Dual Subscriptions on the Downslide
Fewer households are choosing to subscribe to both traditional and virtual TV services, with dual subscriptions dropping from 37% to 23% since 2018, with many forgoing traditional TV subscriptions altogether.
The New Normal: Is Increased Streaming Here to Stay?
Nielson reports that while lockdown restrictions are decreasing, connected TV viewership remains well above pre-COVID-19 levels. Even with the option to leave the house, consumers are choosing to stream, indicating a potential long-term impact on consumption.
OTT Streaming is Full Steam
The OTT streaming industry has increased in both subscriber counts and time spent watching. As more and more people tune in during the day and co-viewing habits grow, advertisers are in a unique position to capture their audiences at different times of the day with both day and night viewing habits on the rise.
What Political Sources Really Say
Pew’s survey shows that nearly 50% of American’s rely on one of eight publishers for political & election news. The demographic differences found in each of these sources’ following can be utilized by advertisers to effectively target voters of specific age, sex or partisanship across digital platforms and in the OTT space.
Stream-in-place
Time spent streaming has soared as people across the US shelter-in-place. A recent Nielsen analysis has shown that streaming content has increased by 35% from the end of February to mid-March with streaming now encapsulating 23% of the total time spent on the big screen.
Ad-Supported Streaming Spikes
Even before the coronavirus outbreak, streaming was up with free ad-supported players like Pluto seeing massive growth and total viewing hours increase, and the pandemic is extrapolating that growth.
The New Pastime: News Consumption
Daily news content consumption has increased as more people seek information from home. Nearly all forms of news outlets, including app downloads, cable news, broadcast newscasts, and social media, have garnered increased traffic from users who seek more information amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Battle of the Music Streaming Services
While Spotify just surpassed Pandora as the most popular music streaming service in the US, Pandora still has a leg up with a much larger ad-supported audience and the ability to run political advertising.
Roku & Chill?
Roku is jockeying to become a bigger player in the connected TV space. Moving into original content would increase their influence and potential ad revenue from cord cutters and cord nevers.
Facebook Digital Political Ad Revenue
eMarketer: “Facebook and Google control 60.8% of the total US digital ad market but they have an even tighter grip on political ad revenues, with a combined 77.6% this election cycle.”
2020 Election As the Influencer Election
For the upcoming 2020 election voters who are less likely to watch the traditional political advertisements on live TV are instead being targeted by social media influencers. Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign has successfully utilized this strategy reaching a new set of voters. We can expect other candidates to follow suit in this political advertising trend.
Digital Political Ad Spending Hits a Record High
Political advertisers are paying attention to the third of US households who do not pay for the traditional TV services. Digital political ads will hit an all-time high reaching past the $1 billion mark for the first time, fueled by Democratic presidential primary candidates competing to reach those voters—in a record-breaking political cycle.
The Increase in Content and Streaming Services
A recent analysis from Nielsen Total Audience Report shows advertisers are finding more ways to reach their consumers with an abundance of content available.
Facebook Proceeds with Political Ads
Facebook concludes to keep political advertising and popular targeting strategies used by political campaigns. The platform will give users more control over ads they choose to see and greater transparency capabilities.
All Eyes on Facebook
Twitter’s announcement to end political advertising comes with many 2020 contenders calling Facebook to follow suit. All while they are currently running Facebook ads.
Twitter to End Political Advertising
Twitter announced big news on Wednesday. Leading into the 2020 election, they have decided to drop political advertising starting next month.
Google Announced a Major Search Algorithm Change
Google’s search query change will help optimize natural language instead of picking out keywords from a user’s search. The aim is to drive better results based on contextual results. As always the more you deliver what people want, the higher you will rank.
Roku Reveals Big Ad Ambitions
Roku’s acquisition of Dataxu is predicted to help the company draw in more advertisers by owning its own programmatic buying tool to grow beyond its own platform.
Disney Plans to Rule Streaming
Disney is banking on its new streaming service. In order to compete with Netflix and NBC, the mega-brand has spent billions to add Fox, Marvel, and Star Wars to its lineup.
Advertisers Anticipate WhatsApp’s Status Ads in 2020
WhatsApp is introducing ads to their version of stories, Status. Historically, there hasn’t been any advertising in WhatsApp, a messaging app that’s popular among some demographic groups in the US and with a large presence outside of the US.
Podcast Advertising is Hitting the Big Leagues
Podcast advertising is on its way to becoming easier to buy and target by audience, akin to programmatic display and video.
OTT Viewing Time Catching up to Live TV
TiVo’s quarterly survey found 52% of respondents regularly watch OTT-delivered content compared to 66% viewing live TV.
“Alexa, Donate to Senator XX”
Political campaigns can now receive donations from $5 – $200 through Alexa.
Snapchat Launches A New Political Ad Library
As the app becomes a campaign tool for 2020 candidates, Snapchat launched a new very transparent ad library. The library gives you spend, impressions, age, region, and interest targeting, link, agency that placed it, and includes ads sold and run globally.
Facebook Introduces New Political Ad Requirements
Facebook is updating its requirements for political advertisers prior to the 2020 election cycle.
Reaching Young Voters on Connected TV
90% of Xennials (18 – 29 y.o.) plan to vote in the next presidential election. Political advertisers are honing in on connected TV to reach these young voters.
Make the Nooz Kewl Again
News Corp is launching news-aggregation app, The Knewz, that it says would include a wide range of sources and be free from “bent or bias.”
Inside Gen X’s Digital Use and Attitude Towards Ads
As Gen X becomes frustrated with TV ad repetition they have shifted to mobile devices, TV streaming services, and smart speakers.
Nielsen Study: 56% of US Adults Now Streaming
Up from 48% last year, the percentage of adult streamers has increased to 56%. Adults are spending 2 hours a day streaming with Austin being the largest market in terms of reach.
How Americans Use Twitter
22% of U.S. adults use Twitter, but how are they using it? 80% of all tweets come from the top 10% of users, revealing most users do not engage much.
Millennials Listen to More Audio than Other Generations
Even with the rise of music streaming providers and podcasts, an Ipsos-iHeartRadio survey found 85% of millennials are still tuning into radio at least once a week. Today radio can be streamed across many different devices including smart speakers.
Digital Ad Industry Commits to Major Shifts
Many of the world’s biggest advertising companies and major tech brands are creating a new alliance to improve digital safety. As pressure builds globally for stricter privacy regulations, these companies are rushing to establish additional self-regulations to fend off impetuous outside regulations.
Average Time Spent on Mobile Devices Has Increased
Even with companies like Google and Apple installing screen time controls, user behavior has not shifted to reflect screen time concerns. For the first time ever, average US time spent on mobile has surpassed the amount of time adults spend watching TV.
Political Advertising Projected to Reach $10B in 2020
According to a report by GroupM, Political advertising accounted for $9 billion in spending last year and projected to reach $10 billion in 2020.
Estimates for US Time Spent on Facebook and Snapchat are Down
eMarketer reduced its forecast for US time spent with media due to a drop in Snapchat and Facebook usage. Instagram usage is up, but Facebook still dominates all other social media platforms.
The Current State of Ad Fraud
New statistics show ad fraud is down this year from 2017 but continues to be one of the main issues for advertisers and can deter them from spending more money.
Facebook Announces “Clear History” Feature
Facebook Advertisers will have a new obstacle to face with a “clear history” feature on the network that could render Facebook Pixels and Custom Audiences useless.
Digital Ad Fraud is Weakening, But Not Gone for Good
Digital ad fraud has dropped 11% in the last 2 years, however, ad buyers are still wary as we near 2020 elections. Declines like these typically follow an increase in fraud as more dollars are pumped into the ecosystem.
Democrat Super PAC Finds a Loophole to Help Build Presidential Campaign’s Email and Donor Base
A Super PAC supporting Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee has found a unique way (provided that it is legal) to help fundraise and build an email list for the campaign.
Marketers Should Take Plays from Political Campaigns
As marketers in the political world, we quickly learn how to shift the narrative and respond rapidly to different situations.
Billboard Speculates Amazon May Release New Music Service
A new ad-supported music service may be released soon to Alexa users.
Snapchat Introduces Snap Audience Network
After daily active users remained stagnant in the last half of 2018, Snapchat aims to increase user engagement through a larger ad network.
Hulu Cuts Down Ad Time
Hulu is cutting ads down to just 90 seconds compared to the old standard 180 – 240 seconds.
Padres Opening Day
The BASK Team had an awesome time at the San Diego Padres Opening Day 2019.
Facebook Introduces New Searchable Library of all Active Ads
Facebook is increasing transparency with its new searchable ads library anyone can access and includes all active ads, not just political ones.
Pluto TV aims to challenge Netflix
Viacom acquired Pluto TV in January to bring back old-fashioned TV channel surfing. The importance to advertisers is it’s free and ad-supported.
Twitter is Changing How They Sell Ads
Twitter is positioning itself as the unique social media platform that focuses on “look at this” rather than “look at me” like Facebook and Instagram and it’s status as number 1 for discovery.
Spotify Expected to Surpass Pandora Listeners by 2021
Pandora is currently the most popular streaming service in the US, but that won’t last for long. It has seen a steady decline of users in recent years. Spotify is predicted to be the dominant music streaming platform by 2021.
The Enormous Amount of Time Spent Consuming Media Has Plateaued
According to Nielsen, consumers are spending the same amount of time consuming media YoY. However, consumers have shifted their attention to smartphones and smart TV/internet devices during Q3 of 2018.
Grandmas Are Streaming TV Now
Is your grandma streaming? According to a recent report from Nielsen, adults ages 65+ are spending at least 20 minutes a day streaming their shows.
Google Kills Political Ads During Canadian Election Instead of Complying with Transparency Laws
Google will not run political ads during Canada’s 2019 election due to transparency laws and claims that monitoring these ads would be too difficult with the “lightening fast, automated auction system” in place.
Facebook moves towards… privacy?
Facebook is hoping to bounce back from its privacy mess with a shift to private, encrypted services.
Cord Cutting Nearly Doubled In 2018
Cord cutting isn’t slowing down. Since the industry’s peak in 1Q 2012, pay-TV subscribers for the top providers have declined by about 6,000,000.
BASK Takes Home 3 Awards At Reeds 2019!
This BASK crew had a great time in Austin for the #Reeds19 conference and awards! @C_and_E put on a great event!
2019: US Digital Ad Spending To Surpass Traditional
For the first time in the US, digital ad spending will exceed traditional ad spending.
Facebook Merging Instagram DMs with Messenger for Businesses
Facebook plans to merge Instagram DMs into Facebook Pages Manager to make it easier for brands to respond to customer messages. It’s a first step in building a tool to manage messaging across Facebook’s apps in hopes to bolster messenger advertising.
