'Fresh' UK Marketing News from theMarketingblog

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Olympic “sharing-fest” to be a goldmine for marketers

Samsung, Omega and Panasonic the most reliant Olympic partners on Dark Social sharing
 Six-in-10 Britons interested in the Olympics will share content online about it – according to research from marketing technology experts RadiumOne, which reveals the what, how and how much of sharing content around the 2016 games in Rio.


Over four-in-10 (43%) of these sharers will share Olympic content on a daily basis during the games. One-third of sharers say the Olympics means they’ll share more content then they’d normally do over a two-week period.

Smartphones (42% of sharers) will be the most popular device for sharing Olympic content, followed by laptops (35%) and tablets (25%).

“The sharing-fest that is the Olympics is a goldmine for marketers to tap into consumer interest, particularly as the games are on a non-commercial TV channel,” says Craig Tuck, RadiumOne’s UK managing director. “Sharing content online indicates a strong degree of interest among those sharing plus the additional layer of people they identify as also being interested in that content.”

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Online ad viewability levels in the UK decreased dramatically from 54% to 47% in the second quarter of 2016 / Meetrics GmbH

Online ad viewability levels in the UK decreased dramatically from 54% to 47% in the second quarter of 2016, the lowest level for 18 months, according to a new report from ad verification company Meetrics. The last time it was lower was 46% in Q4 2014.

Consequently, the UK lags further behind other European countries in terms of viewability levels: Austria stands at 69%, France at 62% and Germany at 60%.
 

Benchmarks by Country

​
“Viewability in the UK is more volatile than other major European markets due to the higher penetration of programmatic and automated ad buying,” said Anant Joshi, Meetrics’ Director of International Business. “The surge in ads bought programmatically contributed to the decline in viewability, which was compounded by publishers upping the speed at which ads are re-loaded or auto-refreshed to raise inventory levels and revenue. Around 20% of ads weren’t viewable because they weren’t in the frame for long enough – the highest rate we’ve seen due to this reason for some time.” 

Based on the IAB/PwC’s Adspend figures, Joshi estimates the 53% of banner ads not viewable in the UK is “getting on for £700 million¹ being wasted annually on non-viewable ads.”

An ad is considered viewable if it meets the IAB and Media Ratings Council’s recommendation that 50% of it is in view for at least 1 second.

The impressive figures for the Austrian market come off the back of an agreement by the majority of publishers to move to billing by viewable impressions by selling their inventory based on an independent viewability definition agreed by a dozen leading advertisers.

Joshi notes: “The Austrian market was one of, if not the, first to try such an initiative and the benefits in terms of far higher viewability rates are plain to see.”

APAC to overtake North America as world’s biggest digital ad market / Strategy Analytics

2016 will see Asia-Pacific overtake North America as the world’s biggest market for digital advertising spend for the first time, according to the latest Advertising Forecast from research and consulting firm, Strategy Analytics.

Digital ad spend in Asia-Pacific will rise 18.2% in 2016 to $59.7 billion, whilst North America will rise 9.6% to $59.5bn. Asia-Pacific’s rise to the top is driven by China which will grow 25.1% to $22.4bn. China is the world’s second biggest country for digital spend, behind the U.S. ($55.6bn). Together, these two countries will account for 44% of global digital ad spend this year.

Alongside China, Japan (4th) and Korea (6th) means Asia-Pacific accounts for half of the six biggest digital markets globally. By 2021, Asia-Pacific’s digital ad market will be 33% bigger than North America’s.
 

Trend in Digital Ad Spend by Region

 

Michael Goodman, Strategy Analytics’ Digital Media Director, says: “Advertising is about “eyeballs” and the sheer scale of the Chinese market, along with India and Indonesia, is why Asia-Pacific will overtake North America this year, despite underlying economic weakness in some economies. Millions just can’t compete with billions.”

Spend per capita
In terms of how much is spent on digital advertising in relationship to the size of the population, North America spends by far the most per person ($165) followed by Western Europe ($95). Although Asia-Pacific is the largest market by spend, its huge population means spend per person ($15) is very low compared to the West.
 

2016 digital ad spend per capita by region


Goodman notes, “Asia-Pacific’s relatively low ad spend per capita shows the tremendous potential for growth compared to the more saturated markets in the West, particularly with mobile phones removing a barrier to internet access in less developed markets. This will grow the online population dramatically and, consequently, ad spend will follow suit.”

Overall, digital ad spend globally will rise 12.6% in 2016 to $176.7 billion – a 32% share of total advertising spend. Within digital ad spend, search advertising will account for 52%, display advertising 36% and classifieds, 11%.