Amazon emerged as the clear category leader among mass merchandiser brands. Seventy-two million visitors, about one in three active web users, browsed the online shopping site in September 2011 for an average of 29 minutes per person. Walmart’s followed as the second-ranked site, where 34.5 million visitors spent an average of 13 minutes per person on the site. Target, Shopathome.com, and Overstock.com rounded out the top five most visited mass merchandiser websites.

Women made up the majority of visitors to both categories of websites. More than three out of four women who were active online visited consumer electronics sites during September 2011, compared to seven out of 10 men. Women were also 7 percent more likely to visit mass merchandiser sites. Young people aged 18-34 were slightly more likely than the general population (4 percent more likely) to visit consumer electronics sites.

For additional insights on consumer electronics and media usage, download Nielsen’s State of the Media: Consumer Usage Report.

In today’s fragmented media landscape, where entertainment programming and content is accessible across all digital platforms, advertisers need to plan and allocate ad budgets as efficiently as possible. For advertisers, this means utilizing advanced media analytics to plan campaigns and ensure the right message gets to the right people. At Nielsen’s Consumer 360 client event in Orlando Florida, Paul Swiontkowski and Kim Stanford from Microsoft shared how they efficiently delivered television ads to the viewers most likely to respond to Microsoft’s message.

In a recent effort to drive Internet users to Bing, Microsoft sought to reach their heaviest web search engine users—the 20 percent of Americans who perform approximately 80 percent of all online searches. Using insights from Nielsen’s cross-platform panel, which measures both TV and Internet use from a single-source sample, Microsoft identified the TV networks, programs, and dayparts most watched. By shifting advertising campaign dollars, Microsoft improved the efficiency of their ad buy by 25 percent—effectively reaching the right consumers with the right message.

“You need to capitalize on the opportunity to optimize campaign performance by focusing on the consumer and not the marketing channel,” said Swiontkowski. “Know how you are going to target your best customers.” TV buying suffers from the multiplicity syndrome: who we want to message, who we think we want to message and who we end up messaging.

In the end, Bing reached about 70 percent of U.S. audience, missing about 20 percent of their target. “The people we thought we were reaching were actually not the heavy-searcher segment and we spent 60 percent of our budget reaching people outside our target,” commented Swiontkowski. In order to get to a more precise reading and better reach the core target, Microsoft relied on integrated TV /Internet research to pinpoint the programs that heavy searchers watched.

“Only about 10 years ago did the Internet become an integral part of the marketing mix,” said Kim Stanford. “Companies are really harnessing the value that digital can play. And while TV is still an important part of the mix, it is evolving.”

Stanford discussed two extreme views of digital:

1. Digital extends reach.  Get the word out.
2. Digital extends frequency to persuade. Deliver the message by leveraging frequency.

The key to both strategies is controlling frequency. The power of combined TV/Internet is so much greater than each individually. So how do you find the perfect sweet spot? Know what the strategy is and what the frequency level needs to be.

It is critical to understand what you are getting for each media dollar spent. “Be clear on how the mediums are going to work for you and continuously measure it throughout,” said Stanford. “We know the sum of the parts can be greater than the whole.” The value you bring to the integration is critical. It is still not a perfect world, but we are getting to a more holistic view.

Example:  The data indicates that 62.3 million home and work Internet users visited at least one of the Wikimedia Foundation-owned sites or launched a Wikimedia Foundation-owned application during the month, and each person spent, on average, a total of 15 minutes and 21 seconds at one or more of their sites or applications.

The parent level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single company or division. The brand level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content.

As a way to help get better answers for media companies and advertisers, and to begin to establish a standard metric for game play that can be compared to other media measurement, The Nielsen Company teamed up with Microsoft and conducted a pilot study that took a closer look at the video game-playing audience. Initial findings from the study were presented at this week’s Ad:Tech conference.

To get a clearer picture of who’s playing what, when, and for how long, watermarks were placed in Season 2 of the Xbox LIVE game “1 vs 100.” Using the same Nielsen panel used to measure TV, we were able to draw comparisons between a video game audience and a TV audience. For example, while Nielsen’s Video Game Play metrics can provide a snapshot of who’s playing a specific console, the addition of the watermark provided the ability to get specific audience data on a title-level.

The consumption of Xbox 360 console usage minutes by 18-34 year olds is generally 45 percent. When looking at the gamer profile for Xbox LIVE’s “1 vs 100” game show, 18-34 year olds made up 55 percent of the player set. These specific metrics help to provide the type of insights advertisers and media planners need to compare video game platforms to other types of media.

Nielsen data for the Xbox 360 shows that month-to-month, between 20-25 percent of Xbox 360 consoles are active during prime time hours in Nielsen homes. With the Xbox 360 being a multimedia device capable of not only playing games, but also movies, TV content, music, and social media interaction via Facebook and Twitter, the need to measure all of its capabilities has been a popular client request.

Time Spent Playing
The Nielsen and Microsoft joint study evaluated 13 weeks of programming from November 2009 through February 2010. The Xbox LIVE game show “1 vs 100” was available for play in two forms, “1 vs 100 Live” in which a live host, Chris Cashman, provided commentary and real prizes were awarded, as well as “1 vs 100 Extended Play,” where players could practice in more condensed, theme-based versions of the show.

Based on panel and meter date, the average length of play for “1 vs 100” (both Live and Extended Play sessions combined) is more than 70 minutes. More impressively, , the average length of play during “1 vs 100 Live” is87 minutes. Both types of play offer advertising integration during the “game breaks” after each set of 10 questions.

“Advertisers should be very interested to see the amount of time consumers spend interacting with these games – especially during those appointment-based ‘1 vs 100 Live’ sessions,” said Gerardo Guzman, Nielsen Games. “What makes this pilot study so important is the potential for precise audience segmenting. As more game companies and advertisers participate in studies like these, we’re able to define and refine an efficient set of metrics for gaming that can be compared against other media.”

“Our independent research shows that gamers are very engaged while playing, especially during Live Play,” said Carolyn Fuson, Sr. Audience and Analysis Manager, Xbox LIVE Advertising. “In one specific case, an advertiser who placed ads within the games saw notable brand recall and lift. Our ability to learn more about the audience can only be a positive to those brands looking to make an impact on the growing gaming community.”

Example:  The data indicates that 67.3 million home and work Internet users visited at least one of the Wikimedia Foundation-owned sites or launched a Wikimedia Foundation-owned application during the month, and each person spent, on average, a total of 13 minutes and 51 seconds at one or more of their sites or applications.

The parent level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single company or division. The brand level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content.

Globally, social networks and blogs are the most popular online category when ranked by average time spent in December, followed by online games and instant messaging. With 206.9 million unique visitors, Facebook was the No. 1 global social networking destination in December 2009 and 67% of global social media users visited the site during the month. Time on site for Facebook has also been on the rise, with global users spending nearly six hours per month on the site.

U.S. Growth in Average time Person on Facebook and Twitter Outpaces Growth of Overall Category
People in the U.S. continue to spend more time on social networking and blog sites as well, with total minutes increasing 210% year-over-year and the average time per person increasing 143% year-over-year in December 2009. Year-over-year growth in average time spent by U.S. users, for both Facebook and Twitter.com, outpaced the overall growth for the category, increasing 200% and 368%, respectively. Among, the top five U.S. social networking sites, Twitter.com continued its reign as the fastest-growing in December 2009 in terms of unique visitors, increasing 579% year-over-year, from 2.7 million unique visitors in December 2008 to 18.1 million in December 2009. However, month-over-month, unique visitors decreased 5%

Australia Leads in Average Time Spent per Person on Social Media Sites in December
When narrowed by individual country, with 142.1 million unique visitors the United States had the largest number of social media and blog users in December, followed by Japan, which had 46.6 million unique visitors during the month. Australia led in average time per person spent, with the average Australian spending nearly 7 hours on social media sites in December. The United States and the United Kingdom came in a close second and third, with 6 hours and 9 minutes and 6 hours and 8 minutes, respectively.

*Global data takes into account the following countries: U.S., U.K., Australia, Brazil, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain and Italy

Example:  The data indicates that 63.8 million home and work Internet users visited at least one of the Apple Computer-owned sites or launched an Apple Computer-owned application during the month, and each person spent, on average, a total of 1 hour, 27 minutes and 45 seconds at one or more of their sites or applications.

The parent level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single company or division. The brand level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content.