Mary Meeker’s annual internet report, released Wednesday, is arguably one of the most significant studies of the year for marketers—but it doesn’t end there. This week in marketing statistics, teens aren’t sure whether to trust ads, world leaders prefer Twitter and Americans still love their TV.
Measuring Success, Real Or Not
Measuring the effectiveness of a campaign is half the battle, and 80 percent of marketers realize that this area must be improved, according to a study by Brand Innovators and Origami Logic. Of the 252 digital marketers surveyed, only five percent consider themselves innovators in marketing measurement, and another five percent call themselves leaders.
The largest percentage—49 percent—say they are on par and 24 percent are doing the bare minimum of what we should be doing. Three percent of respondents are doing nothing to measure their marketing efforts, but 50 percent of those surveyed are committed to making improvements to their measurement infrastructure in the coming year.
Fraudulent impressions wreak havoc on marketing measurement, but a majority of such activity originates from a small percentage of offenders. Fraudlogix, which monitors ad traffic, found that 68 percent of fake impressions came from three percent of publishers. The study analyzed 1.3 billion impressions from more than 59,000 sources over a 30-day period. Sites with more than 90 percent fraudulent impressions accounted for just 0.9 percent of publishers but contributed 10.9 percent of the market’s impressions.
TV Is Still Tops
Global consumer spending on media content and technology grew 8.1 percent to $1.7 trillion in 2016 and is on pace to expand another 7.5 percent this year, according to PQ Media. Digital media content and tech captured nearly 70 percent of overall global consumer spending on both traditional and digital media content and technology least year. Growth drivers include demand for digital media content and lower price hikes for new mobile devices, according to the company’s report.
A new insights analysis from Nielsen’s Q4 2016 Comparable Metrics Report found that over 92 percent of all viewing among US adults aged 18 and older happens on the TV screen. Televisions continue to be the top technology device in the US, according to research from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Ninety-six percent of homes in the US have a TV set, followed by smartphones at 80 percent. Smartphones surpassed DVD/Blu-ray players in 2016—devices which had ranked second for several years but dropped to 70 percent of households.
Media viewing with mobile devices will continue to rise, according to Zenith’s Media Consumption Forecasts. Mobile internet consumption increased at an average rate of 44 percent a year between 2010 and 2016, Zenith reported, predicting that 71 percent of all internet consumption will be mobile in 2017. Mobile internet will account for 26 percent of global media consumption in 2019, up from 19 percent last year.
Social Politics
Twitter lets users speak their mind, and that goes for world leaders, too. The social network is used by 276 heads of state and government and foreign ministers in 178 countries, representing 92 percent of all United Nations member states. Pope Francis is the most followed world leader on Twitter, with a combined total of over 33 million followers on his nine language accounts, followed by President Donald Trump with 30 million followers and Indian Prime Minister Narendra (also 30 million), according to Burson-Marsteller’s Twiplomacy study, an annual global survey of how world leaders, governments and international organizations use social media.
But leave the politics to politicians, consumers say. A consumer study fielded by SSRS found that 58 percent dislike when brands get political and are more likely to avoid brands that take a position contrary to their beliefs—for example, brands perceived to be racist, anti-LGBTQ or sexist.
Sixty-seven percent of agency professionals surveyed also believe that changing American values are causing brands to become more interested in corporate responsibility and values-based marketing. Thirty-three percent of agency respondents believe brands are more afraid to take a political stance than a social one (14 percent). Likewise, brands are more compelled to take a social stance (26 percent) than a political one (7 percent).
Block Or Believe?
An AdBlock Plus survey of over 1,000 US internet users revealed that 40 percent had used an ad blocker in the previous month. A majority of them said ad blocking took place on laptops and desktop computers, while 22 percent were doing so on mobile devices. The survey shows that avoiding advertising altogether is a priority for those surveyed—47 percent of the smartphone owners in the survey agreed with the statement, “I would prefer to block all ads completely on my mobile device.”
Teenagers are split on whether or not to trust the advertisements they see, but admit to be influenced by them, according to new data from YouGov. While 47 percent of US internet users ages 13-to-17 found ads to be at least somewhat trustworthy, 46 percent felt the opposite way and six percent had not formed an opinion on the matter. Despite these concerns, 58 percent of American teens agree that advertising helps guide their desires and purchase decisions.