Online publishers have discovered that the Internet is the best advertising medium for reaching customers during the day, and they’re spreading the news. Both the Newspaper Association of America and the Online Publishers Association have released studies promoting the advantages of buying online advertising by dayparts.
The NY Times charges a 25% premium for daypart-triggered ads, according to the Internet Advertising Report. And Sun bought 100% of Forbes.com ad space between 9 am and 1 pm.
It’s refreshing to see online advertising sold on value and being differentiated more creatively from traditional ad media.
Here are some findings from the OPA report:
- There are five distinct Internet dayparts characterized by differing usage levels, demographics and type of content accessed: Early morning (M-F 6am – 8am), Daytime (M-F, 8am – 5pm), Evening (M-F, 5pm – 11pm), Late night (M-F, 11pm – 6am), Weekends (Sat-Sun, all day).
- Daytime is the largest daypart (measured in terms of both total audience and total usage minutes), followed by Evening and Weekends;
- Affluent, working people between the ages of 25-54 make up a larger share of the Daytime audience than any other daypart;
- Children under the age of 18 are three times more likely to be reached during the Evening and Weekend dayparts;
- Internet utilities such as search engines, e-mail and chat show little variation in usage by daypart; online content sites, in contrast, exhibit distinct differences in usage by time of day;
- Use of News and Information sites is concentrated in the Early Morning and Daytime dayparts;
- Entertainment/Sports site usage increases dramatically during Evening and Weekend dayparts compared to Daytime;
- On average, eCommerce activity accounts for only 5.3% of time spent online; a considerably larger share occurs on Evenings and Weekends than during the Daytime.
The NAA report is only available to members. I don’t understand why they’d want to keep this to themselves.
It’s important to remember that although each daypart has distinct demographics, that daypart advertising is no substitute for demographic targeting.