And The Oscar Goes To...The Business of The Academy Awards

The countdown to Oscar is on! Will it be The Social Network or The King's Speech? Natalie Portman or Annette Bening? Colin Firth or Jeff Bridges? Well, we can't help you with those questions, but we can offer a little insight on the business side of the Oscars. According to Kantar Media, over that last decade advertisers have spent over $720 million dollars during the Oscar broadcast. This year a 30 second spot will run about $1.7 million. Over the past five years, more than half of the ad revenue has come from only five companies: Coca-Cola, JC Penney, General Motors, American Express and MasterCard International. However, the recession has opened up the way for a few first-time advertisers who were responsible for about 48% of 2010's Oscar advertising. Hate commercials? Good news; the Academy Awards have limited commercial time: just 8-10 minutes per hour. The Super Bowl has about 13-14 minutes per hour while a normal broadcast television show has 14-16 minutes.

If you're looking for more research on the business of movies, the Motion Picture Association of America has a great Policy & Research section on their website. They provide industry reports showing the economic impact of the movie and television production industry as well as state by state statistics. The state statistics are great and show not only economic impact but also the number of movies and television shows filmed in each state as well as each state's production incentives.  Fun facts from the site include:

• To qualify for incentives in Texas 70 percent of the production crew, actors and extras must be Texas residents
• The motion picture and television industry is responsible for 8,200 direct jobs and $268.6 million in wages in Oregon.
• In 2008, 26 movies were filmed in Florida
• To be eligible for incentives in Colorado, productions must spend at least 75 percent of expenditures in Colorado and 75 percent of the actors and crew must be Colorado residents.
• Over two-thirds of the population (68%) – or 222.7 million people – went to the movies at least once in 2010.

Our Mobile Payment Future

eMarketer reports that the world wide transaction value of mobile payments will be close to $1 trillion in 2014. That's 6x the current value of $162 billion. This forecast from Yankee Group includes transactions from mobile banking, international and domestic remittances, contactless cards, mobile coupons, and near field communications (swiping your smartphone near a payment terminal). IT World reports that IE Market Research predicts the value will be even higher at $1.1 trillion and they believe that 1/3 of that forecasted value will be made up of the NFC transactions. The GSM Association has over 750 carriers around the world and they are working on standardized mobile payment systems to make these forecasts a reality.

The idea of mobile payments hasn't caught on in the US just yet. Less than 10% of the those of us in the US have paid with our phones and only 29% of US and European respondents "welcome the day" when they can make payments using their phones, but IE Market Research shows that mobile payments are common in many other countries. For example, in Taiwan 32 % of users have made purchases via their phones. With Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile all hoping to roll out NFC services next year, mobile payments could become the norm in the US shortly.

Google just got more Delicious

With the news that Yahoo is going to sunset Delicious, it was just a matter of time before Google jumped in to save the day. Google's own Bookmark feature, launched back in 2005, never got the traction that Delicious did. Now is their chance to change all that. Google is offering a Delicious import feature. And of course Google makes it easy to do: Open Google Bookmark, find the Import Delicious link at the top. You'll sign into your Delicious account, and import the bookmarks. The Google Bookmarks are private, but there is a List feature you can use to make your bookmarks public. You create a list and make that public, then you can move your bookmarks over to the public list. Voila, bookmarks saved and crisis averted!

Google Bookmarks also has an "Add to List" bookmarklet" so it's just as easy to add pages to your Google Bookmarks List as it was to Delicious.

Casual Friday: Move Over Cupcake, It’s Time for Whoopie Pie

If you're up on your current events, then you probably know about the recent bill proposed in the Maine state legislature: LD-71 "An Act to Designate the Whoopie Pie as the State Dessert”. Finally! A political issue we can all believe in. If you're unfamiliar with the Whoopie Pie, Wikipedia defines it as  "an American baked good that may be considered either a cookie, pie, or cake. It is made of two round mound-shaped pieces of chocolate cake, or sometimes pumpkin cake, with a sweet, creamy filling or frosting sandwiched between them."

Now you could venture out to your local bakery in search of Whoopie Pies, but if you're feeling ambitious, there are plenty of great recipes out there. The classic is chocolate cake with a vanilla center and this recipe from Gourmet looks pretty darn near-perfect. Baking skills not up to par? This one uses a mix and I bet you won't get any complaints.

bizologie Favorite Apps: GroupMe

Ever get that text that says "Let's all meet for pizza"? And then you're left wondering who is "all"? Am I the only one who responded "yes"? Will there be four people at this event or ten? Enter GroupMe. Problem solved. GroupMe offers group texting and conference calling. You simply create a group of friends or coworkers and GroupMe assigns each group a phone number. Whenever anyone in the group texts the phone number, everyone gets the message and can see all messages sent by other group members. I tried it for the first time today and it worked like a charm and was really easy. You can create as many groups as you like so it's perfect for things like family, softball teams, book clubs or your happy hour crew. They also offer a photo sharing feature inside the app so you can take a photo or choose one from your library to send to your group.

When you use the conference calling feature, whenever anyone in the group calls the group number, everyone gets a call and anyone in the group can initiate it. Missed the call? No worries. GroupMe will send you a text saying the group is on a conference call and you can join in mid-conversation. You can have up to 25 people in a group.

GroupMe is available free for iPhone and Android and the service itself is free although you'll still pay the regular texting fee from your service provider.

Going to the Dogs - Pet Ownership Statistics

The American Pet Products Association bi-annual pet owner survey provides stats on pet ownership.  According to the 2009/2010 survey, 71.4 million homes have a pet - 62% of all U.S. households. And there is a lot of money to be made in the pet market. Pet Spending has been on the rise for more than 10 years. In 1994, we spent $17 billion on our furry loved ones and now we spend almost $48 billion per year. The average spending on a dog is $1490 and for a cat it's only slightly lower at $1045.

The 2010 trends for the pet marketing include:

• Reducing Your Pets Carbon PAW print - more organic foods and toys
• Going to the Dogs - non-pet companies making goods for dogs like treats and clothing
• Pets Welcome - more hotels adopting pet friendly policies
• Pet Products Sold Here - more retail outlets selling pet supplies
• Hello, My Name Is... - monogrammed accessories for your pals
• State-of-the-Art - high tech gadgets like digitized collars and touch activated toys

GuideStar - Nonprofit Information

Looking for the goods on nonprofit organizations? GuideStar is a directory with information on the programs and finances of more than 1.8 million IRS-recognized nonprofits. The directory is free, and if you register (still free) you are entitled to more data. The databases helps users decide which organizations to donate to, which nonprofits to provide grant funding to, and who to volunteer with, plus it helps non-profits learn how to increase funding.  Researchers can evaluate charities' performance overtime and compare multiple organizations at the same time.

With your free registration you gain access to the nonprofit tax forms - Form 990s. With the 990s you can see how an organization is funding and how they are spending those dollars:

Valentine’s Day Dollars

Your sweetie might show be showing a little more love this Valentine's day. The National Retail Federation recent survey shows that after a couple of years of declining spending on the most romantic day of the year the love is back. Total spending should be up almost 13% over last year. Spending for the holiday is expected to reach $15.7 billion! With increases in all areas including jewelry, clothing, and dining out. The average per person is a whopping $116. Not surprisingly, the survey shows men spend twice as much as women, and young couples and parents who have to buy for school spend more than those 65+.

Retailers appreciate all the love in the air. “Jewelry, candy and apparel sales should provide a nice boost for retailers during the typically slower months of January and February,” said NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. The big winners are the discount stores that see 36% of those shopping dollars. Department stores get a 30% share. Specialty stores and online retailers follow with 19% and 18%.

Happy Valentine's Day from bizologie! xoxo

Casual Friday: Flying Chipmunks

If you are spending some time this Friday dreaming of a warm get-away, plan that fantasy trip on Hipmunk . Hipmunk has a great way to view your flight options with a clean, easy to use interface to make searching easy. You can look by airport or by city, calendars are right on the main page and you can limit to a certain airline quickly if you are racking up the frequent flyer miles. You can even filter out the early morning flights, these folks know how I roll. The sort feature is the best though. You can sort by the usual price, stops, and duration, but the great feature is sort by Agony. The Agony sort combines all 3; price, stops, and duration, because sometimes it pays to get there in a timely fashion without 3 layovers. Hipmunk doesn't sell flights, but once you select your flight and it connects you to Orbitz where you can purchase.

Hipmunk, the rising star of startups, just announced last week that they have some new investors -  former Expedia execs Rich Barton, Erik Blachford and Simon Breakwell, along with Ignition Partners, Jim Hornthal of Triporati and Rob Glaser, founder of Real Networks joined in this round of funding and invested $4.2 million in the business. Some of these investors also have interests in Room 77 and Travelpost, so there is some speculation in the blogosphere that these guys might be creating a whole new integrated travel site.

And since I’m on a chipmunk theme, download the Crazy Chipmunks app for iPhone or Android. It is 99¢ and $1.99 respectively. There are 3 games: Crazy Maze (like Bejeweled), Crazy Party (a memory game) and Whack-A-Mole. Who doesn’t love a good game of Whack-A-Mole to while away a Friday afternoon?

Reference USA

Reference USA is my go-to source when I'm trying to create a list of companies. This database is a subscription database, so check with your local library to see if you have online access with your library card. The Reference USA US Businesses module contains basic directory type information for more than 14 million public and private businesses in all zip code areas of the United States. Information includes name of business, address, telephone number, headquarters, branch and subsidiaries identification, SIC codes, yellow pages headings, ticker symbol, credit rating, number of employees, and estimated sales volume. You can use Reference USA for your job search, market sizing, and to profile cities or neighborhoods for business development. Other modules in Reference USA include Residential listings and New Businesses.

Check out this video tutorial to see how Reference USA works:

Need "Fast Answers"? Ask the Harvard Business School Library

Looking for quick answers to some of the most common business reference questions? Check out the "Fast Answers" page from the Baker Library | Bloomberg Center at Harvard Business School.  In just a few clicks I can find business demographics, historical exchange rates, industry information and just about anything else I can think of. Not everything they point you to is free but some of it is. And if they point you to a database, you can check your local library and see if you have access. Harvard even offers cheat sheets on how to use most any business database available. These can be very helpful if you've got access and need to become familiar with all the features of a particular database. Teach yourself how to use a few new databases and you've suddenly got some new skills to add to your resume.

Social Gaming and Virtual Goods: More than just Farming

Seems like every time we log into Facebook, someone (nearly everyone) is playing a game. And wants you to play, too. FarmVille. CityVille. Mafia Wars. Not only are people having lots of fun farming, companies are making big bucks. Really big bucks. Zynga, the biggest of the social gaming companies, is currently valued at over $5 billion. That's a lot of strawberries and cattle. I recently attended the Digital Hollywood Conference in NYC. In a seminar on Social Gaming & Virtual Goods, I learned that more people play FarmVille than watch American Idol. There are between 100,000 and 200,000 new social gamers every week. FarmVille alone has over 57 million users. Currently, 85% of all social gaming is done on Facebook--itself valued at $50 billion. Turns out there's a lot of money being made while we're all wasting time.

Consumers are not only spending time playing these games, they're also spending money. Users spend plenty of real world cash on virtual goods. Additionally, users can earn virtual dollars by watching in-game movie trailers or commercials for products. Virtual Currency is a $720 million dollar business and could account for up to 20% of all gaming revenue this year.

One topic on the horizon is any future regulation of virtual currency. How much is one actual dollar worth in virtual dollars? This regulation already exists in China and South Korea with virtual dollars being taxed and in the case of South Korea, eligible to be exchanged for actual currency. With billions of dollars at stake, the U.S. can't be far behind.

Interested to see what game is on top this week? Check out AppData. Looks like CityVille is the leader today with over 20 million users.

Casual Friday: What TV Show are you "IntoNow"?

There's nothing better on a cold and snowy casual Friday than grabbing a blanket and settling in for a day of game shows and soap operas. Ok, well maybe not exactly game shows and soap operas, but you get the idea. Today we're taking a look at a new app called IntoNow which is basically a combo of Shazam & Foursquare for television. I simply open my IntoNow app, push the green button and hold it up to my television. In about 20 seconds it not only tells me what I'm watching, but also the title of the episode, the season and episode number, what channel it's on and a small description of the episode. From there I can share on Facebook and Twitter or link out to Netflix and add it to my queue or buy it on iTunes.

IntoNow allows me to see what my friends are watching and if it's "on air" now  so I can flip over and watch, too, and discuss the show with them. I wish this had been around during Lost! I can also see what's popular in the IntoNow community. The current top three favorite shows are: Family Guy, The Office and SportsCenter.  I love that when I was creating my account, the form where it shows first and last name was pre-filled in with "Chandler Bing". A TV app for the fans by the fans. And by the way that's Ms. Chanandler Bong.

IntoNow uses an indexing technology called SoundPrint which can recognize a program even if it's airing live for the first time. And they've indexed more than 140 million minutes of previously aired shows--that's 266 years worth of video!

IntoNow is available free for iPhone and an Android version is in the works. Give it a try! Here's how my first post looked on Facebook:

Mapping Facebook Globalization

Need user data to calculate your Facebook ROI? Check out CheckFacebook.com to see who is on Facebook. This site, although not affiliated with Facebook, tracks and aggregates user data from Facebook's ad creation page. This simple page only does one thing, but it does it well. The map shows the global saturation of Facebook as total users and as the percent of the online population. When you click on the individual country, you will see the total audience and the percent of the world audience. Plus you get pie charts, and who doesn't love pie charts, for a nice PowerPoint presentation, showing country usage by gender and age.

Super Bowl Facts & Figures

Super Bowl Sunday is upon us. Let's take a look at the game from the viewpoint of a Business Librarian. The National Retail Federation gives us a dollars and cents breakdown of Super Bowl parties. According to their survey for 2011, the average consumer will spend about $60 on snacks and apparel for the big game. About 4% of those watching the game will actually buy a new television. As a whole, we are more excited about the commercials than the halftime show and the women surveyed are just as excited about the commercials as they are the game itself (not true, for the men, of course). Of the 171 million people who will watch the game, the most in the survey’s history, nearly 34.9 million (15.0%) are planning to throw their own party, up from last year’s 31.6 million, and another 61.2 million (26.3%) plan to attend a party, also up from the 58.8 million who said they would go to a party in 2010.

Speaking of Super Bowl commercials, AdAge has a list of which companies have commercials, at what point during the game they will air and which advertising agency did the spot. I don't see Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce on the list anywhere but I'm sure they'll have a late entry for Lucky Strike. According to Kantar Media, advertisers will spend over $200 million during this year's game.

Love the Packers or the Steelers enough to make Green Bay or Pittsburgh your home? Using our old friend Wolfram Alpha, you can do a quick comparison of the two cities.  The median home price in Pittsburgh is $118, 900 while in Green Bay it's $137,700. Unfortunately, the lower house cost in Pittsburgh comes with a higher violent crime rate: 2.4 times the national average, while Green Bay is 1.1 times the national average. You can try the comparison or compare your own two cities here:

While you're gearing up for the game and the commercials, check out this old gem from Lucky Strike:

The Business of Girl Scout Cookies

The Girl Scouts started selling cookies to fund their troop activities way back in 1917. These budding entrepreneurs made them at home and sold them by the dozen for just 25¢ - now a box can run you $4. It's true that Girl Scout cookies are big business, according to the WSJ, the girls made $714 million last year. The sales had been declining, so this year the varieties have been pared down to increase their profits. Don't worry though, the best-selling Thin Mints will still be available (they want more profit, not a riot!). You can't buy cookies online, but don't fret if you don't have a supplier. Just enter your zip code in the Cookie Finder. And don't feel guilty about all those boxes, you are doing a good thing. 70% of the purchase of each box stays in the local Girl Scout council.

Here's how the overall sales stack up:

25% Thin Mints 19% Samoas®/Caramel deLites® 13% Peanut Butter Patties®/Tagalongs® 11% Peanut Butter Sandwich/Do-si-dos® 9% Shortbread/Trefoils

The other varieties combined account for the remaining 23%.

For more information on the Girl Scout cookies and their history, check out the Girl Scout site.

Casual Friday: Happening Happy Hour Cocktails

Headed out to happy hour tonight? Then you must try the hippest thing at the bar right now, the barrel aged cocktail. It is just what it sounds like. Take a classic cocktail and age it like wine for 4-6 weeks.  Why you ask?  Mixologists swear that by aging the cocktails in wood barrels it melds the flavors together creating a smoother drink. These aged cocktails are comprised of only alcohol, like the Manhattan, Negroni, and Martini. Last month, Robert Simonson wrote a New York Times article about the trend and his own experiment at home.  If you are that brave, check out Jeffrey Morgenthaler's Bar Bandits blog which includes recipes. I think I'll leave it to the experts. Here are a few spots known for their barrel aged specialties. Cheers!

• Blackbird - San Francisco
• Clyde Common - Portland (Morgenthaler's bar that started the trend)
• Girl & the Goat - Chicago
• Summit Bar - New York
• The Tigress Pub - Austin

This video features the owners of Aviary in Chicago testing their barrel aged creations:

Professional Association Spotlight: National Confectioners Association

Professional associations can be a great source of free information when you're doing business research. And nearly every industry or occupation you can think of has an association. Today we're taking a look at the National Confectioners Association.  See? Business research is fun! Candy is serious business and on the NCA's site you can find out all kinds of information including retails sales figures, seasonal sales figures and annual reports from the industry. While some information is only available to association members, several of the summaries are free, as are the annual NCA Confectionery Industry Reviews back to 2002. Here are just a few of the facts I found freely available on their site:

• In 2009, Confectionery sales were $29.3 billion with chocolate candy representing about 58% of this total at $16.9 billion.
• Cocoa prices are at an historic high--one ton of cocoa will cost you around $3500; up from $1500 in 2005.
• The average U.S. consumer spent $93 on confectionery products in 2008.
• Halloween leads all other holidays in candy sales--over $2 billion spent annually.
• When eating candy canes, boys were almost twice as likely to crunch their candy canes than girls (31 percent v. 17 percent).
• More than 150 million chocolate Santas will be made for the winter holiday season.

They also have the Confectioner and  Snack Source Book where you'll find resources for candy, packaging, services and ingredients.  Looking for a specific candy? Try the Online Candy Catalog. Sadly, still no Kinder Surprise available in the U.S.

In addition to all this great information, they've also got a recipe page.

Know about an association that's been helpful to you? Tell us about it in the comments.

Hershey's S'More Cookie Bars

Author: Hershey's

S'More Cookie Bars Ingredients: 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened 3/4 cup sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 4 (1.55 oz. each) HERSHEY'S Milk Chocolate Bars 1 cup marshmallow creme

Instructions: 1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 8-inch square baking pan.

2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat well. Stir together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Press half of dough into prepared pan.

3. Arrange chocolate bars over dough, breaking as needed to fit. Spread with marshmallow creme. Scatter bits of remaining dough over marshmallow; carefully press to form a layer.

4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. 16 bars.

Enjoy!

Change your world view

FedEx has created an amazing maps site that shows how different data shapes the world. The maps actually morph on the screen. The countries change in size relative to the data represented so you get a visual representation of how much impact the information has on on each country. You can see the Exports by country for 2008, then watch as the map changes to show labor productivity, and then see the map morph into how the world looks based on predicted exports for 2030.  It also has maps that represent data on energy sources, education, access to information through different media streams, happiness index of counties, and even couch potatoes (physical inactivity along with TV and beer imports). The maps are interactive and allow scroll over so you can see the actual numbers for each country.

Some interesting tidbits:

• Iceland might actually be the happiest place on earth
• China recycles the most paper
• 80% of Qatar's population works overseas

But, it's not the factoids that make the site so cool, it is watching the maps change and seeing the comparisons in country size based on the data. It's addictive. These maps would be an excellent addition to a presentation. The data is gathered from different government agencies and all sourced  by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

This video map represents forest cover for the world:

Who's got the high score in game and console sales?

VGChartz is the site for video game industry stats. If you are tracking game console or game software unit sales, these guys have the goods. They provide sales data by the week and year. They even have the historical data back to 2000 (some even farther back, but it gets spotty). Sales figures are broken down by Worldwide, Americas, Japan, and EMEAA (Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia). Kinect Adventures! is the top selling game worldwide this week with 254,169 units sold (152,326 units sold in the Americas). In the 11 weeks on the market they have sold 7,766,015 units total worldwide.

The hardware table in the Data Analysis Tools allows you to create your own data using your specific date range and allows you to narrow down by specific country. With this tool you can find out that the French bought 931,592 Wii consoles in 2010.

Want to find out what new games are the hottest? Check out the America's pre-oder chart to see how many people have pre-ordered the games before they hit the shelves. The Buzz Index measures interest from the worldwide gamers in the VGChartz forums so you get the inside scoop from the user community.