Adapting With The User; Facebook Still Rules The Social Roost

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Captive Mobile Video Audiences

Writing for Adweek, Google’s head of display (and now YouTube ad products, too), Neal Mohan, says TV consumption habits have evolved and brands must adapt. “Our shift to constant connectivity has opened up amazing opportunities for marketers to reach consumers in the very moments they are leaning in,” Mohan writes. “At the same time, it has elevated consumer expectation, making our task at once easier and more difficult.” Mohan says brands need to match media to the mindset and medium of the consumer, view the skip button as an indicator of relevance and be diligent about mobile metrics.

King Facebook

Facebook is maintaining its stronghold as the dominant social platform, according to data from Strategy Analytics. Marketing Land reports that the social giant raked in 75% of all ad spend on social networks in 2014, grabbing $11.4 billion of a total $15.3 billion. But Facebook hasn’t cornered the market entirely. “While Facebook currently dominates the global social network market, its absence in China allows local social networks such as QZone and Tencent Weibo to gain traction in the rapidly expanding Chinese digital advertising market,” writes analyst Leika Kawasaki in a release. Social media advertising grew 41% in 2014, and the report estimates total spend will swell to $19.8 billion in 2015 and $24.2 billion in 2016.

Nailing Search

Speaking of social, Pinterest made its seventh acquisition on Friday, snapping up mobile publishing startup Hike Labs for an undisclosed sum. Hike Labs is tiny, but Pinterest is betting the buy will help it tackle its search and discovery issues. According to Business Insider, “If Pinterest can nail visual search, it can nail search advertising, and if it can nail search advertising, it will be taking on a market traditionally dominated by Google’s AdWords.” In March, the social scrapbooking site raised a $367 million funding round, bringing its market cap to $11 billion.

Broadcast Doldrums

The party might be ending for broadcast media, even for TV’s prime-time spots. Despite the fact that “the average network TV rating has declined over the past 20-plus years, the average CPM has risen as the broadcast networks adjusted their prices – and advertisers’ costs – upwards.” In 2014, broadcast CPMs fell by 2.4%, ominous considering it occurred at a time when the market as a whole was improving. According to Neil Klar, CEO of SQAD, “The numbers we’re looking at don’t represent a significant decline, but it’s rare to see it go down at all.” Broadcasters’ bottom lines might finally start taking a hit from programmatic, over-the-top TV services and declining audiences. Read the article at MediaPost.

Television’s Address

PlaceIQ wants to bake its location analytics into the nascent addressable TV market. Ad Age’s Kate Kaye reports that PlaceIQ’s deals with Starcom MediaVest and Acxiom “takes PlaceIQ’s location data showing specific businesses people have actually visited and matches it to particular households through … set-top box targeting.” The service lets businesses “aim ads to people who have frequented rivals’ location,” but no brands will admit to using it.

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Israel 2.0

In a piece on Israeli innovation, Fast Company notes the region has seen a new surge of tech investment from China and India. And the buzz around Yo and Meerkat suggests the country’s next wave of hits may come in the mobile app arena. “It is difficult to name a large VC that is not opening up shop in Israel.” US investors take note! More.

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