85% Of Teen Brand Word-Of-Mouth Occurs Offline

Online marketing and messages generally are seen as important these days. But a new study finds teens, who exchange opinions and information about brands more than consumers as a whole, use word of mouth.

Contrary to what we might expect, relatively few of those conversations take place online, according to the latest findings from TalkTrack, an ongoing study conducted by market research firm Keller Fay Group, which specializes in word-of-mouth (WOM).

It's true that teens are twice as likely, compared to the general public, to hold brand conversations online. Still, just 13 percent of teens' brand discussions take place online (including email, texting/IM and social networking), compared to seven percent of the general public's discussions.

MediaPost Publications 85% Of Teen Brand Word-Of-Mouth Occurs Offline

"Sponsored Stories" by Facebook Not Seen as "Ads"

Facebook's "Sponsored Stories" program clearly is an "advertising" program, but it is intentionally designed not be be seen as such.

U.S. Tower Business Reaches Maturity

The U.S. tower industry has reached the maturity stage of the growth cycle. Here are eight reasons why some believe that.

1.      Tower companies are moving into international markets to increase their portfolios. Exhibit 1 – American Tower added 8,000 towers in 2010, but only 1,000 were in the U.S.

2.      A close look at financial statements shows that revenue growth is coming from existing tenants rather than from new towers.

3.      More money is chasing towers than there are towers available. Several tower industry veterans with millions of equity investor funds at their disposal cannot find towers for sale.

4.      The build to suit market is ultracompetitive. Many firms that have built towers to meet carrier new site needs have left the market as competition has erased profit margins.

5.      Tower companies are seeking other uses for their cash. The most common tactic is to buy out the leases under their towers. Others are considering increased dividend payments

6.      At least one major tower company is considering changing to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) structure. REIT status provides significant tax benefits to companies who pay out large portions of their earnings as dividends to their investors.

7.      Tower Companies are developing additional service offerings for the carriers in order to find new revenue growth engines. Likewise, tower companies are investing in ownership of fiber and microwave networks that carry wireless traffic from cell sites to switching centers.

8.      Tower companies have traded upside revenue for from new rents for 4G equipment in exchange for extending the term length on their existing collocation agreements.

read more here

IMF to US: take care of deficit, or else

U.S. officials must act quickly to control government deficits or face slower growth and even more difficult choices in the future, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday in a report criticizing the tepid U.S. response to its rising public debt.

The IMF warning comes as federal officials grapple with a congressional projection this week that the annual deficit will reach a historic $1.5 trillion this year. This was the latest report to raise concerns about how massive government debts in developed countries could undermine the global economic recovery.

“The U.S. has a lot of credibility. This does not imply their credibility can last forever,” IMF fiscal affairs director Carlo Cottarelli said as he released the IMF study. It concluded that the United States is falling behind on a promise it made to other top economic countries to halve its budget deficit by 2013.

IMF to US: Better start taking care of business

Smart Grid Apps for LTE

Alcatel-Lucent and Tantalus have developed a "smart grid" system using Long Term Evolution networks. The system is important because "machine to machine" communications are expected to provide a key revenue segment for wireless providers, allowing mobile service providers to move beyond revenue models based on "devices used by people," to all sorts of other applications where sensors talk to machines.

Alcatel-Lucent and Tantalus have developed meter collectors and video cameras that will be connected over an LTE network.

Smart grid and other sensor-based applications will be important on the front end of the mobile business as drivers of new revenue, but also important on the back end, in terms of contributing to need for backhaul, middle mile and other capabilities.

LTE Coming Soon to the Smart Grid

Would You Bet Against Apple?

You might be the sort of person who bets against Apple. If so, you'll probably bet against Apple succeeding in any significant way with its rumored mobile payments. The argument against success as a retail store payment vehicle (Apple might builds on iTunes for some other payment-related function) probably starts with the "what's the additional value" argument, but that applies to all proposed systems.

The assumption is that Apple's mobile payment system would have to be as convenient as a credit card swipe. That same objection applies to all other systems as well. Some might argue a mobile payment alternative does not save time; Apple won't either; therefore there is no value and no reason to adopt. Apple will have also have to piggyback off of, or have retail partners deploy, the near field communication terminals required on the retailer end of the transaction That's another barrier.

One possible advantage Apple gains with this new payment scheme is Apple mobile payments bypass the credit card processing fees Apple currently pays for each iTunes transaction. Some might question value for retailer partners and end users. If Apple decides to share those savings with retailers, and rewards users with some loyalty program at the same time, there's the answer to "how do retailers and users benefit."

There are big barriers to mobile payments adoption, ranging from handset capabilities and user habits to entrenched and efficient existing payment systems. But big changes in user behavior have occurred before, when the value was understood. That doesn't mean mobile payments will succeed wildly in the next 12 months or even 24 months. But it could, and Apple starts with a different perspective: it doesn't want to disrupt the traditional payments business. It only wants to enhance the value and stickiness of iTunes.

Apple doesn't have to look first and foremost at its potential direct revenue or profit margin. It doesn't worry so much about those things when it sells music or video or movies. It just wants to make iTunes and its "i" devices so useful and popular that people keep buying them. That makes for a dangerous competitor. Essentially, Apple wants to "give away" what other people need to "get paid for." That is the underlying power of disruption in the Internet space, always.

It's too early to know who wins, or whether Apple will be among them, or why it might win. But Apple, and others, will be dangerous to the extent they clearly understand they have existing revenue models that are enhanced if they extend themselves into mobile payments in some way. The best-placed players might just be those with an existing and powerful revenue model that gets more powerful with mobile payments, without the need to make additional revenue from the payments process itself.

read more here

Top Brands: Apple, Google, BMW

Google, Apple and BMW are top brands in a new survey.