Weekly Sweeps… Snippets For Your VFOGI (Vast fund of general information)

1.  Cash-Strapped Consumers Shift Brands
According to a blog from Gian Fulgoni in Ad Age Digital, about 54% of consumers said they bought the brand they wanted most in 2008. By 2010, this had dropped to 45%, and 43% this year. Declines were observed in every category, with the most severe drop (17 points) in over-the-counter medicines and the lowest in the household category (6 points).
If consumers aren’t buying the brand they want most, they are switching brands, says Fulgoni. When a “peer” brand is on sale, 38% in 2011 say they bought it compared to 33% in 2008. But they also turn to a cheaper product. About 19% of consumers switched to private-label products in 2011, up from 14% in 2008.
When downsizing caused consumers to switch to another brand, 14% said it usually did and 54% said it occasionally did. But when asked which cost-controlling action they would prefer, 62% more consumers chose a smaller size over a price increase. Brand marketers appear to be backed into a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” corner.
For more from Ad Age, please visit here.
2.  In Sickness and In Health
According to a study of audience visitation to public health sites in the U.S by comScore, in September 2011, NIH.gov ranked as the leading public health site with the most unique visitors within the Government category, while having a comparable audience size to top sites within the Health category such as Yahoo! Health and MSN Health. NIH.gov received 10.6 million visitors in September, growing 22% from the previous year. 
Also ranking among the top ten federal Government sites were CDC.gov, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site, and USDA.gov, the Department of Agriculture site. USDA.gov showed a similar increase in traffic as NIH.gov, with a 20 percent gain over the previous year. HealthFinder.gov, an initiative of the Department of Health and Human Services, saw the highest increase in traffic from the previous year (69 percent), drawing 113,000 unique visitors in September 2011.

John Mangano, comScore vice president for Health Marketing Solutions, notes that “… government health agencies (are) investing more in their digital media strategies to make information and resources more easily accessible… ”
For more from comScore, please visit here.
3.  Five Companies Dominate Digital Ad Spend
According to an observation by DarrenHerman.com, searching digital media ad spend, 64% of the worlds digital media ad spend is controlled by Google, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook, and Microsoft. A ZenithOptimedia press release on October 3, 2011, estimated worldwide digital advertising $64.03B in October, 2011.
Google generates approximately 364% more revenue from advertising than it’s next closest rival, Yahoo!, while Facebook had $1.86B in 2010.

For data chart, please visit here.