Following are recent findings by various studies on marketing and advertising-related topics. For a more in-depth look at some of these subjects, visit our sister site, MarketingCharts.com.

A Formula for the Optimal Allocation of Interactive Media Spend

The optimal allocation of interactive media spend should be between 1.6x and 2.2x the percentage of the budget originally allocated to interactive, according to a report released by Interactive Advertising Bureau. Furthermore, a relatively small reallocation of media spend can have a significant impact on marketers' revenue - in one media optimization scenario there was a 6% increase in revenue, even after a 13% decrease in total marketing spend, when dollars were shifted to interactive.

Double Digit Growth in Local Mobile Usage

The number of mobile subscribers accessing business directories on a mobile phone increased 14% year-over-year to 17.3 million users in March 2010, according to a study conducted by comScore and released by the Yellow Pages Association. This increase outpaced the 10% growth in the number of mobile media users who browsed the mobile web, used applications or downloaded content during the same time period.

Women, Youth Have Higher IM Usage

Women and younger adults use instant messaging (IM) at higher rates than men and older adults, according to a new study from comScore. Also, when IM and email use is broken down by global region, Latin America has the highest reach rates for IM and second-highest for email.