This week in marketing news, Samsung is off to a nice start with the Galaxy S8, Oculus hopes to solve a VR focus problem and Nintendo races to the top spot.

Click-Worthy

“Advanced” video advertising—with interactive elements such as overlays, clickable content and more earn a higher click-through rate, according to Innovid’s 2017 Global Video Benchmarks Report. The study compares advanced video advertising with static pre-roll ads to determine any differences in effectiveness. Mobile click-through on interactive video has the greatest click-through rate compared to any other format or device, Innovid reported, and a 57 percent lift over desktop.

Mobile Momentum

Less than a month on the market, Samsung has sold more than five million units of its new Galaxy S8 smartphone, the company confirmed. “Although we cannot provide detailed figures, the sales are going smoothly around the globe. The combined sales already are beyond five million units,” an unnamed Samsung official told Korea’s The Investor. 

While that’s great news for Samsung—who’s still recovering from its Galaxy Note 7 disaster—the company has a long way to go before it topples iPhone sales.

Apple shipped 21.5 million iPhone 7 units and captured six percent market share worldwide in the first quarter of 2017, according to estimates by Strategy Analytics. Global smartphone shipments reached 353.3 million units in the first quarter.

Millennials On The Move

When young consumers take a vacation, they mean it, according to research by Expedia Media Solutions. While baby boomers literally want to see the world through sight-seeing (48 percent), 57 percent of both millennials and Gen Z vacationers took “relaxing” trips last year. Relaxation was the main reason for a vacation across all generations at a total of 55 percent, followed by sight-seeing at 45 percent.

Getting A Handle On Header Bidding

Mobile channels are highly conducive to header bidding, according to PubMatic’s Q1 2017 Quarterly Mobile Index. Android delivered 71 percent of all monetized mobile app ad impressions served across PubMatic’s platform in the first quarter, up from 39 percent a year prior.

Data Insecurity

Seventy percent of consumers lack confidence that their information is private and secure, according to a recent survey by Consumer Reports. Of the 1,007 consumers polled, 92 percent think companies should be required to have their permission before sharing or selling their online data. In addition, 65 percent of American respondents do not trust the government to protect consumer interests.

Focusing In VR

The global VR content creation market is estimated to reach $41.01 billion at the end 2023, according to estimates by Occams Business Research, growing at a rate of 89.8 percent CAGR.

The complexity of the human eye presents many challenges for developers to recreate natural vision in virtual reality. Oculus Research, the VR and AR research and development division of the company, announced a new display technology called the “Focal Surface Display.” The new technology aims to improve the “vergence-accommodation” conflict that plagues VR headsets today.

Oculus Research published a paper and will present the research on the focal surface display at the SIGGRAPH conference this July.

Number One Nintendo

Total video game spending in April—including hardware, software and accessories—grew 10 percent from last year to $636 million, according to the latest NPD report. April marked the first time the video game industry experienced two months of consecutive growth since November 2015, for which it can thank Nintendo.

Mario Kart is the top-selling racing franchise in the US, and the latest title did not disappoint. Despite being on the market just two days in April, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was the top-selling video game that month with more than 460,000 physical units sold. (With digital sales added, the total is more than 550,000 units.) Nintendo also led in hardware sales, with Nintendo Switch at number one followed by NES Classic.

Rounding out the top five on the April charts are Persona 5 in second place, followed by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, MLB 17: The Show and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands.

Unsurprisingly, GTA V—coming in at number six—continues to hold its own among the top ten, thanks to continuous updates and an engaged following. (Note: digital sales were not included for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Persona 5 or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.)