Not worth a news-flash since this seems so obvious, but PCs are becoming more and more a major entertainment device. Internet users from 12 to 64 years old declare an average of 14-hour weekly usage of their computer for entertainment, a number that’s even bigger in the younger population: more than 16 hours. While 42% say that the time spent watching videos online, playing games, chatting, participating in online social networks has increased compared to last year.

I don’t know for you, but i found myself so many times having dinner with friends and suddenly the laptop is moved ON the dinner table to share the funniest and meanest YouTube videos or Google up or Wikipedia a topic of disagreement among guests. Remember when the TV used to be on by default? Well, now, i don’t have a single friend with a TV-set…

So when you’ve been marketing your product for 20 years by almost exclusively buying TV space and spreads in magazine, you’re certainly a bit lost. That’s why sites like YouTube, Facebook and MySpace are all over Madison Avenue trying to explain to the marketers how to make the most of their tools. And why virtually no modern media plan targeting those under 45 is complete without at least some social networking component.

News Corp. for example, owner of MySpace, commissioned a report to convince advertisers about the efficiency of viral marketing campaigns in social networking sites. And this report is fascinating, I highly encourage you to read it. Of course, it’s all about glorifying MySpace and all the social online networks to sell more advertising space, but you’ll learn that, when you ask 14-29 y.o. social networks users what they’d rather do if they had 15 minutes to kill, the most answered activity was “Check out social networking sites” for 17%, as much as talk on your cellphone! While TV was only chosen by 14%.

Still according to the report, 20% of users have decreased their video-game usage, 16% when it comes to TV. The weird thing is that 18% talk more on the cellphone. A proof that social networks actually strengthen “off-line” relationships?

You don’t trust Rupert Murdoch? I can’t blame you. What about IBM? They’ve just released the results of their latest online survey about consumer digital media and entertainment habits and guess what they found out: time spent on the internet rivals TV time: among respondents, 19% stated spending at least 6 hours per day on personal Internet usage, versus 9% who reported the same levels of TV viewing.

Consumers are seeking consolidated, trustworthy content, recognition and community when it comes to mobile and Internet entertainment. Armed with PC, mobile and interactive content and tools, consumers are vying for control of attention, content and creativity. Despite natural lags among marketers, advertising revenues will follow consumers’ habits.To effectively respond to this power shift, IBM sees advertising agencies going beyond traditional creative roles to become brokers of consumer insights; cable companies evolving to home media portals; and broadcasters and publishers racing toward new media formats. Marketers in turn are being forced to experiment and make advertising more compelling, or risk being ignored.

No doubt then that Facebook gives tutorial on Online Social Networks to Account Planners from the advertising industry. It’s apparently all about ROI. No, no, not the ROI that you’re used to but the Return On Involvement!

According to Mike Murphy, VP-media sales at Facebook, users are willing to deal with ads to keep the service free, just not with bad ones. They want to get some benefits out of them, versus something that they have to undergo.

Don’t scream from the sidelines, be inclusive,” he advised in AdAge. The model that works in social media, he said is to create involvement, find passionate consumers, build a trusted referral network, go viral and discover. “Always build in a reason to share because that’s what they do here,” he added. “It becomes huge for you.

Take Walmart and Target for instance. They’ve both integrated Facebook as a major part of their Back-To-School campaign this year, the latter one even getting rid of the usual web address or toll-free number, listing instead its Facebook group!

With the newsfeed directly integrated into each profile, the viral part of the campaign is already there. One of your friend interacts in the Target group, and instantly, all of his/her friends know about it! A marketer’s dream… Especially when you take into account that most users login at least once a day.