FMCG sector struggles most to reach targets

Mobile tends to be better than desktop at hitting target audiences 
 
Only half of UK online ad campaigns targeted at women actually reached them, according to a study of 60,000 campaigns across 20+ countries by measurement company Nielsen.

Only 50% of ad impressions served in the UK that were meant for women were served to women, compared to the 62% success hit rate when targeting men. This discrepancy was even more pronounced when targeting 18-34 year olds, with just 22% successfully hitting women but 33% for men.

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Surprise double win for PromoVeritas at the FSB London Awards

The tables were turned for PromoVeritas at the recent FSB London Business Awards at the Emirates Stadium in Highbury. The company provide independent promotional verification services to hundreds of brands and oversee TV voting for shows such as ITV’s National Television Awards. As such they usually know the result of major events before they are published. So, there was a role reversal when they found themselves on the receiving end of not one, but two awards – and one of them was a creative award – a feature PromoVeritas are not well known for.

The company won Creative and Media Business of the Year because of their pioneering approach to navigating complex marketing laws and liberating brands to run highly imaginative and engaging campaigns all over the world without clashing with local laws, language and cultural barriers. The second award went to Managing Director Jeremy Stern for Entrepreneur of the Year, in recognition of his vision for creating a ‘one-stop’ shop for brands and agencies to turn to and ensure that their promotion is run completely compliantly and will be free from abuse, fines, negative publicity.  When Jeremy founded the company the service simply didn’t exist and brands had to resort to using costly lawyers or running risky, uncompliant or dull promotions.

Jeremy commented ‘It was a new and nerve wracking experience to be this side of the black curtain and to be waiting for the results. I am delighted that our work with major clients such as Cadbury, Pepsi and ASOS has been recognised by the wider business community and I can’t wait to celebrate with the team back in the office.’

To find out more about how we help some of the world’s best brands run effective and compliant promotions contact us on +44 203 325 6000 or info@promoveritas.com.

Team members Gemma Cutting, Joe Faine and Danielle Raperport at the award ceremony

Video viewability figures published for first time
 

Ad viewability levels in the UK rose for the first time in nine months to the highest level seen for over a year, according to the latest quarterly benchmark report from ad verification company Meetrics.
 
In the second quarter of 2017, the proportion of banner ads served that met minimum viewability guidelines rose from 47% to 51% – the first rise since Q3 2016 – and the highest level since Q1 2016 (54%). 
 

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​Despite the rise, the UK still lags far behind Austria (69%), France (58%) and Germany (57%). 

“It’s certainly a step in the right direction and shows ad viewability initiatives, such as from JICWEBS and the like, are starting to impact the market,” said Anant Joshi, Meetrics’ commercial director UK & Ireland. “However, the UK is still well behind other markets and the industry has much work to do. We can’t celebrate the fact that we’re back to almost half of banner ad budgets being wasted on ads that don’t have the chance to be seen.”

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Ford is the first brand to take advantage of a combined offering between Primesight and RadiumOne that integrates out-of-home and mobile advertising so that advertisers can target people based on both their location and their content sharing behaviour.

Ford is promoting its new Fiesta – the UK’s best-selling car – whereby whenever the target audience comes within a certain distance of a Primesight billboard, RadiumOne serves a mobile display ad to those who’ve shared or engaged with content online relevant to Ford’s campaign.

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Mobile contributing to declining ad viewability levels
 
Non-viewable ads costing advertisers around £750 million
 

The rise in mobile advertising spend is contributing to a decline in ad viewability levels, according to the latest quarterly benchmark report from ad verification company Meetrics.

 
In the first quarter of 2017, the proportion of banner ads served that met minimum viewability guidelines dropped from 49% to 47% – the lowest level for nine months. Based on the recent IAB/PwC figures, this suggests around £750 million per year is wasted on non-viewable ads.
 

Declining viewability is partly driven by mobile now accounting for over half of display ad spend but tending to have lower viewability rates than desktop for various reasons,” said Anant Joshi, Meetrics’ commercial director UK & Ireland. “Obviously, the smaller screen size can mean more page scrolling and, thus, more chance of ads being missed lower down a page, plus slower network connection speeds can cause ad loading delays. There’s also the legacy issue of desktop ads served on mobile which don’t format properly, despite the use of responsive design.”
 
Joshi says these issues are compounded by the increasing amount of mobile content consumed via apps, in which ads are more likely to be at the bottom of a page so don’t always get enough attention. However, he’s keen to point out these “aren’t just UK issues, we’re seeing them across all markets.”
 
Germany saw a three percentage point decline in viewability to an all-time low of 55%, Austria dropped a single point to 67%, while France rose three points to 60% – all still significantly ahead of the UK’s 47%.
 

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He concludes: “Unfortunately, we’re still seeing a lot of talk but not the required intense effort to increase viewability and improve campaign ROI. This needs to change.”
 

Ads are deemed viewable if the meet the IAB and Media Ratings Council’s recommendation that 50% of the ad is in view for at least one second.