For serious marketers: New studies saying men can really prefer something over sex, how Google is helping the aged without meaning it and a stupid study about YouTube.

Do you like research? I do. I like research that helps in my profession. If you're a marketer using internet in marketing then our tastes match. If you're not a marketer you'll still find this interesting.

I was sifting down the net to see if I could find any data about the internet and guess what I found: tons of intriguing stuff about the web and how it is used in strategic internet marketing.

The best part about these interesting tidbits is that they are NOT speculations of any internet marketing guru or products of fertile imagination of internet junkies. These pointers have been collected from internet users – the mighty user base of the net. Your target audience, my target audience.

Ignoring these research findings would be the worst thing you’d do as a business developer or internet marketer. As a marketer myself, I found them quite engaging and useful.

So without further ado, let me bring to you some of these striking pointers. I hope they’ll be of use to you in your marketing and business development efforts. If not, I do hope they’ll make a good read.

Here they are:

What did you say men prefer over sex!!?

Internet!! Yes, the humble world wide web. Now this is interesting. In a Happiness Index study by business consultants The Leading Edge, digital entertainment (internet) ranked 2 spots higher than sex and one point ahead of spending quality time with partner. I wonder why.

Women, on the contrary, rank making love above digital entertainment but just one spot above. Not surprisingly, spending quality time with partner ranks WAY ABOVE digital entertainment. I wonder why.

Aging brains find internet beneficial

That’s some news for all those companies that target senior citizens. A study from the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Behavior at UCLA says that "Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function."

The study team did functional magnetic resonance imaging (I love such big phrases, they sound cool) on 24 individuals aged 55-76. Half the respondents were internet veterans and the other half novices.

The results were intriguing; one of the findings was “Internet searching appears to engage a greater extent of neural circuitry that is not activated during reading.”

What that means is that internet searching is more gratifying to aging brains than reading. If aging brains, who have scores of inhibitions and conventions wired into them for years, are finding something exciting beyond these conventions then just think what the internet must be doing to the teens and the youth. No wonder they are hooked.

My takeaway is that in coming years, senior citizens will be more effective and selective in searching and locating what they want so marketers please stand up and take notice. But that's still a great internet marketing opportunity.

YouTube has the eye balls

Now did we really need a study to tell us this?

Every smart marketer knows that Youtube got eyeballs. Google did not buy YT for 1.6 billion for nothing. Although, Google wanted the content as well, to support their adwords plans. But that’s for a different post.

So why am I including the study in this post? There are some good pointers for strategic internet marketing in this study by comScore.

One is that video marketing is coming of age and the sooner businesses and marketers understand and act upon this, the better. Google’s sites (dominated by YT) amounted for 44% of all videos consumed by US internet users in July.

Last year, a study reported that TV on internet is bigger than TV on TV. This year, Google’s nearest competitor for video consumption is Fox Interactive Network (but just 4%).

If these points are not enough, check this: 3 quarters of US internet users watch online video regularly. Video marketing is serious!

Contact Vishal Nayak to discuss your copywriting and marketing needs!