Rocket Readings: 10 interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week

10 interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week:from Posts from the Econsultancy blog by David Moth
Here are some of the most interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week.
Stats include how shoppers use mobile for product research, content marketing, Marks & Spencer's multichannel shopping experience, Vevo and online customer service.
For more digital marketing stats, check out our Internet Statistics Compendium.

Shoppers use mobile for product research

A new survey of 2,000 smartphone owners found that more than two-thirds (71%) of respondents research products on their mobile, with 32% doing it on a weekly basis.
When asked what they had done after researching products on their mobile, 38% of respondents said they completed a purchase in store compared to 25% that made a purchase on their smartphone.
In response to a different question, 41% of respondents said they use their mobile in-store at least half the time they are out shopping.

A study conducted by the IAB's Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence and InMobi found that some key segments of moviegoers are increasingly influenced by mobile.
A full 75% of those under the age of 35 and 68% of those over the age of 35 polled stated that they use their mobile device to help pick movies to see.
Males are more likely to turn to their mobile devices than females for help picking a flick, with 71% indicating that they've done so, but at 68%, females aren't far off.

While the importance of content marketing is beyond dispute, with 90% of respondents believing that it will become more important over the next 12 months, just 38% currently have a defined strategy in place.
Econsultancy's first Content Marketing Survey Report, produced in association with Outbrain, is based on a survey of more than 1,300 digital marketing professionals working for brands, publishers and agencies.
Nearly three quarters (73%) of digital marketers agree that ‘brands are becoming publishers’ and 64% of in-house marketers agree that content marketing ‘is becoming its own discipline’.

Does your company / do your clients have a defined content marketing strategy?

Marks & Spencer offers the best multichannel customer experience across three digital channels, according to a report published by eDigitalResearch.
The eChannel Benchmark evaluated 14 retail brands that have mobile optimised sites and apps as well as a desktop site to find out which offered the most consistent customer experience.
M&S came top with an average score of 86% across the three channels, followed by Amazon (85%), Topshop (84%) and House of Fraser (84%).
Amazon was the top performing retailer for on-site search, thanks mainly to the fact that it offers predictive search terms across all three platforms.

New stats from Vevo reveal that 40bn music videos were watched globally on its website in the last year (July 2011-June 2012).
Also, UK monthly video streams reached 157m in June 2012, with more than 10m unique views.
UK mobile video streams have grown by more than 150% since May 2011 to nearly 30m. Mobile use peaks between 6pm and 12am mirroring traditional television viewing.

A new survey of 1,000 consumers by Sitel found that the expectation of a rapid response is driving more consumers to non-traditional methods of interacting with customer service agents such as chat and social media.
25% of consumers aged 16-24 stated that companies could improve their customer service experience if they responded quickly to question on Twitter, up 9% from last year.
6% more consumers selected chat compared to last year when asked about their preferred method of interacting with customer service, while preference for email dropped 3% and phone dropped 1%.
Preference for chat has nearly doubled since 2011 among the affluent (earners over £60,900), jumping from 18% to 34% year on year.

EPiServer’s latest report, Benchmarking the Digital High Street: UK Ecommerce Performance Index 2012, has found that the top UK retailers are providing a poor online shopping experience.
The report scores 25 of the UK’s top retailers’ websites against a detailed best practice benchmark.
Amazon came top with a score of 73%, followed by M&S (70%), House of Fraser (66%), ASOS (65%) and Argos (65%).

Digital media is becoming an increasingly large part of the car buying process, according to a new survey by JD Power & Associates.
It found that 79% of buyers now research potential auto buys online, and 99% of this audience used a desktop or laptop computer as part of this process, while 20% used smartphones and 19% a tablet.
More broadly, a 30% share of the consumers who looked for vehicle details before making their final choice sought out this material via at least two of these channels.

Coca-Cola has retained its spot as the world's most valuable brand, according to a study by Interbrand.
The soft drinks company increased its value by 8% to $77.8bn, closely followed by Apple at $77.6bn. Apple’s value has increased by 129% from $33.5bn last year thanks to the runaway success of the iPhone and iPad.
IBM fell from second to third despite logging an 8% expansion to $75.5bn, Google came fourth, up by 26% to $69.7bn.

Image credit: BU Research blog.