Digital Media Trends and Stats You May Have Missed

  • Posted by Steve Goldberg
  • |
  • January 28, 2012

Below are some recent digital stats that came across my inbox that I thought I would share.

AdWeek revealed its list of six significant trends in digital advertising. They are as follows:

  • The end of the click-through rate as an effective measurement of an ad’s success is nigh.
  • The thin line between mobile and desktop is getting even thinner as Apple has begun to incorporate iOS features into OSX, while ad servers like Google’s DoubleClick begin to integrate their desktop and mobile offerings.
  • “Supercookie,” a file that allows websites to track users even after they delete it in their browsers. Hulu and MSN have come under fire for their use, but AdWeek does not expect the file’s use, which is legal, to stop.
  • Ad-tech consolidation becoming a real thing.
  • The emergence of HTML5 as the heir apparent to Adobe’s Flash.
  • According a report from ad intelligence company SQAD, specialized content can still be valuable and make money.

2.  Apparently, it’s good to be Apple right now. The company announced this week that it has sold 11.1+ million iPads during its fiscal fourth quarter; an increase of 166% over the same time period last year, according to a report from Mobile Marketer. In fact, the iPhone also saw a spike as sales increased 21% to 17.07 million in the same time frame. And finally, it also said 92% of Fortune 400 companies are either testing or deploying the iPad.

3.  Moms are becoming a sizeable portion of Facebook users,
 and will account for 17.9% of all U.S. social network users and 17.4% of all Facebook users as of 2011, estimates eMarketer, which defines a mom is a woman with a child under 18 years of age in the house who visits the site at least once a month. However, while social channel penetration is currently high, it also means the moms’ share on social sites is expected taper off as growth rates slow down. By 2013, eMarketer predicts 16.1% of all U.S. Facebook users and 17.1% of all U.S. social network users will be moms with children in the household.
A few comments:
Though AdWeek predicts the end of the click-through rates, we all know this won’t happen soon, if ever. In fact, according to this article, mouse-over time will be a significant form of ad success, according to startup Moat’s “Kill the Click” campaign. Though figuring out a better way to measure the level of success of a digital ad is important as we continue to grow on the net, I do not think mouse-over time is it.
Supercookie… Can anyone say violation of privacy? Honestly, whoever created this file must not be paying attention to the current, and long winded movement in the government for anti-tracking. If a user deletes a cookie, it’s for a good reason; they don’t want to be tracked.  We’ll see how long this lasts before lawsuits start.
Mom’s on Facebook, well yeah. They are the super power behind blogs, and it only makes sense that there would be some kind of cross-over, especially with those power bloggers that use other social media tools to bolster their readership. Though I do think the estimate of 17.1% of users will be mothers and their children (under the age of 18) is rather low.  Though women only account for 5% of bloggers, according to an article by Social Media Today, 92% of mommy bloggers use Facebook to promote their blog.