Summary
ESPN, the broadcaster, has partnered with Arbitron and comScore to pioneer a new multi-platform audience measurement system. In the first instance, it found that 136 million adults, and 84 million men, were exposed to its content over the course of a month. Roughly 40% currently consume content via digital channels, either exclusively or as an accompaniment to TV. More specifically, almost 24 million viewers watched material on a smartphone, as did four million on a tablet. Digital users also exhibited higher levels of stickiness, a trend most pronounced among the multi-platform audience.

Summary
This article looks at marketing to segments of the aging population group (age 55+) in Thailand, where birth rates and life expectancy are increasing. The urban segment is more information driven (high digital media and newspaper consumption), while in rural areas where income levels are lower, there is higher consumption of television. There is no one particular 'prime time' moment for communication, as they have the time and the money to do as they please. The older the target, the more proof they demand before believing what they hear or see; equally, they care about product quality over price.

Summary
The setting of a marketing communication greatly impacts on how the message is received, so understanding the context of media consumption is vital in maximising the brand moment. The proliferation of screen-based devices means consumers are able to exercise a greater degree of control and choice over where, when and how they consume or interact with content. IPA TouchPoints and USA TouchPoints research has addressed the five dimensions of context: location, activity, social setting, media, and moods and emotions. Examples of contextual analysis include looking at the media choices of young male diners in Quick Service Restaurants during the key consideration windows for lunch and dinner, and activities of consumers in the hour before the post-lunch peak shopping time.

Summary
This summary from the Advertising Research Foundation offers an overview of the Asian American demographic group, the fastest growing multicultural segment in the USA. Key features of this group are presented, including an emphasis on family, a high incidence of Bachelor's degrees and professional or management-related employment. Asian American households also have a much higher than average median income, are early adopters of technology and view significantly higher number of web pages.

Summary
Rapid change in media consumption behavior among Asian consumers, with more multi-screening and declining print and radio use, has implications for both advertisers and content owners. Turner International, for example, is working to promote its brands rather than specific content, and grappling with the extent to which they should localise content without fragmenting the audience too greatly for advertisers. Another issue is the differing rates of penetration of broadband across the region, which poses a challenge for content producers to be able to offer the same consumer experience in Singapore as, for example, Indonesia. And for brand owners creating their own content there is a warning that quality control is important and that creativity requires significant investment.

Summary
This report from New York Advertising Week covers a presentation by the broadcaster CBS and agency Keller Fay about how media generates word of mouth (WOM). It specifically describes research indicating that TV drives conversations about brands better than any other media. The study brought a number of data sources together (segmentation, Nielsen viewing and WOM data) to build a profile of what sparked conversations among influential viewers (“media trendsetters”). It found that TV was referred to in almost 20% of all offline "brand conversations" (over half of which driven by commercials) – and 27% of conversations initiated by the group of influential viewers. It is argued that the new data and its findings enable advertisers to target programs popular with these influential viewers, thus optimising their media planning with WOM generation as a strategic objective.

Summary
This US report by Nielsen explores the Mass Affluent consumer segment (representing 11% of all US households), which consists of seven distinct groups, each with its own lifestyles, media patterns and preferences. With sophisticated and selective media consumption, the Mass Affluent is one of the most difficult segments to reach and even harder to sell to. Such preferences should be considered by financial services and retail companies in their marketing plan. The report suggests marketers will need to use strategic marketing solutions to find and win over these under-the-radar wealthy households.

Summary
As human behaviour becomes increasingly defined by communications platforms that transcend geographical borders, planners are free to concentrate on the essence of planning: understanding people. What will distinguish future global planning from the present is how people will be best understood through the channel behaviour they demonstrate. Research has revealed seven primary global media cultures and planners will need to get to know and understand them well. In rewriting the planning lexicon, they should embrace the evolution from communications controlled by marketers 'pushing' consumers through a linear funnel to circular engagement journeys in which consumers 'pull' information towards them.

Summary
In order to plan their activities more effectively, marketers habitually carve up their target audiences into segments. There is a presumption that segmentation will underpin all related marketing activities. This practice brings a problem as there is a gap between these audiences and the apparatus for buying media against them. Historically, this has been worse in digital than traditional channels because the decisions have been made about placement or direct-response performance. However, demand-side platforms are being developed which help brands to segment digital audiences with better reach and accuracy than a placement-driven approach. This is illustrated with a case study from Xaxis in Germany.

Summary
Poltrack and Bowen share a system that allows advertisers to have a 360-degree perspective of their core prospects with regard to media consumption, which will enable marketers to move beyond pure demographic reach to quality reach.