New year, new budget, new marketing ideas. If you are still thinking about what would be the most effective use of your marketing budget, here are some facts about trends in digital advertising and consumer behaviours.
1. Digital advertising accounts for half of all UK ad spending in 2014, with fastest growth in mobile ad spend
According to eMarketer (Dec 2014), the amount of spend allocated to digital formats in the UK is 47.3% of total media ad spending in 2014. Digital video and social media advertising have seen rapid gains in recent years, but growth in mobile ad spending (including video and social media) is what's really driving UK digital ad investment.
eMarketer estimates that 56.1% of the UK population - 36.4 million people - will be smartphone users in 2014. A further 45.7% - 29.6 million people - are expected to be tablet users. Interestingly, in 2014 mobile non-voice usage time is for the first time closely approaching the percentage of time spent on desktop/laptop.
2. Consumption of video content in the UK is on the rise
IAB UK surveyed 2,065 adults, aged 18+ across the Great Britain to obtain an up-to-date snapshot of online video consumption habits and consumer attitudes to online video adverts. Key findings (Jan 2015) include:
- Three quarters of people watch short form videos online.
- 34% of people are now watching more online videos compared to a year ago.
- Three quarters of people have noticed online video adverts when watching short video clips.
Although the growth rate on video ad spend has slightly slowed down, eMarketer still expects a considerable gain of 55.4% in 2014, and strong double digit growth thereafter.
3. The consumers' opinion of mobile advertising is improving
A study conducted by Nielsen for xAd and Telemetrics (Sept 2014) found that significantly greater number of UK smartphone and tablet users saw mobile ads as more informative & helpful and less annoying & intrusive in 2014 than in 2013. This is likely to be explained by three major factors:
- Younger demographics, with the growing proportion of consumers born into a digital world.
- More engaging, entertaining and/or informative content, particularly video content
- More sophisticated publishing platforms, including the mobile-optimised websites, and more targeted consumer-tailored advertising. eMarketer has highlighted that programmatic* ad buying is one of the most prominent current trends in digital display ad space.
* Programmatic ad buying involves technology platforms that use in-build automated algorithms that help to optimise a specific campaign in real-time within specified parameters including budget, goals and attribution model, in order to achieve the desired ROI. Source: http://marketingland.com
4. Social Media is becoming an increasingly mobile experience, with a steady growth trend in video ad spend
eMarketer believe that the peak of growth in social media ad spend has passed, and the expected slowdown in growth just simply reflects the maturity for social network adoption. However, there was still a strong 54% growth in 2014 in social media ad spend (Dec 2014).
eMarketer predicts that by 2018, the habit of accessing social networks with mobile in the UK will be almost universal. 2015 is expected be a year when mobile ad spend will exceed desktop spend within social network space.
Socintel360 report (Apr 2014) examined social media ad spend share by format in the UK. While display still accounts for majority of ad spend, its share is decreasing, making space for video advertising.
This steady growth in video is explained by "Facebook factor". Marketers believe that Facebook reach is higher than other social networks, but to stand out and compete with personal sharing, you need particularly engaging content and video often fits the bill.
According to a 2014Toluna survey for Vibrant Media, 52% of UK internet users aged 13 to 64 said they were receptive to branded video content.
Conclusion
Whether you are managing a large corporate marketing budget, or you are a small business owner, you should not ignore trends in advertising and consumer behaviours. People are spending more and more time on faster and better mobile devices, and this is where you need to place your ads.
If you are interested in production of digital video content for your marketing needs, please get in touch
http://www.shortlisted-productions.com
We can produce informative, helpful and engaging videos for your business.