popular marketing channel, following the Web.

Campaigns sending traffic to site increased 10.46 percent in June, says Millenial Media. The study also found that the average number of monthly page views per user was 99 page views.

Verizon Wireless to Voluntarily Limit Exclusive Handset Deals

In a wise and fairly clear attempt to head off more regulations, Verizon Wireless now says it will allow small wireless carriers to use its popular and "exclusive" handset models after six months. Smaller wireless providers have been complaining that exclusive handset deals represent unfair competition.

"Any new exclusively arrangement we enter with handset makers will last no longer than six months, for all manufacturers and all devices," Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam has told key Congressional lawmakers.

Some consumer advocates also object to handset bundling, for similar reasons. But some economists have pointed out that bundling promotes competition and innvoation, as it provides incentive to introduce new features and models. "Exclusivity arrangements promote competition and innovation in device development and design," McAdam says. "This new approach is fair to all sides."

It isn't immediately clear whether the new policy also applies to wholesale customers.

Online is the Only Growing Ad Business

ZenithOptimedia has raised its forecast for Internet advertising to10.1 percent global growth globally in 2009, up from the 8.6 percent it predicted in April 2009. By 2011 ZenithOptimedia expects online to account for 15.1 percent of all ad expenditure, up from 10.5 percent in 2008.

Most of this growth will come from paid search,. In the United States search advertising to grow 20 percent in 2009, while traditional display grows three percent and classified grows 1.8 percent.

The Internet is the only medium ZenithOptimedia expects to grow in 2009.

Does National Broadband Policy Make a Difference?

How important are national broadband policies in explaining broadband adoption rates?

Apparently not so important, according to economists at the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies.

In fact, "91 percent of the differences in fixed broadband adoption rates in the 30 OECD member countries can be explained by reference solely to differences in income, education, population age, and other demographic factors that bear little relationship to broadband or telecommunications policy," the Phoenix Center says in a new study.

That isn't to say government regulations and policies are unimportant. It's just to say that such policies explain about nine percent of adoption rate results.

Big Brand Marketing: What's Up, What's Down?

At a time when big brand marketing budgets have been cut about 20 percent on average,some channels, at many companies, are getting more funding: social media, Web site development, online advertising, and email marketing.

Traditional media is taking a hit, though. About 67 percent of big brand marketers say they have decreased spending on TV, print, radio and magazines (click on image for larger view).

About 52 percent say they have decreased spending on direct mail.

But 47 percent of respondents say they are spending 47 percent more on social media. About seven percent say they are spending less.

About 44 percent are spending more on Web sites, while 22 percent say they are spending less. Online advertising is being hiked at 40 percent of firms, while declining at 27 percent of companies. Email marketing is up at 38 percent of firms and down at 11 percent of big brand companies.

Perhaps significantly, the top two reasons why spending is being cut, the logic is a combination of tight budgets and inability to track ROI or track results.

That is important going forward as the recession will end. Budgets will grow again. But the desire for quantifiable returns of some sort will remain. And that will favor online and mobile campaigns.