Our Top 8 Digital Marketing Stats From the Last Week
Big digital players released second-quarter earnings numbers last week, and many other enticing interactive statistics came to the forefront. Here are the eight most interesting, data-driven developments we came across:
1. Researcher eMarketer predicted Monday that Instagram advertising will be worth $2.8 billion in sales by 2017, but that estimate could be low if the Facebook-owned platform would start running desktop ads. Per comScore, 22.8 million people logged onto Instagram in June via desktop computer compared with 81.8 million on mobile devices. But since Instagram ads only run on smartphones and tablets, it would seem the digital entity could grow revenue even more than eMarketer’s projections, as the social giant still sits on a big audience that hasn’t been monetized.
2. For the past several months, brands like Land Rover have tested Pandora’s Sponsored Listening ads, which offer consumers an hour or free music in exchange for watching a video promo. Per Pandora, those pilot ads boosted purchase intent by 30 percent and brand awareness by 12 percent. The Oakland, Calif.-based digital company opened sponsored listening to all brands today.
3. On Thursday, Marchex will release a study based on 24 million consumer-to-business mobile phone calls. The tech vendor, working with local business researcher BIA/Kelsey, will estimate that mobile click-to-call actions—in which Web-connected consumers call up shops, bars and restaurants on their smartphones—will enable $1 trillion in commerce this year.
4. Microsoft’s devices-and-consumer category for revenues during the second quarter were down 13 percent year-over-year, underscoring a tech giant in flux. But there’s good news, too: The Redmond, Wash.-based company’s commercial cloud business grew 88 percent to $8 billion in sales in Q2.
5. Yahoo’s Q2 earnings last week also was a mix of good news and bad. Its mobile, video, native and social ad revenue was up 60 percent over last year to $400 million, helping CEO Marissa Mayer offer her investors the company’s best revenue growth in nearly a decade. But, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based player is spending a lot of money and actually took a loss, overall.
6. During June and July, Mondelez tested interactive, e-commerce video promos and got a 220 percent boost in awareness, and engagement went up 88 percent. Let’s look at an example from the company’s Women’s World Cup campaign. An image of U.S. player Alex Morgan popped up in the bottom left corner of the ads. Hovering over Morgan for a few seconds opened an overlay on the video letting people watch other clips, shoot a virtual soccer ball, follow a Twitter hashtag or clickthrough to buy snacks at Walmart, Target and Amazon.
7. Chubbies, the men’s shorts brand, posted an LOL-minded video on Facebook on July 19 featuring dudes walking around in summer attire that’s way too small. With little paid advertising, the e-commerce startup’s clip has been viewed 903,000 times on the platform.
8. The 20th Century Fox movie The Revenant, a western thriller that doesn’t premiere until Christmas Day, already is garnering huge buzz online. A teaser for the film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and is directed by Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu, is closing in on 20 million YouTube and Facebook views after 10 days. Check out the clip below:
