As of February 2009, slightly more than one-third of American TV homes had at least one HDTV, a marked increase from November 2008, when 29.2 percent of homes had one, and a huge leap from February 2008 when only 19.3 percent of homes had one. Indeed, a separate Nielsen report found that HDTVs were the single most popular home entertainment system purchases during the holidays. Asian households had the greatest penetration – 41.8 percent – while African-American homes had the lowest at 25.9 percent.

Where are people putting their new TV sets? Nearly two-thirds are located in common areas such as the living or family room. In homes with more than one HDTV, the second set is usually located in a master bedroom. This switch to HDTV doesn’t necessarily mean that households are ditching their old standard sets; they are simply re-locating them to other rooms such as bedrooms and the basement, and may use them for a dedicated purpose, such as video gaming. Overall, the average U.S. household now has 2.6 TV sets.

“It’s clear that despite the current economic climate, HD remains on course to become the benchmark in TV viewing. As prices of HDTVs continue to fall — a trend that might accelerate in the current environment — and circumstances such as the digital transition create new opportunities to promote the sets and programming, HDTV will continue to gain a greater foothold in U.S. television homes,” said Steve McGowan, Senior Vice President, Insights and Client Research Initiatives, Nielsen.

Click here to read the full Nielsen HD TV report.

At the same time, technology is having a measurable impact on retail sales.  In a recent U.S. study, Nielsen measured more than 200 digital ad campaigns and found the following:

• Average of 32% sales increase
• $1.1 million hike in short-term incremental sales
• 157% return on investment
• 18% boost in penetration
• 14% surge in buying rate

In addition to online ads, retailers are using scanning technology to enable consumers to check-out faster, create and retrieve shopping lists and even find and print recipes.  Read more about how technology is transforming both the retail environment and consumer shopping experience in the new edition of Consumer Insight.

Todd Hale, SVP, Consumer & Shopper Insights, and George Wishart, Global Managing Director for Nielsen In-Store Services, The Nielsen Company

SUMMARY: Inspector Gadget has taken up residence in retail stores, with coupon-dispensing kiosks, Web TV cooking programs, self-checkout scanners, smart carts picking products based on grocery lists, text reminders of last minute items, and Internet sites that track purchases and analyze nutritional content. Technology is changing the rules at retail.

Reaching consumers is both easier and more complex as outreach options proliferate. With the growth of cable and satellite, TV channel availability has more than tripled since 1990. And while traditional vehicles are still vital, more immediate and ubiquitous media are taking a hold. Online and mobile video viewing is exploding and time-shifted TV is growing.

Market-leading retailers are learning to embrace new media technologies, incorporating them into the promotional arsenal even as paper coupons enjoy a resurgence of interest. Everyone’s feeling the pinch from a volatile economy and looking for ways to conserve. As a result, manufacturer-driven coupon redemption in the U.S. surged nearly 10% in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to Inmar CMS Promotion Services.

For the year ending February 2009, Nielsen determined that more than one-third of dollar sales at food, drug and mass merchandiser stores were sold on promotion in the U.S., accounting for some $133 billion excluding coupons. Inmar determined that, while manufacturer FSI coupons represent roughly 80% of redemptions, manufacturer online coupons comprise the fastest-growing subset.

Web wise
Online merchandising is beginning to make inroads at many retailers, although for some, web pages often mimic the layout and look of printed weekly feature advertisement inserts. However, many manufacturers—especially those in the health and wellness field and discretionary categories like carbonated beverages and candy—are taking full advantage of the web’s highly engaging interactivity by featuring sites with games, e-cards, activities, videos, commercials, recipes, ring tones, personalized planners, and clubs that include special discounts and reminders.

In a recent U.S. study, Nielsen measured more than 200 digital ad campaigns which averaged a 32% sales increase, $1.1million hike in short term incremental retail sales, 157% return on investment, 18% boost in penetration and 14% surge in the buying rate. Impressive results all, signaling the strength and potential of visually-exciting, content-rich, interactive digital media.

Niche players like Dollar General keep their online outreach focus narrow to enhance impact, addressing just three primary areas on their web site: pets, easy meals and store brands. Others take a different tack and adopt the posture of trusted friend and resource like the Walgreens monthly Wellness online newsletter and news service covering everything from drug interactions to seasonal health challenges to caregiver support forums.

Retailers had best hone their electronic marketing chops quickly. Waiting in the wings to take a bite out of brick-and-mortar grocery sales are two companies that excel at marketing online and are hungry to expand into food: Amazon and AOL.

Getting personal
Food Lion’s Bloom format encourages consumer engagement via Breeze kiosks that feature handheld scanners that enable consumers to scan and bag as they shop, see a running total and speed-up checkout. Freestanding Breeze info displays allow shoppers to check prices, retrieve shopping lists, find and print recipes, and even generate bar-coded price stickers for random weight items.

Ahold’s Stop & Shop chain deploys self-scanner and kiosk technology in many of its stores to enhance consumer convenience. Shoppers enter stores, place their deli orders via a kiosk, finish the rest of their shopping and pick-up their custom order at the deli counter, without having to queue in line.

Ukrop’s Super Markets developed the Savings Spot to leverage the value of its frequent shopper program. Valued Customer program members insert their card into the kiosk, and seconds later, it dispenses as many as eight product offers reflecting individual customer preferences based on prior shopping history.

Simply mobile
With the declining performance of traditional media outlets like newspapers, marketers are exploring emerging vehicles which operate on mobile platforms such as social networking, texting, video and tailored promotional codes and coupons. The iPhone opened up a whole new world of more than 25,000 applications covering every interest and need—from budgeting to calculating tips to bill paying to shopping. Skeptics waiting to see if iPhones will catch on should take note of the fact that Apple can boast more than 800 million downloads and counting.

Mixing it up
Not all marketing is created equal or enjoys equal impact on consumer segments. Even within a store environment, different media and positions generate vastly different impressions. Take this recent example from a Nielsen U.S. study, where gross impressions per store for carbonated beverages delivered a high of about 32,000 exposures for an endcap runway display positioned front-of-store, versus a low of barely 5,000 for a household cleaning aisle endcap.

Another look at differences by type of marketing vehicle and store location established that an in-store flyer ad provided a sales lift of 18%, followed by a slat/wall display at 17%, case stacker display at 16%, shelf coupon dispenser at 14%, endcap display at 13%, power wing display at 12%, freestanding display at 8% and shelftalker at 4%. These huge lift differences among the various displays located in different parts of the store indicate that there will potentially be big sales variations as retailers continue to deploy new marketing strategies using emerging technologies.

A word of caution, however, is necessary.  Without coordination among the various technology platforms, there is the potential for adding clutter and potentially conflicting messages.  A plan that has inconsistent ad space coverage on everything from the in-store radio network to the deli/produce and check-out screens may turn out to be a noisy mess.

Paperless future
If media diversification and proliferation continue apace, marketers can expect feature ads as we know them to disappear over the next five years. Coupons will go paperless and coupon delivery will occur in-store and in-aisle—literally at the point of purchase. Shoppers will deploy mobile devices to seek out and “pull down” messages ranging from recipes to promotions as they shop the store.

Consumers hungry for recipe ideas or product recommendations can text or “tweet” friends, and visit “foodie” social media sites and blogs for inspiration as they walk store aisles. Traditional ad formats will yield to the immediacy and brevity of vehicles like Twitter tweets, which enjoy the boost of enhanced credibility from peer group product champions.

Human touch
As the media shakeout continues, marketers will be experimenting with different mixes of media and schedules. Given the wide range of consumer technology savvy and comfort levels, retailers will need to embrace the best of the new and retain the best of the old techniques. Self checkout is a prime example of this hybrid strategy. It’s great for small orders and bar-coded items, but still requires a human intervention for random weight items requiring help with PLU codes or to tweak twitchy scanners.

Even as RFID tags, audio capture, wi-fi, dual sensors, ultrasonic and thermal technology gets integrated into the store setting, employees remain a primary consumer touchpoint. Well-trained, proactive employees serve as the face and voice of a retailer, humanizing the experience as no media can. Human capital remains a significant investment area with unmatched potential for generating shopper loyalty and an impressive ROI.

HDTV flat screen televisions dominated, with 3D, Internet-enabled and ultra-thin and flexible screens on display.  New sets with on-screen interactive “widgets” to click to additional information and services were demonstrated by Yahoo!, Intel and Samsung.  Using this functionality, consumers can check their stock portfolios, the weather, sports or a host of other activities.  There were also Blu-ray devices with the ability to access the internet for movies from Netflix with a simple click of the remote.  Tru2way digital set top technology, wireless HD capability and location-aware GPS capability increasingly built into most new products were also featured.  Increasingly, the “always connected” promise of the Internet was featured in an array of devices with location awareness which likely means that targeting applications will rapidly increase to small personal devices we carry in everyday life.

“It’s clear that electronics companies are focused on making products work better and faster and with an eye toward styling and design.  Simplicity is key, as is providing tangible “connected” value to consumers.  Having attended a number of these shows, I was genuinely impressed with the innovation on display, despite a turbulent economy in 2009″ said Scott Brown, SVP, Digital Platforms for Nielsen.

Other key highlights of the show included:

• LG Blu-ray players with built-in streaming for Netflix, CinemaNow and YouTube
• Samsung Blu-ray players with WiFi
• Blu-ray players at the $200 price point
• Significant advances in audio technology for mobile products and gaming applications from Dolby
• CruiseCast, in-car satellite TV service from AT&T
• DVR hard drive capacity expansion
• LG Watch Phone, featuring a touch screen interface, stereo Bluetooth, speakerphone and built-in music player
• NETGEAR’s new portable Internet video player
• Hitachi’s gesture controlled television

Leading up to the Jan. 8 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, buzz from online boards, forums and blogs increased nearly tenfold from post-2008 holiday levels, according to Nielsen Online.

Key products created much of the excitement, including super-thin, bendable TV screens (using organic light-emitting diode, or OLED technology), new digital cameras and camcorders, smarter-than-ever-smartphones such as the Palm Pre, and tinier, more powerful computers, some of which are being called “netbooks.” Also big: the concept of “convergence,” which means that many electronics devices are now interchangeably converging their functions: computers that download TV content and music and play it throughout the house, cameras that use GPS to tag photos automatically, and phones that serve as music players. Sure, electronics manufacturers are feeling the pinch, but they’re also hoping to benefit from consumers who turn to more home-based entertainment (big-screen TVs, gaming consoles, etc.) to keep their own budgets under control.

Follow more trends at Nielsen Online’s blog, Connecting the Dots.

Are you consistently obsessed with the newest technological gadgets hitting store shelves? An online study, conducted by internet ad network firm Mindset Media in partnership with Nielsen Online, has found that early adopters of new technology often display personality traits such as strong leadership skills, dynamism and assertiveness….but some traits, such as modesty, appear to be lacking.  

“A lot of previous research points to wealthy young males as early adopters of technology,” said Sarah Welch, lead researcher at Mindset Media.  “But this study tells us that there are characteristics beyond age and gender and income that are also extremely highly correlated with tech consumption,” she said.

These findings may give technology companies something to think about.  Ms Welch said the results could impact how companies try to attract consumers, as well as product design.

In the category of letting the customer tell you what the customer needs, Dell this week launched its new IdeaStorm for Healthcare and Life Sciences, an online community where users can share their best ideas for how technology can help improve the field of healthcare. Visitors to the site can vote on others’ ideas, bringing the best ones to the top for possible action by Dell. The idea list is sortable by most recent ideas, most popular ideas, and “Ideas in Action” that are being implemented as a result of IdeaStorm.