10 interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week

10 interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week:from Posts from the Econsultancy blog by David Moth
Here are some of the most interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week.
Stats include online video ads, tablet commerce, multi-screening, email marketing, in-store Wi-Fi and mobile commerce.
For more digital marketing stats, check out our Internet Statistics Compendium.

Entertainment and FMCG ads dominate social shares in Q1

• Entertainment and FMCG brands dominated social video advertising in Q1, accounting for more than half (54%) of the total online ad shares.
• Tech brands also performed well with 17% of total shares, but it proved to be a disappointing start to the year for the automotive sector (9%).
• The data comes from the Unruly Analytics dashboard, which has tracked more than 329 billion video views across the social web.
• FMCG video ad shares actually increased by a massive 78% compared to Q4 2012, attracting a quarter (25%) of the total online video shares in Q1 2013. Only the entertainment sector attracted more shares (29%).

Australian content marketing vs. UK and US

• A report by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and ADMA has found that 96% of Australian marketers use content marketing - which is higher than figures seen in North America and the UK - yet only 29% consider themselves to be “very effective” or “effective” at doing so.
• Brand awareness was cited as the top content marketing goal for B2B marketers (75%), whereas B2C peers listed customer retention/loyalty as their top goal (80%).
• Around 25% of marketing budgets in Australia are allocated to content marketing, with B2B marketers allocating a slightly higher percentage than B2C peers.

• This year will also see 61% of Australian marketers look to increase their content marketing budgets, as well as 64% of British marketers. 

Tablet traffic spikes over Easter

• New stats from Affiliate Window show that over the Easter weekend tablet traffic averaged at 11.1% share of the entire network's traffic while 11.3% of sales were generated through these devices.
• Saturday was the peak for tablet traffic with a 12% share whereas sales peaked on Easter Monday at 11.7% (despite receiving the lowest share of traffic over the four day period – 9.7%)
• Looking at Saturday and Sunday in isolation and comparing this with the previous and following weekends, it is evident that mobile was more prevalent over the Easter weekend.
• Traffic on the Saturday and Sunday averaged at 12% while sales stood at 11.25%. Looking at the weekend prior to Easter this was 11.6% and 11.1% respectively, while for the weekend after Easter this was 11.95% (traffic) and 10.6% (sales).

Multi-screening trends in the UK

• A recent study by Fast Web Media has yielded some interesting insights into multi-screening trends in the UK.
• According to the study, 68% of the brands assessed encouraged multi-screening by including a URL or social network mention within the TV advert.
• 48% of brands referenced their website URL, 20% included a Twitter logo or hashtag, 16% sought Likes on Facebook, and 6% prompted a follow up on YouTube.
• A comparison of how many followers a brand has versus how many times the hashtag was tweeted gives an idea as to how successful the hashtag campaign has been:

Australian marketers increase their digital marketing budgets

• Almost three-quarters of Australian companies are planning to increase digital spend this year, with digital marketing budgets expected to increase an average of 28%.
• Search engine optimisation and email marketing for engagement/retention will be the top digital priorities, with 65% increasing investment in these areas.
• In the mobile world, businesses will be concentrating on mobile applications (47%) and QR codes (45%).
• These findings come from the fourth annual Marketing Budgets report, conducted by Responsys and Econsultancy, which is based on a survey of 834 marketing professionals in December and January 2013.

61% of marketers rate their email campaigns as poor or average

• Almost two-thirds (61%) of marketers rate their email campaign performance as ‘poor’ or ‘average’, while just 4% would rate themselves as ‘excellent’.
• The findings come from the new Econsultancy/Adestra Email Marketing Industry Census 2013 which surveyed more than 1,300 agency and client-side respondents.
• The results how that 62% of marketers spend two or more hours on design and content on an email campaign, while 18% spend more than eight hours.
• 71% have basic to non-existent email optimisation strategy for mobile devices, while 22% regard optimising emails for mobile as one of their top priorities.

A quarter of time online is spent on social networking

• Data from Experian shows that if the time spent on the internet was distilled into an hour then a quarter of it would be spent on social networking and forums across UK, US and Australia.
• In the UK 13 minutes out of every hour online is spent on social networking and forums, nine minutes on entertainment sites and six minutes shopping.

 

• In North America, figures are similar with 16 minutes spent on social media in the US, nine minutes on entertainment and five minutes on shopping.  
• Australian Internet users spend 14 minutes on social sites, nine on entertainment and four minutes shopping online.

Free in-store Wi-Fi

• Mobile agency Sponge surveyed 117 retailers with multiple stores in central London and found that just 28 offer customers access to free Wi-Fi.
• While half of those that do offer free Wi-Fi are collecting customer data, a significant number of retailers are missing an opportunity to engage with people that shop in their stores.
• Of the 28 retailers with free Wi-Fi, only 11 clearly communicated its availability with marketing material on display throughout shops.
• Sponge’s research found that contemporary retail brands, such as Urban Outfitters and Topshop, offer wi-fi as a service as opposed to using it to collect customer data.
• There is minimal advertising and the sign-up process is mainly acceptance of terms and conditions rather than entering personal details.

The future of the high street looks bleak

• A survey of Internet Retailing Expo attendees by Rakuten has revealed just 7% of retailers expect sales growth this year and 63% expect sales in physical stores to decline.
• One in four expect physical stores to become more like showrooms where shoppers browse in store, but ultimately purchase online.
• Despite the growing need for an online offering, half of retailers questioned were concerned about attracting sufficient footfall to an independent website online.
• Most retailers questioned still rely on email for the majority of customer communications with 69% stating this was their main customer contact channel. Despite the growing hype around social shopping, surprisingly Facebook and Twitter platforms were used by just 13% and 15% of retailers respectively.

Men more likely than women to shop via their mobiles

• As the number of people owning a smartphone continues to rise, research from Kantar Media’s Global TGI reveals that men lead the way when it comes to mobile shopping.
• In the US 15.9% of men say they are interested in using their phone to make purchases, compared to 13.3% of women. Figures are 12% and 10.3% respectively in Great Britain, and 4.7% versus 2.5% in South Africa.
• Kantar Media’s Global TGI research also showed that mobile shoppers were more predisposed to impulse purchasing.  In France, 13% of mobile shoppers say they tend to spend money without thinking, compared to 6% of the general population.  
• In Brazil, 36% of mobile shoppers buy products on impulse, versus 29% of the total population.