A New Zealand study published yesterday shows a significant presence by tobacco brands on YouTube as pro-tobacco videos proliferate as indirect marketing. Contributors collected and analyzed global data by searching the video site “using five leading non-Chinese cigarette brands worldwide.” Themes and content were scrutinized to assess the resulting list of videos that contained tobacco brand images or words.

Since there is no global governing party that controls content on the Internet, the study found that it an ideal place for tobacco marketing, though the tobacco companies denied advertising on the Internet. But the majority of tobacco-themed brand-related videos contained pro-tobacco content - 95 percent of content was pro-tobacco versus under four percent anti-tobacco.

Further analysis of the pro-content brand-related videos found that most contained “tobacco brand content (70.6%), the brand name in the title (71.2%) or smoking imagery content (50.9%).” A pro-smoking music video had over 2 million views. The four most popular themes of these videos were celebrity/movies, sports, music and “archive.” The first three themes are very youth-oriented, while the fourth refers to material aired when TV ads were legal.

While this material is not covered by the legislation that originally took tobacco ads off of television so many years ago, a means of retaliation is built into YouTube itself. As the study suggests, content can be removed from YouTube if it is found to contain copyrighted or offensive material. By flagging the videos mentioned in the study, public and health organizations can request the removal of such content. The authors suggest extending the tobacco advertising control legislation requirements to the Internet to prevent further abuse.

As ReadWriteWeb reports, tobacco ads were banned from TV and radio over forty years ago, and this summer tobacco companies were prohibited from sponsoring events.

The success of virtual goods has enabled innovative business models in the categories of social networking, virtual worlds and free online game sites. This phenomenon was analyzed with its relationship to companies and celebrities in the “Branded Virtual Goods Market Report” for July 2010 from social gaming platform Viximo and virtual goods platform Virtual Greats. Revenue for branded virtual goods (BVG) is predicted to rise to $318 million by 2015, a stark increase from the current $16 million industry it is this year. While only a subset of the general virutal goods market, BVG is positioned as a more lucrative option for marketers and virtual platform developers.

A case study contained in the report covers the performance of items that were Snoop Dogg-branded. These items have appeared on WeeWorld, where they perform 2.5 times higher than the highest-selling, non-branded, similarly priced items. As quoted in the report, Snoop Dogg explains, “My virutal items are off tha chain jacc! It’s a world and a movement that I have been down with since day 1 and we are gonna continue to hit u with hot products and virtual items until tha wheels fall off. Be on da lookout for more items in an internet hood near u - ya dig?!?”

Growth as illustrated in the case study will be driven by super brands into the market, such as Disney’s acquisition of Club Penguin. Increased media interest will improve visibility for unconnected audiences, improving adoption. Another trend will be functional virtual goods. These items will need to have some sort of game-enhancing functionalities, or preferred behavior. “For example, Nike partnered with Gaia Online and offered Nike-branded sneakers that not only acted as a status symbol or avatar enhancer, but also enabled the wearer to run faster than other players in the virtual world.” As the market matures, these goods must stay relevant by having some effect other than as vanity items.

Twitter users are the most influential online consumers, according to a study by ExactTarget and CoTweet.

A study by twin solution providers equals a massive grain of salt taken, but the findings still warrant conversation.

Twitter users are 72 percent more likely than non-users to publish blog posts at least once a month, and 61 percent more likely to post product reviews at least once a month, according to the study. Daily Twitter users are 6 times more likely to publish articles, five times more likely to blog, seven more times likely to contribute to Wikis and three times more likely to post a monthly product review than non-Twitter users.

“Consumers active on Twitter are clearly the most influential online,” said Morgan Stewart, principal, ExactTarget’s research and education group.

“What happens on Twitter doesn’t stay on Twitter,” Morgan said. “While the number of active Twitter users is less than Facebook or email, the concentration of highly engaged and influential content creators is unrivaled—it’s become the gathering place for content creators whose influence spills over into every other corner of the internet.”

The study is sort of the Cartesian circle – Twitter users are more likely to be content producers, who are more likely to be Twitter users, ad infinitum. We still need to figure out how large a circle of influence the influencers have outside of their own circles.

While Twitter users might be more influential as individuals, the influence of Facebook as a megalithic whole is certainly greater, especially as it has become a more brand friendly place during its evolution, something that it wasn’t but Twitter was from its inception. That might be a little old-school in thinking, but Facebook has convinced the mainstream user – and consumer – of its relevance, something that Twitter is still trying to do.

So while Twitter might have the influencers, it’s still probably better to bet on the half billion users.

Want to know what advertisers know about you? Install Bynamite’s Firefox and Chrome
plug-in to find out.

The plug-in finds information that users are already giving away to advertisers like Google, Yahoo, Amazon, information that is scattered all over the Internet. Bynamite aggregates it so that users can understand what the internet knows about them.

“The Internet is filled with advertisers that constantly collect information about you,” says the company “What they know about you can get creepy, especially when they use that knowledge to bug you about things you don’t like.”

Bynamite also allows users to control what information is accessible to advertisers. It lets users see, change and delete that information, and puts all the things a user likes into one place, a “picture” that future advertisements will be based on. The service purports to let “good advertisers” tailor ads to user interests while preventing ads from “bad advertisers,” those that aren’t transparent about the information they collect.

Interestingly, Bynamite is an advertising channel, not an ad-blocker like you would expect. The ideal of the site is to provide the most relevant ads possible, fully admitting that it might one day have to be ad-supported.

Bynamite also says that it monitors every ad-platform’s privacy policies, pointing out that these policies are confusing and lead users to believe that they are about consumer information that companies keep private, when in reality, they’re about the control the companies have over data.

Bynamite believes that giving users control will bring them more relevant ads.

“When you have control over how advertisers view you, you hear about things you’re actually interested in - rather than bad guesses based off of that thing you bought for your mom,” according to the company’s site.

In order to grow their social networking presence and strengthen their audience of potential customers, companies must know how to elicit the aid of internet users, believes Pixazza.

The company is launching an online service that crowdsources marketing. Their tool allows companies to renumerate “publishers” who tag photos of products on personal sites.

“With this tool, any internet user can transform static images into content that is useful for the brand, while at the same time profiting financially from the action,” the company says.

“The main goal is to put the consumer at the heart of the process,” web marketing consultant Laurent Dijoux told L’Atelier.

Having the consumer in this position allows brands to lessen marketing’s intrusiveness, while at the same time entering the privileged space of the consumer. In this case, users sign up on Pixazza’s online platform, receiving a code that they embed on their own sites. The code allows them access to a widget with which they can tag their photos. The tag brings up a product page when users mouse over the image.

The publisher is paid according to the ranking of their tagged products.

“This tool can only be used in certain cases,” Dijoux said. “Especially in terms of social engagement: the brand needs to work with users and engage them in a conversation.”

Outside of legal considerations, which must be expressly stated, it is also important to track usage to see what objects are tagged, and to see if they fit well with the brand’s product needs.

This week, Pixazza announced that it had raised $12 million in Series B funding from Shasta Ventures, August Capital, CMEA Capital and Google Ventures.

Young people are driving online video usage and advertising acceptance, as shown by a study from Media research consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates, Inc, sponsored by Metacafe. Other key findings from the "Magid Media Futures 2010: Online Video" show that fifty percent of Internet users watch online video once a week or more, up from 43 percent in 2009. Within this group, the mean amount of time spent is 4.6 hours. 85% of males 18-24 watch online video weekly or more as well as 67% of the 18-34 demographic. 68% of Females 18-24 Watch Weekly

Online video growth is expected to grow at a rate of over five percent in the next year. Additionally, many consumers are interested in connecting the computer to their television in order to watch online video on their set - about 38 percent are somewhat or very interested in doing this. Media professionals do not have to worry about Internet video cannibalizing traditional TV, according to this study - it appears to have minimal perceptual effect on live TV viewing.

Short format video is very popular - eight out ten genres of video are short format, rather than full length TV episodes or films. 3 out of 4 respondents watch some sort of professionally produced short form clips regularly, across all age groups. Nearly one-third of viewers find these videos as or more entertaining than full length shows that they watch on TV - 28 percent think they are more entertaining than TV.

55 percent perceive online video ads as or more acceptable as TV commercials, and only 24 percent find them less acceptable. Among younger users, the percentages are more favorable - eighteen percent of males and ten percent of females aged 18-24 found online ads more acceptable while older users tend to view online and TV ads equivalently.

The 2010 Digital Influence Index survey from Fleishman-Hilliard and Harris Interactive questioned Internet users globally on how the Internet affects their behaviors and decisions. Key findings covered how consumers issue their trust in social media or marketing situations.

In the US, the Internet has nearly twice the influence of television and over ten times the influence of print media. But though companies are increasing online marketing budgeting, the rise is not proportional to the importance that consumers place on the Internet. While fourteen percent of the total global advertising market is budgeted towards online advertising, online time and influence suggests that companies have not yet addresses the consumer shift.

The decision-making process is more than ever one which is begun or augmented for online research, purchases and peer suggestions. Respondents often use search engines to access blogs, company Web sites, government sites or social media. Making decisions and social media come together for the next survey finding - people trust information when it comes from more than one source, especially if one of these sources is a friend.

Microblogging influence takes a unique form for respondents - 78 percent of consumers have heard of Twitter, and one-third of these have an account. For marketing purposes, many brands have found this an ideal way to interact in real-time with consumers. Though it is a new medium, 72 percent of US consumers like that microblog account-equipped companies are more available to discuss issues. As for negative responses, nineteen percent believe these branded accounts are just for show, 22 percent think they use them to spy on consumers.

Globally, microblogging companies enjoy a higher rate of trust than brands that do not use Twitter or similar services, especially in China, Japan or France. But US trust rates are much lower regarding microblogs - only 22 percent trust them more, and seven percent trust them less.

Findings were released from the American City Business Journals’ June survey via PRNewswire on how small and medium business owners are using the Internet to promote their businesses. By using a variety of Internet applications, these business owners are travel planning, researching and buying business products and services, accessing business news, and keeping in touch with friends and colleagues.

Regarding Internet usage trends for these SMB owners, online interaction leads to greater success, broken down by segments of business owners. These segments are transactors, investors, interactors, commentators and viewers, the first three most likely to capitalize upon the strengths of the Internet.

Interactors spend 2.5 hours per week on the Internet for reading news, researching and purchasing, connecting with colleagues and studying competition. They spend the most time online of the segments, but are the most effective of the group - they make up only fifteen percent of the survey population, but 24 percent of sales.

Investors spend less time on the Internet, with moderate engagement in above online activities, but less social networking. They make up 22 percent of SMB owners and 23 percent of sales. Investors have the highest net worth and largest investment portfolios.

Transactors make up one quarter of business owners and sell fifty percent of products or services on the Internet, the highest online sales segment. They account for 29 percent of general sales.

Commentators and Viewers account for the least percentage of sales. Seventeen percent are commentators and achieve fourteen percent of sales, while 21 percent are classified as Viewers and account for ten percent of sales.

Commentators work the longest hours and represent a higher percentage of women- and minority- owned businesses. They work mostly "on their own blogs or posting responses to others, work out of the office the most but use the Internet the least to buy or sell businesses and services."

Viewers consume more media than the other categories, own the smallest companies and spend the least time on the Internet, mostly on blogs, YouTube and HDTV.

Social media metrics. The philosopher’s stone brands are searching for.

At any conference you go to, there will be at least one social media expert whose advice for businesses often rests in the realm of the folkloric – stories, anecdotes about other brand’s successes, some memorable quotes, and that’s about it.

We need good metrics.

Maybe we’re getting there. ForeSee Results has just announced the addition of Social Media Value Calculation to its analytics suite.

“Most businesses have accepted the marketing value of social media without any real proof points,” says Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results.

“Some companies are spending millions in advertising their social media presence and staffing a team to oversee it, only to discover that social media is influencing 1% of all purchases,” according to ForeSee. “Meanwhile, promotional emails have been neglected in favor of social media, and emails are influencing 32% of purchases. Other companies are seeing social media as a primary influencer of 5-6% of all revenue with a relatively modest investment.”

FourSee’s proprietary methodology was created by the University of Michigan. The company says that its algorithm links customers’ website, store or call center visits to what those customers actually spend.

“Linking what drove a customer to visit with what they actually spent or did as a result allows you to actually calculate a return on social media investment,” said Drew Bennett, senior product director at ForeSee Results. “You can accurately compare what you spend on social media marketing against the direct revenue it generates to see if you’re investing wisely in social media.”

Who knows if ForeSee’s tools will work, or if they’re just another quasi-scientific way to transmute ad spend into gold. Everything today is quantifiable, so it’s time for brands to really understand social media customer-engagement, end the folkloric, word-of-mouth education on social media best practices, and show us the stats.

One of the big criticisms of Gmail and Facebook ads is that they’re creepy.

If you’re male, single and over 35, you’re going to get a lot of Facebook ads inviting you to Cougar Town, and ads based on the contents of your email are intrusive and seem to exist simply as “ads for ads sake.” What’s the CPM on Gmail scrapes?

While targeted ads are successful, and obtrusive ads are also successful, the both used together is a bad combination for advertisers, according to a study by Avi Goldfarb, professor of marketing at the University of Toronto, and Catherine Tucker, assistant professor of marketing at MIT (pdf).

“We find that matching an ad to website content and increasing an ad’s obtrusiveness independently increase purchase intent,” Goldfarb and Tucker write. “However, in combination these two strategies are ineffective. Ads that match both website content and are obtrusive do worse at increasing purchase intent than ads that do only one or the other.”

The main reason this combination bothers users is because of privacy concerns. Also, studies published since the 90’s argue that consumers resist targeted advertising because they feel that companies are trying to manipulate them, and a 2009 study shows that consumer awareness of manipulation is even higher online.

The study’s authors estimate that $664 million is spent on ads that are both obtrusive and targeted. They believe that advertisers could cut over 5 percent of their ad spending without affecting overall performance just by cutting these.