Articles by: "Rande Price, Research VP – DCN"

Viewability Continues to Trouble the Marketplace

August 18, 2015 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Display ads were 11% less viewable in a year-over-year comparison reports Integral Ad Science in their Q2 2015 Media Quality Report. The viewability measure for display dropped from 49.4% in 2Q 2014 to 44% in Q2 2015. In fact, publisher sites decreased their viewability rate from 55.5% to 50.1% as did ad networks and exchanges from 45% to 39.9%.

During the same quarter fraud decreased to 14.1% from 16.5% in Q1 2015. Publishers fared better with fraudulent impressions at 3.7% where ad networks and exchanges had close to 4 times more fraudulent traffic at 14.1%. Overall video ads perform better than display in both viewability (37.2%) and fraud rates (11.6%) in Q2 2105. While the industry has made improvements in non-human fraudulent traffic, it’s slow to improve in viewability.

Integral also offers the “TRue Advertising Quality (TRAQ)” score using a mix of metrics including fraud, viewability, ad clutter, brand safety and professionalism. Display averaged a score of 604 on a scale of 1,000 with publishers scoring a 656 and ad networks and exchanges scoring a 584.

Advertising | Industry-Research

Ad Blocking Predicted to Cost Ad Industry $21.8 billion in 2015

August 12, 2015 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Use of ad blocking software is gaining rapid adoption with 198 million monthly active users worldwide reports The Cost of Ad Blocking published by PageFair and Adobe. Global usage of ad blocking software increased 41% from 2Q14 to 2Q15. In the U.S. alone, ad blocking usage expanded to 48 million monthly unique users, a growth of 48%, presenting approximately 16% of the U.S. online population.

What does this mean for the future of the Internet publishing and advertising? The ad industry anticipates losing $21.8 billion globally in blocked revenue this year with $10.7 billion in the U.S. alone. This figure is set to almost double by 2016 when the global cost of ad-blocking is expected to reach $41.4 billion.

What’s driving adoption rates? User adoption of Google Chrome and its easy installation of ad blocking extensions grew 51% from 44 million monthly active users in 2Q 2013 to 126 million in 2Q 2015. Further, while mobile only accounts for 1.6% of ad blocked traffic, new operating systems such as Apple’s iOS9 will make it easier for consumers to block mobile ad traffic. It’s the first time app Apple will allow app makers to develop ad blocking software for iPhones and iPads. Usage of ad blocking on mobile is expected to increase exponentially.

What do these ad blockers look like? Consistent with prior research, ad block users are typically, young, technically savvy, and more likely to be male.

Why are users blocking ads? PageFair and Adobe also surveyed 400 internet users asking what would drive them to use ad blocking software. The top two responses reported “misuse of personal information” (51%) and “an increase in the number of ads” (41%).

Advertising | Industry-Research | Video

Online Video is the Fastest-growing Category of Internet Advertising

August 5, 2015 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Online video advertising revenue is estimated to reach 16.2 billion worldwide with the US by far the largest market at $8.5 billion reports ZenithOptimedia’s Online Video Forecasts 2015.

Given the rapid penetration of smartphones and tablets, worldwide total video consumption is expected to increase by 20% in the coming year from 48.1 minutes per day this year to 57.6 minutes per day in 2016. Mobile devices are expected to be the main platform for viewing online videos growing from 46.8% (22.5 minutes per day) share of time spent this year to 52.7% (30.4 minutes per day) in 2016.

Online video viewing globally skews to young adults and is slightly more male (14.2% males 18-24 and 13.8% males 25-34 vs. 8.5% females 18-24 and 8.4% females 25-34) based on comScore (Video Metrix, September 2014). Understanding online video consumption habits and the video publishing infrastructure is important to marketers in identifying the right short- and long-form advertising and branding opportunities for their target audience.

Industry-Research

Digital Magazine Sales Will Top 1.3 billion in 2015

July 29, 2015 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Digital magazine consumption reached 43% of print magazine consumption reports Mequoda in their Digital Magazine Market Study. The research study was conducted in Q2 2015 polling 3,642 US adults with Internet access.

More than one-third of respondent report reading an average of 2.37 digital magazine issues in the last 30 days. In other words, 77 million adults read an average of 184 million digital magazine issues in the last month. The report also estimates spending on digital magazines will top 1.3 billion in 2015.

Consumers ranked relatively equal levels of importance to the magazine distribution points; on the web (37%), tablet (32%) and print (31%). Readers were emphatic about their preferences demanding readable and scrollable text on their digital editions. Further, 9 in 10 respondents report 20 articles or less is ideal for the perfect issue.

Industry-Research

Consumers Will Pay a Premium for Innovation

July 22, 2015 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Innovation compels consumers to make purchases. In fact, 8 in 10 of consumers (84%) reported that it is somewhat or very important that they buy from innovative companies’ reports Lab42’s Innovation Study.

Further, just more than half of respondents (51%) reported that they bought a product without fully understanding how it works or what it did because they felt or heard it was “cool.” Consumers care about owning products that give them the appearance of being innovative.

Consumers are willing to pay a premium for innovation across many categories: electronics 83%, automotive 75%, restaurants 71%, clothing/retail 70% and grocery store items 67%.

Not all consumers want to serve as a guinea pig in the marketplace. Only 2 in 10 respondents (21%) reported buying new products as soon as they come out while 63% prefer to buy a new product once it’s been out for a while.

The Innovation Study was conducted among 1,000 consumers in April 2015.

Industry-Research

Magazine Apps Keep Publishers Profitable and Users Engaged

July 8, 2015 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

A new study released by Maz Publishing showcases strong profitability and user engagement in digital publishing. The findings presented by Maz, a digital publishing platform, is based on 139 million pages views from 1,030 magazine apps, like Conde Nast, Forbes, and USA. Maz’s analytic component is built into every app to track downloads, usage, user behavior, etc. This information was aggregated from 2013 to 2015 for this analysis.

Key insights include:

Bigger devices are still more popular. Close to two-thirds (63%) of all app sessions occur on a tablet.
Seven in ten users (70%) prefer private sharing of content over public. Within private sharing, 44% prefer using email, 26% save, 18% copy, 8% SMS and 4% use Evernote.
Readers of different genres (e.g. Business, Entertainment, Lifestyle and Sports) engage with apps differently. Sport app users are the most active; posting two times more on facebook than Business and Entertainment app users and tweeting two times more than Entertainment app users.
Total digital magazine views increased by 149% from 17.3 million in 2013 to 43 million in 2015.
App launches continue to grow, 44% growth on iPhone and 132% on iPad from 1Q 2014 to 1Q 2015.
Time Accessed, trial usage with an allotted time period, proved to have a high conversion rate.
Push notifications proved effective, two times more app downloads and sessions the day of notification.

PVgrowthmagapps — Digital magazine page view growth from 2013 – 2015.

Industry-Research

Google Search Found to Censor Results

July 1, 2015 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Tim Wu, once an FTC Advisor, twice cleared Google in 2012 and 2013 of search practices that favored its own results over the result of competitors. However, in Wu’s newly released study conducted in partnership with Yelp, a local review company, he takes an about-face claiming Google does in fact manipulates its search results. The report comes out on the heels of Google preparing its response to the European Union’s accusations that its comparison shopping product limits consumer options as well.

While the Yelp study does not disclose its full methodology, it does share the finding of 2,690 surveyed users randomly shown search results. The search results compared those of Google search to results in which external content was displayed. In all, 45% of those surveyed were more likely to click search results when they were more objective versus the Google-influenced material. Google’s responded to this study claiming the research is exclusively reliant on clicks and very limited in its scope. How this report impacts Google’s anti-trust issues remains to be seen.

Industry-Research | Perspectives

High Volume of Generic Communications Disengage Digital Consumers

June 24, 2015 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Consumers are highly sensitive to high volumes of mass generic communications reports the Aimia Institute. The finding is based on their global online survey, among 2,000 consumers in the UK, US, France, US, Canada and India, identifying effective brand communications.

Among the key findings:

Almost three-fifths (59%) of High Volume Sensitive consumers report that the volume of email communications they receive from brands overwhelms them, for SMS messages (60%) and for push notifications (62%).

Millennials are the generation most likely (44%) to permanently disengage with brands if they receive high volumes of mass generic email communications while Generation X is 14% more likely to fall into this group.

This study speaks to the importance of marketers tailoring their communications to consumer preferences. If not, there are clear consequences. High Sensitive Consumers report they frequently will block numbers (80%); close accounts and unsubscribe from email lists (84%); delete apps because of push notifications (82%); and unfollow brands on social channels (86%). Still High Sensitive Consumers can be a highly desirable group given their willingness to share their information as long as it is managed properly.

For more information, download the presentation.

Industry-Research

Users Value Their Time… and Your Content

June 19, 2015 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

Today’s consumers accept mobile ads in exchange for free apps and content reports Millennial Media in its new study What’s My Worth? The global study conducted by Opinion Research surveyed over 4,000 consumers in France, Germany, UK and US and found that almost three quarters (73%) of consumers expect to see ads to keep content free. The study also states that 63% of consumers think it’s fair to receive ads in exchange for free content and apps. Young consumers agree in greater quantity that it’s fair; 77% of 16-24s and 72% of 25-34s.

This study is important as it further support that mobile and app advertising can drive purchases. In fact, consumer reactions is positive toward purchases; one in four reported (25%) that they are likely to click on a mobile ad at least once in the last month to find out more about a product. And nearly half of consumers (48%) said they are likely to click on an ad if targeted to their interests. The study also found that of all those who made a purchase as a result of clicking a mobile ad, 43% said they made their purchase in a bricks and mortar store, while eight in 10 (82%) made it online.

Advertising | Industry-Research

Reuters’ Digital News Report Finds Social, Mobile on the Rise but Video Flat

June 17, 2015 Rande Price, Research VP – DCN

The Reuters Institute 2015 Digital News Report’s global tracking study (20,000 news consumers in 12 countries) offers robust findings on consumer news consumption.

The U.S. country-specific data (2,295 news consumers) identifies Online—which includes social media—as the main news source (43%) compared to TV (40%), Social (11%) and Newspaper (5%).

Among Reuters’ key findings:

In terms of accuracy, TV is still viewed as best (36%) source for accuracy versus Online (30%).
Overall, U.S. news consumers are still skeptical of the news media at large – 32% trust in general and 56% trust my sources.
The paradigm for access shows Smartphones as essential for news consumption – at 41% from 31% in 2014.
In fact 26% of U.S. news consumers claim their smartphone to be their main device for accessing news. In contrast, tablet usage at 21% only grew 2% from 2014 and only one in 10 cite as their main device to access news.
Growth in mobile news alerts doubled, 13% in 2015 from 6% in 2014.
14% of news lovers, the heaviest user group, access news content 5+ times per day.
Interestingly, video news consumption is flat at 30% compared to last year.
Top barriers to video notes “I find reading more convenient (39%)”, “I would like to watch on a bigger screen and Pre-roll ads tend to put me off (23%, respectively).”
The minority of news consumers (11%) pay for digital news access, averaging $10 (median) per month. It is important to note that just over than two-thirds (67%) report that they “would not pay whatever the price.”
Not surprisingly, social media plays an important role on how news consumers find news (35%) from 30% in 2014. In fact, 35% use social media as their starting point for news.
News consumers feel plagued by digital advertising resulting in almost half (47%) regularly using ad-blocking. As digital news try new creative ad models such as native and sponsored ads, there is concern among users of blurring the lines between editorial content with brands.

Download the full report for greater depth, a range of country-specific data and access to a great essay (page 101), “Attitudes to Sponsored and Branded Content.”