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Holiday Season Online Spending Outpacing Forecast

By Andrew Redfern @ 16th December 2009 9:48 am comScore

comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 43 days of the November – December 2009 holiday season.

For the holiday season-to-date, nearly $21 billion has been spent online, marking a 4-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year.

The most recent week ending December 13 reached $4.74 billion in spending, ranking as the heaviest online spending week on record. The previous high of $4.70 billion occurred during the week ending December 16, 2007.

“This most recent week began with five consecutive strong online spending days surpassing $700 million, followed by a fairly upbeat weekend,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

“Six weeks into the online holiday shopping season and with a cumulative growth rate of 4-percent, we are tracking slightly above our forecast of a 3-percent growth rate versus year ago, which appears to be partially attributable to continued heavy promotional activity among retailers.

Though early reports indicated that retailers had pulled back on inventory this season and would not be discounting as heavily late into the season, data from Shoplocal.com show that online retailer promotion activity is continuing at a high rate with the number of offers in the last week up 21 percent versus year ago.”

Will Green Monday be the Heaviest Online Spending Day of 2009?

For years there has been a misconception that Cyber Monday is the heaviest online spending day of the year.

In actuality, Cyber Monday represents the first significant uptick in online holiday spending, while heavier spending continues to build until mid-December.

In 2007, eBay and PayPal suggested that online spending actually peaks on the second Monday in December, and dubbed this event “Green Monday.” Monday tends to be the heaviest online spending day of the week, because holiday spending is still heavily dependent on work-based online shopping and because people tend to be in the office longer hours on Mondays.

This year, “Green Monday” occurred on Monday, December 14 and is likely to be the heaviest online spending day of the year and perhaps of all-time. comScore will announce this year’s Green Monday total later in the week.

ComScore analyse Everton’s “People’s Club” tag

By Andrew Redfern @ 12th March 2009 2:53 pm comScore

We are generally glued to comScore’s various articles and reports so we were surprised when we saw this one hitting rather close to home.

It seems that comScore’s Jamie Gavin has done some analysis of where the two Merseyside football clubs get their web traffic from.

It would seem that out of all U.K. visitors to Evertonfc.com, 46.8 percent come from the North West, compared to just 16.8 percent of all U.K. visitors to Liverpoolfc.tv! These numbers are based on 3 months worth of data rolled-up into a single month average (in this case ending January 2009). So in other words, these numbers are not affected by seasonal fluctuations, or temporary-regional migrations, they are literally “averaged out over the course of the season to date!”

Ergo, the majority of Liverpool’s U.K. fan base isn’t really made up of Liverpudlians at all!!! In fact, 20.3 percent of U.K. visitors to their site hail from LONDON! Say it with me…Unbelievable Jeff!
For a more qualitative measure, just ask Everton manager David Moyes, who gave this comment when he first signed up with the club: “I am from a city (Glasgow) that is not unlike Liverpool. I am joining the people’s football club. The majority of people you meet on the street are Everton fans. It is a fantastic opportunity, something you dream about. I said ‘yes’ right away as it is such a big club.”

Oh, and if you are wondering where I am while I’m writing this post by the way: London (part of the 4.8 percent of visitors to Evertonfc.com who reside here, I’m afraid!)

So what do we make of that…the debate goes on but it would certainly bring into focus the relative merits of conflicting “The City’s all ours” claims.

It also highlights the fact that rather more Liverpool fans than Everton fans will have been affected by the ITV’s cataclysmic mess-up over Dan Gosling’s goal.

Sharp eyed liverpudlians will spot that there is no overall traffic figure for the two sites and given the top-four orientated nature of the support & coverage for Premiership Football it’s possible Liverpool’s 16% outstrips The Toffee’s 48% but who’s counting. It’s all grist to the mill of the eternal circle of footballing banter.

comScore Speak at Jefferies Internet Conference

By Andrew Redfern @ 20th February 2009 11:13 pm comScore

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced that Dr. Magid Abraham, CEO & Co-Founder, and John Green, CFO, will present at the Jefferies 5th Annual Internet and Media Conference in New York City at 8:40 am ET on Wednesday, February 25, 2009.

The presentation will also be available via live audio webcast at the link below and via replay from the same link for 90 days beginning approximately one hour after the conclusion of the presentation.

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. In an independent survey of 800 of the most influential publishers, advertising agencies and advertisers conducted by William Blair & Company in January 2009, comScore was rated the ‘most preferred online audience measurement service’ by 50% of respondents, a full 25 points ahead of its nearest competitor.

comScore’s capabilities are based on a massive, global cross-section of approximately 2 million Internet users who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that gathers and integrates their attitudes and intentions.

Using its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of digital behavior and attitudes, helping clients design more powerful marketing strategies that deliver superior ROI.

With its recent acquisition of M:Metrics, comScore is also a leading source of data on mobile usage. comScore services are used by more than 1,100 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestle, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, the University of Chicago, Verizon Services Group and ViaMichelin.

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comScore’s Record Revenue for 2008

By Andrew Redfern @ 16th February 2009 10:19 am comScore

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2008.

Magid Abraham, comScore’s president and chief executive officer said, “We are very pleased to report record revenue for the fourth quarter of 2008 that is 25 percent higher than fourth quarter 2007, despite a challenging economic environment. Our subscription revenue for the fourth quarter was strong and increased 32 percent from the same quarter last year, while existing customer revenue increased 25 percent over fourth quarter 2007.

Overall revenue in the fourth quarter was slightly below the low end of our guidance range, impacted by somewhat lighter project revenue in the fourth quarter, the negative impact of the stronger U.S. dollar on our international revenue, and a slower rate of international growth.

We believe the lighter than expected project revenue can be attributed primarily to clients tightening their year-end spending in reaction to the economic slowdown.”

Dr. Abraham continued, “Our results in the fourth quarter for net income (excluding certain non-recurring benefits for tax and charges for impairments), non-GAAP adjusted net income, and GAAP and non GAAP EPS were on the high end of our guidance range while adjusted EBITDA was consistent with our expectations.

These financial results reflect continuation of our revenue growth, the fundamental strength of our business model, and the benefits of cost containment efforts that we implemented late last year.”

Dr. Abraham added, “Despite the economic conditions, we added 112 gross new customers, or 30 new customers on a net basis, in the fourth quarter, which increases our total customer base to 1,166 clients. We are delighted to report that we recently signed Viacom as the one-hundredth client for Video Metrix, our industry-leading video tracking service.

We also maintained our historical subscription renewal rate in excess of 90 percent on a subscription revenue basis, with renewals among our medium- and large-sized customers at even higher rates. In 2008, we continued to broaden our customer base, and we made particularly significant strides in penetrating the telecom sector. With industry leaders such as Verizon and AT&T now among our top 10 customers, we believe comScore is well positioned as mobile Internet usage continues its rapid growth.”

“In addition, Brand Metrix, Ad Metrix, and Campaign Metrix, our ad effectiveness measurement products, all gained important traction in 2008.

These services allow publishers and advertisers to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of advertising campaigns and help maximize the return on advertising expenditures. Looking ahead to 2009, we believe that this line of products will gain further momentum as advertisers seek to maximize the return on their advertising expenditures in these challenging times.”

Dr. Abraham concluded, “Our focus remains on the long term as we continue to build the leading global digital marketing intelligence platform. We believe that our strong market position, financial health and business model have positioned us well for continued long-term success.”

Posted By Andrew Redfern

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comScore “Most Preferred Online Audience Measurement”

By Andrew Redfern @ 3rd February 2009 12:30 pm comScore

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced that it was rated as the preferred audience measurement service by 50.4 percent of respondents to the William Blair & Company 6th semiannual survey of the members of the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA).

The results for comScore extends its lead versus its nearest competitor to 25 share points and represent a 5-percentage point gain from the mid-2008 survey.

William Blair noted that “our proprietary tracking indicates that comScore continues to extend its leadership position in the digital marketing intelligence industry, with data from our semiannual CIMA survey conducted in December 2008 indicating comScore was preferred over its nearest competitor, Nielsen Online, by a 25-share point spread, which is up from a 20-share point lead in the last survey.”

Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore President and Chief Executive Officer commented: “comScore’s expanded leadership position is a testament to the outstanding efforts of the entire comScore team, which has worked tirelessly to provide the global Internet industry with a powerful and compelling suite of products that measure the digital world. Our commitment to innovation, continued improvement, and meeting the constant challenges of evolving digital media is only strengthened by this important market validation.”

To conduct the survey, William Blair partnered with CIMA, which boasts a membership base of more than 800 organizations, covering publishers, advertisers and advertising agencies. Approximately 150 members of CIMA participated in the survey. William Blair commented that CIMA is: “One of the world’s most active Internet marketing associations and the advertisers represented by this community provide an ideal interactive market barometer, as they are more likely to represent established marketers that control some of the largest online ad budgets in the world.”

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comScore Announces Full Year 2008 Call Details

By Andrew Redfern @ 26th January 2009 6:05 pm comScore

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced it will report its fourth-quarter and full year 2008 financial results after U.S. financial markets close on Wednesday, February, 11, 2009.

In conjunction with this announcement, a conference call will be hosted by Dr. Magid Abraham, president and chief executive officer, and John Green, chief financial officer, on Wednesday, February 11, 2009, at 5:00 p.m. (ET) to discuss the Company’s financial results.

To access this call, dial 888-713-4209 (domestic) or 617-213-4863 (international). The pass code for the call is 74553746. Investors are advised to dial in at least ten minutes prior to the call to register.

Pre-registrants will be issued a pin number to use for quick access to the live call. Additionally, a live webcast of the conference call will be available on the “Investor Relations” page on the Company’s Web site http://www.comscore.com.

Following the conference call, a replay will be available at 888-286-8010 (domestic) or 617-801-6888 (international). The replay pass code for this call is 23975880. An archived webcast of this conference call will also be available at http://ir.comscore.com/events.cfm. The replay conference call and webcast will be available until February 25, 2009.

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence.

In an independent survey of 800 of the most influential publishers, advertising agencies and advertisers conducted by William Blair & Company in July 2008, comScore was rated the ‘most preferred online audience measurement service’ by 54% of respondents, a full 20 points ahead of its nearest competitor.

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Yahoo and Microsoft show strong growth in October

By Andrew Redfern @ 27th November 2008 6:30 pm comScore

zdNet are reporting stronger than expected performances from the number two and three search engines Yahoo and Microsoft. comScore has released figures from October and it shows a 6% growth in the US search sector.

Of the 2.6 billion searches were conducted at home, work and universities Google swallowed up 63%, Yahoo had 20.5% and Microsoft 8.5%. The number of Yahoo searches was up by 9% on the previous month and Microsoft’s figure was up 8% on September.

Overall the total search figure was up 7% so Yahoo and Microsoft have increased their market share whilst Google’s has stayed steady. The main loser was AOL which saw a decline of 2%.

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