Advertising Week: If You Can’t Reach Them Right, Don’t Do It At All

Welcome to day two of Advertising Week. Talks this morning have focused heavily on data and diversity, but a common theme runs through them: any message that doesn’t hit the mark won’t just fail to drive sales—it can cause long-term damage to your brand.

Keith Weed, CMO of Unilever, opened the discussion on Monday with an anecdote about a failed ad experience. “There was an advertiser in the U.K. – I won’t say which one – that advertised in the middle of my run,” he said. “Who would not only advertise in the middle of a run but also give you a five-point question? We all need to think as advertisers a little more about where people are when we advertise to them.”

While research shows that 95 percent of those surveyed considered themselves loyal to brands they like, there’s little protection for brands that lose the support of their base: 78 percent of millennials believe that they have the power to influence large brands.

Jeremy Randol, Pandora’s vice president of sales strategy, picked up the thread at The Next Era of Programmatic panel discussion: “Ninety-two percent of Pandora’s userbase is on the ad-supported model,” she said. “Ads need to be relevant or people will jump.”

Panelists at Woke, Lit & Ready: A Perspective On Black Twitter & The Ad Industry also commented on the harm that can come from improperly-implemented messages—especially toward minority communities: “It’s better to not try at all than miss the mark,” said Jasmyn Lawson, culture editor at Giphy. “You need to start from scratch. If you haven’t done it yet, don’t half-ass it.”

While hostile to brands that reach out poorly, speakers emphasized the simplicity of crafting the right messages. “If you think about what tone-deafness really is, it’s laziness,” pointed out Tiyale Hayes, senior vice president of consumer insights at BET.

“You can buy goodwill,” he added, “just by crediting original creators in the community.”

Overall, the best solution to reach consumers is inclusion. Across the board, panelists urged to marketers and agencies that the easiest way to reach consumers is to hire people who understand their experience.

“Step number one,” said Hayes, “is you have to see the beauty in every member of the community.”

Advertising Week: Day 1 Roundup

With more than 50 events on the first day alone, Advertising Week 2017 has a lot going on: you’d need 67 hours to see all of the day-one talks. To save you some time, we’re breaking down the biggest topics on the first day.

China

The swiftly-growing Chinese market featured prominently on day one of Advertising Week, with Tencent hosting two panel discussions on the market. The first, entitled The Same? But Different! How Content and Technology Are Transforming Business In China, discussed the key differences between American and Chinese consumers. The talk primarily centered around the vast difference between the heavily regulated television and laissez-faire Internet content spaces.

Steven Chang, corporate vice president at Tencent, put forward the need for more standardized data systems between different digital platforms.

The Chinese market seems to be a major theme of this year’s Advertising Week, and there are several talks on the subject on Tuesday.

Diversity

Seven events discuss the issues of inclusion, from a women’s-empowerment experiential pop-up gallery to a panel of CEOs discussing the best ways to incorporate a wider array of voices in their companies.

Advertising Week itself commented on diversity, revealing an ad campaign featuring a “multicultural” composite hand.

HP started the conversation off, releasing its report card for the diversity challenge it issued last year. The results: 61 percent of the computer company’s worldwide agency partners have female team members, and 51 percent have at least one woman in a senior position. During one presentation, HP CMO Antonio Lucio said the company’s next goal is to increase racial-minority representation in the workplace.

The CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion panel spoke along similar lines. “I think our industry is making strides with women,” said Michael Roth, CEO of Interpublic Group, “but we were going nowhere with women of color and people of color.”

Keith Cartwright, Saturday Morning’s executive creative director, pointed out that the problem isn’t just with hiring, but giving people of color the same opportunities for mentoring and promotion.

But it takes more than just calling out bad actors. “We need to celebrate the good companies that are doing it well,” Cartwright added, citing McDonalds and the University of Chicago as companies acting well.

Representation of women needs a lot of work, too, as the panel The Truth About Gender Bias in Ads in 2017 revealed. Citing the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, they discussed how women are still massively underrepresented in ads, and when present are forced into highly stereotyped roles (i.e. in the kitchen or as sexual objects). The institute’s research analyzed 12 years of Cannes winners and shortlists and found that there was almost no difference in representation between 2006 and 2017.

Data, AI and Automation

With a total of 15 talks on the subject, information and technology proved to be the largest subject of conversation on day one. The general consensus: the industry still has quite a way to go.

Keith Weed, chief marketing and communications officer at Unilever, stridently urged for better practices: “There’s a sea of content out there, and we’ve all developed these marvelous bullshit filters,” he said.

Accountability was another hot-button issue, with Weed being just one of many speakers to hold companies like Facebook and Google responsible for content they host.

While some panelists predicted doom for the industry, the consensus seemed to be that AI still isn’t a threat to the creative arms of the advertising industry. Yin Rani, Campbell’s vice president of integrated marketing, summed it up: “Machines are still kind of dumb these days.”


There are still four more days of Advertising Week left to go: check back here tomorrow for more features and round-ups.

Advertising Week: Interrupting Interruptive Advertising

Due to the explosion of mobile devices, content and branded messaging, it’s becoming more important to create messages that draw in customers, rather than broadcasting ideas straight to them. Many metrics measured by ad hosts emphasize the interruptive nature of advertising—number of impressions, repeat impressions for individual users and time spent viewing the ad—which panelists on Monday said can actually drive customers away.

Natalie Monbiot, senior vice president of futures at Samsung, said that the methods of judging effectiveness of digital advertising emphasize ways that annoy consumers.

Ian Schafer, chief experience officer at Engine USA, added that “as long as we’re doing interruptive ads, we want to be as interruptive as possible.”

Despite pushback from Google, studies show that 60 percent of websites are mostly using autoplay ads; interruptive is by far the current paradigm.

“Research shows people just don’t like sound-on autoplay on the web,” said Russ Freyman, head of partnerships for emerging products at Google. “They find it disruptive.”

According to the executives, expanding voice technology, and more specifically emotion tracking, is likely to bring on the necessary shift in tactics. “The more data brands have, the better the advertising experience will be,” Schafer said.

“What we want to avoid is causing contempt,” Monbiot added.

They went on to describe the “birdshot” approach, or pushing interruptive content in front of as wide of an audience as possible. Brands are becoming suspicious of this. Both P&G and Unilever substantially reduced their conventional digital advertising budgets and saw little change in revenue. Rather than focus on spreading their message too thin, the panelists agreed that content worth seeking out would bring the best results.

“Advertising that’s native—it kind of disappears into the content,” Monbiot said.

Other discussions touched on the same point. Luis Di Como, senior vice president of global media at Unilever, emphasized the importance of creating “seek-out” content for the Chinese market. Keith Weed, CMO of Unilever, addressed the fact that 600 million consumers have installed an adblocker. “If you have a rubbish experience, they will indeed move away from your advertising,” he said.

Whatever the future may hold for the ad industry, the impetus is to change the approach sooner rather than later.

“The phone is probably the last screen we’re going to get to place ads on,” Schafer predicted. “The solution is going to come from new marketers, not from new platforms.”

Volkswagen Is Using Instagram To Connect With Car Buyers

Volkswagen of America is hoping to drive consumer engagement for its 2018 Tiguan through the “VW Rule the Road” Instagram experience.

The digital social scavenger hunt incorporates elements from the launch spot titled “The New King,” including the inflatable gorilla, the actress who plays the driver and the Tiguan she races through the city. The experience is part of the car brand’s integrated campaign to launch the new tagline “The New King of the Concrete Jungle.”

Every day at 1 p.m. ET for three weeks, a clue will appear on the daily hunt tile on the @VWRuleTheRoad Instagram page. Using that clue, users will then have to find a hidden Tiguan within the tiles using the carousel feature. There are Tiguan models everywhere, but only one is the right one. Once users find the correct hidden Tiguan, they must take a screenshot of the Tiguan and direct message it to @VWRuleTheRoad for a chance to win a daily prize and a chance to qualify to enter the grand prize drawing. The grand prize consists of a 10-day trip to San Francisco, Miami and New York.

Jennifer Clayton, director of marketing communications and media for Volkswagen of America, told AListDaily that Instagram gives the carmaker access on a one-to-one level with its target audience.

“It gives us an opportunity for deeper engagement with the Volkswagen brand, and extends engagement beyond the typical suite of 30-second TV spots or more traditional digital plays,” Clayton explained. “The exciting creative opportunity was to give people the chance to discover, explore and participate in the story—in an experience we built just for them, in a way that’s not been done before.”

The scavenger hunt is entirely contained within Instagram. Daily prizes range anywhere from $50 to $250, depending on the day, and include brands like Amazon. The idea came from looking at the Tiguan launch campaign as a whole and figuring out how to leverage the idea to fit with how people use social.

“We decided to create a digital scavenger hunt around New York City to further cement our new Tiguan position,” Clayton said. “Rule the Road was created so people could visit, explore and conquer the concrete jungle all through their phones.”

Clayton said Instagram has evolved to become increasingly necessary to maintain relevance through an integrated voice on all platforms, especially for the car category, where the majority of the shopping process happens digitally.

“It’s very important for the brand to assert our point of view and positioning in social,” Clayton said before diving deeper into their target demographic profile.

“The Tiguan target is status conscious, and more likely lives in an urban area because at their current life stage, they’re hyper-focused on their career,” Clayton explained. “They’re trying to make it to the top of their profession to build a life that impresses those around them. They’re constantly learning about new corners of culture via podcasts, art galleries, comedy clubs, concerts and the newest hit shows. But they’re not all serious. Tiguan people love exploring in real life too—from skiing, to attending professional sports games, to traveling . . . The Tiguan audience uses their phone for everything, and Instagram for entertainment, so we created a social experience that meets them where they already are,” she said.

Volkswagen has blanketed broadcast TV with new Tiguan commercials featuring the inflatable gorilla. The spot further drives the Instagram activation with a second-screen lift, Clayton said. They are also running in-feed paid posts on Instagram that drive to the ‘VWRuleTheRoad’ profile.

So far Clayton has seen a positive reaction to both the inflatable gorilla and the actress driving the Tiguan.

“People are deeply engaged in the experience and fully understand how the game works,” Clayton said. “The early days have shown that the requirements of the game are well understood, and people are excited and awaiting the new clues each day—and they’re actively engaging to win the prizes. Early insights from Instagram show that the engaged audience, who are coming back each day, are closely aligned with the Tiguan demo . . . Obviously, it’s impossible to show how driving a Volkswagen feels digitally, but we wanted to assert our brand positioning by creating an experience that was fun and exploratory.”

‘Forge Of Empires’ Installs Get Big Boost From Snapchat App

Whether it be on Facebook or less traditional platforms like Pinterest, InnoGames is always looking for new ways to experiment with social campaigns.

As part of this experimentation, the MTG-owned game developer partnered with Adglow to promote the Forge of Empires mobile game on Snapchat using the install feature, which produced very impressive results.

Marcus Burke, InnoGames performance marketing manager

According to the study published by the two companies, the Snapchat app—with the install feature in beta in the UK at the time—brought in 166 percent more post view installs than any other video platform. This may be an early indicator of greater success on the platform as it grows and InnoGames explores further uses with it.

“We ran the campaigns for three months, targeting males 21 or older and gamers with a focus on our game, Forge of Empires,” InnoGames performance marketing manager Marcus Burke told AListDaily. “The campaign showed users a snippet of our TV commercial and prompted them to ‘play free now.’ They would then have the opportunity to swipe up and were conveniently redirected to our App Store listing so they could directly download the game.”

Burke explained that InnoGames tries to be first movers when it comes to new marketing activity.

“Snapchat gave us the opportunity to be the first advertiser using their app install product in the UK,” he said.

“The campaign was used for user acquisition, and we mainly engaged with players through the app afterward,” explained Burke. “There’s no engagement activity running on Snapchat so far.”

Despite the successful test campaign, Burke noted that Snapchat’s ad products are still in its early phases in terms of sophistication when compared to other social channels. InnoGames helped test the platform’s capabilities to target a broad range of gamers in hopes of finding a profitable audience. But that begs the question of whether this early success can be replicated on other video platforms.

“One of our biggest strengths [we have] at InnoGames is our marketing assets,” said Burke. “Whether it is Snapchat or another social media platform, a campaign needs to be visually appealing to catch the attention of our target audience. In this case, we saw the success through the combination of the video and the app feature. In this sense, replicating success in other social media channels is about matching the correct asset to the needs of the platform.”

As InnoGames continues to experiment with social media campaigns, Burke—who said that Snapchat was “growing up” in terms of its ad products—shared his thoughts about whether the install boost seen on Snapchat could be sustained or grown over the long-term, or if it had more to do with the novelty of the feature.

“We are constantly trying new features with our partners to be ahead of the marketing trends,” he said. “We will continue to test Snapchat and its features to see whether we can scale our results long-term and to other markets.”

The Biggest Trends From Tokyo Game Show 2017

The Tokyo Game Show (TGS) drew crowds from across the globe this weekend, showcasing the latest games, peripherals and some pretty amazing photo ops. Here are the trends that caught our eye.

Old Is New Again

Remakes and tie-ins are all the rage for video games this year, especially for PlayStation. From Rise of the Colossus to Zone of the Enders, publishers are revisiting old titles and betting big on nostalgia to drive sales.

A number of updated fan favorites from “back in the day” are coming soon, including a 3D remake of Secret of Mana and Yakuza Kiwami 2. Although fans won’t get a look at the Final Fantasy 7 remake during TGS, previously unseen footage was revealed at a Distant Worlds Final Fantasy concert on Friday—which should hold them over for a while, at least.

While these announcements have some fans excited to relive the games of their past on new consoles, others wonder why there aren’t more new titles being announced.

Japan Plays Up Esports

TGS hosted its first large-scale esports activations this year, including two stages sponsored by Sony and Samsung. Eight invitational tournaments took place over the two-day event, pitting players in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Street Fighter V, Monster Hunter Double Cross, Counter-Strike Online 2 and more.

Gaming peripheral manufacturer HyperX made its first appearance at TGS this year, hosting live competitions for Overwatch, Playerunknown‘s Battlegrounds and Street Fighter V.

Twitch hosted commentary and livestreams of games throughout TGS and was on-hand with a huge booth to promote H1Z1: Road To Twitchcon—an invitational competition that has taken place at gaming events throughout the year. The player with the highest score won a trip to compete in the H1Z1 Invitational at Twitchcon 2017.

It’s hard to imagine that Japan—home of Sony, Nintendo and so many other gaming giants—would be slow to adopt esports in its native country. A cap on cash prizes and concerns about gambling have largely kept the industry from taking off as it has in other corners of the globe.

“At first I did not have a positive image of esports as it seemed something introversive, but esports is actually no different from watching real sports games,” Takeyoshi Yamada, deputy editor of Nikkei Technology Online, said in a keynote speech at the event. “I hope to turn the Japanese esports market into one that is big and fun, like overseas.”

VR Pushes Forward

It wasn’t uncommon to see event-goers looking around in a VR headset, and the technology was out in full force at TGS.

In addition to console and PC titles, VR arcade attractions were also made available for demonstrations. South Korea’s Sangwha set up its Gyro VR attraction that rotates players 360 degrees while in a VR environment.

Sony demoed a strong lineup of PSVR titles including Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV, Skyrim VR, The Inpatient (a spin-off of horror game Until Dawn), VR support for Gran Turismo Sport and more.

As with esports, VR has experienced its own adoption problems in Japan. This has given way to a surge in VRcades in the region that offer monetization options for both developers and arcade owners.

 

‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Marketing Embraces Legacy With Modern Approach

Star Trek: Discovery made its TV debut on Sunday, bringing the voyages of Starfleet exclusively to CBS Access. Set roughly a decade before the events of the original series, the show is the first to be developed specifically for CBS’s subscription OTT service. For those outside of the US, Star Trek: Discovery is also being streamed through Netflix.

It has been 50 years since the world was first introduced to the Star Ship Enterprise, and more than a decade since the last episode aired of Star Trek: Enterprise. To celebrate the momentous occasion, CBS created a marketing campaign that celebrates the legacy of Star Trek with a modern approach.

“From the beginning, the franchise has been on the forefront of representation, and Star Trek: Discovery is no different,” CBS says on its site. “Featuring a woman of color in the lead role and the first gay couple in Star Trek TV history, the new show fully embraces and expands on its predecessors’ ideology of progress and harmony.”

Much of Star Trek‘s science fiction has now become science fact. It’s fitting, then, that a Star Trek promotion would take shape on one of the most high-tech consumer products today.

Amazon Alexa now has an official Star Trek skill that offers three daily trivia questions, snippets of interviews and sneak peaks behind the scenes of Star Trek: Discovery.

Alexa is also offering a new feature that lets you change your Echo’s wake word to “computer”—just like the onboard computers on Federation starships. Consumers can also try out different sayings to prompt Star Trek-themed responses from the AI assistant, such as “Alexa, red alert,” “Alexa, beam me up,” “Alexa, what is your mission?” and “Alexa, revenge is a dish best served cold.”

We may not have a real holodeck yet, but augmented reality is pretty cool, too. A new Snapchat Lens is available that transports users onto Star Trek: Discovery backgrounds to share with friends.

Discovery is the name of the Starfleet ship on the new series, but before any details were unveiled about its design, CBS released an interactive 360-degree video. The media takes audiences on a fly-by of iconic Star Trek ships NX Enterprise (Star Trek: Enterprise), the NCC-1701 Enterprise (Star Trek: The Original Series) and the Enterprise D (Star Trek: The Next Generation.)

Of course, it wouldn’t be Star Trek without new worlds and civilizations. CBS is introducing a new alien race to the franchise called Kelpiens. One of the Kelpiens, Lieutenant Saru, is portrayed by veteran actor Doug Jones (HellboyPan’s Labyrinth). Even the Klingons—who have been a key part of the franchise since the very beginning—have a new look for Star Trek: Discovery.

To assure fans that the development team is respecting the show’s legacy, CBS has provided a number of behind the scenes looks into the costumes, characters, props and more.

CBS is using Star Trek: Discovery as a vehicle for its OTT service, offering not only the show but add-ons as well to those who subscribe. Subscribers will have access to every episode of Star Trek: Discovery across multiple devices and be able to watch all past iterations of the TV property, including the animated series.

Episodes of the companion after-show After Trek become available on CBS All-Access following each new episode of Star Trek: Discovery, where new plot twists and fan theories are discussed with members of the cast and crew.

Pinterest Gives Advertisers Better ROI With New Targeting Options

Pinterest isn’t a social network—it’s a search engine, and its latest update to its advertising platform is only furthering the transition. Now, marketers can choose from 5,000 different interest categories when promoting their pins.

Pinterest only offered 400 targeting options last year, but with their acquisition of ad-tech firm URX, they’ve greatly expanded their Taste Graph recommendation platform to improve both user and advertiser experience. Ranging from broad strokes like “french food”  and “vintage style,” to more esoteric categories like “mid-century modern” and “neutral nursery,” to catch-alls such as “plants,” the ideation platform boasts 50 percent higher click-through rates and 20 percent more cost-effective campaigns, citing Nordstrom as a case example.

This latest feature comes as the brand attempts to close the gap between social network and search engine. “People don’t come to see what their friends are doing,” Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann said last year. “Instead, they come to Pinterest to find ideas to try, figure out which ones they love, and learn a little bit about themselves in the process.”

Earlier in September, the company announced it had reached 200 million monthly users, unveiling six new methods for campaign effectiveness measurement in June. The digital ad market is growing, and Pinterest is beginning to offer advertisers tools competitive with giants of the market Google and Amazon’s keyword advertising offerings.

Brands like InnoGames have used Pinterest to great success in recent months, and from demographic data alone the platform is attractive for brands seeking millennial audiences. This latest update serves to further shore up the company’s $500 million revenue prediction for 2017.

As Games Industry Grows, Musicians Dig Deeper

When games focus on promoting through music, they can create engaging experiences for fans. For artists and music labels, the $108 billion video game industry provides collaboration and exposure.

“In recent years, the video game industry has been the fastest growing area of the entertainment business, and music is a major part of many of these games,” Todd Brabec, ASCAP executive VP of membership wrote, “For songwriters, recording artists (new or old), film and television composers, music publishers and record companies, the video game industry represents a new and valuable source of income.”

Brabec is correct—music is such a major part of video games that Electronic Arts (EA) co-founded Next Level LLC. This partnership allows EA to sign and develop musical talent while gaining access to existing music libraries. Ubisoft penned a similar deal with Audiogram last year.

Aside from royalties—which the music industry takes very seriously—video games attract the attention of A-list actors and top industry musicians who are also fans.

For example, Swedish metal band Sabaton teamed up with Wargaming to create a music video for the hit song Primo Victoria. The band even drove a real, Sabaton-themed tank in the video–a replica of which became an in-game add-on. Fans at Gamescom were treated to a Sabaton concert.

Hip-hop artist, Kid Ink, teamed up with Bandai Namco this year for the Tekken 7 soundtrack. His original song “This Time It’s Personal” is a nod to the game’s tagline “The Best Fights Are Personal.”

For WWE 2K17, 2K partnered with Grammy-award-winning hip hop artist Sean “Diddy” Combs to curate the official soundtrack. The game’s music featured 13 songs from a variety of musical genres, including hip hop, indie and alternative rock, heavy metal and electronic dance. One such track is “Bad Boy For Life” by Combs himself as a tie-in to his Bad Boy 20-Year Family Reunion Tour.

Wu-Tang Clan rapper/producer, actor and video game fanatic RZA is working with Atari to create an original album inspired by the sounds of Atari game music.

“I’m so excited to work on these iconic games to deliver what I believe will be one of my best albums,” RZA said in a statement sent to Billboard. “I am going to invite some of my friends to join me and it will be ‘Game On’ with the first beat!”

DJ Zane Lowe became the face and voice of Activision’s DJ Hero, participating the game’s development and promoting through 25 live performances.

Musicians get involved with the game industry through other ways, as well. American band Avenged Sevenfold has an ongoing partnership with peripheral manufacturer Scuf to create their own console controller.

For the release of Medal of Honor, Linkin Park’s Joe Hahn directed a music video set to the band’s song, The Catalyst.

A mutual love of gaming and music can bring together some powerful combinations. From moving soundtracks to epic trailers, music is a vital part of the video game experience and so these partnerships will continue to thrive.

US Ad Spending Hits All-Time High; Instagram Passes Snapchat In New Users

Dropping even lower than last year, the 2017 Emmy Awards hit an all-time low for Nielsen ratings among its primary demographic of adults ages 18-to-49.

According to Nielsen data, the industry gala captured 11.4 million viewers, barely above last year’s numbers of 11.3 million. Overnight ratings for the event dropped by 10 percent, from 2.7 to 2.5 among its key watchers—the lowest rating in the event’s history.


Magna has released its 2017 analysis, revealing a banner year for US ad revenue. The market grew by 3.6 percent this year, reaching an all-time high of $185 billion.

However, despite the record-setting revenue, industry growth is actually slowing down—2016’s figure was 5.9 percent. Analysts at Magna attribute this to increases in digital spending just barely compensating for shrinkage in TV advertising.


Marketers are shelling out for Instagram influencers during London Fashion Week, a survey by Rakuten Marketing has found.

Premium fashion brands report willingness to pay up to £93,000 for a single Instagram post, compared to the nationwide average of £60,000. The research found that these brands intend to spend an average of 40 percent of their budgets on influencers this year.

“Influencers are famous at Fashion Week, attracting lots of attention from the media and across social,” said James Collins, senior vice president and managing director for Rakuten. “However, fashion marketers have become dependent on these influencers without measuring their impact fully and many don’t have a proper understanding of what they help them to achieve from a sales perspective.”


Smaato has released a report on trends in mobile advertising, revealing that video has been the fastest-growing ad format this quarter. Spending on video ads is up 142 percent from Q1 2017, while native advertising grew only 50 percent. The largest growth in the format comes from rewarded video, where spending grew by 153 percent.


New analysis from Jumpshot reveals that Instagram has finally surpassed Snapchat in global share of new users, jumping up to 61 percent for the month of August. However, Snapchat still barely holds majority share in the US, dropping down to 52 percent of new enrollments.


A survey by Juniper Research has found that 40 percent of US iOS users do not intend to use facial recognition to authenticate payments, with 62 percent saying they preferred voice authorization instead. Security fears remains the reason, with one-third of those who don’t use contactless payment methods reporting it as their largest concern.


Millennials are the least likely to trust direct-mail advertising, according to a survey by MarketingSherpa. On average, millennial respondents reported mistrusting 30 percent of the ads they received in their physical inboxes, as compared to 23 and 20 for Gen X and baby boomers, respectively.


The fitness app market is experiencing massive gains, according to research by Flurry. Between 2014 and 2017, usage increased by 330 percent, with workout and weight loss apps accounting for 73 percent of user sessions. Fitness apps additionally trend toward frequent usage, with 75 percent of survey respondents opening their apps more than once per week, and 26 percent more than ten times per week.


The Nintendo Switch continues to outsell its competitors, according to sales figures by the NPD Group, as it has in four of the six months since its launch in March of this year. Overall, games hardware sales have increased this year by 17 percent from 2016, in large part due to Nintendo’s console offerings.


Bernstein Research has tracked a steep falloff in children’s TV watching, recording a 50 percent smaller audience in the last six years. In 2011, Nielsen registered 2.5 million daily viewers between the ages two and 11, which has dropped to 1.25 million in 2017.

“We don’t know the internal mechanics of the 50 percent decline—is it a function of the same number of kids watching, but only watching half as much—or have half of kids stopped watching linear TV altogether?” writes Todd Juenger, senior media analyst for Bernstein Research. “We strongly suspect it’s closer to the latter.”

 

(Editor’s note: This post will be updated until Friday, September 22. Got a tip? Let us know at editorial@ayzenberg.com)