Yahoo! brought together advertisers, bloggers, agencies and big brands like Sara Lee and Harpo Studios for an engaging panel discussion of its Connectonomics Women  study. Held at the beautiful Ivy Room in Chicago, the event was stimulating and chic—two qualities every woman enjoys.

Watch this video for expert marketing tips straight from the event:

And take a peek inside the event with these photos:

Yahoo!'s Mollie Spilman with Harpo Studios President Erik Logan and Editor-in-Chief of Yahoo! Shine Brandon Holley

How do you market to women? To answer the question, Yahoo! created a study and invited a panel of marketing and content experts at a live event in Chicago for a select audience of marketing executives.

Speakers at the intimate breakfast event returned to one common theme brought up in the Yahoo! Connectonomics study: despite economic and demographic differences, women’s needs online are often very similar.

“Ultimately as a marketer, you’re not just targeting a single woman,  a baby boomer in Chicago,” said Radha Subramanyam, Yahoo! VP and head of corporate and media research, who introduced the study. “Our products cut across a swath of women. Understanding the common needs of women helps us reach more.”

Brandon Holley, editor-in-chief Yahoo! Shine, the online publication for women,  moderated a panel that included Erik Logan, president of Harpo Studios; Phillippe Schaillee, CMO of Sara Lee; Kim Moldofsky, a blogger and founder of MomImpact; and Danielle Wiley, senior VP of consumer brands at Edelman Digital Chicago.

Know her “day in the life” and tailor your messages to it
Schaillee said that digital marketing becomes more powerful when you understand what a woman needs. “If you really understand what a day in your prime prospect’s life really looks like, and you understand what those connections are, digital opens up a whole new world where you can really tailor your message to her.”

Tell an authentic story
When you’re trying to reach women via multiple channels, says Harpo’s Logan, it’s important to be consistent. For example, he says, Oprah has been able to push into online, radio, and TV by remaining focused on what she—and her brand—does best. “We  are fantastic storytellers,” he says. “We hone-in someone’s authentic voice and we never deviate from it.”

The group talked about the study’s finding  that women are not necessarily receptive to marketing messages on social networking sites, where advertising can be seen as intruding on a conversation among friends. One way around that is to participate in online communities that you—and your brand—are passionate about.  “That way, when you do talk to your audience,” says Edelman’s Wiley, “it’s not coming from someone who’s interrupting a private conversation—it’s someone who’s there already.”

— Jeff Sweat, Blog Editor

If you’re marketing to women—and since they make roughly 85% of household buying decisions, you should—you need to know what women are seeking online. So we created the Women Connectonomics study, which examines how and why women are using different kinds of online sites, to help you start connecting with women online in a more meaningful way.

Yahoo! partnered with research firm AddedValue and surveyed 3,000 women across the country, conducting focus groups and one-to-one interviews. The resulting study provides a new framework for targeting women online, one centered around the needs of today’s woman. It found that:

• The most important needs for women revolve around personal growth, as well as their interdependencies on others in their social circle. 
• 44% of women say they get information about products and brands on women’s lifestyle sites.
• Women’s lifestyle sites like Shine and special interest sites fulfill the most needs for women. They also offer anonymity which can result in deep emotional connections for women.
• Women are most receptive to marketing messages on lifestyle, specialty and review sites. These channels deliver 3 times the impact on purchase decisions in comparison to the other online sites we looked at in the study.

Understanding the needs of women
Personal growth and connecting with others emerged as the top reasons women use the Web. This involves specific things like caring for oneself, self improvement and feeling enabled.

Interestingly, we found that the fundamental reasons why women communicate online and what sites they leverage are more similar than different – no matter what age group, profession, or life stage. 

Understanding where women are online
Women revealed they are using a number of online channels to connect with others. We explored the needs of women as associated with their use of the following communication channels and content sites:  Social Networking Sites, Twitter, Email (for personal use), Online Community Groups, Instant Messenger, Blogs, Review Sites, Women’s Lifestyle Sites (Yahoo! Shine, iVillage, SheKnows, etc), and Special Interest Sites (CafeMom, BabyCenter, etc).  The study found that communication channels like social networking and IM are used most often to help women to stay connected. However, the connections through these channels tend to be more casual. 

Content sites like women’s lifestyle and special interest sites fulfill the most needs for women. Surprisingly, the study found that the anonymity these channels offer can lead to deeper emotional connections for women. Women said these sites offer users access to like-minded women and solutions to problems without the risk of being judged by people they know in real life. 

Understanding where women are most receptive
So, where is a woman more receptive to ads? Not all websites are equally persuasive.  We found that women are most receptive to advertising on women’s lifestyle sites, special interest sites and review sites.  In fact, these channels deliver three times the impact on purchase decisions than the other online channels looked at in this study.

By understanding how different channels meet different needs, marketers can optimize how they target women and maximize engagement on each channel.  Simply put, marketing effectivess is a function of Needs + Channel + Receptivity.  Here’s a quick cheat sheet of the top ways advertisers can fine-tune their messages to women by channel:

For more, visit Yahoo! Advertising, or download this .pdf.

—Amy Janis, Senior Manager, B2B Market Research

Online ad spending up
Here’s a little silver lining for agencies and publishers: Online ad spending will see double-digit growth, reaching $61.8 billion worldwide this year and $96.8 billion in 2014, according to an eMarketer report cited by AdWeek. Hopefully that rising tide will lift all boats.

Business schools heart social media
You knew it would come to this. One minute you’re tweeting just for fun about how yummy that bagel was this morning, and the next you’re running a comprehensive social media campaign that “leverages the power of peer-to-peer networks to optimize brand evangelism and foment expanded sales opportunities” for your company. Now it’s official, because B-schools like Harvard and Columbia are offering bit-ticket courses in social media marketing, according to BusinessWeek.

What’s more important? Your keywords or landing pages?
Not surprisingly, the answer is that they’re both vital to your efforts. So says Dan Darnell, director of product marketing at Adchemy. Writing on Adotas, Darnell says that too many advertisers focus on either their paid search ads or their websites, when they should be looking at “the contributions of the entire advertising experience—from keyword selection to bids to ad copy to landing pages.” It’s only obvious after someone takes the time to point it out.

Got an ad for that, señor?
As a marketer, would you willingly overlook a potential audience of 50 million Americans? Well, according to AdAge, some one in six U.S. residents are expected to classify themselves as Hispanic in the 2010 Census. It’s a market with a huge potential—the second largest market in the U.S. Don’t speak Spanish? Don’t worry. Nearly half of that 50 million are perfectly comfortable with English. Muy bueno!

Old Spice sales up 107%
It’s an endless debate in the agency world: What kinds of ads are most effective? Groovy, polished, brand-based ads, or simple “buy now and save” ads? Recently, skeptics had bashed Old Spice’s cool “smell like a man” viral online video campaign as ineffective. But, reports AdAge’s David Griner, your father’s deodorant’s sales are up 107 percent over the last 52 weeks. Coincidence? We think not. (Of course, advertising a sale now and then can’t hurt, either.)

Yahoo! giggles
While sitting in your office today, turn the volume on your computer all the way up, go to the Yahoo! homepage, mouse over the exclamation point in the Yahoo! logo and click. If it doesn’t get a giggle from your coworkers you’re working in the wrong place.

Ad man by day, mohel by night?
On an even lighter note, BNET’s Jim Edwards reports that one lucky Twitter bug has landed a $70K-a-year job at the venerable firm of Saatchi & Saatchi for tweeting, well, a circumcision joke. Ouch.

— Michael Mattis

Marketers have long attempted to label women for marketing purposes, but putting “soccer” in front of “mom” is so 1994. Even “hockey moms” rejected Sarah Palin’s bid to represent their unique demography. And while we’ve yet to see a “crowdsourcing” attempt to create a feminist anthem as alluring as 1972’s “I Am Woman,” women and women who also happen to be mothers have a strong and undeniable presence online.  Maybe, instead of trying to label women and moms, we just try to understand their online behavior and how marketers can target this powerful audience segment.

Women: An engaged  audience of vast scale
There are 34 million women online aged 18-34. Forty-one million moms aged 18 to 64 navigate the information superhighway. And 62.8 million women aged 18 to 49 are going online to connect, catch-up and commune with others—mostly in their local areas. In fact, no matter their age or life stage, women are going online seeking information about their interests, looking to be entertained and wanting to connect with a small, tightly-knit social network. And while not all women are moms, all moms are women so it’s no surprise that similarities abound with a few subtle differences withstanding.

The greatest difference between women aged 18 to 34 and women aged 18 to 49 is the more narrow age range’s use of social networking and texting. Not to say that there aren’t some female Generation X-ers out there with “texter’s thumb”, but the broader age range seems to distinguish itself by being the thriftiest. 49% state they typically save money by purchasing average quality items, and 44% say they are less interested in a big bank account if it means sacrificing balance and quality-of-life.

Women control the purse strings
We can’t talk about moms and marketing to them without mentioning that widespread rumor (or, who knows, maybe it’s backed by statistical data) that moms, or Chief Household Officers—as they’re often called for their uncanny ability to both bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan—control more than 80% of their household’s undesignated spending money.  Combine this tidbit with 42% of moms who say they have bought clothes, shoes, or accessories online in the last month and a marketing opportunity can’t be far behind. The most glaring of the understated differences between women and moms seems to be moms’ emphasis on healthy living. 52% of online moms say they are always on the hunt for information about health and healthy lifestyle choices.

To really outline women’s online expectations would likely require a text as long as The Feminine Mystique; however, in the spirit of sisterhood, I’ll leave you with a few tips for marketers looking to target the female ilk:

• Entertainment, email and local content properties are some of the best places for engaging women online.
• Women are online with a purpose, so help them feel productive and provide opportunities for them to be the “hero”.
• Women are online connecting with a close social network, so provide them with opportunities to share special moments with the people they care about most.
• For women, the Internet is about function, but is also a destination for fun and entertainment. Give them both experiences for best use of content.
• Online shopping is a common thread, but women are savvy shoppers, so help them to be informed and thrifty.

— Stephanie Bilberry

Myth: Traditional media is dead. 
Fact: Convergence is a reality. 

A new study conducted for Yahoo! by the most trusted source in media measurement, Nielsen, demonstrates significant growth in media multi-tasking with more users focusing attention on the Internet. In early 2010, Nielsen gave Yahoo! the exclusive opportunity to survey their Convergence Panel homes (where single-source measurement of in-home TV and Internet usage is being tested) and match behavioral data to survey findings. The result? The American Media Multi-Tasker Study.

5 Nielsen study findings that Yahoo! advertisers can leverage 

Study Finding: Three out of four Americans simultaneously multi-task with TV and Internet.

Key Advertiser Takeaway: Simultaneous use of TV & Internet is not only common, it is frequent and growing. 50 percent engage in simultaneous use daily and time spent multi-tasking has grown nearly 20 percent year-to-year. Behavior has changed significantly in the last year and doesn’t show any signs of stopping. Advertisers can leverage this trend by more closely tying online buys to TV buys.

Study Finding: More than one-half of multitaskers (54 percent) say that the Internet is the primary focus of their attention.

Key Advertiser Takeaway: For multitaskers, attention tends to be focused on the Internet, not TV. This is consistent across all age groups and gender. Advertisers can capitalize on this growing audience by targeting their online buys during traditional TV prime time.

Study Finding: Simultaneous use of Internet is typically unrelated to TV programs or commercials though simultaneous usage was lower during scripted dramas and comedies, as well as game and talk shows.

Key Advertiser Takeaway: Use of Internet while watching TV generally has little to do with the TV content. And internet behavior while multi-tasking closely reflects general internet behavior with The Big 3 Internet sites (Google, Yahoo!, Facebook) emerging as the top destinations. This means a healthy online advertising mix is the safest bet for advertisers looking to leverage simultaneous consumption.

Study Finding: Women are more likely to multi-task than men.
 
Key Advertiser Takeaway: Women are smarter than men. Just kidding. But seriously, if your target audience is women, increasing your investment online could be one the smartest advertising moves you can make.

Study Finding: Audiences aged 18-34 years are multi-tasking to the greatest extent (84 percent). Compare that to 78 percent of 35-49 year olds and 66 percent of those aged over 50. 

Key Advertiser Takeaway: This finding isn’t too surprising to anyone who has watched a twentysomething text, hold a conversation and maybe even drive at the same time. What is surprising is the high percentage of older age groups that also move fluidly between TV and the Internet. Advertisers need to keep this in mind when leveraging demographic targeting online.

For more on The American Media Multi-Tasker Study, go to Yahoo! Advertising, or read this article in USA Today.

— Dianne Molina

New study helps us learn about our fathers

The result: 2010 Yahoo! Audience Insights, a comprehensive look at how key audience segments spend their time online. In this ongoing blog series, we’ll share the exclusive insights that emerged and tips for better targeting key demographics. And in honor of Father’s Day, we are kicking the series off by giving you a glimpse at how dads spend their time online.

Dads value productivity
There are 37.9 million dads online between the ages of 18 and 64. According to Yahoo! Audience Insights, 34% of dads characterize their personal use of the Web as heavy (25+ hrs per week). They are career-focused and use the Web to achieve career goals and managing finances.

Dads see productivity as a key benefit of the Web. Seventy-two percent of mobile device owners value the ability to be “productive” on-the-go. Up-to-the minute news is also a big focus, with 47% reporting they tend to be more in-the-know and informed of current events than most.

Dads are shoppers
In today’s economy, money is on everyone’s mind, and dads are no exception. Thirty-five percent reported a willingness to make personal sacrifices for financial success. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t using the web to spend their hard-earned cash.

Almost half (43%) of dads reported buying consumer electronics online in the last month, and they also use the Web to research new products and stay in-the-know. In fact, 27% say they’re among the first to buy new tech gear and gadgets, and 41% say people often come to them for advice on the best products to buy.

Dads will be boys
This next finding won’t come as any surprise to the wives of America: Dads spend significant time online on sports, games and news sites. In fact, the top three daily online activities for dads are watching live sports or highlights, updating/getting news on fantasy sports, and checking sports scores or news. Twenty-six percent of dads use their mobile devices to play games and check sports scores andnews.

Five tips for targeting dads
So what does this all mean spell for marketers? One word: opportunity. Here are the five key take-aways to leverage on Father’s Day and year-round:

· Engage them on sports, finance, games and news sites—be in all the places they spend the bulk of their time.
· Shopping online is a common activity—and consumer electronics is a particularly hot category.
· Don’t waste their time—dads need to feel productive, so simplify your path to conversion.
· For dads, the Internet is about function and entertainment, so create content and messaging that appeal to both sides.
· Online dads are on the go and want up-to-date information—extend your reach with mobile.

—Dianne Molina

(Image by daquellamanera via Flickr, CC 2.0)

There is a brand battle waging on the social web, but the best brands won’t necessarily win. Instead, the companies that come out on top will be those that are backed by people who understand that building a brand through social media today requires on a new kind of ROI measurement.

Social media marketers use the term return-on-objectives (ROO), rather than return-on-investment (ROI), in an effort to use a system of soft metrics to measure the value of social web participation for long-term brand building and business growth. That’s because the power of social media comes not from click-throughs but from conversations, and those conversations come from the creation of share-worthy content that people want to talk about.

Strike up the brand
So what is the soft metric that businesses should track, to prove their social media marketing success to the powers-that-be that approve the marketing budget each year?

It starts by understanding the importance of brand. There is no space on the company income statement for “brand,” but there is no doubt that brand value can catapult a business to success (think of the Harry Potter brand) or sustain a business success longer than the expected life span (think of the Playboy brand). Social media marketing value works the same way: There might not be a space for it on the company income statement, but by applying soft metrics to your efforts, you can demonstrate the value in them.

Most importantly, tracking online brand advertising and social media marketing success comes from tracking return-on-impression, the new form of ROI. Return-on-iImpression encompasses two primary soft metric values:

1. Eyeballs: Impressions can be the quantifiable statistic related to how often your branded content and messages are viewed by the online audience, similar to impression-based online advertising. However, those impressions can happen anywhere across the social web, such as in blog posts, blog comments, Twitter updates, Facebook updates, Digg submissions, YouTube videos and so on. In other words, share-worthy content spreads and boosts impressions, which leads to conversations. With that in mind, there are different levels of what constitutes an “impression,” starting with simply viewing content and ranging all the way up to passionately discussing and engaging with content.

2. Perceptions: Impressions can be an immeasurable representation of added value related to how your branded content and messages are received by the online audience, and how that content affects its perceptions of your brand and business. After all, brand value comes from consumers, so it makes sense that creating amazing, share-worthy content that gets an audience talking about a brand and business is an incredible opportunity for massaging consumer perceptions.

The bottom line: Measuring return-on-impression for online brand advertising and social media marketing is a long-term strategy that adds intrinsic value to a business. It does this by focusing on creating conversations and eliciting emotions for a brand, which leads to brand loyalty and, ultimately, to brand advocacy.

There is no doubt that a band of vocal online brand advocates who champion and defend a brand across the social web is a word-of-mouth marketing force to be reckoned with. Sure, there might not be a hard metric to calculate the return-on-investment related to word-of-mouth marketing and brand advocacy, but the return-on-impression generated by them is unequivocally valuable.

Closer to the heart
In other words, if your success metrics tied to your online brand advertising and social media marketing initiatives are based on click-throughs or actual sales numbers only, then you’re setting up your business for failure or, at the very least, disappointment. Instead, think about impressions and how your efforts are paying off in terms of getting your business closer to your long-term objectives.

Remember, online brand advertising and social media marketing success is about the quality of relationships and engagement, not just their quantity. Having 10,000 Twitter followers sounds great, but if those 10,000 people don’t care about your brand, then they’re not helping you reach your return-on-objectives or return-on-impression goals. However, 1,000 quality followers who are actively engaged with your business and brand can deliver ROO and ROI that can make a significant, positive difference in your business’ bottom line over the long term.

— Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a full-service marketing communications company, and the author of Building Brand Value the Playboy Way and the upcoming Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon. Follow Susan on her blog.

(Imaqge by Incase via Flickr, CC 2.0)

Creatives vs. quants
There always seems to be a battle raging between the creatives and the so-called bean-counters—the folks who dream up the ads and those who analyze their potential for success or failure. The chief marketing officer’s job, writes Steve Kerho in Fast Company, is to balance out the need for quality creative while respecting the numbers. He offers several tips on just how to do it.

Online privacy vs. offline
There’s a lot of hubbub going on right now about online advertising and privacy. That’s understandable, because there are a lot of unscrupulous advertisers out there salivating to get at your deets. But those nefarious folks aren’t just online. There are plenty offline ready and waiting to invade your privacy, as Bizo CEO Russell Glass explains in Adotas.

Little help, here
Search wunderkind John Battelle, author of The Search, has asked readers for assistance in helping him interview Yahoo’s Executive VP, Americas Hilary Schneider at the upcoming CM Summit at Internet Week in New York. Got a question for Hilary? Visit John’s Search Blog to offer tips. Battelle will also be interviewing Arianna Huffington (Huffington Post), Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Tim Armstrong (AOL), Omar Hamoui (AdMob) and Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. (New York Times Co.), so Hilary’s in good company.

Pink Hitler?
Remember AdBusters’ not-so-nice Gap khaki spoof that featured Adolf Hitler? (Yeah, we tried to forget that one, too.) Well, Italian clothing manufacturer, Cambria Style, has gone one step further with its “Pink Hitler” ad, showing the Nazi dictator in a pink uniform. Surprisingly, BNET Advertising’s Jim Edwards points out, images of Der Furhrer are not as uncommon in overseas advertising as one might think.

Yahoo!-Nokia alliance
You may have heard that Yahoo! and Finnish mobile phone giant, Nokia, have teamed up to bring Yahoo! users Nokia’s Ovi mail, maps and services. It’s a pretty big step for both companies, one sure to deliver new opportunities to advertisers. Look for more on that in this space down the road. As they say in Finland, “hyyvää!”  That’s Finnish for “good!”

Is your agency multi-culti?
GlobalHue, an agency that celebrates diversity, has put together a short viral video to talk about how it’s possible—and beneficial to the bottom line—to create an agency that embraces people of all ethnicities, and serves a wider audience. (Kudos to AdAge’s “Adages” blog for showing us this one.)

— Michael Mattis

Marketers have long understood that emotion plays a critical role in branding. Consumers buy certain products because of the way they make us feel and what they communicate about ourselves.

But how do you measure the emotional connection in your advertising? Are some advertising mediums better than others in making that emotional connection? To answer these questions, Yahoo! partnered with NeuroFocus, a market leader in neurological market research. Yahoo! measured the brain waves of 74 people in real-time as they viewed online, print, and television executions of three ad campaigns from Pepsi, Infiniti, and Yahoo!.

We found that the ads from all three brands performed above average across all platforms. However, when ads are optimized for the Internet, they maximize emotional connection and drive higher purchase intent. In fact, by designing ads that fully leverage the interactive strengths of the online platform, advertisers can even outperform TV in emotional engagement.

Why brain waves?
The simple answer is, consumers can’t hide their brain waves. By measuring the direct response of advertising at the brain level, we are able to observe and quantify pre-cognitive reactions
before reporting biases set in.

In this study, we specifically measured emotional engagement, purchase intent, and overall effectiveness. Ad responses were measured on a 10 point scale, with the median ad performance around 5.0.

Subjects were 18-44 years of age. 50% male / 50% female.

Study results

Infiniti Internet Ad
The Infiniti Internet ad leveraged a “page takeover” execution and outperformed TV and print in emotional engagement, purchase intent, and overall effectiveness. Best practice from Infiniti: flow graphic elements from left to right to increase emotional engagement.

Pepsi Internet Ad
Pepsi took an existing television ad and repurposed it online. While this was effective, performing well above average, it was not as effective as the Infiniti and Yahoo! ads which were produced specifically for the Internet. Best practice from Pepsi: use humor and surprise to capture attention.

Yahoo! Internet Ad
Yahoo! combined an existing television ad with Internet elements and scored well in emotional engagement and purchase intent—outperforming print in overall effectiveness. Best practice from Yahoo!: integrate a “human element” into the ad to increase emotional engagement.

Overall, TV ads scored best in overall effectiveness (6.9), but Internet was not far behind (6.4) and, in some cases, even outperformed TV. Print scored 6.0.

When ads are optimized for the Internet, they maximize emotional connection and drive higher purchase intent
By taking full advantage of the unique capabilities of the Internet platform, the Infiniti ad scored higher on emotional engagement, purchase intent, and overall effectiveness than both the television and print version of this ad.

While TV performs exceptionally well at making the emotional connection, Internet ads can perform equally well and even outperform when fully optimized for the Internet. Brand advertisers who understand how to do this have another effective option in their toolkit for making emotional brand connections.

Yahoo! is your digital canvas
So, how do you create ads that take full advantage of the online medium? Yahoo! has mastered the art of developing lasting emotional engagement with consumers through interactivity. Our premium digital canvasses, pioneering ad formats, and branded video content options showcase your message in a quality context that delivers results.

Not sure where to start? Our dedicated teams will also work with you in a consultative approach to create customized innovative solutions designed to meet your marketing objectives. Contact your Yahoo! Account Executive for more information.

— Ira Amilhussin and Christina Mautz