comScore Announces New Interactive Search Intelligence Service

comScore Announces New Interactive Search Intelligence Service

PR Newswire via NewsEdge Corporation :

RESTON, Va., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the launch of comScore Marketer, a new interactive search intelligence service that enables search marketers and Web site operators to benchmark their performance versus competitors and optimize the ROI from their search marketing efforts.

"comScore Marketer is a new service that gives marketers a powerful and comprehensive set of tools to assess their online marketing performance," said Dan Lackner, senior vice president of comScore. "The granular information on both searchers and search terms available through this service empowers users with actionable search marketing intelligence."

    comScore Marketer provides search marketers the tools to:      -- Create more efficient and cost-effective campaigns using paid and        organic search terms.      -- Identify high performing search terms at a site and category level.      -- Analyze searchers and the use of search terms by demographic segment.      -- Discover high-potential consumer segments and pinpoint the optimal        search sites and search terms to reach them.      -- Find out who is competing on search terms to identify prime affiliate        marketing partners.      -- Maximize the ROI of search and online marketing investments.  

comScore Marketer Highlights Paid versus Organic Search Referrals

One of the key benefits of comScore Marketer is the ability to perform competitive analysis of a market based on organic and paid click-thrus. The analysis below depicts the top click-thru destinations for people searching using the terms "credit card" or "credit cards."

    Click-Thru Report for Search Terms "Credit Card" or "Credit Cards"     June 2007     Source: comScore Marketer                                  Share of Total                       Organic                                  Click-Thrus                     (Algorithmic)                                       for       Paid Percentage  Percentage of     Click-Thru Destination Site  Search Terms   of Total Clicks   Total Clicks      Total Click-Thrus                  6.8 MM            1.6 MM         5.2 MM     Total (%)                        100.0              23.7           76.3     CreditCards.com                   10.6              67.0           33.0     JP Morgan Chase Property           8.1              22.7           77.3     HSBC                               6.1              38.1           61.9     Capital One                        4.1              49.4           50.6     Citigroup                          3.1              11.6           88.4     Bank of America                    3.1               7.4           92.6     Bankrate.com Sites                 2.8              10.5           89.5     American Express                   2.3              42.4           57.6  

The results reveal that CreditCards.com is the top click-thru destination for the aforementioned search terms, accounting for 10.6 percent of all click-thrus, followed by JP Morgan Chase Property (8.1 percent) and HSBC (6.1 percent). That CreditCards.com is the top destination is a function of its heavy paid search advertising strategy, as two-thirds (67.0 percent) of clicks to the site result from paid clicks. Meanwhile, JP Morgan Chase Property and HSBC each generated at least 6 percent of total click-thrus on the search terms, but with a significantly lower share of clicks resulting from paid search (22.7 percent and 38.1 percent, respectively). In other words, these sites are relatively more effective than CreditCards.com at generating "credit card"-related clicks via organic search results.

"CreditCards.com is clearly being more aggressive than its competition on the paid search front," continued Mr. Lackner. "Ultimately, that strategy might pay off, as long as the site is receiving an incrementally higher return on its paid search dollars. In order to optimize the return on their online marketing investment, companies must understand how they're performing relative to their competition."

For more information on the comScore Marketer, please call 866-276-6972 or visit: http://www.comscore.com/marketer/info_req

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore analysts apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by more than 700 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestle, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com

SOURCE comScore, Inc.

CONTACT: Andrew Lipsman of comScore, Inc., +1-312-775-6510, press@comscore.com

<<PR Newswire -- 10/02/07>>

Thomson Healthcare Launches Enhanced Asthma Control Resource

Thomson Healthcare Launches Enhanced Asthma Control Resource

PR Newswire via NewsEdge Corporation :

SEATTLE, Sept. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Thomson Healthcare's (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) NexProfiler Treatment Options Tool for Asthma has been enhanced to incorporate the step therapy approach to medication use and asthma control recommended by the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program.

"More than 22 million people are living with asthma in the U.S. today," said Dr. John Morgan, Thomson Healthcare's respiratory specialist. "Asthma- related prescription drugs represent the single largest medical expenditure - $6.2 billion annually. With the step therapy, we can help patients play a more active role in their care and, in turn, control some of the costs."

"Through the NexProfiler tool, asthma sufferers can respond to an easy-to- follow questionnaire that asks about current symptoms and medications. The tool will generate a patient treatment report that reflects the status of their asthma control. With this report, they can talk with their doctors and take steps toward achieving optimal control of their condition," Morgan said.

Prior to the introduction of step therapy, providers developed a treatment plan based on the severity of patients' asthma symptoms. Under the new guidelines, providers assess the level of control patients have over their asthma symptoms and add or subtract medications as needed to obtain complete control, which is assessed at repeat physician or clinic visits every three to six months to adjust treatment as symptoms change over time.

To meet this substantial change in treatment guidelines, Dr. Morgan revised the Thomson Healthcare NexProfiler Treatment Options Tool for Asthma to match the stepwise approach to asthma control. The revised tool helps NexCura's 30,000 asthma tool users gain greater understanding of their current level of asthma control and explains the treatment options relevant to them that they can discuss with their doctors to improve that control. To learn more about the NexProfiler asthma solution visit www.nexcura.com.

About Thomson Healthcare

Thomson Healthcare (www.thomsonhealthcare.com) is the leading provider of decision support solutions that help organizations across the healthcare industry improve clinical and business performance. Clinicians, hospitals, employers, health plans, employers, government agencies, and pharmaceutical companies use Thomson Healthcare products and services to manage the cost and improve the quality of healthcare. The Thomson Corporation provides value- added information, software tools and applications to professionals in the fields of healthcare, law, tax, accounting, scientific research, and financial services. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).

SOURCE Thomson Healthcare

Connected Consumers Love Web 2.0, But Not On Mobile

Connected Consumers Love Web 2.0, But Not On Mobile

by Tameka Kee, Wednesday, Oct 3, 2007 6:00 AM ET

FINDINGS FROM A NEW AVENUE A|Razorfish study confirm that brands and advertisers aiming to reach "connected consumers" need to focus on targeting their niche with easily distributed, customizable, socially charged content--but not necessarily on their mobile phones. This July, the creative division of Microsoft's aQuantive polled nearly 500 "connected consumers"--or online users over age 20 who had broadband access, visited socially oriented sites like MySpace or YouTube, and spent at least $200 online in the last calendar year. The agency broke down the users into four age groups, ensured that they were geographically and economically diverse, and then asked them roughly 30 situational questions with the goal of understanding how they really used the tools and features of Web 2.0. "One of our clients kept using the phrase 'Web 2.0' compliant--and we wanted to define what that meant," said Garrick Schmitt, editor of the report and vice president for user experience, Avenue A|Razorfish. "We do a lot of work on a site-by-site, case-by-case basis, but this is the first study we've done to see how consumers use these things in aggregate." Not surprisingly, online video scored high, as an overwhelming majority of respondents (95%) had watched a video online within the past three months. Connected consumers watched both TV shows (72%) and movie trailers (85%) online--with some 36% saying that they watched a trailer online before going to the theater "most" or "all of the time." And nearly half (49%) of respondents added to the online video pool by uploading clips or movies. The study also found that connected consumers were regular bloggers and blog readers. Some 70% of respondents read blogs on a regular basis, with weekly and daily readers (32% and 29%, respectively), as the top frequencies. Nearly half (46%) of all respondents read four or more blogs regularly, while 41% actually wrote or posted frequently to blogs. Connected consumers also relied on peer influence for online shopping purposes--with some 55% saying that they relied on user reviews "the most" when it came to purchase decisions. In contrast, just over 20% said the same about expert reviews or product comparison charts. Personalized recommendations also drove online sales, with 62% of users purchasing a product that a company like Amazon.com suggested based on past purchases. Some 72% of respondents found these recommendations helpful--and two-thirds said that they were not concerned about privacy when it came to receiving them. Customization of content and interface is key, as some 60% of connected consumers choose to personalize their start pages with "specific content feeds, scheduled updates or other features," and 56% subscribe to an RSS feed with some regularity. More than a third (35%) of consumers used Google as their start page, with about a quarter (24%) choosing to start at Yahoo, and 10% using either AOL or MSN. Mobile multimedia usage was the one area that lacked strong penetration--even with connected consumers--as the majority (64%) said they never used their mobile phone to "check weather, news or sports headlines." Similarly, 76% never used mobile to watch video, 68% said the same for listening to music, and 58% had never used their phone to check email. Some 53% of connected consumers, however, had used their phones to take photos and then share them on the Web. Tameka Kee can be reached at tameka@mediapost.com