The results of CNN’s inaugural global research study into the power of news and recommendation (POWNAR) reveal stark benefits for advertisers attached to news stories that are shared in social media. POWNAR comprised a global online survey with 2300 respondents, a thorough semiotic analysis, neuro-marketing techniques, news tracking and an ad effectiveness survey to demonstrate that shared news drives global uplifts in brand metrics. The research project was conducted internationally between June and August this year.

“The commerciality of the social media space is fast becoming apparent and this study means that for the first time, we are able to substantiate the value of shared news from an advertising perspective”, comments Didier Mormesse, Senior Vice President, Ad Sales Research, Development & Audience Insight at CNN International.

Through biometrics and eye-tracking techniques, POWNAR also aimed to measure emotional engagement associated with online news sharing. The results showed a “halo effect” of substantially higher engagement with “recommended” news content and embedded advertising, as opposed to “randomly” consumed content and advertising.

The overall uplift for brands who advertise around stories recommended in social media is significant. The global online survey showed that people who received news content from a friend or associate via social media, were 19% more likely to recommend the brand that advertised around that story to others and 27% more likely to favour that brand themselves.

More specifically, POWNAR examined case studies including one where a major European tourism board reported notably stronger campaign cut-through with aided ad re-call up 50% and brand favourability up 32% after advertising around news that was shared in social media.

The results from POWNAR also showed that video pre-roll advertising had overall a superior branding effect when appearing around news content shared in social media, in comparison to display banner advertising.

“Knowing the typology of shared content is significant as the information could be used by agencies as a guideline to mould creative and therefore make their advertising more effective to consumers”, added Mormesse

What makes news “shareable”?
POWNAR identified a three tiered semiotic wheel that guides sharing patterns; comprising the three types of codes of narrative, theme and underlying message. For narrative, 65% of shared content comprises ongoing stories, 19% comprises breaking news and 16% of content falls into the “quirky or funny” category. In terms of theme, news recommendation is driven by content that is visually spectacular, stories about science and technology, human interest stories and money-related stories. The majority of stories being shared carry an underlying message of the “sharer” imparting knowledge.

Who is doing the sharing?
The 80/20 rule applies to the findings. 27% of all sharers* account for 87% of all news stories shared. The average global user shares 13 stories per week and receives 26 stories through shared social media links or emails.

Which platforms dominate?
In peer-to-peer communication, 43% of news sharing comes from social media networks and tools e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, followed by email (30%), SMS (15%) and IM (12%).

About POWNAR
POWNAR is CNN’s largest global research project this year, and forms part of the network’s 2010 suite of thought leadership research initiatives around the role of influencers in commercial media.
The study used the following combination of methodologies:
- Tagging all content on the CNN International website for eight weeks and tracking how content is shared online
- Virtual ethnography using a social media monitoring tool to listen to online conversations
- Thorough semiotic analysis to categorise cultural codes on shared articles
- Biometrics and eye-tracking exercises measuring emotional engagement with recommended content and embedded advertising
- Global online ad effectiveness study conducted amongst a base of 2300 respondents in 11 countries across Europe, Asia and the USto measure the impact of news sharing on six categories: travel & tourism, retail, technology, automotive, luxury goods, and finance.
* “Sharers” defined as those sharing 6+ news stories per week.

http://cnninternational.presslift.com/socialmediaresearch

Arab Advisors Group’s analysis of advertising rates across 38 free-to-air satellite TV channels revealed that news and current affairs, general channels, movies and series channels have the highest average advertising rates amongst the FTA satellite channels in the Arab World. The average advertising rate for a particular time segment represents the mean advertising rate for a standard 30-second TV commercial spot (known as a TVC) in that time segment throughout the week.

A new report, “Satellite TV Advertising Rates in the Arab World 2010″, was released by the Arab Advisors Group on September 8, 2010 to the Strategic Research Service Media subscribers. This report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for only US$ 1,200. The 62-page report, which has 58 detailed exhibits, provides detailed analysis of satellite TV advertising rates across 38 FTA satellite TV channels chosen as a representative sample of the total market.

The choice was also partially based on our surveys’ findings with respect to viewership, where the list includes very popular channels as well as much less popular ones. The categories in which the analyzed channels fall under are as follows: Children and Youth channels, General channels, Movies and Series channels, Music channels, News and Current Affairs channels, Religious channels and Sports channels.

“News and Current Affairs channels, General channels and Movies and Series channels have the highest average advertising rates amongst the channel categories covered in this report. The fact that these channel categories have considerably higher advertising rates than the rest of channels could be attributed to a number of factors such as: high viewership and a wide variety of content” Ms. Noura Abdulhadi, Arab Advisors Senior Research Analyst, commented.

The Arab Advisors Group’s team of analysts in the region has produced 2,000 reports on the Arab World’s communications and media markets. The reports can be purchased individually or received through an annual subscription to Arab Advisors Group’s Strategic Research Services (Media and Telecom). To date, Arab Advisors Group has served 600 global and regional companies by providing reliable research analysis and forecasts of Arab communications markets to these clients.

Spurred by the increasing uptake of the Internet service in the Arab World, many channels in the Arab TV industry have established an online presence. The Arab Advisors Group analysis reveals that a majority of channels with an online presence have an enhanced presence. An enhanced online presence includes channels that have corresponding portals. The portals portray the channels’ services and the Integration between the satellite channel and its online presence is relatively strong. Moreover, many satellite channels with basic online presence (where the integration between the satellite channel and its content and service availability is relatively weak) demonstrate their intention of enhancing their online services.

A new report, “Online Presence of FTA Satellite Channels in the Arab World” was released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Media Strategic Research Service subscribers in August, 2010. This report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for only US$ 950. The 46-page report, which has 25 detailed exhibits, provides a detailed analysis of the online presence of FTA Satellite Channels in the Arab World. The report includes analysis and categorization of the online presence of 448 FTA satellite TV channels broadcasting on Arabsat, Nilesat and Noorsat satellite systems. Please contact the Arab Advisors Group to get a copy of the report’s Table of Contents.

Any investment in this report will count towards an annual Strategic Research Service subscription – Media should the service be acquired within three months from purchasing the report.

“The results show that a majority of the 244 channels that have online presence lean more towards an enhanced online presence.” Ms. Hadeel Sakkijha, Arab Advisors Senior Research Analyst wrote in the report.

“Almost 39.7% of the satellite channels have online presence for promotional purposes only and do not aim at generating online revenues. Conversely, a total of 27% of satellite channels use their supporting websites or portals for revenue generation. A majority of the channels that have online revenue generating features have an enhanced online presence.” Miss Sakkijha added.

The Arab Advisors Group’s team of analysts in the region has already produced over close to 2,000 reports on the Arab World’s communications and media markets. The reports can be purchased individually or received through an annual subscription to Arab Advisors Group’s website Strategic Research Services (Media and Telecom).

To date, Arab Advisors Group has served over 600 global and regional companies by providing reliable research analysis and forecasts of Arab communications markets to these clients.

Male users dominate facebook in the UAE with around 62% of total users are males compared to 35% who are females, this gender gap fluctuates among different age groups to reach its lowest among teenagers with 51.3% males vs. 47.7% females. This age group, 18 and below, has the lowest percentage of undefined-gender users, 0.85%, this percentage grows as we go up with the age groups to reach 5.3% among users who are more than 46 years old.

Arabic seems to be more popular among younger users, 10% of the total users in the UAE use Arabic on facebook, however around 18% of teenagers use Arabic, this percentage drops the older users get to reach 6% among users who are older than 46.

Download the full report here!

For more details about facebook usage in Saudi Arabia, please download the full report.

More than half of facebook users in Saudi Arabia are between 19 – 29 years old, while 25% are between 30 – 45 years old. Males dominate facebook in the kingdom with more than 66%, while English language has surpassed the Arabic in a country where users are widely known to prefer using Arabic when it comes to internet, this could be due to 2 reasons; expats, and the fact that English has been there before Arabic and so users got used to over time.

Age groups split among Saudi facebook users as of April 2010.

You can also download the full report of the MENA region that was conducted on February 2010.

Arab Advisors Group research revealed that the highest number of channel types were the Private-sector general channels followed by Government-sector general channels. The results of Arab Advisors’ annual analysis of the FTA channels were released at the 7th annual Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference in Amman on June 7 & 8 2010.

The growth in the number of Free to Air (FTA) satellite channels targeting the Arab region is slowing down. By April 2010, the total number of distinct FTA satellite channels reached 487 on Arabsat, Nilesat and/or Noorsat, a marginal increase of 2.7% over the number of channels recorded in March 2009. The FTA landscape added 13 channels between March 2009 and April 2010, compared to the 104 channels added between August 2007 and March 2009. 16.5% of the 448 fully launched and operational channels’ headquarters are located in Saudi Arabia.

A new report, ‘Satellite TV in the Arab World 2010′ was released to the Arab Advisors Group’s Media Strategic Research Service subscribers on May 31, 2010. This report can be purchased from the Arab Advisors Group for only $1,500. The 78-page report, which has 26 detailed exhibits, provides a detailed analysis of the FTA satellite channels targeting the Arab region as of April 2010.

The channels are analyzed according to their type, broadcasting language, headquarters (main offices), ownership (state owned, private or mixed ownership) and satellite carriers. In addition, the satellite systems included in the analysis are Arabsat, Nilesat and Noorsat, this is due to the fact that the majority of FTA satellite channels targeting the Arab World are aired on one or more of these satellites. Please contact the Arab Advisors Group to get a copy of the report’s Table of Contents.

Any investment in this report will count towards an annual Strategic Research Service subscription should the service be acquired within three months from purchasing the report.

“In line with the liberalization of the audio visual sectors in the region, the number of private satellite channels exceeds the number of government owned channels: 69.9% of the fully launched and operational FTA channels are privately owned while 29% are government owned. In terms of the types of channels, General- Private sector channels have the highest share (19.6%) amongst the total fully launched and operational FTA satellite channels, followed by the General-Government sector channels at 12.7%,”

Ms. Danya Nusseir, Arab Advisors senior research analyst, commented.

The Arab Advisors Group’s team of analysts in the region has produced over 1,890 reports on the Arab World’s communications and media markets. The reports can be purchased individually or received through an annual subscription to Arab Advisors Group’s (www.arabadvisors.com) Strategic Research Services (Media and Telecom). To date, Arab Advisors Group has served over 580 global and regional companies by providing reliable research analysis and forecasts of Arab communications markets.

This move by the UAE will lead to increased transparency of viewing habits in the population, which will influence TV channels’ attractiveness to advertisers, according to A.T. Kearney, a world leading management consulting company.

Overall Pan-Arab advertising spend increased by approximately 20% annually from 2002 until 2009. Last year advertising spend declined by 14%, according to the Dubai Press Club. As the economic recovery progresses, 2010 has seen a growth in spend again, but to spark a boom in this sector A.T. Kearney highlights the need for transparency. This transparency will enable media companies to charge according to factual measures of viewership. A.T. Kearney research of international benchmarks and best practices in the media sector finds that if audience measurement is rolled out on a pan-Arab scale it represents a potential of additional TV advertisement revenue for media companies worth more than $2bn.

According to A.T. Kearney, television is by far the most important advertisement channel in the Middle East (almost half of advertising revenues and 90% of pan-Arab campaigns), and therefore also the most important channel for pan Arab advertising revenue growth. However, the research highlights that absence of reliable TV audience measurement systems is a barrier to growth, and is a key reason why per-capita advertising spend in the Middle East is up to 30 times lower than in markets with such systems. The round-the-clock monitoring and measurement of TV viewing habits through people meters is going to prove invaluable to TV channels and advertisers alike.

“Robust audience measurement is important for the media sector as a whole. It will not only help advertisers and channels optimize value, but also attract investment from non-regional companies by improving transparency and reducing risks. Eventually audience measurement will drive significant changes in the media landscape and initiate a shake-out of winners and losers,” said Dr. Martin Fabel, newly joined Partner and senior media expert, A.T. Kearney Middle East.

TV audience measurement alongside other channel audience measurement is especially relevant in the GCC, where differences exist in the population in terms of nationality, lifestyle and consumer demand. Effective TV audience measurement will additionally allow the targeting of fast-growth demographic groups, such as the fast growing base of young and wealthy Arabs. A.T. Kearney’s regional media study highlights the rapidly growing appeal of the GCC media sector. Evidence of the regional commitment to the growing media sector is apparent in the number of new media cities being launched, as well as recent international partnerships within the media industry which were related to the Middle East such as Fox & Rotana and Yahoo & Maktoob.

“What we have seen in the UAE with the signing of a MoU to initiate TV audience measurement is just the beginning. We see a booming GCC media sector ahead for those who take steps to prepare for increased transparency by strategically managing their inventory, scoping their internal processes and engaging with advertiser based on objective measures. The Middle East media sector is a lucrative market for local and international media players and investors.” concluded Dr. Fabel.

Mohamed El Fatatry, CEO, Muxlim and speaker at the first Saudi Brand and Communications Summit 2010 said:

“Building solid relationships and engagement with customers using tools such as new media is becoming increasingly important. The global financial crisis has brought analytics and data into the spotlight, which is now deemed as critical components of branding campaigns. However, a wholesome integrated strategy is necessary to build brand awareness on all fronts.”

With a unique branding and communications environment in Saudi, eminent speakers like brand guru, Vahid Mehrinfar, Patrick Jephson, former private secretary, HRH Diana, Princess of Wales and Mohamed El Fatatry, CEO, Muxlim among others will deliberate on the new rules of branding and cost effectiveness.

“Social media is vital today as it operates on many different platforms to serve different audiences. There is a new emphasis on the role played by peer groups in deciding a brand’s reputation. Commitment is also the next key to sustaining a brand,” said Patrick Jephson, former private secretary, HRH Diana, Princess of Wales.

‘Branding in a New Media World,’ The Power of the Saudi Youth,’ ‘Building an Online Brand’ and ‘The Swarm Theory,’ will be discussed and debated at the first edition of the Summit. The event will witness participation from over 150 key branding and communications key decision makers.

The Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the strategic partner for the four-day Summit. The workshops will elucidate the power of branding in the Kingdom and successful implementation strategies.

The Saudi Brand and Communications Summit will be held from June 5th – 8th, 2010 at Hotel Marriott, Riyadh, KSA.

A new Arab Advisors’ survey of Egypt’s internet users reveals insightful details on the internet and e-commerce use in Egypt.

These e-commerce users spent an estimated $2.1bn in e-commerce transactions in 2009 which includes bill payments online.

A new major survey of the internet users in Egypt was concluded by the Arab Advisors Group in April 2010.

The survey report, Egypt Internet Users and e-commerce Survey 2010 was released on April 12, 2010 and provides the results of a major comprehensive online survey of internet users in Egypt.

The survey covers the internet usage, IPTV, games, e-commerce, cellular and Pay TV usage and habits of the online community in Egypt.

The report “Egypt Internet Users and e-commerce Survey 2010″ contains 112 pages and 121 exhibits.

Respondents were randomly targeted by receiving an email shot in their inbox to ask them to fill in the survey in cooperation with Egypt’s leading ISP, TE Data, or by an online banner advertised on TE Data’s website.

The survey results encompass answers from 1,321 respondents that passed rigorous quality control checks. Quality control was conducted by Arab Advisors Group’s team.

The survey was conducted on the general internet population.

The online survey yields a confidence level of 99% with a margin of error of less than 4%.

“VoIP usage among internet users reached 46.3%. Of the total respondents, 41.6% use special software packages (such as Skype, GoogleTalk) to make calls through the internet. A small majority of respondents (53.7%) do not make calls through the internet.”

Mr. Hussam A. Barhoush, Arab Advisors Senior Research Analyst, wrote in the report.

The Arab Advisors Group divided the survey questionnaire into four main sections:

Telecommunications, Internet, e-services and Pay TV.

The sections provide a balanced focus on the following areas:

Telecommunications
• Cellular subscriptions
• 3G Cellular services

Internet Usage
• Internet usage trends
• Internet subscription types and ISPs used
• Internet usage
• Internet access methods and costs
• Mobile Internet
• Games
• IPTV

e-commerce and m-commerce
• e-commerce and m-commerce trends
• Local and International e-commerce and m-commerce portals

e-Banking services and Investments
• Online banking
• Mobile Banking
• Internet users’ investments preferences

e-government services

Pay TV
• Pay TV subscriptions
• Satellite receivers that can be updated through the Internet (such as Dream Box) usage

Arab Advisors are organizing the 7th annual Media and Telecoms Convergence Conference on June 7 & 8, 2010 at the Four Seasons in Amman.

According to the report, overall daily circulation and total number of titles are continuing to increase year on year in the region, while in most developed markets circulation levels and number of titles have consistently decreased. Over the past few years, the number of titles in the Arab Region has been steadily increasing, supported by new licences being awarded.

For example, a total of 10 new licences have been awarded in Kuwait since 2006 which led to a flood of new titles in 2007 and 2008. In fact, 2009 was the first time in many years that the number of newspaper titles in the region has actually remained almost constant, the report points out.

Internationally, however, the picture is much bleaker, the report explains. In the US, the number of newspaper titles available has decreased by 7% between 2007 and 2008 and continue to decrease in 2009, following several years of slow decline.

Overall daily circulation in the Arab Region is also continuing to increase, contrary to the developments being seen in many other markets. The US saw a 4% decline in total circulation between 2003 and 2008. Meanwhile in the Arab Region, in spite of the total number of daily newspaper titles stalling between 2008 and 2009, circulation has continued to increase, as demonstrated by the data in the report.

The report also predicts that the circulation of daily newspapers would continue over the next five years, though at a slower pace than before. This forecast is also supported by the responses of interviewees across the region’s print media industry. The report says that 61% of respondents from the print sector in the region feel positive about the prospects for the industry in 2010.

The Arab Media Outlook is now available online in both languages English and Arabic on the Dubai Press Club website. This would provide direct access of the outlook’s findings to information seekers such as policy makers, media corporations, journalists, students and the general public.