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Digital Landscape Report
Issue 80: September 2015
Key ContributorsThe AOP gratefully acknowledges the help provided by the contributors on this page in compiling this Digital Landscape Report. Throughout the report all content is sourced and for further details relating to any content in this report please contact the relevant provider through the links on this page (in slide show view).
www.hitwise.co.uk
For further information email [email protected]
www.comscore.com
www.emarketer.com
econsultancy.com
www.brandrepublic.com
Key ContributorsThe AOP gratefully acknowledges the help provided by the contributors on this page in compiling this Digital Landscape Report. Throughout the report all content is sourced and for further details relating to any content in this report please contact the relevant provider through the links on this page (in slide show view).
Content
• Forecasts and Ad issues• In this section – Adspend - Global, UK Programmatic, EU Programmatic (Video), US Programmatic
(Mobile), US Video and Social Media
• Online Audience Trends• In this section – UK PC and Multi-Platform (M-P) universe, audience trend, devices access and audience
‘engagement’
• Media Category Analysis• In this section – UK internet visits to key media categories
• Trends in key interest areas• In this section – Publishers, Consumers, Ad Blocking, Video, Programmatic, eCommerce
AOP CommentIt has been difficult to avoid the issue of Ad blockers this month, thanks in the main to Apple’s decision to enable that functionality on it’s mobile version of Safari in iOS 9. But how big an impact will it make on publishers revenue and what can publishers do about it?
Apple’s market share of mobile devices undoubtedly means it could pose a major threat, but ad blocking software is not enabled by default on its devices, so, it is argued by ad blocker providers, the debate is about consumer choice. The question of do users understand that advertising funds their viewing of content for ‘free’ is another debate.
So is it the end of the ad supported content model? not necessarily, but it may force a rethink on how to distribute content. Ad blockers work at the browser level, so publishers may have to put more emphasis on content distribution via apps.
There are also technologies which allow a more aggressive response, some allow you to ‘punch’ through ad blockers and deliver the content and ads as originally intended, others prompt a request to switch off ad blocking software or register to proceed to view the content. Or a less intrusive route may be switching from served ads to sponsored content which is treated differently by the software.
For now the technology arms race is in full swing and publishers may have to review their current approaches to protect revenue.
Speaking of revenue, some major players, Carat and ZenithOptimedia, have been in the news this month both downgrading their global ad spend forecasts. There is however some positive news within these forecasts, that being mobile and online video are predicted to grow substantially this year. Programmatic also continues to grab headlines with a prediction it will surpass £2bn in the UK next year.
Hitwise’s August report supports the online video growth prediction, tracking a 23% year on year increase in viewing, whilst a report from on US on millennials claims over 90% of this group are watching online video every month.
comScore’s August data suggests that that consumption is taking place across multiple platforms, the multi device user spending over 90 hours online per month compared the PC users 30 hours. This in a month when the IAB released a study claiming the average Brit now spends 2 hours 51 minutes online everyday.
Scott Fleming, AOP Digital Research
Follow AOP at @ukaop
Executive Summary (1)Global ad spend forecasts reduced, but digital growth continues
Adspend
• Carat has lowered its 2015 global ad spending forecast from 4.6% to 4.0%, reaching $529 billion
– global digital ad growth of 15.7% in 2015, led by mobile, video and programmatic, programmatic buying is growing at a rate of 20% per year
• Mobile internet advertising will overtake newspaper advertising next year, accounting for 12.4% of global adspend while newspapers account for 11.9%, according to ZenithOptimedia
– Mobile internet will be the third-largest advertising medium, behind television and desktop internet, growing 38% in 2016 to $71bn, while newspaper advertising will shrink 4% to $68bn
• UK Programmatic Display Ad Spending Will Surpass £2 Billion in 2016 (eMarketer, September)
• Programmatic online video advertising (across Europe) has grown almost twenty-fold from €22m in 2012 to €375m in 2015 and will grow at a rate of 38.7% between now and 2020 (IHS/Spot X, September)
• Mobile to claim 70% of US programmatic display market by 2016 (Business2Community, September)
Multi-Platform users are online for three times longer than PC only usersAudience
• 2.5 million people accessed the internet exclusively from mobiles or tablets in August, no PC usage at all (comScore, August data)
• Month on month PC only usage also experienced drops in page views, duration and visits, at the same time multi-platform usage continued to grow, the M-P user generates 62% more views than the PC only user, 3 times more time (PC 30.2 hours against M-P 92.5 hours) and 53% more pages per visitor (comScore, August data)
• Newspapers at 36% and Magazines at around 50% are markedly different to total internet usage in that PC only access to their assets is relatively high. But in magazines in particular there does appear to be a polarisation with a third of their audience only ever accessing from mobiles or tablets, very few, around 13%, use all devices in the month (comScore, August data)
• Reach on mobile/tablet for newspapers is roughly twice that of PC only users (comScore, August data)
Executive Summary (2)Online video traffic grows 23% year on year
Media Category Analysis
• Online video continues to grow in usage, up almost 10% month on month and over 20% on last year (Hitwise, August ‘15)
• The News/Media and Print categories experienced small monthly declines, -2.8% and -2.5% respectively, perhaps a holiday season effect, but compared to 2014 both are showing healthy grow, +22.6% and +24.1% (Hitwise, August ‘15)
• Search engines remain dominant in driving traffic to News/Media sites, but for traffic to Print other News/Media sites are the top referrers, for Broadcaster sites that relationship is even stronger (Hitwise, August ‘15)
A quarter of publishers across the UK have recorded annual growth of 25%Key Trends
• Publishers– A quarter of publishers across the UK have recorded annual growth of 25% (AOP/Deloitte, September)
• Consumers– Only 17% of brands have the ability to fully analyse the customer journey (eConsultancy, September)
– The average Brit spent 2 hours 51 minutes per day actively using the internet at home and work (comScore/UKOM/IAB, September)
• Ad Blocking– The number of people using ad blockers worldwide has grown 41% year-on-year to 198 million monthly active users (Business Insider, September)
– European audiences are twice as likely to block ads as Americans, however UK at 10% is in line with US’s 9%, compared to France at 27% and Germany at 24% (comScore/Sourcepoint, September)
– Apple enable of ad-blocking on its mobile devices (WSJ, September)
• Video– Over 90% of Millennials, in the US, are watching video online in a month (eMarketer, September)
– Native mobile video lifts upper- and lower-funnel metrics (eMarketer, September)
• Programmatic– About half (46%) of agencies are “unsure” if they trust programmatic to execute ad buys…up from one this last year (Strata/Real Time Daily, September)
– Index Exchange released its Q1 programmatic data and found 70% of spending came from brands (Market Dive, September)
• eCommerce– UK retail ecommerce sales to reach £60 billion this year (eMarketer, September)
• Round Up– Research by Teads found that 65% of Britons believe society would be worse off without high quality, low cost newspaper and magazine content (eConsultancy, September)
– But the latest figures show 15% of Brits are using adblockers, threatening this online business model (eConsultancy, September)
– It is estimated that ad-blocking will hit global ad revenues by more than £14bn in 2015, and ironically ad-blocker users are 12% more likely to value low cost editorial content than the general population (eConsultancy, September)
Forecasts & Ad RevenuesIn this section – Adspend - Global, UK Programmatic, EU Programmatic (Video), US Programmatic (Mobile), US
Video and Social Media
Adspend and Forecasts
Key findings
• Carat has lowered its 2015 global ad spending forecast from 4.6% to 4.0%, reaching $529 billion
– global digital ad growth of 15.7% in 2015, led by mobile, video and programmatic, programmatic buying is growing at a rate of 20% per year
• Mobile internet advertising will overtake newspaper advertising next year, accounting for 12.4% of global adspend while newspapers account for 11.9%, according to ZenithOptimedia
– Mobile internet will be the third-largest advertising medium, behind television and desktop internet, growing 38% in 2016 to $71bn, while newspaper advertising will shrink 4% to $68bn
• UK Programmatic Display Ad Spending Will Surpass £2 Billion in 2016 (eMarketer, September)
• Programmatic online video advertising (across Europe) has grown almost twenty-fold from €22m in 2012 to €375m in 2015 and will grow at a rate of 38.7% between now and 2020 (IHS/Spot X, September)
• Mobile to claim 70% of US programmatic display market by 2016 (Business2Community, September)
Total media adspend - globalAgencies Lower 2015 Global Ad Forecasts, Programmatic Growth Is Steady At 20%
Global media powerhouse Carat has lowered its 2015 global ad spending forecast from 4.6% to 4.0%, reaching $529 billion, in the wake of a similar ad sector demotion from rival agency group Zenith Optimedia
"That’s the new normal [for growth]," said Jonathan Barnard, Zenith’s UK-based head of forecasting. Barnard cited volatility in the Eurozone, slowdowns in developing markets, recessions in Russia and Brazil and political conflict elsewhere
Both Carat and Zenith predicted things will pick up next year, aided by the US election cycle and summer Olympic Games in Rio. Carat expects 4.7% growth in 2016, whereas Zenith said 5%
As always, digital remains a bright spot. Carat, part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, forecasts global digital ad growth of 15.7% in 2015, led by mobile, video and programmatic
Carat’s report noted that programmatic buying is growing at a rate of 20% per year and predicted it will continue to do so for the next several years. By the end of 2015, in the US, programmatic transactions will account for 52% of non-search digital advertising spend, Carat predicted. Meanwhile mobile and online video advertising, driven by social media platforms, will grow 51.2% and 22%, respectively, this year.
Zenith does not release specific figures on programmatic growth rates, but Barnard said programmatic is rapidly becoming the standard for major agency buys and it’s “hugely important.” The Carat report projected that North American ad spending will grow 4.2% (revised from 4.5%) to an estimated $203.3 billion this year. In 2016, spending growth in North America will be up 4.5% (revised from 4.6%)
Notably, TV remains the dominant medium globally with 42% share of total advertising spend in 2015, and the channel is expected to grow 3% in 2016. However, TV’s share of spending will show a decline over time as advertisers diversify their media mixes and consumers steadily shift their video consumption to streaming video, VOD and OTT options, Carat said
Digital ad spending, including mobile, is projected to overtake TV ad dollars by more than $4 billion by 2018, according to Carat
Also of note, Zenith found that mature markets will lead ad spending growth for the first time in nine years – markets like Western Europe, North America and Japan
China is slowing but it’s still growing twice as fast as the world as a whole
“Digitally, it is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world,” Barnard said. “It leap-frogged directly to the mobile Internet”
Source: AdExchanger reporting Carat and Zenith, September 2015
Total media adspend - globalZenithOptimedia: Mobile adspend sees continued growth
Mobile internet advertising will overtake newspaper advertising next year, accounting for 12.4% of global adspend while newspapers account for 11.9%, according to ZenithOptimedia's new Advertising Expenditure Forecasts
Mobile internet will be the third-largest advertising medium, behind television and desktop internet, growing 38% in 2016 to $71bn, while newspaper advertising will shrink 4% to $68bn. However, the report does not recognise that many newsbrands now operate on mobile and desktop rather than just in print
Mobile advertising remains the driving force behind the growth of the entire advertising market, contributing 83% of all new ad dollars between 2014 and 2017
Internet advertising to overtake television in 2018 as print continues to shrink
Desktop internet advertising will continue to grow, but will lose market share for the first time this year, dropping from 19.8% of global adspend in 2014 to 19.4%. By 2017 ZenithOptimedia forecasts desktop internet to account for 19.1% of global adspend
Meanwhile mobile internet advertising's share of the global ad market will rise from 5.7% in 2014 to 15% in 2017
Overall, internet advertising will account for 34% of global adspend in 2017, slightly behind television's 35.9%. According to the forecast, the market share gap between the two media will narrow from 13.3 percentage points in 2014 to 1.9 in 2017. At this rate of growth, internet advertising will overtake television in 2018
Print adspend continues to decline across most of the world, as it has done since 2008. ZenithOptimedia predicts newspaper adspend will shrink by an average of 4.9% a year through to 2017, while magazine advertising will shrink by 3.2% a year
Their combined share of global adspend has fallen from 39.4% in 2007 to 19.6% this year, and is expected to fall to 16.7% by 2017
However, commenting on the forecast, Denise Turner, insight director at Newsworks, said: "This report only refers to newspapers in their print format, without taking into account the fact that they are now multi-platform newsbrands which exist across mobiles, tablets and online as well…some of the advertising spend that is being attributed to mobile in this report will have been around newsbrand content. It seems strange to pit mobile against newspapers, when newspapers are part of mobile”
"I think it's time that our leading forecasters stop talking about one medium displacing another and recognise the fact that newsbrand content is accessed by people throughout the day across a range of platforms and devices. As Martin Sorrell said on Friday, 'the days of separation are gone'."
Overall, ZenithOptimedia forecasts that global adspend will grow 4% to reach $554bn in 2015, and will accelerate to 5% growth in 2016, boosted by the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and the US Presidential elections
Adspend will then slow down slightly in the absence of these events, growing 4.4% in 2017
"Mobile technology is rapidly transforming the way consumers across the world live their lives, and is disrupting business models across all industries," said Steve King, ZenithOptimedia's CEO, Worldwide. "We are now witnessing the fastest transition of ad budgets in history as marketers and agencies scramble to catch up with consumers' embrace of the mobile way of life."
Source: ZenithOptimedia (as reported in Mediatel), September 2015
Total media adspend - globalTotal Media Ad Spending Growth Slows Worldwide
Downward revision due to developments in North America, Latin America and Western Europe
Global ad spending will continue to grow, but more slowly than previously forecast by eMarketer. In 2015, total worldwide ad spending will reach $569.65 billion. This figure has been adjusted downward from $577.79 forecast in March, due to lower-than-expected ad spending in Latin America, North America, and Western Europe
Spending on paid media worldwide will climb 5.7% in 2015, propelled by increased investments in digital advertising. As digital changes the way people access and consume media, it is also driving advertiser optimism and ad budget growth. Global digital ad expenditures will jump 18.0% in 2015 to reach $170.17 bn, or 29.9% of the total advertising market
The outlook for the global ad spending through 2019 remains optimistic, with advertisers gaining confidence as stability returns to most major economies. Worldwide ad spending will reach $719.20 billion by the end of 2019. However, the pace of growth will vary widely across regions—with Western Europe seeing the slowest growth and Latin America experiencing the fastest, based on a variety of factors, including economic growth and the level of digital media maturity
North America has the highest ad spending worldwide, with $195.26 billion predicted in 2015. However, by 2019 Asia-Pacific will overtake North America as the leading advertising market by $1.35 billion
Growth in North America is slower than previously forecast. Total ad spending will grow 4.5% this year, less than the 5.2% forecast in March. The downward adjustment is the result of lower-than-expected expenditures on TV, newspaper, radio and magazines in the US
"Advertising investments in traditional media like TV, newspapers and magazines have been negatively affected by increased spending in digital formats, such as online editions for magazines and newspapers, and digital video replacing traditional TV," said eMarketer analyst Shelleen Shum
In addition to having the world's largest overall ad market, North America has the largest digital ad market. Advertisers in the region will spend $62.07 billion on digital formats in 2015, a 16.8% increase over 2014. This year, 31.8% of total media ad expenditures will go toward digital formats, a share which is expected to reach 41.4% by 2019
With a mobile internet ad market valued at $31.53 billion for 2015 and 43.8% of the world's mobile ad expenditures, North America has the highest mobile internet ad spending in the world and the most developed mobile ad market. Mobile expenditures in the US will total $30.2 billion in 2015, while those in Canada will reach $1.3 billion this year. Both the US and Canada will record double-digit growth in mobile throughout the forecast period, fueled particularly by increased spending on mobile video, mobile social networks and mobile search formats
Programmatic Display - UKUK Programmatic Display Ad Spending Will Surpass £2 Billion in 2016
Automated ads will account for nearly 60% of UK digital display market in 2015
According to new figures from eMarketer, UK programmatic digital display ad spending will grow 66.2% to reach £1.80 billion ($2.96 billion) this year, accounting for more than half (59.0%) of the UK display advertising market for the first time. Additional double-digit growth will push spending toward £2.5 billion ($4.12 billion) in 2016, eMarketer expects
This forecast will be featured in an upcoming eMarketer report, "UK Programmatic Advertising Forecast: Automated Trading Dominates Digital Display Ad Spending." This report includes eMarketer's first forecasts for UK programmatic digital display ad spending, as well as an analysis of how automated trading has evolved in the UK and how it is on track to dominate digital display ad spending
"Trading digital display ads programmatically is becoming increasingly common in the UK as both marketers and publishers embrace the benefits of automated ad buying. In fact, the balance of UK digital display ad spend will tip toward programmatic this year, and that strong growth is set to continue into 2016. It hasn't been an easy journey, but initial trepidation is being replaced with a realization that programmatic can deliver the inventory, partners and prices that marketers want," said Bill Fisher, analyst at eMarketer
As with most things in the digital marketing space, programmatic is becoming increasingly influenced by mobile. 2015 will mark a watershed moment in this regard, with the proportion of total UK programmatic display ad spending on mobile platforms surpassing desktop's share for the first time
eMarketer predicts that 56.1% of UK programmatic display ad spending will go toward mobile this year, with desktop/laptop responsible for the remaining 43.9%
Programmatic's share of total mobile display ad spending is particularly striking. The amount of mobile display ad spend being traded programmatically in the UK is set to reach 68.0% in 2015 and rise to 75.5% next year
Such aggressive growth and high relative proportions mark the UK as one of the most advanced nations in the world for programmatic advertising
Programmatic: video - EUProgrammatic online video advertising to become a €2bn industry in Europe in 5 years
Programmatic online video advertising has grown almost twenty-fold from €22m in 2012 to €375m in 2015 and will grow at a rate of 38.7 per cent between now and 2020, when more than half of all online video advertising revenue in Europe will be generated programmatically, according to a report published by IHS
The report was conducted on behalf of SpotX, and compiled from in-depth interviews with both advertising agencies and publishers, combined with the IHS advertising trends and forecasting database, the study reveals the UK as the largest market for programmatic video advertising in Europe, currently generating more than one third of all programmatic online video revenue in Europe in 2015 (36.1%)
IHS identifies 23% of online video advertising in the UK as traded programmatically in 2015, compared with 34% in the Netherlands and 19% in France. This is predicted to grow substantially, to 63% in the Netherlands, followed by 60% in the UK and 54% in France in 2020.
The UK programmatic video advertising market is worth €135m now, and is expected to grow to €602m by 2020. Revenue in France is expected to rise to €358m followed by Italy, which still shows a lot of potential, and will grow to €245m. Overall in 2015, the ‘big five’ European markets represent €286m of programmatic online video advertising revenue now, which will grow to €1,512m by 2020, whilst the Nordics represent just €21m in revenue, but will grow dramatically to reach €138m in 2020.
The report sizes the programmatic video advertising market in Germany at €31m, with growth expected to reach €254m in 2020, making it the third largest market in Europe.
Commenting on the research, Mike Shehan, CEO of SpotX explains, “We introduced video real time bidding (RTB) in 2010 and launched our European operations four years ago. Since thenwe have seen rapid adoption from publishers and broadcasters throughout the region and increasing demand from advertisers and their agencies. These findings reflect the growth of our business, with revenues rising 90 per cent year-on-year in 1H 2015. As a result, we have invested heavily into Europe over the past year, appointing three new Managing Directors, and recruiting more staff.”
Daniel Knapp, Senior Director of Advertising Research, IHS, adds, “We first analysed the programmatic video advertising market in 2013 and could see it was set to explode across Europe. Our new analysis reveals the extent of the growth trajectory for online video advertising, with programmatic video advertising growing rapidly and taking an ever increasing share.”
“The growth is particularly fast in the UK where technological literacy, a volume of programmatic players and a lot of premium inventory means that the UK will lead the development in Europe to a diversified portfolio of programmatic transaction types. We expect the UK to slowly close the gap to the US, where programmatic video will exceed 60 per cent of the video market by 2019, compared to 2020 in the UK.”Knapp concludes, “In the UK we have seen strong initiatives from some broadcasters building a data and programmatic business. The majority of growth in the next five years will come from broadcasters’ video catch-up inventory moving to programmatic trading.”
Source: IHS/Spot X, September 2015
Programmatic: mobile USMobile to Claim 70% of Programmatic Display Market
Programmatic advertising has seen a stellar rise, more than doubling each year for the past two years. This year the share of programmatic will be over half of the total display advertising market. And as display advertising has shifted to mobile very rapidly, programmatic is no exception
In 2015, mobile will account for 44.1% of all US programmatic display, a market currently worth $10 billion. By 2016, mobile is expected to surpass desktop, claiming an estimated 56.2% of all ad expenditure. After experiencing tremendous growth of 243.4% last year, eMarketer predicts ad spend on mobile programmatic display will nearly double this year to $8.36 billion. Next year, expect mobile programmatic to claim 70%, or the lion’s share of the programmatic display market
Programmatic is not the same as RTB
Obviously, advertisers see the benefits of allocating their ad spend to electronic ad buying. It’s more efficient, enables better targeting, and provides significantly more transparency down to the single impression level, compared to direct deals. Some publishers on the other hand fear a “race to the bottom”, as they expect Rea l Time Bidding (RTB) to drive down CPM. However, programmatic entails much more than RTB and therefore these fears are largely ungrounded. In addition, mobile programmatic differs significantly from its desktop counterpart
Programmatic advertising entails transacting advertising media (static image, rich media, video, etc.) through data-driven auction technologies. The keyword here being data-driven. A customer-centric approach is essential to reach modern multi-device consumers and this approach needs a solid foundation of first and third party data
Providing audience intelligence on the single impression level across different channels will be increasingly in demand, and it will be sink or swim for publishers. Especially on mobile, the world’s most intimate device, being able to deliver the right message to the right consumer at the right time increases both ROI for advertisers and eCPM for publishers. No wonder 33% of marketers (or the majority) see mobile as the channel with the most opportunity for programmatic advertising
Publishers with premium inventory – usually uncomfortable with offloading this inventory to open exchanges – are increasingly using programmatic as well, but with a direct component, called programmatic direct. This combines the efficiency and data from programmatic with the benefits of guaranteed inventory and fixed prices of direct. eMarketerexpects that this type of ad buying will soar the coming years as premium publishers adopt it in big numbers, forming 42% of the programmatic market up from 8% today
Private exchanges
Another way for premium publishers to keep more control of their inventory is through private exchanges. These allow publishers to whitelist appropriate advertisers and set price floors. It provides advertisers with more transparency and sometimes better targeting and measuring capabilities through unique first party data
With the influx of ad spend in mobile programmatic, data will become the force which drives audience-centered programmatic into the mobile ecosystem. The large-scale and complex execution of enterprise-sized cross-channel campaigns will necessitate data platforms to facilitate this which makes stellar measurement capabilities and data analytics tools indispensable. In my next article, we will cover 3 key challenges in programmatic today plus predictions around the future of programmatic and how it relates to mobile video
Source: Business2Community, September 2015
Ad spend: video USMobile to account for more than half of digital ad spending in 2015 and will surpass desktop for the first time this year
This will be a benchmark year for ad spending in the US, as mobile surpasses desktop spending for the first time, eMarketer predicts. Mobile will account for 51.9% of total digital spending in 2015. That's a higher figure than eMarketer forecast earlier this year
While desktop's share of advertising dollars is expected to slowly decline through 2019, mobile's share will grow robustly. eMarketer expects mobile advertising to grow by 59% in 2015, a higher rate than forecast in March, when eMarketer last released figures for US ad spendingMeanwhile, long-term growth through 2019 has been revised downward slightly
"Brands and marketers continue to see increased value in mobile advertising to reach consumers," said eMarketer analyst Martín Utreras. "Some of the shift is happening organically from digital ad spending dollars, but also we see additional dollars moving from traditional media and new money coming from local advertising and small businesses.“
The shift to mobile ad spending is being driven mainly by consumer demand. eMarketer estimates that US adults are spending 2 hours and 51 minutes a day on nonvoice activities on mobile devices. More than half of that, or 1 hour and 31 minutes, is spent on mobile phones
When examining the formats within mobile, eMarketer has revised all of its 2015 figures upward. Display advertising will continue to account for the largest share of the mobile ad market, capturing 51.1%, or $15.55 billion. Within display, banners, rich media, and sponsorships will account for $12.77 billion, and video $2.78 billion, with both figures revised higher than originally forecast. Search ads account for the second-largest share, 44.7% or $13.62 billion
Estimates for text messaging, classifieds, email and lead generation figures have been revisedupward in 2015, but lowered slightly through 2019. SMS messaging will account for 0.9% of mobile ad spending, while other spending—mostly on classifieds and emails—will account for 3.4%
Also noteworthy is that in 2015, eMarketer expects mobile to surpass print advertising's share of the total ad market, sooner than originally forecast. Print's share has been revised downward, to 15.8% of the total ad market. Meanwhile, eMarketer's estimates for mobile have been adjusted upward, to 16.6%
"Consumers' increasing on-demand consumption of media through mobile—coupled with improvements in targeting, attribution and ROI for mobile advertising—will continue to take away ad dollars from magazines and newspapers," said Utreras
Ad spend: Social MediaSocial Network Ad Revenues Accelerate Worldwide
Facebook will drive growth and capture nearly 65% of social network ad revenues in 2015
Worldwide social network ad spending is accelerating even faster than expected, according to a new forecast from eMarketer. Global social network ad spending will reach $25.14 billion in 2015, higher than the $23.68 forecast in April. However, the pace at which the major players are growing differs greatly
The growth in social network ad spending can largely be attributed to a rapid increase in Facebook's ad revenue. eMarketer expects Facebook to capture $16.29 billion in ad revenues worldwide, a jump of 41.8% over 2014. This year, Facebook will take 64.8% of total social network ad spending worldwide
A portion of Facebook's explosive growth will continue to be driven by Instagram. The mobile picture-sharing app will take in $600 million worldwide this year,accounting for 5% of Facebook's worldwide mobile ad revenue this year. In 2016, eMarketer expects Instagram to make $1.48 billion in worldwide ad revenues, growing 149% over 2015
With this forecast, eMarketer has adjusted Twitter's worldwide growth rate down since April. Twitter is now expected to grow ad revenues 61.8% this year, taking in $2.03 billion, or 8.1% of total social network ad spending worldwide. In April, eMarketer predicted Twitter's growth would reach 66.9% this year
“Twitter's slowing user growth is impacting its ad business,” said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson. “Twitter has improved its ad targeting conversation. However, advertisers want to reach a mass audience and that's harder to do on Twitter than on Facebook.” capabilities, and it still has a lock on real-time
As Facebook continues to grow its user base and capture more revenue, eMarketer has adjusted its ad revenue per user forecast upward. Facebook's ad revenue per user will reach $48.76 this year in the US, higher than the $43.43 forecast in April. Worldwide, Facebook will capture $12.76 per user this year. By 2016, eMarketer expects Facebook to take in $15.18 per user worldwide, and $61.06 per user in the US
Meanwhile, Twitter will capture $24.48 per US user in 2015, adjusted downward from April estimates. Worldwide, Twitter will capture $7.75 per user in 2015. By 2016, eMarketer forecasts Twitter to capture $10.12 per user worldwide and $32.22 per user in the US
Online Audience Trends In this section – UK PC and Multi-Platform (M-P) universe, audience trend, devices access and
audience ‘engagement’
Key findings
• 2.5 million people accessed the internet exclusively from mobiles or tablets in August, no PC usage at all
• Month on month PC only usage also experienced drops in page views, duration and visits, at the same time multi-platform usage continued to grow, the M-P user generates 62% more views than the PC only user, 3 times more time (PC 30.2 hours against M-P 92.5 hours) and 53% more pages per visitor
• Newspapers at 36% and Magazines at around 50% are markedly different to total internet usage in that PC only access to their assets is relatively high. But in magazines in particular there does appear to be a polarisation with a third of their audience only ever accessing from mobiles or tablets, very few, around 13%, use all devices in the month
• Reach on mobile/tablet for newspapers is roughly twice that of PC only users
UK Online UniverseTotal UK PC Internet Audience – August 2015
45.4 million 32.0 million 122 billion 30.3 hours 2,681 pages 68.3 visitsTotal Unique
VisitorsAverage Daily
Visitors Total Pages Viewed Average Hours per
VisitorAverage Pages per
VisitorAverage Visits per
Visitor
47.9 millionTotal Unique
Visitors
Total UK Multi-Platform Internet Audience – August 2015
197 billionTotal Views
Source: comScore MMX Multi-Platform, September (August data) 2015, UK, PC 6+ and Mobile 13+*MMX MP includes PC browsing, PC video streams, mobile browsing & apps (on-network only for untagged apps), tablet browsing & apps for tagged sites & apps.
4,104 pagesAverage views per
Visitor
92.5 hoursAverage Hours per
Visitor
Note: January saw a change in methodology for mobile measurement which filters through to Multi-Platform
UK Online Universe
30,000
32,000
34,000
36,000
38,000
40,000
42,000
44,000
46,000
48,000
50,000
Jan-14 Feb-14 Mar-14 Apr-14 May-14 Jun-14 Jul-14 Aug-14 Sep-14 Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-14 Jan-15 Feb-15 Mar-15 Apr-15 May-15 Jun-15 Jul-15 Aug-15
Un
iqu
e v
isit
ors
(0
00
s)
MB/TB Only PC Only Multi-Platform
Non PC traffic adds, on average across period, around 3m unique users to site audience
Source: comScore MMX Multi-Platform, September (August data) 2015, UK, PC 6+ and Mobile 13+*MMX MP includes PC browsing, PC video streams, mobile browsing & apps (on-network only for untagged apps), tablet browsing & apps for tagged sites & apps.
Methodology break(GSMA MMM to MoMX)**
**more information on MoMX can be found at comScore.com in their insights, press release section
Device contribution to audience categoryAugust MMX Multi-Platform
50.5
54.4
35.9
5.2
13.5
13.9
42.3
71.8
36
31.7
21.8
23
Lifestyle - home
Lifestyle - beauty/fashion/style
Newspapers
Total Internet
PC Only PC/MB/TB MB/TB Only
%
Source: comScore MMX Multi-Platform, September (August data) 2015, UK, PC 6+ and Mobile 13+*MMX MP includes PC browsing, PC video streams, mobile browsing & apps (on-network only for untagged apps), tablet browsing & apps for tagged sites & apps.
46.1
7.8
13.913.8
17.7
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
35.0
0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0
reac
h %
average views per visit
Site audience by engagement (selected sites)
August MMX Multi-Platform
Bubble size represents average minutes per visitorEntities used; mail online (p), mirror online (m), the guardian (p), thetelegraph.co.uk (m), the sun online (m)
Source: comScore MMX Multi-Platform, September (August data) 2015, UK, PC 6+ and Mobile 13+*MMX MP includes PC browsing, PC video streams, mobile browsing & apps (on-network only for untagged apps), tablet browsing & apps for tagged sites & apps.
51
8.9
14.8
10.6
30.3
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0
reac
h %
average views per visit
Media Category Analysis
In this section – UK internet visits to key media categories
Key findings
• Online video continues to grow in usage, up almost 10% month on month and over 20% on last year
• The News/Media and Print categories experienced small monthly declines, -2.8% and -2.5% respectively, perhaps a holiday season effect, but compared to 2014 both are showing healthy grow, +22.6% and +24.1%
• Search engines remain dominant in driving traffic to News/Media sites, but for traffic to Print other News/Media sites are the top referrers, for Broadcaster sites that relationship is even stronger
UK internet visits to key media categoriesbased on market share of all UK online visits
UK Internet visits to key media categories
Source: Experian Hitwise UK, Aug ‘14 – Aug ‘15
Category Aug-15 Jul-15Monthly
changeAug-14 Yearly Change
News and Media 10.44% 10.74% -2.8% 8.52% 22.6%
Community Directories and Guides 0.30% 0.32% -5.2% 0.24% 25.4%
Online Video 3.07% 2.80% 9.6% 2.50% 22.8%
Social Networking & Forums 8.58% 8.60% -0.3% 11.04% -22.3%
Print 4.32% 4.43% -2.5% 3.48% 24.1%
Blogs and personal websites 1.54% 1.59% -3.1% 1.26% 22.0%
Growth of UK visits to News & Media, Social Networking and Blog Sites
Source: Experian Hitwise UK, Aug ‘14 – Aug ‘15
UK traffic to and from News & Media from Search, Social Networks and other News & Media sites
Categories delivering traffic to News and Media
Categories receiving traffic from News and Media
Source: Experian Hitwise UK, Aug ‘14 – Aug ‘15
UK Traffic to Print websites
UK Traffic to Broadcasters websites
UK traffic to Print and Broadcaster sites from Search, Social Networks and News & Media sites
Source: Experian Hitwise UK, Aug ‘14 – Aug ‘15
Trends in Key Interest AreasIn this section - Publishers, Consumers, Ad Blocking, Video, Programmatic, eCommerce
Key findings
• Publishers– A quarter of publishers across the UK have recorded annual growth of 25% (AOP/Deloitte, September)
• Consumers– Only 17% of brands have the ability to fully analyse the customer journey (eConsultancy, September)
– The average Brit spent 2 hours 51 minutes per day actively using the internet at home and work (comScore/UKOM/IAB, September)
• Ad Blocking– The number of people using ad blockers worldwide has grown 41% year-on-year to 198 million monthly active users (Business Insider, September)
– European audiences are twice as likely to block ads as Americans, however UK at 10% is in line with US’s 9%, compared to France at 27% and Germany at 24% (comScore/Sourcepoint, September)
– Apple enable of ad-blocking on its mobile devices (WSJ, September)
• Video– Over 90% of Millennials, in the US, are watching video online in a month (eMarketer, September)
– Native mobile video lifts upper- and lower-funnel metrics (eMarketer, September)
• Programmatic– About half (46%) of agencies are “unsure” if they trust programmatic to execute ad buys…up from one this last year (Strata/Real Time Daily, September)
– Index Exchange released its Q1 programmatic data and found 70% of spending came from brands (Market Dive, September)
• eCommerce– UK retail ecommerce sales to reach £60 billion this year (eMarketer, September)
• Round Up– Research by Teads found that 65% of Britons believe society would be worse off without high quality, low cost newspaper and magazine content (eConsultancy,
September)
– But the latest figures show 15% of Brits are using adblockers, threatening this online business model (eConsultancy, September)
– It is estimated that ad-blocking will hit global ad revenues by more than £14bn in 2015, and ironically ad-blocker users are 12% more likely to value low cost editorial content than the general population (eConsultancy, September)
PublishersUK publishers record annual growth
A quarter of publishers across the UK have recorded annual growth of 25%
Research from the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) and Deloitte’s Q2 Digital Publishers Revenue Index Report (DPRI) found that 26% of publishers recorded growth of over 25% for the first time in more than five successive quarters.
The study also found that mobile advertising revenue continued to increase in the second quarter, marking a 21% rise over the course of the year along with a 44% growth in smartphone display advertising revenue.
The only digital advertising format to experience a decline in growth was non-mobile display advertising, which recorded a change of minus four per cent.
According to the AOP Sentiment Index Report, publishers explained that advertising revenue was a key focus for growth in the next quarter. All respondents to the survey said that they expect growth in digital advertising over the next year.
AOP managing director, Tim Cain, commented: “The Q2 report once again highlights that advertising revenue reflects the increasing consumption of media on mobile and will remain a key focus for publishers during the next quarter.
“Publishers and advertisers alike need to recognise the impact of cross device, particularly mobile, when planning budgets and understand the value different devices hold along the path to purchase.”
A separate piece of research from the AOP found that access to real-time data analytics helps publishers make time informed decisions to identify new revenue opportunities.
The research found that 65% of publishers report they used SSP/exchange analytics data to support operational decisions.
Source: AOP/Deloitte, September 2015
ConsumersOnly 17% of brands have the ability to fully analyse the customer journey
Lack of capability an issueUnderstanding the customer journey is becoming increasingly important as the number of both digital and offline touchpoints increases
But even in organisations that have been developing their digital competencies and tools, analytics and CRM have traditionally tended to be used in isolation, and the 17% figure quoted in the headline seems to confirm that
Consumers base their decisions on interactions across multiple media types, devices and locations. This creates a challenge for marketers to interact at important moments that might influence buying decisions
Yet while 42% of respondents say they are currently working on having the capability to analyse the customer journey, 41% say they are either still in the planning stage or have no plans at all
Matching channels and content to the customer journey
The natural progression from developing journey analysis capabilities is to implement marketing activities that correspond with the customer journey
But only 10% of companies surveyed match channels and content to a ‘well-mapped’ customer journey, while the vast majority (64%) only match them to one that is ‘roughly-mapped’.
This latter figure does at least point towards a well-meaning effort on the part of marketers when it comes to joining up marketing activities with the customer journey, and the 10% figure is hardly surprising when only 17% have the analysis capability in the first place.
As companies develop their capabilities in this area, the important thing to bear in mind is that focusing on single touchpoints can divert attention from the customer’s entire journey. Instead, brands should strive to understand the entire relationship from customer acquisition to retention.
Technology and resources the primary barriers
Clearly marketers are aware of the benefits of properly mapping the customer journey, so what is holding them back?67% of respondents agree that they lack the systems to effectively map the customer journey, while 64% agree that they don’t have the necessary time or resources
The next two most-cited barriers were a lack of data followed by a lack of the required analysis skills
In the context of integrated marketing, how would you describe your organisation's
customer journey analysis capabilities?
Do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
CustomersResolving the customer identity challenge with first-party data
For years, third-party data has been the mainstay of digital marketing, but today's highest performing companies are increasingly looking internally, to their own first-party data
It’s essentially a data-driven marketing revolution. Despite a predictable backlash to the overuse of terms like big data, it can’t be underestimated how firmly established the role of data already is in marketing and the benefits that can be derived
As an introduction to first-party data, here is our Vice President of Research for Econsultancy in North America Stefan Tornquist discussing our report The Promise of First-Party Data, developed in partnership with Signal, which explores the role of brands' owned data in the marketing ecosystem
The majority of our survey respondents believe that first party data is how they will win the battle for customer understanding and engagement
As you can see from the chart above, 82% of respondents agree or strongly agree that they will increase their use of first party data over the next year
The key outcome of successfully analysing and utilising this first-party data is the ability to develop a strategy of truly people-based marketing
People-based marketing means being able to recognise and engage your customers at every touchpoint in real-time and all the time. To facilitate this, technology has to be used to provide uniquely human experiences by identifying what can be done to add value to customer’s lives
But how can you truly know your customers as they move across devices and channels? How can your brand use new alternatives for turning unknown users into known audiences utilising a cooperative identification model?
To help answer these questions, Econsultancy is hosting a panel at Signal's event Always-on identity: unleashing the power of people-based marketing on October 8 2015 in London
At this event you can hear case studies on how a top 10 global airline increased CTR by 300% and a leading online retailer improved conversion by 10%. You can also receive guidance in identifying and reacting to most recent consumer signals and customise audiences using right now customer knowledge
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, collaborate and network with marketing executives from other brands looking to take the first-mover advantage.
UK time onlineBrits spend almost 3 hours online a day
The average Brit spent 2 hours 51 minutes per day actively using the internet at home and work during the first half of 2015,according to figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau and UKOM
While people spend the most time online on PCs and laptops (1 hour 16 minutes, 45%), smartphones are fast closing the gap at 1 hour 9 minutes (40%), while tablets account for just 26 minutes (15%)
The data, which comes from a combination of meters measuring the behaviour of 73,000 people and thousands of sites and appsbeing tagged, also reveals the growing popularity of social media, which now accounts for more time online than entertainment purposes - including multimedia, video, TV, radio, music
16.7% of all UK internet time is spent on social media sites, up from 12% two years ago, while entertainment's share has almost halved from 22.1% to 12.4%. Games accounts for 6% - double that of two years ago
Unsurprisingly, social media accounts for more than double the share of mobile and tablet internet time (21.4%) than it does of desktop internet time (9.8%). Games (8.6% vs 2.3%), Instant Messaging (6.7% vs 0.8%) and News (4.8% vs 2.2%) also take up a much larger proportion of mobile internet time than desktop time
In contrast, entertainment accounts for more than double the share of desktop internet time (18.5%) than it does on mobile/tablet (8.3%); and for email, it is over six times the share (5% vs 0.8%)
"When trying to reach consumers, advertisers can't afford to think of time online as a homogenous entity," said UKOM's generalmanager Scott Fleming.
"The most effective digital ad strategies recognise and take into account how behaviour and mind-set differ dramatically by device."
Source: Mediatel reporting IAB/UKOM comScore, September 2015
Ad blockersLondon startup Yavli first started its life back in 2013, when a group of friends founded a software company that served sponsored content to millennial audiences, competing with the likes of Taboola and Outbrain
But 18 months ago Yavli pivoted the business entirely in response to the huge rise in consumers using ad blocking software. The number of people using ad blockers worldwide has grown 41% year-on-year to 198 million monthly active users, according to a report from PageFair and Adobe.
A few months after launching, Yavli's team noticed a huge problem: A huge proportion of the young people they were trying toreach never saw the sponsored content because they had ad blockers switched on.
Yavli set about building technology that would allow them to specifically target the ad blocker audience with sponsored content. The team figured that ad blocker users want to consume content, not ads, that's why they have ad blockers turned on.
So unlike other anti-ad blocker solutions for publishers in the market — like Sourcepoint, which punches through the ad blocker to serve the originally-intended ad, or software that demands users turn off their ad blocker in order to view the content, or paywalls, — Yavli believes it can help publishers regain some of the tens of billions of dollars in revenue lost to ad blockers by replacing ads with sponsored content. Yavli has a patent pending for technology that serves the sponsored content in the same payload as the
content on the page, so ad blockers don't spot a third-party server and block.
Advertisers only pay for the sponsored content units if the user chooses to click on them. The units tend to be displayed at the bottom of the page, and in the sidebar, YavliIt's not an ad. It's sponsored content.
Tom Yeomans, Yavli CEO, told Business Insider testing has already proved this approach to be "fantastic.“
Yavli claims to already have more than 100 publishers on board — although admittedly, so far these are lesser-known publishers such as The Free Dictionary, CMC Group, and Publir. Depending on the publisher, Yeomans says its sponsored content units achieve click-through rates of 2.5-4%. In the US, the industry average click-through rate for display advertising is just 0.08%, according to Google
Source: Business Insider, September 2015
Ad blockersEuropean audiences are twice as likely to block ads as Americans
One-in-four internet users in mainland Europe’s leading markets block online advertising, double the rate of US audiences, according to a study from ComScore and Sourcepoint released the same week as ad blocking apps surge in popularity on Apple’s App Store
The findings come as Sourcepoint, headed by serial entrepreneur Ben Barokas, prepares its expansion to the continent where publishers have struggled in their legal challenges to outfits such as AdBlock Plus
The findings demonstrate that 27% of French internet users, and 24% of German internet users have installed ad blocking software on their web browsers or devices, compared to the US where the install-rate is still in single figures (9%), or the UK where it is 10%
Sourcepoint, a company that pledges to help publishers minimise the impact of ad blockers, has opened a German office, and is poised for an additional launch in France – the two leading European markets for such software
Barokas, Sourcepoint’s chief executive, confirmed with The Drum that his company had appointed Thomas Mendrina, to lead its German operations, which will be headquartered in Berlin, with a view to extending its headcount there to six in the mid-to-near future. The company also plans to open in France in the first quarter of next year
French and German media owners, including Die Zeit, Handelsblatt and RTL, have all been thwarted in earlier legal attempts to tackle Germany-based Ab Block Plus provider Eyeo this year, with judges there ruling consumers’ installing the software were within their rights, that Eyeo could not be pursued under anti-competitive laws
Barokas further went on to claim that interest in the Germany market was “very, very high”, adding that the company was in ‘test-phase’, with some of the leading publishers there. He added: “We’re helping solve problems for publishers that want sustainable media operations. It’s the top-tier publishers that are interested [in Sourcepoint’s proposition].”
The ComScore study further delved into ad blocking’s impact on publishers heralding further bad news, as an analysis of the amount of page views blocked in each market suggested that audiences that install ad blocking software consume more content on average, compared to those who don’t. Further still, an income segmentation of those employing such software indicates they are more likely to come from a higher income bracket (and therefore more to appeal to advertisers). Click here to find more insights generated by the study
Barokas recently appeared on a panel session debating the matter with ad blocking outfit Shine Technologies, where he publicly admonished the Israel-based outfit for “extortion” in his opinion. The panel took place at last week’s ATS London, hosted by research outfit ExchangeWire. Ciaran O’Kane, chief executive of ExchangeWire, who offered his assessment of the implications of ad blocking, and how it affected every tier of the media industry
He told The Drum: “At the end of the day, advertisers don’t pay for ads if they are not served, those most hurt by it are publishers
“In some ways this [phenomena of ad blocking] has been brought on by some publishers chasing [as much advertising] yield [as they can] and over-serving ads. This has hurt the consumer experience [as more ads mean longer page load times, etc.].”
This argument has been adopted by Shine Technologies, which (somewhat ironically) took out a full-page ad in the FT, which claimed that ads sent to mobile phone users consumed as much as 50% of network subscribers’ mobile data allowances.
Meanwhile, the ComScore and Sourcepoint report also contains a wider analysis of global ad blocking rates, which indicate that ad blocking incidents are more popular in emerging markets with the study suggesting that ad blocking rates hit 7.9% in China, and 9% in India, in terms of page views.
Source: The Drum reporting comScore/Sourcepoint, September 2015
Ad blockers - Apple iOS 9 (i)Apple’s Ad-Blocking Is Potential Nightmare for Publishers
Online publishers and mobile advertising companies are bracing for Apple Inc.’s enabling of ad-blocking on its mobile devices, which they say could pose a risk to their businesses
Apple’s Safari desktop browser has supported ad-blocking software for years. But the company is preparing to allow similar functionality in the mobile version of Safari in iOS 9, the next version of its operating system, which is expected to be released next month. The “beta” version that some people are testing includes the ad-blocking capability
For sites that support themselves with advertising, the reason for their heartburn is clear: they are already struggling to monetize their growing mobile audiences. If millions of iPhone and iPad users can easily activate ad blocking, that will translate to fewer ads to sell and likely less revenue
“The ad-blocking problem is real and growing, and ad-blocking on iOS is only going to accelerate it,” said Jason Kint, chief executive of Digital Content Next, a digital publishing trade association
Mr. Kint’s group represents major publishers and media owners including Wall Street Journal-owner News Corp, the New York Times, Conde Nast, Bloomberg and others
Apple can make a big impact on the mobile business by itself, given its size. According to online measurement specialist comScore, iOS accounted for 43% of all time spent by U.S. users on mobile websites during July. Google’s Chrome browser doesn’t allow extensions like ad-blockers on phones.
“The operating system and browser makers have a great deal of power when it comes to the consumer experience. We are concerned about the moves they’re making,” said Scott Cunningham, a senior vice president at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, an online advertising trade body. Apple declined to comment.
Publishers are working overtime to get their share of the booming mobile ad market, and executives at several companies said Apple’s move may make their job more difficult. Global mobile ad spending is on track to reach $69 billion this year, up from just $19 billion in 2013, according to estimates from eMarketer. Mobile will account for more than 50% of all digital ad expenditure by 2016
Ad-blocking won’t be enabled by default on Apple devices – users will have to actively install software to make it work. Apple isn’t powering ad-blocking itself, but instead is allowing outside software developers to tap into its browser to do so. The companies that broker digital ad sales say Apple’s enabling of ad-blocking tools could make the practice much more widespread.
“The phenomenon of ad blockers hasn’t been as critical or problematic to my business because for the most part they haven’t been that effective in blocking advertising in mobile,” said Harry Kargman, founder and chief executive of mobile ad company Kargo. “That’s changing now, which is going to put additional strain on monetization for publishers.”
For Apple, blocking ads could be popular with many consumers, because it will enable mobile web pages to load faster and remove annoying clutter.
Source: WSJ, September 2015
Ad blockers - Apple iOS 9 (ii)The move might also serve to benefit the company’s forthcoming Apple News application, some industry observers say. The app will host articles from major news publishers and also will come bundled with iOS 9.
The blocking of ads in Safari mobile browsers may force publishers to put more emphasis on distributing content through apps, including their own as well as perhaps Apple’s.
One publishing executive noted the “dichotomy” between Apple’s rollout of ad-blocking and the News app, which is ad-supported. Apple will get a cut of the ad revenue when it sells ads in the app.
Several publishers, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Daily Mail and Time Inc., have agreed to distribute content on Apple News.
Other industry executives say it’s too early to predict the impact iOS ad-blocking could have on publishers or the wider online advertising ecosystem if it is enabled in the final version of iOS 9. For one thing, it’s unclear if a significant number of consumers will adopt the technology.
“There are too many unknowns at this point,” said Eric Franchi, co-founder of cross-device digital ad company Undertone.
Early experiments with ad-blockers in the beta version of iOS 9 appeared to improve the performance of the Safari mobile browser, according to Dean Murphy, who created an ad-blocker for iOS 9 called Crystal.
He said his software helps mobile pages load around four times faster, on average, than pages with ads, and use significantly less bandwidth.
But Mr. Murphy also said he feels conflicted because of the advertising revenue his software might be denying publishers.“I can see the publisher side of this. This is how they monetize their business,” he said. “The way I justify it to myself is the mobile web is just so cluttered that something needs to be done about it.”If pages with ads loaded 20% slower that would be acceptable, he said, but they often load closer to 300% slower. “Mobile web advertising has got out of hand,” he said.
Mr. Kargman said his company is now focusing on creating ads that load faster and are less intrusive, in an attempt to make ad-blocking a less important consideration for consumers.“It’s got my organization focused on creating a better consumer experience,” he said.
Source: WSJ, September 2015
VideoWhat Are Millennials Up to with Digital Video?
More than nine in 10 watch digital video monthly
Millennials are the most active video viewers of any US age group. But understanding their video viewing habits can be difficult, thanks to the changing landscape for digital content viewing and shifting time spent with various screens. A new eMarketer report, “US Millennials and Video: Seven Insights into Their Evolving Screen Choices and Viewing Habits,” explores what marketers need to know
eMarketer predicts there will be 77 million millennial digital video viewers in 2015, representing more than 92% of all US millennial internet users. Additional growth in new millennial digital video viewers is expected to remain mostly flat for the foreseeable future, given that video viewing is already near ubiquitous for this age group. eMarketer forecasts that the total audience will increase by 1 million or fewer viewers annually through2019
The video consumption habits of US millennials are more pronounced when compared with other age groups. In 2015, eMarketer expects 25- to 34-year-olds to make up the largest segment of digital video viewers of any age group, accounting for more than 18% of the 204.2 million digital video viewers in the US. Adults in the 18-to-34 age group, along with 12- to 17-year-olds (some of whom are millennials) have the highest levels of digital video viewer penetration among all age groups, reaching levels of more than 90%.
Much as marketers and experts try, there is no single unifying theme that explains the video habits of US millennials. Instead, there is a shifting landscape of video viewing options, fluid boundaries between traditional TV and digital video, and changes in the millennial mindsettoward video content—all of which contribute to their screen time and content choices
For example, they still watch lots of TV—at least for now. According to Nielsen, US adults ages 18 to 24 watched more than 18.5 hours of traditional TV per week, while those in the 25-to-34 age group watched nearly 25 hours per week. While this is less time spent than older generations, it still made up the majority of millennials' media time
Video - Native
Native mobile video lifts upper- and lower-funnel metrics
In-feed mobile video ads lift recall, purchase intent
Mobile video is a fast-growing ad format, and many brands are rushing specifically to create video ads for native mobile environments like Facebook or Instagram feeds. Research suggests that viewing such ads improves a variety of metrics, from recall to purchase internet
In a study conducted by Opera Mediaworks and comScore, a group of US mobile users was shown a mobile native video ad—the kind of ad created specifically for a mobile feed environment
Advertisers hope to develop creative that’s a “thumb-stopper,” convincing people to stop scrolling long enough to let the sound and motion begin. After viewing such an ad, the mobile users took a survey about the relevant brand or product
When compared to a control group that hadn’t seen the ad, the mobile users who watched a mobile native video ad were 5 percentage points more likely to want to buy the product. The ads produced a 4-point boost in favorability, a 7-point increase in likelihood to recommend, and a 6-point increase in mobile ad recall
Video ads on Facebook have proved popular with marketers, and not only on mobile
eMarketer estimates that US advertisers will spend $2.78 billion this year on mobile video ads on all platforms. US spending on mobile video ads will more than double by 2019.
ProgrammaticAbout Half Of Agencies 'Unsure' They Trust Programmatic
Programmatic advertising is obviously top of mind for many in the digital ad industry, but not all ad agencies are convinced the tech properly executes ad buys
About half (46%) of agencies are “unsure” if they trust programmatic to execute ad buys, according to Strata’s latest agency survey, taken during Q2 2015. That’s up from the roughly one-third of agencies that said they weren’t sure if they trusted the tech at the beginning of the year
One-in-five agencies reported that they do trust programmatic, which Strata notes is a 49% increase from last quarter, while 11% do not trust it, a drop of 32% quarter-over-quarter
However, when looking at previous Strata agency polls, it appears that agency trust in programmatic has plateaued. During Q3 2014, for example, 20% of agencies said they trusted programmatic — the exact same number reported in Q2 2015. And in Q4 2014, about one-in-four (24%) of agencies saidthey trust programmatic
In other words, for about a year now, the number of agencies that fully trust programmatic has been hovering somewhere between one-in-four and one-in-five. That’s about the same number of agencies (23%) that reported in Strata’s most recent survey they don’t use programmatic
But these trust issues haven’t stopped agencies from using more and more programmatic to carry out their business
Strata notes 17% of agencies (an increase of 244% from one year ago) say they use programmatic to carry out between 20% and 40% of their business. Another 39% of agencies (up 18% from one year ago) use programmatic for 10% to 20% of their business
This increased spending also comes at a time when agencies are still wary of quality issues. Per the survey results, 30% of agencies say “inventory transparency” is the top concern associated with programmatic buying, followed by quality of inventory (28%) and the lack of education in the space (18%)
The benefits of programmatic, per the agencies surveyed, are improved audience targeting (27%), improved buying efficiency (26%) and improved campaign insights (20%).
Source: Real Time Daily, RTB , September 2015
eCommerceUK Retail Ecommerce Sales to Reach £60 Billion This Year
Retail sales via mobile devices to grow above expectations for second successive year
UK retail ecommerce sales are expected to top £60 billion ($99 billion) in 2015, helped by a strengthening economy and impressive growth in smartphone-based buying, according to eMarketer's latest forecasts. From a global perspective, the UK will remain the world leader when it comes to retail ecommerce's share of total retail sales, with its share increasing from 14.5% in 2015 to 19.3% in 2019
Consumers in the UK have long been ecommerce trailblazers, and that leadership will continue as digital shopping and buying behaviors shift rapidly to mobile devices. Retail mcommerce is expected to grow by 37.5% in 2015—a rate more than double that for retail ecommerce sales as a whole. As a result, mobile's share of UK digital commerce will leap to 33.3% this year
"The rising popularity of smartphones is driving much of retail mcommerce's success in the UK. Bigger screens and better experiences mean smartphones are no longer considered tablets' poor relation when it comes to the retail shopping and buying experience," said Bill Fisher, analyst at eMarketer
"That said, tablets will continue to play a major role as well, with purchasing via these devices expected to rise considerably throughout the forecast period," Fisher added
Retail sales via mobile devices are set to grow above expectations for the second successive year – eMarketer made upward revisions to its forecast last year and has done so again, due in large part to various reports of strong mobile activity in the UK during the 2014 holiday season
Following a remarkable 70.8% year-over-year growth in 2014, UK retail mcommerce sales will see a further 33.3% rise in 2015 to £20.09 billion, accounting for a third of total retail ecommerce sales in the region. By 2019, retail mcommerce sales will near £40 billion, representing 43.7% of total retail ecommerce
Mcommerce sales are split, in the main, between smartphones and tablets, although the balance remains weighted toward tablets. The proportion of mcommerce carried out on tablet devices will continue to outpace that of smartphones
However, the rising popularity of larger-screen smartphones is having an impact on that dynamic. In 2015, tablet commerce will account for 65.2% of total retail mcommerce in the UK, or £13.10 billion and buying via smartphones will account for £6.79 billion and 33.8% of the total
Round UpBrands are the largest spenders on programmatic ads
Dive Brief:• Index Exchange released its Q1 programmatic data and found 70% of spending came from brands.• The research found that while bid prices increased, impression volume decreased.• Another key finding was a publisher shift to the private exchange channel because advertisers want access to premium inventory as well as a hedge against fraud
Dive Insight:Brands dominate programmatic ad spending, accounting for 70% in the Index Exchange Quarterly Index Report for Q1 breakdown of its programmatic data. An interesting finding within this breakdown was that bid prices – both clear and winning – increased, but impression volume decreased inferring that advertisers were becoming more competitive for impressions. Breaking the data down more granularly found cookies with third-party data attached attracted eight bids per impression, which according to Index Exchange is “quite competitive.” Part of this was attributed to seasonal influences with financial companies buying ads during tax season in direct competition with each other.Another interesting finding from the report was digital publishers shifting more inventory to the private exchange channel because advertisers want premium inventory and private exchanges allow for publishers to place a premium price on more exclusive inventory. And advertisers view private exchanges as a less of a fraud threat.
Source: Market Dive, September 2015
Top 100 UK digital agencies income reaches £1.7bn
According to our Top 100 agencies report, in the past year, the total fee income of the listed agencies has increased 15% from last year’s total of £1.48bn. Since 2014, the average fee income across the 100 has increased by 25%. This rise is set to continue into 2016, with 77% of agencies saying they were ‘very optimistic’ about the next 12 months.
Looking back at our research, and to inspire your own entry, here are the top creative digital agencies of 2015, by fee income:1. SapientNitro; £165,433,3492. IBM Interactive Experience; £142,508,1003. AKQA; £61,307,8254. Tribal Worldwide London; £60,826,4765. DigitasLBi; £58,203,0006. Deloitte Digital UK; £57,000,0007. Engine; £55,324,0008. BAE Systems Applied Intelligence; £51,538,5249. iProspect; £43,700,00010. Salmon; £41,369,216
Source: eConsultancy, September 2015
Round Up62% underestimate contribution of advertising to publishers
Research by Teads found that 65% of Britons believe society would be worse off without high quality, low cost newspaper and magazine content.But the latest figures show 15% of Brits are using adblockers, threatening this online business model.It is estimated that ad-blocking will hit global ad revenues by more than £14bn in 2015, and ironically ad-blocker users are 12% more likely to value low cost editorial content than the general population.
Source: eConsultancy, September 2015
29% of UK consumers feel brands share too many social media updates
In a survey of 2,000 UK adults, Headstream found that too many irrelevant updates are the main source of frustration on social media.Other key findings include:• 27% are fed up of irrelevant and unpersonalised updates by brands• 28% find brand’s social media updates ‘too salesy’ with a heavy focus on products
Source: eConsultancy, September 2015
87% of customers find it acceptable for brands to personalise communications using their data
A study by Experian Marketing Services asked consumers their opinion on personalised communication and found that the majority don’t mind as long as the content is relevant or is from companies they’ve recently purchased from.
Source: eConsultancy, September 2015
CX and Instagram the talk of Dmexco
Dmexco received 31,327 social media mentions over the course of the trade show, and xAd has revealed the most talked-about trends below:1. Brand/consumer experience2. Mobile3. Creativity4. Data5. Programmatic
Source: eConsultancy, September 2015
