Articles by: "Research Team—DCN"

Consumer marketing preferences differ from common brand marketer practices

November 2, 2015 Research Team—DCN

Marketers have a slew of on and offline marketing options today. However, according to research from MarketingSherpa, there’s a disconnect between marketer’s preferred practices and consumer preferences.

For example, email is the most preferred communication method for consumers to receive regular updates and promotions from companies they are interested in doing business with (60%). Email is also the top brand marketer medium for communicating with consumers at a nearly universal 90%. But differences emerge in how these emails are sent and received.

Insights from MarketingSherpa’s research include:

More than three quarters of brand marketers (76%) say they sent subscribers emails at a pre-determined frequency chosen by the brand. However, only a quarter (24%) of consumers say they desire to receive emails at a pre-determined frequency chosen by brands.

Nearly half of consumers (49%) prefer to subscribe to emails at the frequency they choose, while only 14% of brand marketers report that they actually send out email updates based on their subscribers’ preferences.

Social media is extremely popular with brands—77% of brand marketers offer their customers the opportunity to follow them on social media. But one in five consumers (20%) want to receive regular updates and promotions from companies they are interested in by following them on social media.

Traditional postal mail remains popular with consumers; 54% indicate they want to receive physical mail updates and promotions from companies they are interested in. Yet, only 19% of brands provide print updates in the mail, likely due to their cost.

The results are from a pair of consumer and marketer online surveys conducted by MarketingSherpa. The consumer survey was fielded from Aug. 20-24, 2015 with 2,021 adult respondents, ages 18 and over. The brand marketer survey was fielded from September 15-28, 2015, attracting 455 marketer respondents.

Industry-Research

Ad budgets shifting to digital video

October 27, 2015 Research Team—DCN

In its 2015 US State of the Video Industry report, AOL explores key industry trends that are driving digital video’s continued dominance. According to the nearly 300 brands, agencies and publishers surveyed for this sixth-annual report, media consumption habits are calling for more effective engagement, through sight, sound and motion.

Some key findings from the report:

Traditional advertising budgets are being reprioritized to fund digital video (see chart below).
Half of buyers shifting budget to digital video are reallocating from TV.
Mobile video is a key area for increased investments.
Mobile video budgets have increased 18% since 2014.
Programmatic has reached a point of ubiquity for buyers and sellers.
91% of buyers and 88% of publishers are benefiting from programmatic video.
Marketers are capitalizing on the best of linear and digital with programmatic TV.
33% of programmatic video advertisers also use programmatic TV and another 41% plan to.
Branded video content is an essential area of focus for marketers.
Over 30% of brands’ digital video budgets are dedicated to branded video, a number expected to rise in the next year.

Uncategorized

Mobile CPMs on the rise

October 20, 2015 Research Team—DCN

PubMatic’s first ever Quarterly Mobile Index report (Q3 2015) establishes a baseline of benchmarks for mobile advertising performance around pricing, volume and growth. PubMatic analyzed the billions of daily impressions that flow through its platform to observe real-time developments in the mobile space that allude to broader digital industry trends.

Five key trends emerge in this report, specifically:

Mobile CPMs are higher and growing faster than desktop CPMs
Significant growth opportunity lies in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Latin America (LATAM) regions, while sheer scale makes mature markets—North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA)—highly attractive
Apple app ads are increasing fastest in both price and volume, while mobile web inventory is still growing
Mobile optimization (i.e. developing mobile-friendly or “responsively-designed” sites that adapt to mobile viewing) is progressing rapidly and improving mobile web inventory quality
Private marketplace (PMP) CPMs are higher than non-PMP CPMs, by a factor of 5-6x for mobile PMP and 3-4x for desktop PMP

According to PubMatic, mobile monetization is increasing and improving, driving growth within digital media organizations across all regions, globally. In particular, high-impact mobile formats, such as video and rich media, will help publishers and advertisers continue to both grow revenues and command higher CPMs.

Advertising | Industry-Research

US ad sales will grow by +2.2% this year, with digital surpassing TV ad spending faster than expected

October 19, 2015 Research Team—DCN

Digital media ad revenue will surpass TV ad spending faster than expected, according to Interpublic-owned media buying and research firm Magna Global. According to its US Media Owner Revenues Forecast, advertising revenues grew by +1.6% in the first half across all media categories. While digital media remained dynamic, growth is increasingly contrasted between social and video formats (from +30% to +50%), search (+10%) and banner display (+4%). Magna Global predicts that digital media ad revenues will reach $66 billion and that digital will surpass television in 2016 to become the #1 media category, one year earlier than previously expected.

According to Magna Global, Media Owners Advertising revenues showed little growth in the first half of 2015. Ad sales grew by +1.0% in 1Q15 and +0.8% in 2Q15 (all media including direct marketing, excl. P&O). However, they predict that 2016 will show stronger ad revenue growth than 2015, but has reduced its growth forecast to +3.3% from +3.8%. Traditional media will decrease by 2.9%, while digital sales will grow by +15.1%.

The 2015-2016 National TV upfronts were down in terms of volume, for the second year in a row, with CPM increases in the low single-digit range (compared to mid-single digit a year before). Interestingly, the decline of the impression supply seems to have reached the point where inflationary tension might soon come back into play.

Key figures from Magna Global’s forecasts by media segment:

TV ad sales will decrease by -2.6% (vs. -1.2% in 2014) excluding P&O.
Print ad sales (newspapers and magazines) will decline by 12% to 14% this year and next.
Social and online video ad sales continue to show explosive grow in the short term with full-year ad revenue expected to reach +48.2% and +38.4%, respectively.
Mobile video will also grow by +69% as smartphone and tablet usage continue to grow as more and more content is made available across all screens through apps.
Search remains robust (+11.8% this year) with mobile search up 46% and desktop search up only 1%.

Industry-Research

What’s right for your mobile user experience: app or site?

October 14, 2015 Research Team—DCN

Often, organizations are faced with a decision to focus development resources on the mobile web or app experiences. Unfortunately, the answer is both—or at least that the answer isn’t as much an either or as a question of user experiences and expectations. Millward Brown explored the question of when people use apps and when they opt for the mobile web and has published the results in The New Mobile Mantra. The study takes a nuanced approach in an effort to get at the consumer psychology and rationale behind the varying use cases. The study, conducted over the course of the first three quarters of 2015, is based on both an examination of click-stream data and consumer survey data (n=2,011 US smartphone owners over 18).

Millward Brown found that while apps command the most user time, “61 percent of smartphone users access their browsers at least once a day, spending an average of 31 minutes in total.”

Other key findings include:

Over half of smartphone users have 40-70 apps installed; though many use 4 to 6 apps per day.
The main reason consumers delete apps is because they rarely use it &72%) however the sthis is followed by a need to free up memory (51%) and the perception that the app was da battery drain (44%).
When it comes to consuming media, smartphone users don’t tend to have a strong preference between apps and browsers except for Sports and Business.
Half of those surveyed say that mobile news apps are easier to navigate than mobile websites.
An almost equal number prefer the mobile web (48%) because they can browse news on different sites without downloading apps for each.
Consumers cite superior search functionality as an upside of the mobile web (36%).
Consumers cite notifications (44%) and customization (35%) as app strengths.

Milward Brown concludes that apps should be the focus when seeking to deliver convenience, specialized content, and customization based on saved user information. Browser experiences should be emphasized for research experiences.

Industry-Research

Instant messaging use rises as more people opt for closed platforms

October 7, 2015 Research Team—DCN

The popularity of instant messaging (IM) has soared over the past year, with a 12% uplift in daily usage as more people opt for closed messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Viber. Over half of internet users worldwide (55%) are now using instant messaging every day, while 76% are using it on a weekly basis, according to Connected Life, a study of over 60,000 internet users worldwide from global research consultancy TNS. Despite this, social platforms are still rising in popularity with a 6% uplift in daily usage. As people’s online habits become ever more fragmented, TNS asserts that brands need to tap into the growing popularity of IM and other emerging platforms. The research shows an increased need for a content-driven approach across IM, social and traditional channels.

Among TNS’ key findings:

The US still lags the ‘mobile-first’ markets with 35% of US internet users using IM every day, but is catching up quickly (up 10% compared with 2014).
Instant Messaging (IM) is particularly dominant in emerging “mobile-first” markets, with daily usage rising even higher in markets like China (69%), Brazil (73%), and South Africa (64%).
Facebook has maintained its position as the world’s favorite social platform; almost one third of global internet users (30%) say they use it every day.
Facebook’s dominant position among US internet users is even stronger at 53%, followed by YouTube (26%), Instagram and Twitter.
TNS found that although IM users are wary of brands interrupting them, they are more concerned with how content they share impacts their own image.

TNS data reveals that consumers are even more connected to each other, and across multiple platforms. While IM popularity is rising, traditional social media platforms are still holding strong, allowing content to go viral more quickly. The challenge, says TNS, is for brands to create content that consumers actually want to share.

Industry-Research

Wearable developers say biggest challenge is lack of information on consumer usage

October 2, 2015 Research Team—DCN

Two-thirds of wearable app developers reported that the greatest challenge they faced as first movers was the lack of information and research available on how, when, and for what consumers would use wearable technology, according to research by Clutch, a source of reviews on application development companies. Clutch spoke with experts from 15 businesses with experience designing and developing for a variety of wearable platforms. To gain insight into the development process, Clutch’s research aimed to identify the challenges encountered and the steps taken to overcome them.

In addition to a notable lack of information about how consumers use wearables, the developers interviewed also revealed four additional development challenges:

8 out of 15 emphasized the incompatibility between the perceived ideal uses for wearables and the technological capabilities of the platforms.

8 out of 15 referenced the difficulties involved in designing and developing an application before the release of the wearable device.

7 out of 15 claimed that the small screen space on most wearable platforms limited applications’ features and functionalities for the user.

4 out of 15 explained how the necessity of troubleshooting on a new platform lengthened the development process.

Clutch’s interviews also explore related topics, such as the trends shaping the future of wearable technology, the motivating factors for engaging with wearables, and the lessons learned from the design and development process. In addition to an infographic, Clutch published 16 in-depth examples of how these businesses applied the new technology to accomplish specific goals.

Industry-Research

Video effective for content marketing despite challenges

September 24, 2015 Research Team—DCN

Video is proving to be one of the most effective types of content marketers are using to achieve their objectives. However, according to research released by Ascend2, challenging obstacles continue to hinder video marketing performance. To examine these challenges, Ascend2 fielded the Video Marketing Strategy Survey and completed interviews with 280 marketing, sales and business professionals from around the world.

Increased brand awareness (47%) and online engagement (45%) top the list of objectives for a video marketing strategy followed closely by improving consumer education (43%) and increased lead generation (41%).

Video marketing is rated very successful at achieving important objectives by 25% of companies and another 60% rate it somewhat successful. A total of only 15% say that they are struggling to achieve success with video marketing.

Lack of an effective strategy is the most challenging obstacle to video marketing success according to nearly half (48%) of companies surveyed. A strategy with sufficient resources and budget to produce compelling content are critical to successful outcomes.

Lack of compelling content is a top challenge for video marketers due in many cases to the degree of difficulty required to create some types of content. The most difficult types of video content to create are customer testimonials, project reviews or case studies.

The report found that more than half of respondents say their video content marketing budgets are increasing marginally (51%) while only 18% predict a significant increase.

Industry-Research

Data Key to Digital Ad Revenues

September 9, 2015 Research Team—DCN

As the number of screens and ad impressions continue to proliferate, advertising dollars are moving from traditional to digital environments with Forrester predicting that overall digital display advertising dollars will grow from an estimated $20 billion in 2015 to $38 billion by 2019. Publishers’ ability to leverage real-time data will be key to capturing their share of the digital ad spend. According to a commissioned study Real-Time Data Analytics: Empowering Publishers to Make Better, Faster Decisions, which was conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of PubMatic, 67% of publishers – large and small – believe that real-time data is important to their efforts, and 62% find that it leads to an increase in revenue, yet only 27% report receiving data in real-time.

Among the key findings from the research:

Real-time data drives publisher growth.
However, the vast majority of publishers do not receive their data in real time.
As publishers grow, so, too, does their appetite for data and their need for analytics and insights that are actionable.
Aggregating multiple data streams into one holistic view remains a challenge.

On behalf of PubMatic, Forrester conducted a survey of 110 media analytics professionals responsible for revenue management and decisions for analytics reporting tools. Sixty of the surveys were from US media and publishing companies, while 50 were from the UK. For the purposes of this paper, small publishers are defined as those with fewer than 500 employees, representing 43% of the respondent base, and large publishers are those with 500 or more employees, representing 57% of the total respondents.

Industry-Research

Survey Reveals Publishers Programmatic Frustration

August 31, 2015 Research Team—DCN

In a survey of more than 600 buy and sell side professionals Technorati found that almost half of publishers (45.45 %) say they are frustrated by not being able to have demand partners compete with each other on each impression. As a result they are forced to use tactics they don’t peculiarly like to try and maximize yield.

Almost half of those surveyed (49 %) say they use passbacks and floor prices to maximize yield of programmatic demand solutions, essentially “daisy-chaining” or waterfalling, the practice of giving each partner in a series a chance at an impression before moving it along to the next partner if it is not purchased. About the same percentage manually adjust ad serving rules based on estimated CPMs and fill and/or work with fixed-CPM partners.

Those surveyed identified the following as their biggest challenges when working with programmatic demand solutions:

Not being able to have demand partners compete with each other on each impression (45.45%).
Daisy Chaining or Waterfalling partners is inefficient and not as effective as I’d like it to be (43.43%).
Not having my own internal developers with time/resources/ expertise to support my needs (44.44%).
Not having the technology and tools that address my needs (43.43%).

Technorati also found that while the majority (64.71%) of publishers and buyers use just 1 to 5 programmatic partners, a significant segment of both groups use more than 6 programmatic partners (29% for buyers and 27% for sellers).

The majority of buyers (66.47) said that they buy ad inventory through private marketplaces. Publishers surveyed believe that inventory discovery, deal negotiation and inventory packaging all need to be improved in private marketplaces.

Advertising | Industry-Research

Do Millennials Consume Content, Ads and Shop Differently?

August 28, 2015 Research Team—DCN

A new report from Adroit Digital compares Millennials’ shopping behaviors and advertising preferences with those of their older counterparts. While Adroit points out that a great deal of research closely examines generational behaviors and attributes, this report focuses on behaviors, particularly how Millennials shop, consume content and respond to advertising as compared with older shoppers. Adroit Digital conducted a study to ask Millennials and those 35 and older about their shopping and content consumption habits. The study was fielded from April 24, 2015, through May 24, 2015 and targeted a random sample of 1,000 US and Canadian consumers who self-identified as 18–34 years of age and who owned both a smartphone and a personal computer, and 500 US and Canadian consumers who self-identified as age 35 and older and owned both a smartphone and a personal computer.

Key findings include:

Both Millennials and those 35 and older do the majority of retail browsing in-store—57% and 61%, respectively.
When it comes to which online social medium affects retail purchases the most, both Millennials and those 35+ chose online review sites, 55% and 54%, respectively.
The majority of respondents are also more likely to click on a mobile ad over a desktop ad—55% of those 18–34 and 52% of those 35+.
The majority of survey respondents replied that online and/or mobile advertising does affect what they purchase—75% of those 18–34 and 73% of those 35+.
Millennials are slightly more likely to click on a native ad than a banner ad—81% compared with 75% of those 35+.
Millennials are slightly more bothered by advertisers’ remarketing efforts—83% of those 18–34 vs. 77% of those 35+.
When it comes to noticing ads between devices, the majority of both age groups surveyed report that ads on their mobile devices grab their attention more than ads on PCs.

Industry-Research

The State of Tags in Digital Media

August 24, 2015 Research Team—DCN

Based upon its work with nearly 400 digital media organizations, the Parse.ly team examined how different companies use, or don’t use, tags and published an Authority Report on The State of Tags in Digital Media . For the purpose of its analysis, Parse.ly defines tag as:

Metadata accompanying an article or post on a media or content site.
The most common use of tags is to identify topics or subjects in an article that go beyond the high-level “section” designation.
Sometimes tags are also used to help readers or internal users find other articles that cover the same subset of topics.

According to the report, there’s been a significant amount of discussion about the possibility of expanding the usefulness of tags beyond topic identification to a classification system of anything including identifying sponsored content, sentiment, tone, and length. Interestingly, Parse.ly found that tags have no bearing on audience size. Publishers who are not using tags garner a higher number of average daily page views (one million) than publishers who are using tags (612,000 average daily page views).

While most digital publishers use “keyword tags” to categorize posts by topic, some are now turning to “knowledge tags” to classify content beyond the topic of an article. According to Parse.ly, publishers have found value in tagging by: Content Type, Editorial vs. Native/Sponsored Content, and Paywall Access.

They found that the average number of tags per post, among all posts using tags is 5.2. However it is interesting to note that they found that using more tags doesn’t necessarily generate more page views.