32% of consumers plan to do their Valentine’s Day shopping online this year, a nine percent increase over last year!

Valentine’s Day is the day to show your love and appreciation to those you hold dearest to your heart. One thing you may not have known is that last year consumers spent $15.7 billion on Valentine’s Day, making it the third largest retail holiday of the year.

With more than a 19% increase in spend expected from online shopping, this Valentine’s Day is going to be setting records and will convince more marketers to increase their budgets in the years to come (eBillme Online Spending Index). Interestingly, 60% of online Valentines Day shoppers plan to purchase something other than chocolates or flowers and 18% plan to purchase gift cards.

If you are a consumer, it is not too late to make that special flower order, or purchase a gift for that special someone. Keep the love alive and be sure to show your appreciation to the people who have made an impact in your life on this special day.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Martini Media!

For the second year in a row, Martini Media has been awarded the AlwaysOn OnMedia Top 100 Private Companies award. The OnMedia award is selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts and is based on five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value and media buz. Martini Media is excited to be considered a top company that posses leadership and game-changing approaches and technologies.

Skip Brand, CEO or Martini Media, expressed his delight about winning the award, “So excited to have Martini Media included on this award for the second year in a row. We are making strides daily and disrupting the world of rich media.”

A full list of all the OnMedia Top 100 winners can be found on the AlwaysOn website at:

http://www.aonetwork.com/AOStory/Announcing-2012-OnMedia-100-Top-Private-Companies

Around 11% of the U.S. population make $250K+ per year, 32% of the U.S, population make $150K-$250K per year and 58% of the U.S. population make $100K-$150K per year (eMarketer).  It is clear to see why marketers want to invest in online media that reaches the demographic with the most discretionary spending power. Martini Media has worked to developed a list of 1,000 online publishers that specifically targets this audiences passion points.

98% of the affluent audience spend time online whether it be on a mobile, tablet, or laptop/desktop device (eMarketer). Total Internet usage among all US adults is around 78%, making the affluent audience a more attractive demographic for marketers to target (eMarketer).  The affluent spend about 26 hours per week online and watch around 17 hours of TV per week compared to the general population who spends 21 hours per week online and 34 hours watching TV per week (eMarketer). Because the affluent spend the most time online (even more than watching TV), the Internet is the most effective way to target affluents dollars as well as to develop brand awareness and loyalty.

Selling products through an ecommerce site is no longer enough to engage affluent consumers.  Luxury brands are creating engaging and inspiring content that lets consumers imagine how products would fit into their own lives.

One of Martin Media’s publishers, World Travel Guide, has a special section just for travel deals where advertisers are able to put together a custom package to attract affluent travelers.  Special offers for a 6-day tour in China and a trip to New Zealand are just a few examples of the custom content available.

Another Martini Media publisher, Matador Network, has capabilities for advertisers to create a custom blog series about a travel destination or travel product. This is a great source for luxury advertisers to get their message and engaging content across a site that targets the audience most likely to purchase their product.

If you are a luxury cosmetic advertiser, Makeup Talk is a great site to get feedback from consumers on your product. Whether you are looking to get feedback on a new mascara or blush, or publish a gallery about a new line you are releasing, Makeup Talk offers great custom content to engage the affluent demographic.

According to the 2011 “Spending Study” conducted by the Custom Content Council in partnership with ContentWise, the total spend on branded content rebounded significantly in 2011 to $1,914,000 Further cementing growth in 2012, says the report, 16% of marketers reported that their companies are shifting aggressively from traditional marketing into branded content. The biggest driver of growth from 2010 to 2011 was in publication budgets, which increased by 68%. According to the study, 26% of the overall marketing spend was allocated to branded content and 30% of respondents felt their branded content budgets would rise again in 2012.

No matter what category of advertiser you are, engaging content is the best and most affective way to target the affluent online.

To-date, direct response has been the most popular way for marketers to target audiences online. While branding has made major strides with video and some rich media there is still a lot of opportunity to make leaps in awareness and message association.

While Martini does offer direct response, recently there has been a lot of growth in rich media including offering the portrait, pushdown, sidekick and filmstrip expansively across multiple publishers. The current dilemma facing many digital media companies is the ability to run high engaging units that consistently meet brand advertisers goals. Because Martini was the first to offer rich media across a large channel (between 80-100 sites depending on the unit itself), advertisers are able reach and even exceed their campaign goals.

There is still a lot of growth to increase engagement so brand marketing sees improvement. According to a recent study sponsored by Digiday, in 2012, online brand advertisers are expected to increase their online branding budgets by 64%, reaching around $15 billion . In contrast, only 56% of marketers plan to increase their online direst response budgets in 2012, with only 15% saying they will increase spending by more than 20%, reaching around $22 billion. Continued creativity with video and rich media will help brands have an even longer lasting effect on consumer purchase decisions. Watch out TV and direct response, brand dollars are on the rise!

It’s game time. Take some of those ad dollars and put them towards rich media to bring in the most revenue possible as consumers prepare for Super Bowl parties. You don’t want to be left on the sidelines, so be sure to take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity.

2011 was a good year for affluent morale. Optimism about the economy improving rose from 30% in September to 40% in December this past year.  The affluent demographic regards 2011 as a good year for themselves and family and relatively good for their career and finances.

While 2011 was optimistic, sentiments are expected to rise even more in 2012. Two thirds of the 58.5 million affluent adults expect that 2012 will be a good year for themselves and their family and 54% expected 2012 to be good for their career and finances. Even more impressive, 30% of the affluent audience expects 2012 to be a good year for the economy or America as a whole, a 20% increase from 2011.

This shows great promise for premium brands looking to fulfill and exceed their sales quotas. 2012 is looking up, especially if you are in the business of targeting the affluent demographic.

Travel is going to be on the minds of the affluent audience in 2012, according to a December 2011 study by Unity Marketing. 43% of affluent consumers expect to spend either significantly (12%) or somewhat (31%) more on travel in the coming year, led by young affluents, men, ultra-affluents, and high-net-worth affluents, according to the report.

Unity Marketing is not the only source reporting on affluence and travel, in October 2011, American Express Spending & Saving Tracker reported 42% of American holiday travelers plan to increase their holiday travel budget compared to last year.

Seeing as travelers will book one third of the world’s travel sales online by the end of 2012, now is the perfect time for the travel industry to leverage and perfect their online advertising campaigns.