A study of behaviour and attitudes towards social media among 180 agencies and brands by The Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB) reveals Coca-Cola and Nike are leading the way in social media marketing – but that the discipline still has a lot of growing up to do.

Conducted on behalf of the IAB by ICM Research, the study revealed that 20% of industry respondents cited Coke as one of three brands “doing social particularly well”, followed by Nike (15%) and Virgin (12%).

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Move follows industry certification and raft of major new clients

European ad verification company Meetrics has launched a new offering that enables buyers and sellers of online ads to see why they aren’t viewable.

Early data from the "Reasons for Non-viewability" feature reveals the three main reasons why ads aren’t viewable:

• It’s in the user’s page window for too short a time

• It appears below the page fold

• Too little of the ad is viewable

The IAB and Media Ratings Council recommends an ad is considered viewable if 50% of it is in view for at least 1 second.

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Total digital ad spend grows 13.4% to touch £4bn in first half of 2015

Mobile spend up 51%, accounts for nearly 80% of the rise in digital ad revenues
  

Advertisers spent a record £3.98 billion on digital advertising in the first half of 2015 – up 13.4%¹ year-on-year – according to the latest Internet Advertising Bureau UK Digital Adspend report, conducted by PwC

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4 in 5 GB smartphone owners use the Internet on their mobile everyday

London, 6th November 2014: Research released today by the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB) shows the role that mobile and tablets play with traditional media.

The study carried out in conjunction with research agency Kantar Media, shows how consumers are using portable devices in the purchase journey and the relationship that they have with traditional media. The study also looked at the impact of not having a mobile optimized site and the implications this could have for brands.

The survey, which had a sample size of over 2,000 GB smartphone owners aged between 16-70 years old, revealed that 81% go on the internet via an app or browser daily, and this rose further to 90% for those aged between 25–34. The research shows that the mobile phone was the number one device for smartphone owners aged between 16-34 when looking up product information, followed by a laptop. 

e.g mobile is the preferred source of product info for 41% of 16-34 year olds

TV & mobile are perfect companions
Traditional media was a trigger for consumers to do more research on their mobile phone about a product or service, with 59% claiming they were prompted by traditional media to follow up on their smartphone or tablet in the last four weeks. TV was the largest traditional media trigger for smartphone action, with 43% looking up more information on either their phone or tablet after seeing something on TV, compared to 28% for newspapers, 25% for outdoor and 21% for radio and magazines.

Looking at the specific types of triggers on each media that prompted people to reach for their phone or tablet, the study revealed that adverts were the top trigger for broadcast and outdoor. Adverts were also key prompts for print, however it was editorial content that was the biggest trigger.

Mobile optimisation is key
Interestingly 52% of smartphone owners said they had visited a non-mobile optimised site in the last month, 69% of consumers said this was a ‘frustrating’ experience.