FreeWheel has released new information this week, revealing that consumers are returning to live news programming. According to their report, ad views on both linear and digital forms grew by 150 percent between Q2 2016 and Q2 2017. FreeWheel attributes the rise to diversification of options for monetized livestreaming.
Their report also tracked device-specific ad views, recording major growth in streaming and shrinkage for desktops. Services such as Twitch jumped from 1 percent in 2013 to 29 percent in 2017, and desktop ad views dropped from 90 percent to 27 percent over the same period.
Despite brand safety concerns, companies have been slow to change their behavior. According to a study by Advertiser Perceptions, 78 percent of marketers have run a campaign featuring ads on 50 or more websites, and 28 percent displayed ads on more than 1000.
Additionally, while 63 percent of advertisers have discussed implementing digital whitelists, only 14 percent have actually put them into use.
Investment in data centers in the US has undergone record-setting growth, according to information from CBRE. Spending on data centers has grown to $18.2 billion this year to date and is on track to surpass total investment from the last three years combined.
Adobe has released its Q2 report on the online retail industry, revealing that despite rapid growth, social media is still the smallest driver of online traffic. Social’s share of customer engagement grew by 146 percent this year, but still only accounts for less than 5 percent of all retail site visits. Paid search also grew by 45 percent.
Likewise, natural search shrank by 6 percent, but still is the strongest driver of site visits.
Instagram has surpassed 2 million monthly advertisers, the company reported in a blog post. In March of this year the figure was only 1 million, meaning that the social network has doubled its advertiser base in just under six months. Instagram attributes the rise to small and medium-size businesses embracing the platform.
Video content on Instagram is exploding as well: time spent watching videos has risen by 80 percent since the same time last year, and the number of videos produced per day has grown by 400 percent.
Almost two-thirds of marketers worry about the effect of artificial intelligence on their industry, according to a survey conducted by The Drum. Sixty-one percent of respondents believed that AI will result in a loss of jobs, while only 46 percent understood its capabilities.
A new survey by The Creative Group indicates that conversational marketing will have the greatest effect on advertising in 2018, with 33 percent of respondents reporting social messaging as their top priority.
The premiere of Star Trek: Discovery led many smartphone users to discover the CBS All Access mobile app. According to information from Sensor Tower, first-time installs of the app rose by 64 percent compared to the previous two weeks, with 46,000 downloads.
A new study by Deloitte suggests that retail sales will grow by 4 to 4.5 percent this holiday season. The research also forecasts a 21 percent jump in digital sales, to $114 billion in total revenue.
