Within the next year, the statement “streaming video is a growing trend” will become obsolete. That’s because online video has become a pervasive part of our everyday lives, with nearly 80% saturation in the marketplace and well over 12.5 billion streams per month (comScore Video Metrix, March 2009). This voracity of video consumers will only continue to grow, as content owners further digitize their content libraries and publishers better monetize this trend.

Search ads are a proven winner, but how can a company inject them with more life, color, and sound to improve user experience and click-through rates? Hewlett-Packard’s Personal Systems Group found the solution to that challenge—and remarkable increases in ad performance—in Yahoo!’s Rich Ads in Search feature.

Leveraging advanced research methods beyond traditional techniques can help advertisers gain a deeper understanding of online ad effectiveness. This Insights Strategy Snapshot highlights the advantages gained when employing advanced research techniques to the study of online ad effectiveness. The subconscious responses of three major audience segments - Gen Y, Gen X, and Baby Boomers - to multiple design variables of display ads (animation, borders and color palettes) were assessed using a variety of methods.

This portion of the study takes a closer look at car shopping from the consumers’ perspective. It examines the new buying influences that impact how consumers shop and pre-select dealerships, why they switch brands, the rising influence of online dealership reviews and the value of transparency in interactions with dealership sales staff.

Consumers are evolving to become discerning editors and content suppliers. They are early adapters and empowered brand advocates. They are serving as catalysts for some of the most innovative marketing campaigns in recent memory. They are: Passionistas: The New Empowered Consumers, and they are presented here in a definitive portrait.

The Conexión Cultural/Connected Culture summit series addresses the intersection of media and technology in the daily lives of U.S. Hispanics and highlights the impact of language and ethnicity on U.S. Hispanic media consumption. For marketers, this study not only reveals the way U.S. Hispanics communicate and consume media and entertainment, but also shows how to best position a brand to this audience.