Among TNS’ findings:

For the nine month period, Internet display advertising expenditures increased 7.0 percent as marketers continued to expand their online investments. However, growth rates have been getting smaller for five consecutive quarters.
The Summer Olympics boosted third-quarter Network TV ad spending and turned a six-month loss into a nine month gain with year-to-date expenditures up 3.0 percent. Cable TV (+3.7 percent) was aided by limited exposure to the early-year TV writer’s strike and successful summer programming. Syndication TV (+9.0 percent) benefited from more hours of programming.
Consumer magazine ad spending was down 3.8 percent with the reduction broadly distributed across a number of key categories including apparel, direct response and pharmaceutical.
Local media expenditures continue to deteriorate in the wake of cutbacks from automotive, retail and telecom advertisers. Spot TV fell 2.6 percent, despite record-setting levels of political spending. Expenditures plunged by 10.0 percent in Newspaper media and by 8.8 percent in Radio media. Outdoor advertising, after six years of uninterrupted growth, fell into the red during the third quarter and finished the nine-month period with a loss of 0.5 percent.
Overall, local media ad spending was down 6.7 percent through September while national media eked out a small increase of 0.9 percent.

Win customers with convenience
You can’t turn on the news without hearing the newest poll numbers on the mental stress that Americans are enduring. Between working second and third jobs, and all the time it takes to worry about your financial future, consumers will be looking for convenience this holiday season. While everyone in the marketplace is offering lower prices, advertisers should get noticed by offering shoppers a way to avoid high gas prices, long lines, and the other headaches that usually accompany the holidays. Offers of free gift wrap and free shipping for online purchases are likely to attract time and cash starved consumers. Hotels should increase offerings for free shuttles and discounted tickets for local attractions to lure hesitant holiday travelers.

Win customers with “real” value
A great way to differentiate yourself during this tough season would be to offer customers something of perceived value. Rather than advertise that third price cut, why not offer a buy one, get one free on a popular item? Shoppers will see this as a way to get that hot new gadget for “Uncle Bob,” and keep one for themselves, too. Throwing in smaller, “stocking stuffer” type items with larger purchases are another way to draw in customers. These items are often the ones left in the clearance bin for after-holidays sales, so why not use them to entice more buyers now? And, rather than dropping fares, airlines could offer to waive the fee for extra baggage to customers who book flights early. The elimination of that $20 will cost airlines less than a substantial drop in fare would and have more perceived value to consumers.

Nostalgia is always a winner
The holidays are a time filled with reminiscing of years past, and this is never more true than in difficult times. Families are likely to go through this holiday season wishing for the carefree feeling of Christmas past, so a sense of nostalgia will really resonate with consumers. This could create a strong market for toys and games that parents remember from childhood. Classic board games, Cabbage Patch dolls, and Rock ’em Sock ’em robots are great lower cost alternatives to today’s highly computerized toys, and kids love them just as much today as they did 30 years ago. We have already seen one use of nostalgia in marketing with the holiday campaign for Macy’s department stores featuring images of Macy’s in the media throughout its 150 year history. The great thing about nostalgia is that it’s easy to infuse into most any industry. It could be as simple as playing classic recordings of Christmas carols on your website (think “White Christmas” by legend Frank Sinatra), airlines serving milk and cookies to kids on holiday flights, or a hotel having Santa come visit the kids on Christmas Eve. These are all pretty simple steps that you can take to ensure your promotion gets noticed in this sea of sales.

The report, which focused on Europe, found that Europeans have doubled the time they spend watching TV online in the past year – and online advertising is keeping up, AdAge reports.

About 20% of online display ad spend will be devoted to online video ads in Europe, the study found (accounting for $1.4 billion by 2012, up from $224 million last year).

Tremor Media reported that 20% of its 15-second pre-roll ads were ditched before they were done – but AdAge points out that many sites report that 10% of users ditch videos within 15 seconds, whether there’s a pre-roll ad or not.

“It makes sense that in-stream ads are more popular, because everyone has broadband now and we expect to see richer content on the Web,” Jeroen Matser, strategy director at Tribal DDB, London, told AdAge. “It’s also a return to allowing people to sit back again. People can relax and be entertained, which might be refreshing in this cluttered, call-to-action environment.”

Short-form video wonder YouTube doesn’t run pre-roll ads, claiming they lose as much as 50% of their audience with them.

Why Twitter rocks: As major news outlets scrambled to get information on the 5.4 magnitude quake that hit Southern Cal yesterday, Twitter tweeted away, giving California residents and their loved ones the best up-to-date information available. (The same thing happened when a 7.8 quake hit China in May).

At Ad Age’s Madison & Vine conference, instead of launching into a shtick (for which he was booked) on digital-entertainment strategies, Google chief Eric Schmidt complained about the recent Atlantic Magazine cover, led by the header: “Is Google Making Us Stoopid?”

About 19% of senior marketers in the U.S. said they have bought advertising in return for a news story, according to a recent survey conducted on behalf of PRWeek and Manning Selvage & Lee by Millward Brown. And 8%, or about one in 12, said their organizations paid or provided a gift of value to an editor/producer to place a news story about their company or one of its products.

Questionable marketing practices such as those explored in this survey have generated controversy in recent months. Last week, for example, McDonalds’ placement of fake iced-coffee drinks on the set of a Las Vegas news program generated criticism in various publications including the Las Vegas Sun (July 21) and Advertising Age (July 28).

The biggest losers were vertical news and gaming sites and small Web sites – but vertical entertainment sites actually grew.

The nitty-gritty:

• On average, Web site monetization decreased by less than 1% from $0.37 in May to $.036 in June. (Pricing data reflects net publisher monetization via ad networks and excludes ad networks’ share of ad spends as well as inventory sold directly by publishers to ad agencies or advertisers).
• By size, small size Web sites had the largest drop to $0.81 in June, down from $1.13 in May.
• By vertical, News and Gaming had significant drops, sliding $0.62 and $0.20, respectively.
• Entertainment showed the only increase jumping $0.11 from $0.29 in May to $0.40 in June.

“Online advertising is in a holding pattern like many sectors of the U.S. economy,” said Rajeev Goel, cofounder and general manager of PubMatic.

The PubMatic AdPrice Index is comprised of more than 4,000 sites, 85% of which are U.S.-based.