Thanks to everyone who submitted an entry in the Nielsen Data Visualization Contest, as well as those who shared, posted, advocated, and voted. Working at Nielsen puts me at intersection of data and design every day. In my view there has never been a more exciting place to be. There’s a kind of magic that happens when you liberate numbers from the confines of a spreadsheet and find a hidden nugget of insight. The reason for this actually isn’t that magical – it just has to do with the way the brain processes information.

For too long, data analysis has been the dominion of the left brain. The left brain is really good at Excel. It rules rational, logical thought. It loves big data, which is a good thing, because when you’re collecting, sifting, and processing data, you need to do it in the most rational, logical way to ensure you’re getting the highest quality output. But when it comes to dealing with that big data — combining it, deriving insight and ultimately making an impact, the left brain cedes control to the right side – the creative, emotional side. The right brain loves pictures. It loves daydreaming. While the left brain loves managing data, the right brain loves uncovering opportunities.

So what happens when you take these left-brain outputs and turn them into right-brain food? The whole brain is engaged in a high-order dance. We don’t just get the point, we actually care about it. And we see opportunities for those insights to make an impact in our increasingly complex world. This is the power of data visualization and the reason it’s so hot right now

Great visualizations aren’t just pretty pictures; they use visuals to help combine, contextualize, and derive insight from the data. They rely on visual cues that we have evolved to understand implicitly, to help the right brain see what the left brain can’t. Most importantly, they use design to communicate – to help lead the audience through a narrative, or invite them to create their own.

As these contest finalists show, great visualization remembers that form follows function.

Megan Hillman

Megan has taken the traditional graphic formats, and made them easier to understand by putting them in context, and easier to read through.

Gavin Jensen

How a composition index number relates to average is hard to envision, but Gavin’s entry used color and shape (arrows) to make them easier to understand.

Ashish Naidu

Ashish used doughnut charts can compare across media types within context. Since this doesn’t add up to 100%, using a pie chart as a percent of the entire population helps keep each in context.

June YeEun Sung and Oddie Goplan

In this interactive entry you can see very quickly how your usage compares to other, which makes it more relevant to understand the world around you.

George Zhang

George used a very journalistic approach, going from general to specific insights. This entry puts numbers in a human context we can understand.

So what’s next? To me, the results of this contest prove a couple of things. Firstly, there’s huge enthusiasm around the idea of visualizing data, and it’s a worthwhile conversation for Nielsen to facilitate. Secondly, there are two really strong camps in the data visualization world: infographics, which use visuals to lead you through a narrative, and complex data visualization, which presents the data in an entirely new way, either making a conclusion blindingly obvious or allowing you to explore and draw your own conclusion. I’m really intrigued to see what will happen in this space and share more.

Public voting in the DataViz contest remains open through monday  May 21, 2012 at 5pm ET, so please visit the contest page and vote for your favorites today!

Some things haven’t changed, however. The Top Five Apps continue to be Facebook, YouTube, Android Market, Google Search, and Gmail. And smartphone owners spend just about the same amount of time on apps each day (37 minutes a day in 2011 compared to 39 minutes today). Finally, privacy continues to be a concern with the vast majority (70% in 2011 and 73% in 2012) expressing concern over personal data collection and 55 percent wary of sharing information about their location via smartphone apps.

While the in-home TV and computer are still the most popular devices to watch video content, usage and growth in online and mobile technologies is making a sustained impact. Three-quarters (74%) of global respondents report watching video via the Internet (on any device), up four points since 2010, and over half of global online consumers (56%) say they watch video on a mobile phone at least once a month and 28 percent at least once a day.

Mobile video is particularly prominent in Asia-Pacific and Middle East/African regions, where 74 and 72 percent of online consumers, respectively, report watching video on mobile phones at least once a month, and almost 40 percent (38% and 37%, respectively) say they do so at least once a day. While mobile video is currently less prominent in North America than in other parts of the world, it is seeing the highest growth rates in mobile phone video consumption. Thirty-eight percent of North American respondents say they watch mobile video once a month, up eight points compared to the 2010 reported results.

“The convenience of mobile connectivity has revolutionized how people are engaging with digital content and each other around the world,” said Dounia Turrill, SVP, Client Insights, Nielsen. “With the growth of smartphones, mobile video consumption is on the rise for entertainment content, particularly in emerging markets where many consumers leapfrog home Internet altogether in favor of the all-in-one smartphone.”

For more, download Global Online Consumers and Multi-Screen Media: Today and Tomorrow

About the report
The Nielsen Global Survey of Multi-Screen Media Usage was conducted in August/September 2011 and polled more than 28,000 consumers in 56 countries throughout Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and North America. The sample has quotas based on age and sex for each country based on their Internet users, and is weighted to be representative of Internet consumers and has a maximum margin of error of ±0.6%. This Nielsen survey is based on the behavior of respondents with online access only. Internet penetration rates vary by country. Nielsen uses a minimum reporting standard of 60 percent Internet penetration or 10M online population for survey inclusion. The Nielsen Global Survey was established in 2005.

Social Networking

American moms use social media frequently, with nearly three out of four moms visiting Facebook during March 2012. When using social media, moms are 38 percent more likely to become a fan of or follow a brand online, and moms who blog are more than twice as likely to follow brands and celebrities compared to the online average.

Moms visit blogs more often, and are 27 percent more likely to visit Blogger and 26 percent more likely to visit Wordpress.com than the general online population. In fact about one in three bloggers are moms, and 52 percent of bloggers are parents with kids under 18 in their household.

Shopping and Surfing

To help save time and money, many moms shop online; moms are 35 percent more likely to shop for clothes, 50 percent more likely to buy toys, 29 percent more likely to buy music, and 23 percent more likely to purchase e-books online within the past 30 days. When browsing the web Pinterest is an increasing popular as well, with almost 5 million American moms visiting the site, representing more than a third of their unique visitors from home computers during March 2012.

According to an earlier study by NM Incite, at least half of moms use social media via mobile devices, compared to 37 percent of the online population. Overall 54 percent of moms own smartphones (among US mobile subscribers), keeping them connected with family and friends.

To learn more about the digital habits of moms, sign-up for Nielsen’s upcoming webinar, The American Media Mom: Always-On, In Control, and Changing the Rules for Marketers

• Men spend 50 percent more time browsing the web on their smartphones than women.
• Women spend 3 hours more on calls every month as compared to men.
• Women spend 4 times the amount of time men spend on Instant Messaging (Chat) applications.
• Men experiment more with apps – they install, on an average, 16 applications in a month compared to just 11 by women.

Calls & Messaging
Women spend nearly 20 hours a month on calls and messaging which is almost 33 percent more than time spent by men on the same activity. Also, incoming and outgoing calls both last longer among women.

Web Browsing
Men spend 50 percent more time browsing on their smartphones than women. The average number of websites visited by men is 20 in a month compared to just 14 among women. However, women prefer social sites more than men as 43 percent of web pages visited by women are social networking sites, compared to just 32 percent for men.

Online Applications
Women use online apps substantially higher compared to men, driven mainly by chat apps such as WhatsApp Messenger (which women use three times as much as men), Google Talk and Nimbuzz. Men however, don’t mind asking for directions on their smartphones, accessing the Google Maps app more than women (45% vs 32%). Men also install more apps than women – 16 applications in a month compared to just 11 by women. For both men and women around 20 percent of all apps installed are online apps.

About Nielsen Informate
Nielsen Informate  Mobile Insights leverages innovative smartphone metering technology to provide intelligence into evolving consumption patterns of mobile device users. Based on accurate, real-time usage data, we help clients understand consumer behavior and develop product and marketing strategies. Nielsen Informate maintains opt-in smartphone panels to generate syndicated reports, in addition to building custom panels and conducting custom surveys for clients. Our insights aid decision makers across various segments like operators, OEMs, publishers, advertisers, content creators and aggregators and application developers.

Now, Nielsen is calling on data visualization enthusiasts from around the world to cast their vote for the Fan Favorite award.

A panel of Nielsen Data Visualization Contest judges scored the entries for innovation and beauty in design and accuracy of interpretation, and has narrowed the field down to a select group of finalists for the Fan Favorite portion of the contest.

“There was great diversity in the interpretation of the data. Some people told a story, some made the data interactive, and others focused on intriguing visuals,” said Ana Mackay-Sim, Nielsen’s Global Creative Director.

(Click image to view full size PDF)

Dustin Poh is currently completing his degree in graphic design, after serving in the U.S. Air Force for four years. He decided to enter the contest to help build his portfolio as he prepares for a career in marketing and design. For him the contest was “a good opportunity to work with real-world data” while building out his portfolio.

“Before I joined the military, design was always something I wanted to do,” Dustin said “I always had an interest, and college has given me the skills.”

When deciding how to tell the story for his entry, Dustin said it “depends on your audience demographic and your content. I spent so many hours reading over it, trying to connect the dots between stories.”

He started his design by looking at the data, mapping out his ideas, bullet-pointing key statistics to include in his story and ultimately deciding an infographic as his presentation medium because “infographics tend to be more content driven.”

As the winner of the Nielsen Data Visualization Contest Judge’s Choice, Dustin will receive $2,000 in American Express Rewards cards and other prizes. The Fan Favorite winner will receive a similar prize package, so be sure to cast your vote here! Public voting will remain open through May 21, 2012 at 5pm ET, so please visit the contest page and vote for your favorites.

Other findings include:

• Spending on cable TV has increased steadily over the last few years, up 42 percent from 2007.
• The average TV commercial in 2011 was 28.4 seconds.
• Spanish-language cable and network TV saw double digit growth in ad spend, up 24 percent and 16 percent, respectively, from 2010.
• Automotive was the largest category for advertising spend across all media, with $10.2 billion spent by automotive brands in 2011, more than twice as much as the second-largest category—quick-service restaurants.
• AT&T and Verizon were the top TV spenders during 2011 for brands AT&T Wireless Web Access ($1.1 billion) and Verizon Wireless Web Access ($702.2 million).

Download all three installments of Nielsen’s State of the Media: Advertising & Audiences Report:

• State of the Media: Advertising & Audiences Part 3: By Media Type
• State of the Media: Advertising & Audiences Part 2: By Demographic
• State of the Media: Advertising & Audiences Part 1: Primetime by Genre

Who makes up this growing group of smartphone owners in the U.S.? As of Q1 2012:

• 50.9 percent of female mobile subscribers carried smartphones in March 2012, compared to 50.1 percent for men.
• Looking at multiple smartphones are particularly popular among those ages 25 to 34: More than two out of three in this age group have a smartphone.
• Asian Americans lead smartphone adoption with 67.3 percent using a smartphone as their primary mobile handset.
• Almost three in five Hispanic mobile subscribers use smartphones, and a majority of African-Americans own smartphones

TV is Still the Center of Viewing
In the past year, the number of homes with an HDTV grew by more than 8 million to 80.2 million, leaving little doubt that the TV screen remains the dominant platform on which to consume video content. But the means by which the content is delivered appear to be shifting.

Traditional—live and timeshifted—TV viewing remains the primary role of the TV, accounting for more than 33 hours per week despite a decline one half of one percent in time spent compared to Q4 2010. To fill the gap, consumers are finding new ways to use their TVs.

Game Consoles Now in Nearly Half of TV Homes
Consoles have become strategically positioned as a secondary gateway to TV content, and can now be found in 45 percent of TV homes, an increase of three percent over last year. With Netflix and other streaming apps, Blu-ray players, social gaming and point of purchase seamlessly integrated into game consoles, it is no surprise that consumers are relying on their consoles to perform double (and triple) duty. These new activities are adding up and contributing to the growth of content consumption. Interestingly, households without children are leading the way in new game console adoption, demonstrating that game consoles are appealing to a range of audiences for a variety of purposes.

Mobile Viewership Small but Growing
With improving screens, Internet connectivity and the advantage of being “the best screen available” while on the go, smartphones are increasingly becoming portable TVs. In fact, 33.5 million mobile phone owners now watch video on their phones—an increase of 35.7 percent since last year. While mobile phones won’t replace other screens anytime soon, they are part of the ever-increasing number of ways in which consumers consume content.

For more information and insights, download Nielsen’s latest Cross-Platform Report.