App Insights

The Super Bowl is an American phenomenon, now largely considered a de facto American holiday.  As a premier media event, it regularly attracts record-breaking audiences.  This year, Super Bowl XLVI became the most watched television program in history, drawing an audience of 111 million viewers according to The Nielsen Company.  Prior to this, the record was held by last year’s Super Bowl, which itself had overtaken the number one spot held for twenty-eight years by the final episode of M*A*S*H.

In just two years, tablet computing has gained unprecedented traction.  According to research firm Strategy Analytics, global tablet shipments more than doubled during the last three months of 2011, rising to 26.8 units, up from 10.7 million a year earlier.

At the recent Le Web conference in France, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt declared that “Android is ahead of the iPhone now.”  According to Schmidt, Android’s success is due to “unit volume, Ice Cream Sandwich,” because “the price is lower” and because “there are more vendors.”

The era of mobile computing, heralded by Apple in 2007 with the debut of the iPhone, has put powerful, networked computers into consumers’ hands.   Onto these devices, consumers have downloaded billions of apps.  In 2011 alone, we estimate that 25 billion iOS and Android apps will be downloaded.  And Flurry expects that number to roughly double in 2012.

On broadcast television, brands seek to reach their target audiences as efficiently as possible.  For example, a brand might run a TV campaign targeting 24 – 35 year old females through prime-time shows that reach that desired audience.

Prime-time, from 7 pm to 11 pm, is widely known as the part of the day that attracts the most viewers on television.   In advertising parlance, this is referred to as a “daypart.”   And given its popularity, networks charge significantly more for ads aired during this time.