Not surprisingly, video viewing is a far more prevalent activity for tablet than smartphone owners, according to a newly-released report [download page] from Digitalsmiths, which finds that not only are tablet owners more apt to watch video content on their devices, but they also spend significantly more time doing so, likely influencing the preferred types of content they watch. The amount of time device owners spend watching video content remains fairly low, though.

When it comes to smartphones, about 6 in 10 respondents to the survey – undertaken among US and Canadian adults in Q4 2013 – said they rarely (20.6%) or never (39.7%) watch TV shows, movies, or video content on their device during the average week. Of the rest, a plurality 20.8% say they watch less than one hour per week. (For what it’s worth, Nielsen now estimates that smartphone owners watch less than 1-and-a-half hours of video per month.)

Tablet owners, though, typically use their devices more for entertainment, so it follows that they would spend more time using them for video content. Only about one-quarter of tablet owners surveyed by Digitalsmiths said they watch video content rarely (15.5%) or never (8.3%). And close to half report watching more than 1 hour a week. Even so, very few watch more than 5 hours a week, a figure which pales in comparison to TV viewing estimates.

It’s worth noting that past surveys – such as this one – have found more frequent viewing of video content on these devices. But most research suggests that mobile remains a fraction of overall TV viewing.

Nevertheless, given the comparatively greater amount of time they spend watching video on their devices, it’s not surprising that tablet owners tend to gravitate towards longer-form content than smartphone owners. About one-quarter say they watch movies on their tablets, the leading content type, almost double the proportion (13.9%) of smartphone owners. For smartphone owners, TV show previews and movie previews are the most commonly-viewed content (by 15.4%).

Other Findings:

• About half of respondents don’t know if their pay-TV provider offers a TV Everywhere application. About 1 in 5 have downloaded such an app to their smartphone or tablet.
• Among smartphone and tablet owners, 12.7% have downloaded at least one social TV app, while 31.1% have downloaded at least one TV network app and only 7.6% have downloaded at least one content discovery app.

About the Data: The results are based on a survey conducted by a 3rd-party survey service during Q4 2013 among more than 3,140 adults in the US and Canada.

Looking for more retweets? Twitter has released some data based on an analysis of millions of tweets sent by verified users in the US. The study looked at tweets that contained Twitter’s “hard features” – photos, #hashtags, links, videos, and tweets containing a number of a digit (such as a sports score) – comparing retweets from that dataset against average retweets from the same collection of accounts (most of which had thousands of followers). Overall, tweets containing photos got the biggest bump – but the results differed by area.

Overall, photos averaged a 35% boost in retweets across the 5 areas examined – TV, news, music, government and politics, and sports – followed by videos, which averaged a 28% increase. The three remaining “hard features” were more closely grouped: those with quotes averaged 19% more retweets, while those with a number saw 17% more retweets and those with hashtags a 16% increase.

Here are the features that saw the largest – and smallest – lift for each topic:

• TV: Quote (+53%); Digit (+32%);
• News: Photo (+27%); Hashtag (+14%);
• Government & Politics: Photo (+62%); Video/Quote (+14%);
• Sports: Photo (+48%); Video (+15%); and
• Music: Video (+35%); Digit (+11%).

While those numbers come from Twitter itself, other researchers have gotten into the act of late, analyzing various ways to drive greater engagement on the platform. The following is a quick summary of a few of those findings:

• When SHIFT partnered with a CPG client on a 6-week promoted tweets campaign, it found that engagement was 5 times higher when photos were included in tweets. Tweets with photos had more than twice the reply rate than text-only tweets, with about 2.5 times more retweets at half the cost per engagement. A single case study, to be sure, but food for thought nonetheless.
• Based on an analysis of 1.7 million tweets from 1,423 accounts, TrackMaven recently revealed that tweets without pictures for its dataset received an average of 0.133 retweets per 1,000 followers, while those with pictures received an average of 0.404 retweets. Other insights from the Retweet Report [download page] include: average retweets being highest on Sundays; average retweets peaking between 10 and 11PM EST; and spelling out the word “retweet” generating roughly 10 times more retweets than simply writing “RT.”
• According to an analysis of more than 1.2 million tweets, Dan Zarrella found that tweets containing at least one hashtag were 55% more likely to be retweeted than those that did not, while tweets containing quotes had a 30% higher likelihood of being retweeted.

For young (16-44) multi-screeners in the US, 59% of screen time is spent exclusively with a single device, while the rest is simultaneous screen use, according to results from Millward Brown’s AdReaction report. Device use overlaps with TV viewing to varying degrees, per the research, but the majority share of time spent shifting between screens rather than simultaneously using them means that the former might present the bigger multi-screening opportunity.

Looking at how digital devices overlap with TV, the report indicates that for US respondents:

• 45% of daily smartphone time is spent simultaneously with TV;
• 37% of daily laptop time is spent with TV; and
• 55% of daily tablet time is spent simultaneously with TV.

Switching between devices to complete tasks has become a more widespread activity, according to a recent Facebook study, and Millward Brown’s report suggests that on a global basis, TV is the most common starting point for multi-device journeys.

Among US respondents, those that begin a task on TV most commonly gravitate to a smartphone (35%), followed by a laptop (21%) and tablet (13%). Tasks that begin on a smartphone most commonly shift to a laptop (23%) and TV (20%) rather than a tablet (9%), while those beginning on a tablet favor laptops (9%) over TVs (7%) and smartphones (7%), though not to a large extent.

Overall, the study finds that young American multi-screen consumers (not all Americans, as has been reported by other press outlets!) spend slightly more time with their mobile phones than watching TV. That’s a finding that makes sense among what Millward Brown calls “an advanced sub-group of the overall population” – but doesn’t seem to be the case among the adult population at-large.

Why Do Consumers Multi-Screen?

Much like other research has found, the study indicates that simultaneous screen use tends to be spent looking at unrelated (“stacking”) rather than related (“meshing”) content. Respondents gave varying reasons for engaging in each behavior.

The main reasons for meshing are:

• For more information about what’s on TV (e.g. sports scores, character, bios), by 21%;
• To discuss the content being watched with other people (e.g. via social media), by 14%;
• To interact with what’s happening on TV (13%); and
• To follow up on a TV ad (12%).

The main reasons for stacking, which accounts for 70% of simultaneous screen time, are:

• To fill time during the ad breaks (43%);
• To keep up with friends on social media, unrelated to the show (38%);
• Not primarily watching the TV, just have it on for background noise (36%);
• When someone else has chosen what’s on TV and it’s not really interesting (30%);
• When the respondent is busy and has other things that need to get done (26%); and
• When the respondent doesn’t find TV interesting enough to give it all their attention (21%).

Those responses are instructive, particularly as they relate to ads. TV ads appear to be the least influential reason for meshing – but ad avoidance is the top reason for stacking. Those results suggests that advertisers have their work cut out for them in terms of keeping viewers’ attention. Even so, a study released a couple of years ago by the IAB found at the time that multi-screen consumers were more likely to recall TV advertisers, which the researchers suggested was because those who have their second devices during commercial breaks are less likely to channel surf or skip the commercial break, leaving them aware, at some level, of the brands on the screen.

Also of note: some mixed results regarding content stacking and attention paid to TV. Respondents were least likely to say they engage in content stacking because TV isn’t interesting enough to give it all their attention, suggesting that recent research from TiVo showing that TV viewers keep their focus on the first screen was on point. But, a significant proportion of content stackers indicated that they engage in the behavior because TV is just background noise. So for some stackers, TV is likely being passively viewed – and that’s actually a leading reason why TV viewers watch ads.

About the Data: The study was conducted among 16-44-year-old multi-screen consumers (people who own or have access to both a TV and either a smartphone or tablet). The study was administrated via smartphone or tablet to more than 12,000 multi-screen users across 30 countries.

Source: Deloitte

Notes: Some 86% of US consumers (aged 14+) claim to always or almost always multitask while watching TV, up from 81% last year. Almost half of Millennials this year say they use a social network while watching TV.

About the Data: Based on an online survey of 2,075 US consumers aged 14 and older, fielded by an independent research firm from November 11, 2013 to December 5, 2013.

Related: Multi-Screening in the US: The How and Why

Source: Viacom

Notes: TV Everywhere (TVE) doesn’t cannibalize viewing from regular TV, say respondents to online surveys conducted among 1,300 Viacom viewers aged 13-49 and more than 600 children aged 2-12. Almost two-thirds of respondents report watching more TV overall since they began using TVE applications. Virtually all of the users surveyed report that TVE adds value to their pay-TV subscription (a boost for providers given chronically low customer satisfaction ratings), including two-thirds saying it adds “a lot” of value.

More than 9 in 10 say they’re more likely to stay with their provider due to TVE, and 68% have a more positive impression of networks that offer TVE.

Related: “TV Everywhere” Moving the Needle in Pay-TV Satisfaction

Hispanics are more likely than non-Hispanics to use mobile devices for a variety of activities, according to [download page] a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Those activities include second-screening, with 58% of Hispanics surveyed claiming to always or usually use a mobile device while watching TV, compared to 53% of non-Hispanics. That tilt was generally consistent across age groups, but was most pronounced for 25-34-year-olds (72% of Hispanics versus 62% of non-Hispanics) as well as males (59% and 47%, respectively).

A recent study from the Council for Research Excellence (CRE) similarly found that among various demographic groups, Hispanics were the most likely to be the most socially engaged viewers. Some 10.5% of Hispanic viewing occasions could be deemed “socially connected viewing,” where viewers’ simultaneous social activity was directly related to the specific program they were viewing. That compared to 7.5% of participants (aged 15-54), on average.

In the PwC study, Hispanic respondents were also more likely than non-Hispanics to stream video on their mobile devices at least once a week (43% vs. 25%) and download video (37% vs. 17%) with that frequency. Data from Centris Marketing Science indicates that Hispanic households are also above-average in their use of over-the-top services.

Besides using their mobile devices for entertainment purposes, Hispanics also over-index in several other activities, including:

• Checking bank balances, making a bank transaction or paying a bill;
• Downloading electronic coupons which are then scanned at the store register from their phone;
• Paying for physical goods/services in a store with a credit/debit card electronically stored on their phones;
• Making travel reservations or purchases online; and
• Purchasing movie/show tickets.

The Federal Reserve also recently found that Hispanics have adopted mobile banking at a higher rate than non-Hispanics.

About the Data: The PwC data is based on a spring 2014 nationwide survey (in English and Spanish) of 500 Hispanics and 500 non-Hispanics ranging in age from 18-65.

Source: Adobe Digital Index [pdf]

Notes: Smartphones (13.2%) and tablets (12.2%) combined to account for one-quarter of digital video starts in Q1, up from 16.2% a year earlier, with growth particularly pronounced for smartphones. The number of overall online video starts also saw a significant rise, up 43% year-over-year. Separately, the study notes that “TV Everywhere” continues to pick up steam, with the amount of authentications jumping by 246% year-over-year, with a plurality 43% of those taking place via iOS apps. Some 21% of pay-TV households accessed TV Everywhere during Q1, up from 16% in Q3 2013.

Related: Mobile Video Viewers Spending Most of Their Time With Long-Form Content

About the Data: The Adobe report is based on consumer video viewing in 2013 and 2014. It is comprised of the aggregated and anonymous data from media and entertainment sites gathered from Adobe Analytics and Adobe Primetime. Sample information includes 151 billion total online video starts and 1.3 billion TV Everywhere authentications (temp plays and authenticated plays).

Source: Twitter / Starcom Mediavest Group (SMG)

Notes: Twitter-supported TV campaigns drive increased awareness, favorability and sales, ultimately leading to higher ROI, according to research from Twitter and SMG. The study also found that viewers tweet with the same frequency during program time as during ad time, supporting earlier research from Nielsen that arrived at the same conclusion. In addition, ad recall was found to be 13% higher among Twitter users than non-multitaskers.

Related: New Data Surrounding Twitter, TV, and Brand Messaging

About the Data: Details about the studies conducted by Twitter and SMG can be found by accessing the above link.

Roughly 3 in 4 American adults regularly watch TV shows live via cable or satellite TV, while streaming (43%) and recorded TV (37%) are also popular choices, per results from a Harris Interactive survey. But for Millennials (aged 18-36), the TV viewing experience has changed, with a slightly larger proportion saying they regularly watch TV shows via streaming (67%) than via cable or satellite (62%). While Millennials are the most likely to be streaming content, they’re slightly less likely than the average adult to regularly watch recorded content.

For the time being, non-streaming methods of watching TV continue to outweigh streaming methods overall, even for Millennials. About two-thirds most often watch TV programs on TV, via live feed, recorded programming, or on-demand service, while slightly fewer than half claim to most often watch shows via streaming on any device.

Not surprisingly, the inclination to watch TV the traditional way increases alongside age, while the opposite is true for streaming behavior. Live TV remains the single most popular way to watch TV programs, aligning with recent research from Ipsos and BroadStream Solutions, which separately found that live TV remains popular among Americans.

Meanwhile, the Harris Interactive survey finds that among those adults who watch TV shows via streaming, the computer (laptop or desktop) remains the device of choice for each generation save for Matures (68+), who are more likely to stream on their TV, whether that’s via a set-top streaming box, game system, or smart TV. Four in 10 Millennial who stream do so via their smartphone, compared to just 8% of Matures.

Interestingly, respondents overall don’t report a heavy increase in streaming: just 23% said they are watching more online or streaming TV programming than a year ago, with 37% saying their viewing activity hasn’t changed. Some 37% of Millennials are watching more online or streaming TV, though, against 12% watching less.

Millennials are also the most likely to say they expect to be watching more online or streaming TV programming a year from now. But even so, just one-quarter say that’s the case, while a majority 54% feel their consumption won’t change.

About 8 in 10 respondents said they multitask while watching TV, a figure comparable with recent research from Deloitte, which found 86% of Americans aged 14 and older to be multitaskers. Half of Millennials said they go on a social networking site while watching TV, while one-third shop online.

See here for a detailed analysis of traditional TV consumption by age group.

About the Data: This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between April 16 and 21, 2014 among 2,300 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

TV multitasking is on the increase, and some 82% of US adults at least occasionally go online while watching TV, per a recent IAB study [pdf]. How much of an adverse effect does that have on the influence of TV ads? Apparently none, according to the study, which actually finds that “media multitaskers” (those 43% who regularly go online while watching TV) are more likely than the average adult to regularly watch TV ads and be influenced by them.

Indeed, some 24% of media multitaskers said they regularly watch commercials when they air on TV, compared to 18% of adult respondents overall. Another 64% of multitaskers (and 65% of adults overall) watch them occasionally, such that 88% of media multitaskers profess to watching TV ads at least occasionally, compared to 83% of adults in general. (The study is based on a January 2014 survey for which a 2%-point difference is statistically significant at a 99% confidence level.)

Moreover, across each of 9 retail categories examined, media multitaskers were more likely than the average adult respondent to say that both broadcast and cable TV influences their purchases. The influence of broadcast and cable TV was particularly acute for electronics purchases.

TV also emerges as a significant trigger for online search: 34% of media multitaskers claim that cable TV triggers them to start an online search (compared to 28% of respondents on average), and 33% say the same about broadcast TV (versus 29% of respondents on average). In each case, TV proved more of a trigger than internet ads or email ads.

The study’s results bring to mind an IAB report released in 2012, which found that the more screens survey participants used in front of the TV, the more likely they were to be able to recall advertisers. That same study revealed that multi-screeners give TV the most attention, a finding supported by recent study results from TiVo.

Other Findings:

• Media multitaskers are more likely than the average adult to engage in all identified online activities, including shopping, social networking, and viewing online video.
• The top products researched online by media multitaskers prior to buying them in person are: electronics (54%); apparel (44%); shoes (32%); and appliances (31%).
• Media multitaskers report being more likely to have their purchases influenced by social media and mobile than the general population.
• Some 59% of media multitaskers at least occasionally watch online video pre-rolls, compared to the 88% who watch TV ads with that frequency.

About the Data: The study describes its methodology in part as follows:

“IAB conducted a custom analysis of syndicated Prosper Insight data to look at consumer and media behaviors of ‘Media Multitaskers’, or those who regularly go online while watching TV as compared to the general Adult 18 and over population in the US. Regularly is defined as “routinely, as a set pattern; occasionally means no set pattern, as mood suits.” The report is derived from the Media Behaviors & Influence (MBI) Study (Jan 2014) of 15,410 respondents surveyed online. The study has a margin of error of less than 1%, at a 99% confidence level. Two percentage points is statistically significant at 99% confidence level.

Sample Sizes:

• Prosper Insights & Analytics Media Behaviors & Influence Annual Survey
• 15,410 Adults 18+ representative of the general US population
• 6,074 Media Multitaskers, Adults 18+ who regularly go online while watching TV

Source: IAB / Prosper Insights & Analytics [pdf]

Notes: Some 43% of US adults regularly go online while watching TV, and these “media multitaskers” tend to be young and female, per the report. African-Americans also over-index in this behavior; they comprise 22% of media multitaskers, versus 18% of the adult survey sample.

Related: Media Multitaskers More Likely to Watch, Respond to TV Ads

About the Data: The study describes its methodology in part as follows:

“IAB conducted a custom analysis of syndicated Prosper Insight data to look at consumer and media behaviors of ‘Media Multitaskers’, or those who regularly go online while watching TV as compared to the general Adult 18 and over population in the US. Regularly is defined as “routinely, as a set pattern; occasionally means no set pattern, as mood suits.” The report is derived from the Media Behaviors & Influence (MBI) Study (Jan 2014) of 15,410 respondents surveyed online. The study has a margin of error of less than 1%, at a 99% confidence level. Two percentage points is statistically significant at 99% confidence level.

Sample Sizes:

• Prosper Insights & Analytics Media Behaviors & Influence Annual Survey
• 15,410 Adults 18+ representative of the general US population
• 6,074 Media Multitaskers, Adults 18+ who regularly go online while watching TV

Three-quarters of internet users across 50 markets around the world report watching traditional TV on a daily basis, compared to one-quarter who report watching video on a digital device with that frequency, according to results from a TNS survey of more than 55,000 internet users around the world. The US results largely hewed to the global average, with three-quarters watching TV daily compared to 24% watching video daily on a PC, laptop, tablet or mobile.

TV’s wide reach helps explain its stated advertising effectiveness. In a new MarketingCharts Debrief, “Advertising Channels With the Largest Purchase Influence on Consumers” [download page], TV emerged as the paid advertising channel with the largest stated influence on consumers, while online video lagged towards the bottom. TV ads proved far more influential even to Millennials, the generation most likely to say their purchases are influenced by online video ads. The study found TV’s weekly reach to be approximately 50% higher than for online video – but separate data suggests that TV viewers are exposed to as much as a full hour of TV ads each day, compared to around 2 minutes of video ads per viewer.

Meanwhile, not surprisingly, the TNS survey found high rates of multi-screening, or “screen-stacking.” Some 48% of global respondents who watch TV during the evening simultaneously use digital devices to engage in activities such as using social media, checking emails, or shopping online.

That’s actually a lower figure than recently reported by Deloitte, although Deloitte’s survey looked at TV multitasking activities beyond the use of digital devices. In that study, 86% of US respondents aged 14 and older claimed to always or almost always multitask while watching TV, with the most common activities being to browse and surf the web, read email, and use social networks.

The TNS survey notes that multi-screening is likely being driven by an increase in device ownership, with the average respondent owning approximately 4 digital devices. By comparison, Deloitte’s survey revealed that 39% of Americans aged 14 and up own a trio of digital devices – laptop, smartphone and tablet – as of late 2013, up from 26% in late 2012 and 10% in late 2011.

About the Data: TNS’ Connected Life is a global study of the digital attitudes and behaviors of over 55,000 internet users across 50 countries. The fieldwork was undertaken in all markets between March and June 2014.

Social media’s impact on TV is gradually growing, details Nielsen in newly-released survey data showing social to be driving increased TV program awareness and live TV viewing. Indeed, one-quarter of respondents to Nielsen’s Q4 2013 survey claimed to be aware of more programs as a result of social media, up from 18% during the year-earlier period. Moreover, 11% reported that social media caused them to watch more live TV, up from 8% during the Q4 2012 survey. The results are consistent with other research on social’s impact.

For example, Digitalsmiths’ Q1 2014 Video Discovery Trends Report [download page] found 29% of adult respondents in the US and Canada saying they have chosen to watch a TV show or movie based on the social buzz it was receiving. That was up from 19% during the year-earlier period.

[For more research about trends shaping the TV industry – such as social TV – see social trailed various other identified reasons for watching TV shows, although it appeared to have more of an influence than personal recommendations (face-to-face or over the phone). A follow-up report from the CRE on social’s impact found a slightly greater proportion of participants deciding to watch new (6.8%) or returning (3.3%) shows based on having seen something about the show on social media, though social’s influence remained limited.

Meanwhile, the Nielsen data indicates that social’s impact is higher among minority groups. Looking at the various impacts of social on TV viewing, the results indicate that:

• Some 32% of Hispanics are aware of more programs due to social, versus 25% of respondents on average;
• Slightly more than one-quarter – 26% – of Hispanics enjoy TV more as a result of social, compared to 15% of respondents overall;
• 1 in 5 Asian Americans record more programs because of social media, almost double the overall figure of 12%;
• Some 18% of Hispanics say they watch more live TV due to social, versus 11% of respondents overall; and
• African-Americans are almost twice as likely as the average respondent (14% vs. 8%) to sample shows online because of social.

Social’s outsized impact on Hispanics tallies with CRE research finding Hispanics to be the most likely group to be engaging in social TV, defined as simultaneous social activity directly related to the specific program they were viewing.

The ways by which Americans watch TV are changing and the evolution of TV is a topic of considerable debate, driven by TV’s dominant stature as an advertising medium. A new MarketingCharts Debrief, “TV in Context: Viewing Trends, Ad Spending, and Purchase Influence” [download page] examines the current state of TV in the US, placing Americans’ traditional TV viewing trends and marketers’ spending on TV ads in the context of the broader undercurrents shaping the TV industry.

Research contained in the Debrief finds that even as consumers become increasingly device- and source-agnostic for their video entertainment, the preponderance of data casts a serious shadow over “TV is dead” prognostications. For the time being, new viewing habits are having a relatively modest effect on traditional TV, which continues to draw both consumers’ attention and marketers’ advertising dollars. And with good reason: multiple pieces of research suggest that TV ads wield considerable influence over consumers’ purchase decisions.

This Debrief presents insights for marketers from three angles, by:

• Analyzing the landscape of TV consumption and its current trends;
• Measuring TV advertising spending and growth rates; and
• Examining TV’s influence as an advertising medium.

The 73-page Debrief includes a 17-page source reference section that acts as a conduit for further reading about the state of TV today. The report also contains 51 charts that can be downloaded in a separate folder accompanying the Debrief.

The Debrief was compiled primarily from a mix of data privately-sourced from leading providers and publicly available research (some of which has previously been featured on the MarketingCharts website), and includes some results from primary research recently conducted by MarketingCharts.

It’s well established that Snapchat is more popular with youth, but new data from comScore and CivicScience [pdf] offer some updated figures relating to Snapchat’s popularity. According to comScore’s numbers, Snapchat penetration is now at about half of 18-24-year-old smartphone users, up from less than one-third a year earlier and closing in on Instagram (54.6%). And while Snapchat’s popularity does tail off among older smartphone users, it has still been growing quickly.

For example, 1 in 5 smartphone users aged 25-34 used Snapchat in June, per comScore, with that being more than triple the percentage (6.3%) from a year earlier. Among smartphone owners aged 35 and older, Snapchat’s penetration stood at 7.6% in June, more than double the year-earlier penetration rate of 3%.

Not surprisingly, CivicScience’s poll shows a similarly young skew. Among the 14% of survey respondents who claimed to use Snapchat, 71% were aged under 25, with a plurality 43% between the ages of 18 and 24. Interestingly, the results of the survey indicate that Snapchat fans lean heavily female, as just 31% are men.

The CivicScience study also looked at behavioral traits of Snapchat users, many of which are consistent with traits commonly ascribed to youth:

• Compared to the general population, Snapchat fans are 86% more likely to say their friends and other contacts on social media influence the products they buy;
• Fans are 89% more likely to often post comments on Facebook or Twitter while watching a TV show or movie; and
• Fans are 43% more likely to say they are “addicted” to their digital devices.

As Who’s Using Snapchat? appeared first on Marketing Charts.

This month’s quick-hit set of top charts includes the following topics: marketers’ changing media mix; online channel goals and digital metrics; top concerns among CMOs; content marketing’s effectiveness; the most-desired brand video types; social’s growing impact on TV; and consumer spending patterns by category and generation.

Source: Twitter

Notes: TV shows that live-tweet have a better follower growth rate than those that don’t, declares Twitter, with that generally true across genres and handle (show, host, and contestant, in the case of reality shows). The study also finds that shows that live-tweeted tends to see a higher overall volume of tweets than those that did not. The results follow other studies which have demonstrated that Twitter-supported TV campaigns drive higher ROI and that tweets have influenced ratings for some TV episodes.

About the Data: In Twitter’s words, “We looked at two groups of like programs (for example, top dramas or reality shows) from the U.S. 2013-14 season: one that implemented regular live-Tweeting and one that did not. We then looked within each program to understand how episodes with live-Tweeting compared to their “baseline” conversation levels on Twitter during episodes that did not feature live Tweeting.”

Related: [Debrief] TV in Context: Viewing Trends, Ad Spending, and Purchase Influence

Half of teen spending is concentrated in 3 categories, reports Piper Jaffray in its latest “Taking Stock With Teens” survey. Clothing (21%) and food (20%) occupy the largest portions of the teen wallet, followed by accessories/personal care (10%), car (9%) and shoes (9%). Looking back over the past decade, the survey notes that clothing’s wallet share has dropped, while food and electronics have grown. Parents contributed roughly two-thirds of teen spending, per the latest report.

Here are some more pieces of research to mull over this weekend:

• Almost 7 in 10 consumers would leave a meeting or shop online during a meeting to get a limited-time offer, according to a Clustrix survey [download page] that also finds online food ordering to be quite popular. Intershop has more statistics related to e-food trends here.
• Some 56% of IT decision-makers have seen an increase in email spam levels over the past year versus just 13% seeing a decrease, finds a GFI Software survey. 7 in 10 respondents – all from organizations with between 5 and 1,000 employees – reported having their day-to-day business operations affected by spam at some point during the past year.
• Smartphone penetration reached 72% of the US mobile subscriber market during the 3-month period ending in August, reports comScore.
• Mobile video ad spending in the UK tripled year-over-year in H1, and mobile now accounts for one-fifth of digital ad spend and 53% of social media spending, per the IAB UK.
• Sticking with the UK, a Thinkbox study finds that multi-screening during ad breaks is common, but does not affect ad recall. Similar results have been reported in the US.
• China has surpassed the US as the world’s largest economy (burying the lede?!), says the Financial Times [registration required], using IMF data that takes into account purchasing power parity (PPP).

Although most consumers continue to watch original TV series on traditional TV, many are time-shifting their TV viewing, and this desire to watch on their own schedule is one of the primary drivers of online video viewing. That’s one of the chief takeaways from a new comScore report [download page] based on a survey of more than 1,100 online adults.

It’s not earth-shattering to say that there’s less appointment viewing these days, though social TV is helping offset the declines. The rise of time-shifting has led to TV industry stakeholders pushing for an expanded TV ratings definition for quite some time (here’s the argument for expanding from C+3 to C+7), and the results in the comScore study bolster that argument. While the report doesn’t specify how time-shifted TV is viewed, some 46% of original TV viewing by Millennials (18-34) is estimated to be time-shifted, including 17% at least 4 days after airing.

While time-shifting isn’t quite as prevalent among older age groups, there is one segment that is delaying viewing to the same degree as Millennials: paid digital video subscribers. An estimated 46% of original TV viewing by these subscribers occurs after live airing, including 16% at least 4 days after airing.

As for that subscriber segment? It’s not small. More than 4 in 10 respondents reported subscribing to a paid digital video service, with Netflix (32%) unsurprisingly being most popular. As expected, those figures are much higher among Millennials: 61% subscribe to a paid service, including 49% to Netflix.

Clearly, paid service subscribers enjoy watching TV on their own schedules – and research does indeed indicate that they’re motivated by convenience. But they’re not the only ones. When survey respondents were asked the main reasons why they watch original TV on the internet, the two leading reasons, by a strong margin, were:

• Prefer to watch on own schedule (56%); and
• It’s more convenient (52%).

Ads do play a role, but it’s a lesser one: 38% watch because they can skip commercials, and 33% because there are fewer commercials.

The rise in time-shifting TV viewing – and increasing time spent watching online video – are clear indications that consumers’ preferences are changing. How are TV providers responding? TV Everywhere services – aiming to satisfy that desire for convenience – are now available to at least 6 in 10 pay-TV subscribers, though awareness remains low. Meanwhile, consumer interest in cloud DVR services (which offer features such as unlimited recordings and the ability to access content from various devices) is high.

Add it all up, and the data is another signal that pay-TV providers need to adapt to consumers’ evolving preferences. Online video destinations – including paid services – offer consumers a convenient way to watch on their own schedule, and they’re taking advantage of those opportunities. Even sports, which are one of the few remaining appointment viewing areas, are beginning to migrate online, as evidenced by the recent deal between the NBA and ESPN for a new online video service. Meanwhile, HBO – one of pay-TV’s key flashpoints – is reportedly set to launch a standalone streaming service aimed at cord-cutters, and CBS has just announced that it will offer its own web service.

Still, it’s worth remembering that while online TV is growing, it’s not the dominant viewing method. That remains traditional TV – for the moment.

For more on traditional TV in the context of the evolving TV industry, see the MarketingCharts Debrief, TV in Context: Viewing Trends, Ad Spending, and Purchase Influence.

About the Data: The comScore report was based on survey data collected from an online questionnaire completed by 1,159 respondents during the period of August 21 through August 28, 2014.

Some 51% of TV viewers multitask every time or almost every time they watch TV, up from 36% last year, reports TiVo in its second annual study of multitasking and social TV. Even so, viewers are keeping the TV screen the center of their attention: an estimated 47% of their TV time is spent with their primary focus on the TV show even while multitasking, up from 39% last year. Interestingly, the estimated amount of TV time spent multitasking with the focus on something else has remained flat at 26%. Instead, there has been a drop in the estimated amount of TV time spent only watching TV (without multitasking), from 35% to 27%. In other words, while more time is being spent multitasking, all of that time is being spent with the TV as the primary focus.

While that may be the case, TV isn’t extending its reach to viewers’ multitasking activities. Just 5% of respondents – who were required to watch at least 7 hours of TV per week on any device – reported engaging in TV-related multitasking every time or almost every time they watch TV. That compares with 50% who never or almost never engage in TV-related activities. Instead, the most common activities include browsing the internet (74%), reading or sending email (73%) and text messaging (71%).

The TiVo results largely support conclusions from a Deloitte report released earlier this year, in which a greater proportion of respondents reported frequently multitasking while watching TV, with web browsing, emailing and texting the top activities. However, they run contrary to a report last year from the Multimedia Research Group which had seen TV multitasking trending towards related activities.

The multitasking topic is a hot-button issue as TV marketers are trying to leverage consumers’ increasingly multi-screen behavior. Multi-tasking also raises questions about TV advertising effectiveness, particularly as 56% of the TiVo survey respondents say they multitask every time or almost every time during commercial breaks. To be fair, though, the most popular reported activities during a commercial break are going to the bathroom (85%), getting a drink or a snack (78%) and talking to people in the house (50%) – not considered “multitasking.” In any case, research suggests that multitasking may not be affecting viewers’ engagement with ads, according to data contained in the MarketingCharts report, “TV in Context: Viewing Trends, Ad Spending and Purchase Influence.”

In other interesting highlights from the TiVo survey:

• Smartphones (78%) and laptops (72%) emerge as the top devices used while watching TV;
• Almost 6 in 10 respondents report using another device every time or almost every time they watch TV (see here for data about how often they’re looking at their devices during ad breaks);
• Only about 1 in 5 say they’ve ever posted on social media about the shows they watch, although studies suggest social’s impact on TV is on the rise; and
• More than 6 in 10 have noticed Twitter hashtags during TV shows, but this group was more apt to dislike (53%) than appreciate (12%) seeing them.

About the Data: To collect data for the 2014 Multitasking and Social TV Survey, TiVo conducted an online survey of 856 people between August 21-26, 2014. All survey participants were over the age of 18 and watched at least seven hours of TV per week on any device. The composition of the survey was consistent with the U.S. in terms of household income and age range.

Mobile owners tend to download applications out of a desire for leisure or entertainment and due to recommendations from friends, reveals Nielsen in a recent study. The survey also examined situational use of apps, looking at the occasions when app downloaders can be found using them. Of note, downtime appears to be a key reason for mobile app use.

Indeed, a leading 70% of smartphone app downloaders and 65% of tablet app downloaders reported having used apps during the prior 30 days while alone or by themselves. Closely following, 68% of smartphone app downloaders and 63% of tablet app downloaders said they had used them while bored or killing time.

The findings are bolstered by research released last year which indicated that “found time” – times during the day when device owners have nothing to do, such as while they’re waiting in line – is a particularly strong driver of smartphone use. A separate study released a couple of months earlier found that 52% of UK smartphone owners would prefer to check their phone during any downtime rather than sit and think. This “always on” nature of mobile devices makes them a particularly intriguing channel for marketers.

Returning to the Nielsen survey, the results indicate that smartphone app downloaders are more likely than their tablet counterparts to use apps while waiting for something or someone (61% vs. 48%), with this likely due to smartphones being a more portable device than tablets. Conversely, tablet owners are more likely to be found using apps while watching TV (54% vs. 48%), a result that aligns with research showing tablet use to be widespread in front of the TV.

Separately, Nielsen notes that app downloaders will pay for games, reading (books/magazines), music and video/movie apps, but are less inclined to do so for social networking, discount/coupon or payment apps.

About the Data: The insights from Nielsen’s Mobile Applications Playbook were gathered from 3,743 respondents’ age 13+ years who have downloaded an application to their device in the past 30 days. The distribution by device is 2,707 smartphone owners and 1,027 tablet owners. The respondents completed an online, self-administered, English-language survey in August 2014. Past 30-day downloaders were identified through Nielsen’s Mobile Insights syndicated tracking study.

How much would consumers pay for alternative pay-TV packages that combine basic service with streaming options from Netflix and from HBO (which recently announced that it will launch a standalone OTT service)? The good news for pay-TV providers, according to survey results from Centris Marketing Science, is that consumers seem willing to pay extra to add OTT to a basic internet + pay-TV package. The bad news, though, is that they’d expect this bundle to come at a significant discount. More interesting data points for the weekend follow.

• Video viewability rates are low, but advanced targeting can help drive them higher, according to Videology. The firm’s research found that in the case of a major auto advertiser, viewability rates were significantly higher when targeting by behavior (71%) than by demographics only (31%).
• About two-thirds of weekly TV program tweets are sent during live airing, notes Nielsen in an analysis of Twitter TV engagement.
• Sticking with social media and video, a new study from Strike Social finds that auto and home insurance companies spent $5 million (a relative pittance) advertising on YouTube this year, with GEICO coming away the clear category winner in terms of total views (almost 50% share) and earned views (87% share).
• Finally (on the video front), smartphones and tablets accounted for 30% of online video plays in Q3, says Ooyala [download page], more than doubling their share year-over-year. Long-form content continues to be the domain of connected TVs rather than smartphones, though.
• Switching gears, and two reports show that it’s not only online advertising that’s growing in the US. While they can’t match digital’s growth rates, outdoor advertising grew in Q3 (by 1.5%) for the 18th consecutive quarter, while exhibition industry revenues increased in Q3 (by 1.8%) for the 17th consecutive quarter. Those figures courtesy of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, respectively.
• Keeping it offline for now, a recent UK study conducted by ICM for soh revealed that when they’re waiting on hold, consumers want to hear well-known popular music from any period over well-known classical music or well-known popular music from the last year. The popularity of classical music was driven by older groups, with younger brackets finding popular music more appealing (shocking!).
• The 18-25 and 26-34 age brackets in the US are about on par when it comes to texting frequency, per a Scratch Wireless survey. While older age groups aren’t quite as active texters, more than 8 in 10 do so at least rarely.
• Keeping with the mobile theme, new Flurry data shows that the number of apps downloaded per month by the average consumer held steady this year from prior years at 8.8. This average is being propped up by “Install Addicts,” who account for 20% of the US mobile consumer base and who download an average of at least 17 apps per month.
• Mobile commerce may be surging this holiday season, but desktop-based retail e-commerce spending isn’t doing too badly for itself. Indeed, comScore reports that desktop-based spending topped $1 billion every day during the past work week (December 8-12), the second consecutive week that occurred.
• Social media hasn’t made as much of a splash as mobile this holiday season, but maybe that’s because driving sales isn’t a primary social media marketing objective. Instead, marketers’ most important objectives for their social media strategy in the year ahead are to increase engagement (50%) and brand awareness (48%), according to a new study from Ascend2.
• Last but not least, an interesting study on content marketing to engineers finds that “technical audiences have very distinct preferences and expectations when it comes to content marketing,” per TREW Marketing. Among the notable findings is that engineers align a blog’s credibility with elements and characteristics such as the presence of case studies (80%), objective presentation of material (76%) and research-based content (74%). By comparison, the author’s name and reputation (56%) and the company name (51%) are not as important. The study, based off a survey of more than 1,000 engineers, is available here.

Have a great weekend!

Source: Nielsen [download page]

Notes: Some 65% of online consumers surveyed in 60 countries around the world strongly or somewhat agree that they prefer watching video programming live, and 63% think that the biggest screen is the best screen for watching video programming, according to a recent Nielsen report. Still, respondents are drawn to the convenience of mobile video, with 6 in 10 agreeing that watching video programming on their mobile device is convenient, and mobiles emerging as the preferred screens for watching video outside the home. Notably, both Gen Z (15-20) and Millennials (21-34) respondents who watch video at home said they were more likely to use a computer than a TV to do so.

Related: [Debrief] US Media Audience Demographics

About the Data: The Nielsen Global Digital Landscape Survey was conducted between Aug. 13, 2014, and Sept. 5, 2014, and polled more than 30,000 consumers in 60 countries throughout Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and North America. The sample has quotas based on age and sex for each country based on its internet users and is weighted to be representative of Internet consumers. It has a margin of error of ±0.6%. This Nielsen survey is based only on the behavior of respondents with online access. Internet penetration rates vary by country. Nielsen uses a minimum reporting standard of 60% Internet penetration or an online population of 10 million for survey inclusion.

Source: Deloitte [pdf]

Notes: 9 in 10 Americans age 14 and older claim to always or almost always multitask while watching TV, up from 81% a couple of years ago, per Deloitte’s latest Digital Democracy survey. In fact, 96% of Leading Millennials (26-31) are now regularly multitasking while watching TV, with their most common activities being browsing the web (45%) and text messaging (41%). Among the youngest crowd (14-25), 94% of whom at least almost always multitask, text messaging (53%) and using a social network (47%) are the most common activities.

Meanwhile, 1 in 5 respondents report almost always browsing for products and services online, with this behavior most common among the 26-31 bracket (30%).

Overall, respondents estimated that only 22% of their multitasking activities on average are directly related to the program they are watching, with this figure highest among trailing (25%) and leading (28%) Millennials.

Related: US Adults’ Daily Major Media Consumption Estimates, 2011-2015

About the Data: The results are based on an online survey fielded by an independent research firm from 11/3/2014 to 11/19/2014 among 2,076 US consumers. All data is weighted back to the most recent census data to give a representative view of what US consumers are doing.

Some 16% of TV viewers on average share content about the shows they’re watching online, with these viewers driving an impressive 11% of all online sharing, according to a report [download page] from ShareThis. The study finds that this sharing also leads to TV tune-in, as users who click on shared content about TV series show an above-average inclination to convert to viewers.

Social sharing about TV shows differs widely by genre, ranging from a low of 8.6% of viewers sharing content about crime shows to a high of 47.1% sharing about reality/variety shows. The timing of sharing also varies: while comedy, crime, music and reality/variety viewers are most likely to share during a show as opposed to before or after it, social buzz surrounding drama and sci-fi shows actually decreases during broadcast before spiking post-airing.

Of note, viewers of new series are about twice as likely to share content than viewers of recurring series (25.7% vs. 13.7%), as are viewers of streaming series (such as those released in bulk on Netflix) in comparison to broadcast series (31.2% vs. 15.1%).

The study also details some intuitive – and yet interesting – findings. While total sharing activity generally favors desktops by a significant margin during the 24 hours pre- and post-airing, mobiles become the prominent devices in the 3 hours before and after airing, with tablets dominating at broadcast time. This suggests that many TV multitasking behaviors are occurring on mobile devices. In fact, two years ago, a study found that 30-40% of TV ad viewing behavior was concurrent with mobile device usage. Given smartphones’ increasing penetration, one wonders what that figure would be today…

Meanwhile, the use of social networks follows a similar pattern. While Facebook generally captures the vast majority of social TV conversation during the 48-hour period before and after a show’s airing (with Facebook’s role in social TV sometimes forgotten), Twitter takes over at broadcast time and during the hour following, dominating the sharing activity during those hours.

Finally, the report notes that social buzz correlates with higher viewership and ratings, particularly for shows with smaller audiences. Nielsen has previously found that tweets influence ratings for some TV shows. Last year, a Nielsen survey found social media’s impact on TV to be growing, with social media leading to greater show awareness and live TV tune-in.

For more on the evolving TV market, see the MarketingCharts study: TV in Context: Viewing Trends, Ad Spending, and Purchase Influence.

About the Data: To arrive at its conclusions, the study coupled ShareThis’ first party social data (46 million users and 153 million TV social signals per month) with Nielsen 3rd party TV viewing data covering 4.9 million TV viewers on 19 audience segments to arrive at a database match of the online social profiles of offline TV audiences.

Some 31% of US and Canadian adults (18+) say they have at some point chosen to watch a TV show or movie because of all the buzz it was getting on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, according to the latest quarterly video trends report [download page] from Digitalsmiths. But growth in this area appears to have slowed, based on a review of past editions of the study.

Indeed, going as far back as Q3 2013, a similar 30.8% of survey respondents said they had watched a show or movie due to social buzz. And while more than 1 in 7 respondents (14.8%) to the latest survey said they post about what they’re watching on social networks, that is actually slightly down from the percentage saying the same in Q3 2013 (15.4%). It’s possible that some of that may be due to seasonality, as the 31% this past quarter (Q1 2015) choosing a show based on social buzz is up from previous first quarters (2014; 29.3% and 2013; 18.6%). Similarly, the 14.8% posting about shows is up from 13.2% a year earlier, suggesting that social’s influence on TV is still growing, albeit slowly.

The figures are similar to those recently released by ShareThis, in which 1 in 6 TV viewers were found to share content about shows online.

In other notable results from the most recent Digitalsmiths report:

• Almost one-quarter (24.2%) of respondents are unsatisfied with the level of value they’re receiving from their cable/satellite service provider, most commonly due to increasing fees for cable/satellite (71.7%) and internet (46.4%) services;
• Respondents are as likely to have increased/added to (18.4%) the level of their cable/satellite service in the past 12 months as they are to have decreased/eliminated it (18.2%), with premium channels the leading reason for increasing (36.4%) service and the second-leading reason for decreasing (44.1%) service;
• The ideal pay-TV line-up, per respondents, is 17 channels, for which they would pay $38 a month;
• Almost half (48.7%) of respondents estimated watching at least 3 hours of TV per day;
• Some 69% of respondents watch 2 hours or less of recorded TV per day, compared to 51% who watch 2 hours or less of live TV per day;
• By comparison, just 16.6% of tablet owners report watching at least 3 hours of TV shows, movies or video content on their device, per week, with the comparable figure among smartphone owners being just 7.4%;
• One-third of respondents feel overwhelmed by the amount of channels available to them, up from 29.1% in Q1 2013; and
• Of the channels offered to them, 81.7% watch between 1 and 10 typically.

For more on pay-TV trends, see the following articles:

• Pay-TV Customer Satisfaction Drops Again, Now Lowest-Rated of 43 Industries
• Pay-TV, Broadband Subs Continue Moving in Opposite Directions
• Consumers: Pay-TV Valued, but Changes Wanted

For more coverage of TV audiences, viewing trends, and advertising influence, see:

• Advertising Channels With the Largest Purchase Influence on Consumers
• Video Consumption, Ad Dollars Continue to Favor TV Over Digital
• US Adults’ Daily Major Media Consumption Estimates, 2011-2015
• US Media Audience Demographics
• Are Young People Watching Less TV? (Updated – Q4 2014 Data)

About the Data: The survey was fielded in Q1 among 3,155 consumers aged 18 and older.

Source: Adobe Digital Index [pdf]

Notes: Authenticated video viewing increased by 63% year-over-year in Q2, says Adobe, a strong increase considering the lack of a major event to drive growth. Overall, about 1 in 8 (12.7% of) pay-TV viewers watched authenticated content on their devices in Q2, up from 10.7% during the year-earlier period, but otherwise down slightly on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Of note, some 21% of TV Everywhere (TVE) authentications occurred via TV-connected devices, up from 10% a year earlier.

The iPad leads all devices in TVE use, though, as it was used by 22.3% of TV Everywhere viewers in Q2. PCs were next, used by 18.3%, followed by iPhones (18.2%) and Apple TV (12.8%). The report’s analysts note that the differences in content available on the various TV-connected devices may be causing the viewing process to be too complicated.

Related: Majority of US Households Now Have a TV Connected to the Internet

About the Data: The results are based on 1.49 billion TV Everywhere authentications from Q2 2014 through Q2 2015.

Planned viewing of TV programs during primetime has reached a new high, while program switching is at a new low, reports GfK in a recent study. While watching a program on a TV network remains the most common use of a TV set during primetime, more viewers are watching recorded programs and streaming video. So what about engagement across those viewing methods?

Interestingly, the survey of consumers aged 13-64 finds that the proportion of primetime TV viewing segments that includes another activity is consistent across traditional linear TV (69%), DVR recordings (70%) and online streaming through a TV (71%). The most common activities performed during primetime TV including talking with others in person or on a phone and using the internet (offering a good reason why a recent study [pdf] correlates TV advertising with web traffic spikes).

As for TV advertising, the GfK report breaks out two advertising attitudes (of 9 measured) that have increased between 2004 and 2015:

• “Companies with primetime ads have a greater commitment to quality” (40% in 2015 versus 27% in 2004); and
• “Primetime ads are better at providing information that helps me decide what to buy” (37% and 28%, respectively).

The following is a brief list of other intriguing data points culled from recently-released research.

• Sticking with TV, a recent report from Flurry that was widely covered in the press claims that mobile apps have surpassed TV viewing in daily average time spent in the US. However, most coverage fails to note that the TV viewing figures cited in Flurry’s report are from the US Department of Labor, and indicate a daily average of 198 minutes in Q2 2015. More commonly-used TV viewing figures – from Nielsen – however, show that daily TV viewing time (of traditional TV only) is closer to 5 hours. That’s about 1.5 times the amount cited in the Flurry report, and would make TV viewing engagement significantly higher than mobile app use.
• Moving on to ad spending, and the US and global forecasts are being downgraded. In fact, ZenithOptimedia (see here), Carat (here) and Warc (here) are all revising down their ad spending forecasts. Meanwhile, ZenithOptimedia sees mobile ad spend overtaking newspaper ad spend globally next year; note that eMarketer projects that mobile ad spend in the US will surpass all of print this year.
• Here’s a nice segue: ad industry execs are suffering from low morale! Specifically, 37% of the 211 ad execs in the US surveyed by Campaign US rated morale at their company as low or dangerously low, outnumbering the 29% who felt it was good or very good. The mood appears to be worsening, with management being the biggest culprit. Those with low morale are more likely to be seeking a new position, while those with the highest salaries are least likely to rate their company’s morale as being low (fancy that!).
• Switching gears, a recent study from OtherLevels that the frequency, content, targeting and utility of mobile messages can affect engagement and lift in response to retail mobile marketing campaigns. A recent study [pdf] of shoppers in North America from Cognizant found that 54% “welcome” retailer alerts reminding them of an offer or loyalty reward based on their current location. But survey results from Genesys offer a different viewpoint, suggesting that consumers find these in-store alerts (such as from beacons) to be annoying.
• Moving on to email marketing, IBM Silverpop recently released a benchmark study [download page] examining engagement rates across industries. The report notes that transactional messages continue to perform better than broadcast emails. Other email engagement data is available here.
• A study from Blue Nile Research suggests that position 2 in search results could generate more clicks than position 1 if the former is a rich media enhanced result and the latter simply a text result. Separately in search, a report from Stone Temple Consulting finds that Wikipedia’s visibility in Google search results is declining, though its prevalence still exceeds Google’s own properties, particularly in commercial queries.
• Finally, research is finding enthusiasm for Jet.com, Amazon’s would-be rival. Data from Channel Advisor shows that since its launch, Jet.com has a 23% repeat buyer rate. Comparable rates during the time period analyzed were lower for eBay (17%) and Amazon (11%). Meanwhile, survey results from Prosper Insights & Analytics indicate that while awareness of Jet.com is fairly low (18.6% of adults), the 7.7% of shoppers who had visited or made a purchase at Jet.com were predominantly youth, with almost 6 in 10 under the age of 35.

Have a great weekend!

More than 1 in 8 digital video ad views for premium content in Q3 came via OTT devices (e.g. Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast), with this representing the fastest increase of the various devices tracked per FreeWheel’s latest quarterly report [download page]. Overall, almost half (48%) of ad views came outside of desktop and laptop environments, per the study, up from about one-quarter during the year-earlier period.

Newly tracked this quarter were STB VOD, which accounted for 6% share of video ad views overall but 18% among those Programmers who had enabled the environment.

In other results from FreeWheel’s report:

• Consumption of TV-style content continues to grow quickly, with live content viewing up 113% year-over-year and long-form (20+ minutes) viewing up 30% year-over-year;
• For Programmers, more than half (61%) of ad views came from live (32%) and long-form (29%) content;
• In looking at content categories, Entertainment and Kids verticals skewed towards long-form viewing, while News and Music skewed heavily towards short-form content and Sports leaned towards live consumption;
• Authenticated viewing continues to rapidly increase, with almost two-thirds of Programmer long-form and live viewing coming via authenticated channels;
• Among OTT devices, Apple TV accounted for 38% share of ad views in Q3, ahead of Roku (31%) and gaming consoles (20%); and
• While most ad views on desktops/laptops (59%) and smartphones (69%) came during short-form content, the bulk (61%) of ad views on OTT devices were during live viewing.

The following is a brief list of other intriguing data points culled from recently-released research.

• Keeping with the video theme, but turning to TV, a recent TiVo survey finds that virtually all TV viewers multitask while watching, and 62% multitask during commercial breaks every time or almost every time they watch TV. Slightly fewer than one-quarter report watching the ads during a commercial break, down from 29% last year, and almost two-thirds of DVR households say they fast-forward through TV commercials. The TiVo survey was completed by 806 adults who reported watching video in the past month on any device and who were the primary or shared decision-maker when purchasing electronics in their household.
• Sticking with video, survey results from Clearleap suggest that more Millennials (18-29) use a streaming service (70%) than subscribe to cable (64%). Of note, just 3% of cable subscribers reported considering canceling their subscription because they had signed up for a streaming service, indicating that they don’t see OTT services as being a replacement for pay-TV.
• TV viewing is “stronger than ever,” but it has fragmented across devices and platforms, reports comScore in a study performed with the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). The study – based on 10 media brands – finds that multi-platform users are more heavily engaged with TV than their TV-only counterparts; in other words, viewers who watched the network on TV and visited it online watched more of the network on TV. The full study is available here [pdf].
• Switching gears, a recent survey from Visually finds that only 38% of marketers are “very” or “extremely” satisfied with the content produced by creative teams. Creatives surveyed feel that marketers can improve most by better estimating the scope of work (40% found difficulty working with marketers on this), giving feedback and iterations (32%) and agreeing on a timeline (26%).
• 8 in 10 consumer brands responding to a survey from Salsify say that they plan to see more SKUs through their own website, which makes sense considering research from BrandShop suggesting that consumers want to buy products directly from brands rather than from third-party retailers.
• Advertisers aren’t shying away from investing to reach Millennials, per data from Turn, which shows that advertisers on its platform are spending 500% more to reach Millennials than all other groups: 4 times more on display; 4 times more on social; 4.5 times more on mobile; and 6 times more on video.
• Finally, Phil Schiller, SVP of Worldwide Marketing at Apple, is the most influential CMO in the world, according to a study from Forbes, ScribbleLive and LinkedIn. To arrive at the scores, the ScribbleLive Insights platform analyzed over 100 million articles from news, blog and social media sources, identified opinions from and reactions to the selected CMOs, and calculated a proprietary influence score based on the people or entities reacting to an opinion.

Have a great weekend!

Some 43.1% of US and Canadian adults are aware that their pay-TV provider offers TV Everywhere, according to the latest quarterly report [download page] from Digitalsmiths covering Q3. That represents an increase from 34.6% aware in Q3 2013, with a corresponding increase (from 19.6% to 23.9%) in the percentage of respondents who report having their provider’s app downloaded on their tablet or smartphone.

Though the growth in awareness and app downloading is modest at best on a year-over-year basis, there appears to be a gradual rise in consumption among those who have downloaded the apps. During this past quarter, for example, almost 1 in 10 (9.7%) said they use the app every day. That’s up from 8.5% last year and 6.3% the year before, indicating a rising level of comfort with the viewing method. At the same time, a slightly larger percentage this year (15.9%) report never using the app they downloaded, so it may be that the increase in usage is limited to those who are already heavy users.

Nevertheless, separate industry data supports the growth of TV Everywhere (TVE). Recent data from FreeWheel, for example, indicates that almost two-thirds (65%) of digital viewing of live and long-form content for Programmers was through authenticated channels in Q3, up from 46% in the year-earlier period. Separately, in its recent Q2 Digital Video Benchmark [pdf], Adobe Digital Index notes that authenticated video viewing grew by 63% year-over-year despite the lack of a major event (such as the Olympics) to drive growth.

In looking further at awareness of TVE offerings, the DigitalSmiths report notes that it is highest among AT&T Uverse (52%) and Comcast (51.3%) subscribers, and lowest among Charter (40.5%) and Cox (40.7%) subscribers. AT&T Uverse (36.1%) and Comcast (35.1%) also sported the highest rates of app downloading among subscribers, while only about 1 in 6 (16.9%) Cox subscribers have downloaded its TVE app.

In other results from the DigitalSmiths survey:

• Some 45.1% of respondents who do not have cable/satellite service use an antenna to access the basic channels on their TV, with this up from 33.3% the preceding quarter;
• About 4 in 10 (40.6% of) cable/satellite subscribers say their current bill is more than what they were paying 12 months ago;
• Close to one-quarter (24%) of cable/satellite subscribers are unsatisfied with the value they are receiving from their provider, up from 21.5% in Q3 2013;
• The leading reason given by those unsatisfied is increasing fees, cited by more than two-thirds; and
• HBO (23.9%) is the leading premium channel subscribed to by respondents and HBO GO is the TV network app downloaded by the largest share (5.4%) of respondents.

About the Data: The results are based on a survey of 3,153 adults in the US and Canada.

Source: Adobe Digital Index

Notes: Connected TV devices are becoming more popular devices for TV Everywhere viewing, reports Adobe Digital Index, noting that almost one-quarter (23%) of authentications occurred via connected TV devices in Q3, more than double the share (10%) from the year-earlier period. Looking closer at device types, the study indicates that the iPad (22% share) remains the device with the largest share of TV Everywhere authentications, while Apple TV’s share is almost double that of Roku (13% and 7%, respectively).

Related: Are Young People Watching Less TV? (Updated – Q3 2015 Data)

About the Data: The data is based on 3.6 billion TV Everywhere authentications from July 2014 through September 2015 spanning 300+ different sites and apps acting as access points for TV Everywhere.

Source: GfK

Notes: A slight majority – 53% – of consumers (aged 13-64) living in pay-TV households have used TV Everywhere (TVE) to watch programs on a computer, mobile device or TV set, reports GfK, with this being up from 43% in 2012. Not surprisingly, use of TVE services is higher among Gen Y (13-35) than other generations, with usage slightly higher for TV network services than signal provider offerings.

Interestingly, despite the rise in monthly use of TVE offerings (which are attributed to greater viewing on mobile apps), only one-quarter of consumers surveyed reported having heard of the term “TV Everywhere.”

Related: Which Devices Are TVE Viewers Using to Access Content?

With the Super Bowl well and truly in the rear view mirror, various analyses have emerged surrounding the performance of the ads aired. Most of these look at the digital reverberation or impact of the commercials – such as post-game search behavior, social buzz – which makes sense given that it will take time to see what type of broader impact the commercials had for advertising brands.

With that in mind, the following list shows the so-called winners and losers among advertisers, at least for the time being. Following this list is another with more audience-focused data.

• This Super Bowl featured more of a skew towards humorous ads than last year, with ads also tending to be shorter, as almost three-quarters were 45 seconds or shorter, per Ace Metrix. The company also notes a decline in themes such as animals, cute babies/children, and sexy ads. The most likable ad this year was Doritos’ “No Dogs Allowed,” according to Ace Metrix’s post-game review [download page].
• Doritos also topped another list, proving to be the most engaging Super Bowl ad according to a Qualtrics and Lucid study that tracked consumers’ facial expressions while they watched the ads. Doritos’ “Ultrasound” commercial beat out Marmot’s “Love the Outside” and Heinz’s “Wiener Stampede” as the most emotionally engaging ad.
• One more for Doritos, which easily was the most-shared ad of the Super Bowl, with almost 900,000 shares as of the day after the game. That was more than twice as many shares as the next-most shared ad, T-Mobile’s “Restricted Bling,” according to Unruly’s count. However, overall sharing of the top 10 Super Bowl ads was down by 36% from last year, per separate data from Unruly, which attributes the decline in part to advertisers not releasing on multiple platforms and a lack of lift from celebrities.
• Although the Doritos spot might have been the most likable, engaging, and shared, Hyundai’s “First Date” topped USA Today’s annual “Ad Meter,” with Heinz’s “Wiener Stampede” in second and the Doritos spot in third.
• The Super Bowl ads generated close to 3.3 billion social impressions during the game, notes iSpot.tv, with nearly 2.5 million social actions. Across Facebook and Twitter, men were responsible for a slight majority (52%) of ad engagement, while the primary age group engaging with ads was the 35-44 bracket. Online sentiment skewed overwhelmingly positive, with the average reaction being 88% positive to this year’s ads. Separately, iSpot.tv reveals that Mountain Dew’s “Puppymonkeybaby” was the most engaging Super Bowl ad on game day in terms of social actions, with Hyundai and T-Mobile airing the 4 other most engaging commercials (2 each).
• More than 15 million people saw tweets about the Super Bowl telecast, reveals Nielsen, with these tweets seen 1.3 billion times throughout the night. This “Twitter TV audience” skewed male (53%), with the majority (56%) over the age of 25. Brand-related activity totaled 1.4 million authors and 4.6 million tweets, with Esurance’s “Esurance Sweepstakes” campaign taking the top rank with more than 1.6 million tweets. Moreover #EsuranceSweepstakes was the top ad hashtag (1.6 million), far ahead of #PepsiHalftime (244k) and #PuppyMonkeyBaby (75k). However, T-Mobile’s “Steve Harvey Restricted Bling” picked up the most tweet “authors,” with 274,000.
• Data from Amobee Intelligence, as reported by CNBC, likewise shows that while it did not advertise during the game, Esurance picked up significant social activity on the basis of its sweepstakes campaign. In fact, as with Nielsen’s analysis, Amobee finds that Esurance led the brand-related conversation on Twitter.
• As part of its “Digital Bowl Report” [download page], Merkle shows that TurboTax was the overall winner in terms of digital media performance, with a particularly strong SEO showing. Amazon ranked highest for social media, though, while several brands tied for the top spot in the paid search rankings.
• Although search volume for Doritos spiked while its ad aired, Audi’s r8 Commander spot and Jeep’s Portraits commercial generated the most search interest during the game, according to Search Engine Watch. Separately, an analysis from TVSquared indicates that Amazon Echo saw the biggest increase in search traffic in New York, Chicago, and Charlotte, while Fitbit experienced the largest rise in Dallas.
• Social engagement overall grew by 44% this year, per MediaPost’s Digital Engagement Index, which is based off ListenFirst data. While Budweiser enjoyed Peyton Manning’s plug after the game (see its effect on Budweiser’s Super Bowl tweets here), its ad failed to enter the top 10 in social media engagement. Other ListenFirst data cited by Ad Age finds that GoPro’s ad had the biggest impact of the advertising brands on the size of its social community.

In other Super Bowl-related data:

• Overall, preliminary data from Nielsen indicates that the Super Bowl telecast drew in 111.9 million TV viewers (the 3rd most-watched telecast ever), reaching 54.3 million homes for a US household rating of 46.6. In fact, some 72% of US homes with TVs in use were tuned into the Super Bowl telecast, which would represent the highest household share since the 1982 Super Bowl if the preliminary figure holds true.
• The Super Bowl this year was the second-most cluttered ever in terms of ad loads, according to Kantar Media, with the 49 minutes and 35 seconds of advertising and promos representing 22% of the total broadcast. Auto was again the leading category with 11 spots and 9 minutes of ad time, while Anheuser-Busch InBev was the top advertiser with 3-and-a-half minutes of ad time. Meanwhile almost one-third – or 17 – of the brands airing a commercial were first-time advertisers, with this both the highest number and highest percentage going back at least as far as 2012. Interestingly, of the 40 parent companies that advertised last year, only 22 returned for this year’s event. That attrition rate of 45% is on par with the 47% average from 2006-2015.
• Of the 60 national ads aired from kickoff through the end of the game, Marketing Land notes that 45% contained hashtags, the lowest percentage since 2012. Slightly more than one-third (35%) of the ads contained a URL, while Twitter and Facebook were each explicitly mentioned in 3 ads.
• Unmetric says that it tracked more than 44,000 unique pieces of Super Bowl-related content in the lead-up to – and during – the big game, almost half of which was published on the day itself. That represents almost a 50% increase from the amount of content published surrounding last year’s game, which speaks to the ever-growing volume of content being created today.
• The top-rated ads from last year’s game (in 2015) achieved a sustained social buzz that lasted an average of 25 days after the game, reports Adobe Digital Index.
• Mobile app usage was highest at kickoff, says Localytics, with social networking apps being launched the most often. Flurry, for its part, notes that there was a 21% year-over-year rise in mobile app session activity during this year’s game, with in-game session activity over-indexing a typical Sunday by a larger degree than last year. Flurry’s analysis suggests that app usage was actually highest during the third quarter, indicating that attention might be lowest for TV spots then, although that may have presented advertisers with an opportunity to spread the message to the second screen at that time.

Pre-Game Research

Close to 190 million Americans are expected to watch Super Bowl 50 on Sunday, reports the NRF, based on a survey of more than 7,000 adults. The 77% of respondents planning to watch the game is the highest percentage in at least the past decade. This year almost one-quarter (23%) of viewers said that the commercials are the most important part of the Super Bowl, while 45% feel that the game itself is most important.

The 18-24 age group seems to have the most positive feelings about the commercials. They’re more likely than the average respondent to say that:

• Super Bowl TV commercials make them aware of advertiser brands (21.7% vs. 17.5%);
• The ads influence them to buy products from the advertisers (16.7% vs. 10.3%); and
• The ads influence them to search online for more information (14.8% vs. 8.9%).

Meanwhile, this age group is the least likely to feel that advertisers should save their money and pass the savings on to the public (13.6% vs. 16.1%).

Below is a brief list of Super Bowl-related research with links to sources for readers interested in delving more into the stats.

• The average rate for a 30-second spot in the Super Bowl has grown by 76% over the last decade, from $2.5 million in 2006 to $4.4 million in 2015, per Kantar Media. (This year the ads sold out at somewhere around $5 million per 30-second spot.) Over the decade-long period from 2006 to 2015, ad spending on the game has more than doubled, growing from $162.5 million to $345.4 million, due not only to pricing inflation but also to increased clutter. Kantar Media reports that average ad time in 2006 was 44 minutes and 15 seconds, while last year ad time totaled 48 minutes and 5 seconds. Interestingly, though, the number of ads has decreased since 2006, with total ad time instead more influenced by longer ads. Last year, 22 ads (or 37% of those aired) were at least 60 seconds in length, while in 2006 only half as many (11 ads) were of that length, representing 16% of those aired.
• This decade, auto manufacturers have been the most likely to air ads in the Super Bowl, with 6 brands last year advertising during the game, according to Kantar Media. Interestingly, an Ace Metrix analysis indicates that auto Super Bowl ads with celebrities in them have performed better (along a composite measure that includes likability and persuasion) than those without celebrities. By contrast, Super Bowl ads in general that have celebrities in them have generated lower Ace Scores than those without celebrities, per the analysis.
• While the NRF data suggests that 189 million Americans will watch the Super Bowl, a report from Unruly released last year indicates that the potential audience for advertisers is much larger than those simply watching on TV. Based on a survey of more than 1,200 consumers, Unruly reported that roughly half of Super Bowl ad viewers only watched the commercials online. Brands have been teasing or releasing their ads before the Super Bowl – iSpot.tv data indicates that through February 2, 37 brands had released 67 ads or teasers associated with the game – and Unruly recommends doing so on the Thursday before the big game. Last year’s Super Bowl generated a record amount of online video ads shares, says Unruly, with the 9 million shares representing a 73% increase from the year prior.
• Through February 2nd, Super Bowl-related ads had been viewed slightly more times on Facebook (75 million) than on YouTube (74.9 million), per iSpot.tv.
• A survey of 400 US consumers from Adobe Digital Index (ADI) finds more planning to watch Super Bowl ads on Facebook than YouTube. Older respondents (Gen Xers and Boomers) were more likely to say they would visit a Super Bowl advertiser website after the game than during it, though Millennials were most likely to say they would do so during the game itself. Social mentions for top advertiser brands last year remained above daily averages for 25 days last year, per ADI.
• Separately, Unruly reveals that Volkswagen’s “The Force,” from 2011’s Super Bowl, remains the most-shared Super Bowl ad of all time, with more than 5 million shares across social media “and the blogosphere.”
• For its part, Ace Metrix reports that Budweiser’s “Puppy Love,” aired during the 2015 Super Bowl, is the most liked Super Bowl ad of the past 5 years. In fact, Budweiser has aired the 3 most likeable ads of the past 5 years, per the report, which also notes that Doritos has aired 5 of the 25 most-liked ads.
• Although more than 1 in 10 consumers surveyed by the NRF believe that the ads will influence them to buy products, Communicus is out with its annual research arguing that the commercials aren’t an effective way to spend advertising dollars. In analyzing the effectiveness of more than 150 ads from the past 4 Super Bowls via surveys of the same consumers both pre- and post-game, Communicus indicates that only 1 in 5 commercials will generate “any meaningful movement for the brand on future purchase intentions or other marketers of brand health.” Worth noting is that – per Kantar Media’s data – 21% of the brands airing commercials last year (8 in total) spent more than 10% of their annual media budget on their Super Bowl.
• In its own annual survey of Super Bowl Ad Engagement, Brand Keys notes that only 13 of the 33 advertising brands included in this year’s survey are considered both engaging and entertaining by consumers. A chart mapping out engagement and entertainment for each advertising brand can be accessed here [pdf].
• In looking at the search ad performance last year of Super Bowl advertisers against a group of advertisers who did not air an ad during the Super Bowl, Marin Software shows that the advertisers experienced a large spike in search ad impressions and conversions without an appreciable increase in cost-per-click. This pattern was consistent throughout all of February, per the report, meaning that advertisers enjoyed a decreased cost-per-lead during the entire month.
• Among likely Super Bowl viewers in the NRF survey, roughly 1 in 10 said that the half time show is their most important part. In looking back at the past 6 half time shows, Nielsen finds that Bruno Mars (2014) enjoyed the most post-game music consumption, though Madonna (2012) had the greatest percentage lift in total album sales, digital downloads and streaming the week after the event. That was largely the result of the release of the first single from her album during Super Bowl week, says Nielsen, along with buzz surrounding the way in which the show closed.
• 1 in 5 adults in the US are likely to use their mobile phone during the halftime show, according to a Quixey survey of more than 2,000 adults (18+). The survey results indicate that a high proportion (41%) of respondents who have clicked on a mobile ad did so inadvertently. Interestingly, a separate report released a day earlier – from Retale – similarly notes that 60% of mobile users surveyed said that when they typically click on banner ads while using a mobile device “it’s usually by accident.”
• Almost 8% (7.7%) of adults surveyed by the NRF plan to purchase a TV for Super Bowl Sunday, a figure down from last year’s 8.8% but nevertheless considerably higher than in 2007 (2.8%). These TV-buying adults might be influenced by a perception that it’s a good time to buy a TV: a FatWallet.com-commissioned survey of 1,000 adults finds that a leading 25% share of respondents feel that the Super Bowl is the best time to buy a TV, beating out Black Friday (18% share) and December sales (7%).

Source: Adobe Digital Index (ADI)

Notes: After growing incrementally for 3 consecutive quarters, TV Everywhere penetration among active pay-TV viewers jumped in Q4 to 17.4%, per Adobe Digital Index, representing 22% quarter-over-quarter growth and a 36% year-over-year increase. The share of authentications has shifted towards TV-connected devices, per the report, with these devices representing 21% share of authentications in Q4, up from 16% a year earlier. Despite a 9-point decline over that period, iOS devices to continue to account for the largest share (36%) of authentications.

Related: TV Everywhere Consumption on the Rise

About the Data: The data is based on 3.6 billion TV Everywhere authentications from October 2014 through December 2015 spanning 300+ different sites and apps acting as access points for TV Everywhere.

Gen X is the most influential generation, says Yahoo in a new study, but it’s also somewhat forgotten about, as America’s “middle child”. Citing data showing that Gen X has the highest median income and controls close to one-third of total income dollars, Yahoo delves into the media behaviors and attitudes of what it says are “influential but overlooked” consumers.

Based on a survey of more than 2,000 adults – including more than 850 Gen Xers (35-54) – the report indicates that 51% of Gen Xers feel that they are part of the “vanishing” middle class. As parents, almost half worry that their kids are spoiled, while more than 8 in 10 feel that it’s important that they instill some sense of financial understanding in their children.

Interestingly, two-thirds of Gen Xers feel that they work a lot harder than the Millennial generation, while only 38% of Millennials (18-34) surveyed feel that their generation works harder than older generations. Perhaps that’s not too surprising in light of other research showing how dim a view Millennials have of their own generation.

Nevertheless, Gen Xers (13%) were only half as likely as Millennials (26%) to say they increased the amount of time they worked after having kids. Indeed, 81% of Gen X parents say that a work-life balance is important.

Turning to technology and content engagement, the report demonstrates that Gen Xers tend to multitask more than Millennials during prime time, but that it stunts their emotional response to content more so than for Millennials. When it comes to content, the idea of Gen X as the middle child emerges: they’re in between Millennials and Boomers (55-64) in terms of their likelihood to consume their top categories of content, ranging from news, to weather, music, food and cooking and technology. The only categories in which they’re the most likely to consume content are sports and travel (each by only a small margin).

Gen Xers appear to be avid consumers of content online, though. Three-quarters do so when on social media, and almost one in 3 consume content posted by brands or companies. Meanwhile, close to 8 in 10 researched products online in the month prior to the survey, with the most commonly-researched products being clothing or apparel (37%), electronics (32%), entertainment items (26%) and food or beverages (26%).

The Yahoo study finds some interesting results in analyzing adults’ receptiveness to advertising. While one-quarter of Gen Xers agree that they feel like their generation is often forgotten about by advertisers, an almost equal share of Millennials (24%) feel the same way. Given the extreme amounts of attention paid to Millennials by marketers, this is surprising to say the least.

Just as notable: Boomers (21%) were the least likely to agree – albeit by a small margin – that their generation is often forgotten about by advertisers. That runs counter to MarketingCharts research on advertising to Baby Boomers, which has found older Americans feeling ignored by advertisers despite controlling the vast majority of disposable income in the US.

In a similar question, roughly one-third of respondents to the Yahoo survey from each generation agreed that “it’s about time advertisers recognized that my generation shops too”. Here again the lack of differences between younger and older generations is surprising.

In other advertising-related attitudes, the study notes that:

• 30% of Gen Xers are more likely to click on an ad aimed specifically at their generation, compared to 37% of Millennials and 23% of Boomers; and
• 27% of Gen Xers are more likely to purchase a product from a brand whose ad is targeted specifically at their generation, compared to 27% of Millennials and 17% of Boomers.

The study notes that in each of the attitudinal statements about advertising, agreement was higher among Gen X parents than among Gen Xers overall.

Recommendations for creative strategy and messaging include:

• Indulging Gen Xers’ “kick my feet up” fantasies;
• Kid/tech dilemmas and bonding moments;
• Nostalgia with a deeper purpose; and
• Chin-up inspiration.

For data concerning Gen Xers’ top purchase influencers (including word-of-mouth, email, and online and traditional media ads), see MarketingCharts’ study, Advertising Channels With the Largest Purchase Influence on Consumers.

Source: FreeWheel [download page]

Notes: Desktops and laptops accounted for just 40% share of premium video ad views in Q4 2015, down from 52% a quarter earlier and falling below a majority share for the first time, reports FreeWheel. OTT devices continue to grow quickly, comprising 22% share of all video ad views, overtaking smartphones (19%).

Among OTT devices, Apple TV led with 44% share of ad views, followed by Roku (34% share).

In other study results:

• Authenticated viewing accounted for 65% of long-form and live monetization for programmers (MVPDs) in Q4, up from 56% in the year-earlier period;
• OTT devices, at 31% share, continue to represent the second-largest share of authenticated ad views, not far behind desktops and laptops (37% share);
• Overall video views grew by 32% year-over-year and video ad views by 30%, driven by live and long-form viewing (+129%);
• The entertainment category (32%) represented the largest share of ad views by content segment, followed by sports (20%) and music (12%);
• Tablets, desktops/laptops and OTT devices continue to be used primarily for long-form (20+ minutes) and live viewing, with the opposite true for smartphones;
• The average ad break length was 130 seconds (6.2 ad units) for live viewing in Q4;
• Ads served during live and long-form video skewed towards 30-second units over 15-second units, while a majority (55%) of ads served during shorter-form content were 15 seconds in length; and
• The retail vertical comprised the largest share (25%) of ad views by vertical, followed by CPG (18%) and financial services (12%).

Related: Majority of Americans Projected to Watch Streaming TV This Year

About the Data: The dataset used for the FreeWheel reports concern the usage and monetization of professional, rights managed video content, and are comprised of over 160 billion video views in 2015. The report is released quarterly and highlights the changing dynamics of how enterprise-class content owners and distributors are monetizing professional digital video content.

More than 9 in 10 US consumers aged 14 and older say they typically multitask while watching TV, up from about 8 in 10 just 3 years earlier, reports Deloitte in its latest annual Digital Democracy survey. While multitasking is most common – and almost ubiquitous – among younger age groups, it’s also widespread among older generations, as more than 5 in 6 Baby Boomers and Matures report engaging in other activities while watching TV.

However, those older generations estimate only engaging in one other activity while watching TV, while teens and Millennials average 4 other activities. Interestingly, this doesn’t seem to negatively affect the probability of these younger groups engaging in activities related to the program they’re watching: roughly one-third of multitasking activities for 19-32-year-olds are directly related to the program they are watching, compared to less than 20% of the activities for the older generations. Overall, about one-quarter (24%) of multitasking is estimated to be directly related to the program being viewed.

The most common multitasking activities also vary across age groups: reading email is the most popular for Baby Boomers (50-68) and Matures (69+), while browsing the web is the most common activity for Gen Xers and all but the youngest (14-18) respondents, who prefer text messaging and using social networks.

The increase in multitasking comes at the same time as another emerging TV behavior: binge-viewing. This year 7 in 10 consumers said that they ever binge watch TV shows, a figure that rises to 86% among 14-18-year-olds but drops to just 33% among Matures. Although weekly binge-watching remains the same as last year (at 31% of binge-watchers), monthly binge-viewing has increased to 40% of this group, up from 34% last year.

TV dramas remain the most binged genre across generations, followed by TV comedies. When binging, respondents find the time to watch an average of 5 episodes in a single sitting.

While not explicitly covered in the report, the prevalence of binging behavior suggests increasing use of subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services. (Previous research indicates that binging behavior is typically via DVR’d content or SVOD services.)

Indeed, almost half (46%) of consumers surveyed said they subscribe to a streaming video service, with 26-32-year-olds the heaviest subscribers, averaging 3 paid service subscriptions. Streaming video services have surpassed pay-TV in value to the youngest Millennials (14-25), though older respondents continue to favor their pay-TV services.

Testament to the growth of streaming among younger Americans (and possibly to the extent of binge-viewing), all of the Millennial age brackets now estimate spending more time streaming than watching live programming. While the difference is minor among the 14-18 and 26-32 age groups, it’s larger among the 19-25 bracket, who say they average 38% of their TV time with streaming as opposed to 29% with live programming.

As found in other recent research, convenience continues to be a top driver of streaming, with 71% of respondents strongly agreeing that it allows them to watch content when they want to. Interestingly, while about two-thirds strongly agree that they value the ability to watch content without commercials, fewer than half strongly agree that they value their service’s availability of recent TV show releases (44%) or recent movie releases (42%). In other words, streaming services appear to be valued more for their convenience and accessibility across devices than for their content libraries.

About the Data: The Deloitte survey was fielded online by an independent research from November 5, 2015 to November 19, 2015, among 2,205 US consumers. All data is weighted back to the most recent US census.

The average household has 10 active devices with access to the internet, according to recently-released data from comScore, and that figure rises to an impressive average of 19 devices among households with at least 4 people. While computers (97%) and phones (91%) are almost ubiquitous in today’s households, the data shows that streaming devices (39%) have solid penetration levels.

Streaming devices are even more common among higher-income households, per the report: some 44% of households with at least $75k in income own an OTT streaming device, compared to 35% with income below that threshold.

Of note, Roku dominates the streaming device market with 49% market share, suggesting that Roku devices are now in about 1 in 5 US households. (These figures are as of March 2016.)

Following Roku in OTT streaming device market share are Google’s Chromecast (22%) and Amazon FireTV (16%), with Apple TV (12%) further behind.

Separate data released by Adobe for its Q1 Digital Video Benchmark Report show that TV-connected devices are continuing to capture greater share of TV Everywhere authentications. In Q1 2016, these devices accounted for 23% share of such authentications, up from 20% during the year-earlier period. Interestingly enough, Apple TV (10%) topped Roku (8%) in TVE authentication share, though.

About the Data: The comScore data is based on its Total Home Panel Custom Analysis for March 2016. The Total Home Panel is installed in 3,600+ homes geographically distributed throughout the US, collecting data on 19,000+ devices daily.

The top priority of customer success teams is churn reduction, with 76% of customer success professionals listing this as a high priority. That’s according to Totango’s 2016 Customer Success Salary Survey & State of the Profession Report, which surveyed 1,000 customer success professionals.

Beyond churn reduction, a majority of respondents also cited onboarding (61%) and product adoption (60%) as high priorities, while slightly fewer pointed to customer support (48%) and customer advocacy (44%).

Interestingly, with half of respondents saying they report directly to the CEO, executive buy-in isn’t much of a challenge. Just 16% of respondents consider executive support a major challenge, far behind others such as reactive approaches (39%) and visibility into adoption and health metrics for customers (also 39%).

So, technically that was more than one marketing stat, but let’s keep that our little secret. Here are 12 more stats to end your week with. We encourage you to follow the links provided for even more data goodness.

• 71% of all TV Everywhere (TVE) viewers watch from one location. In other words, TVE isn’t much of an on-the-go activity. Source: Adobe Digital Index.
• 73% of brands and media agencies feel that user experience is one of the major challenges facing digital advertising today, with ad clutter the main UX challenge. (Too bad research shows that UX seems to be marketers’ biggest skill gap.) Source: IAB [pdf].
• For CPG brands, magazines have the highest return on ad spend, of $3.94. Linear TV ads show the highest incremental sales per exposed household, while mobile generates the highest incremental sales per thousand impressions. Source: Nielsen Catalina Solutions [pdf].
• 31% of Americans currently use (21%) or have used (10%) a connected health device or tool to manage their health. Source: Ipsos.
• 40% of fathers with children under 6 and 39% of fathers will children aged 6-16 own a smart TV, compared to 25% of the general population. In fact, fathers show above-average adoption of various new technologies including gaming consoles, tablets, fitness bands, online streaming services and smart watches. Source: Millward Brown Digital / TNS Connected Life.
• 89% of organizations report a lift from website or in-app personalization initiatives, including 53% reporting a lift of more than 10%. That’s according to a survey of 250 organizations of all sizes around the world, 113 of whom responded to that particular question. Source: Evergage and Researchscape International [download page].
• Advertisers across the world will spend more on mobile internet advertising ($99.3 billion) than on desktop internet advertising ($97.4 billion) next year, as desktop internet ad spend is now on the decline. Source: Zenith.
• 42% of social media marketers frequently have conversations with their boss about social ROI. Those conversations probably aren’t going too well, since only 45% are able to quantify the revenue driven by social and a leading 61% say that their biggest challenge is measuring ROI. Those figures courtesy of a survey of more than 350 social media professionals. Source: Simply Measured [download page].
• Wait. Proving ROI is also the top challenge with enterprise search marketing, despite paid search being the easiest digital channel to measure for ROI. In any case, creating high-quality content that earns links (34%) is the top priority SEO tactic over the next 6-12 months for enterprise organizations. Source: Clutch.
• 44% of professional marketers and SMB owners plan to spend money to promote video content on Facebook in the next 12 months, while 26% of marketers and 19% of SMB owners plan to spend money advertising on YouTube. Source: Animoto.
• Consumers’ top barrier to signing up for a mobile loyalty program is that too much information is required (45%), with inconvenience sign-up times (22%) and irrelevant offers (18%) being secondary barriers. Source: 3Cinteractive [download page]
• The average click rate for North American commercial emails fell year-over-year from 3.9% in Q1 2015 to 3.4% in Q1 2016, continuing a long-term decline. Source: Epsilon.

Have a great weekend!

Slightly more than 4 in 10 adults in the US and Canada profess to choosing a TV show or movie at least sometimes because of the buzz it’s getting on Facebook, Twitter or other social networks. That result comes courtesy of the latest quarterly Video Trends report [download page] from Digitalsmiths, and it marks social’s biggest influence in at least a year.

To be fair, social’s impact on TV viewing decisions has grown modestly at best of late: in the year-earlier period (Q2 2015), a similar 38% of adults surveyed reported having watched a show due to social buzz. Still, there’s been an undeniable rise in social’s influence over the years in these Digitalsmiths studies: in Q1 2013, for example, fewer than half the proportion of respondents (18.6%) claimed to have ever made a viewing choice based on social buzz.

Similar patterns have been seen with social posts: this past quarter’s 26.2% who at least sometimes post about what they’re watching is only up slightly year-over-year (from 22.5%), but is more than double the share from early 2013.

[SPONSORED Free Ebook: The Content Marketing Survival Guide: How to Navigate the Wilds of Social Media]

In other content discovery data gleaned from Digitalsmiths’ latest report:

• Almost 2 in 3 adults surveyed feel frustrated either sometimes (54.1%) or always (11.8%) when trying to find something to watch on TV;
• More than 1 in 3 (35.9%) use a third-party entertainment source such as TV Guide or IMDb to find something to watch on TV; and
• Close to 1 in 10 use voice search functionality offered by their pay-TV provider.

Turning to TV Everywhere, the report details continued awareness of the solution, reaching almost half (48.2%) of respondents in Q2, up from about one-third (32.1%) three years earlier. Adoption has also risen over the past couple of years, surpassing one-quarter (26.2%) of respondents, most of whom watch TV Everywhere on at least a weekly basis.

As TV Everywhere (TVE) usage grows, it seems to be migrating to the living room, per Adobe Digital Insights (ADI) data. In its latest report, ADI reveals that almost half (44%) of time spent with TVE occurs on TV connected devices, up from 27% share a year earlier.

ADI also sees increasing use of TV Everywhere on a year-over-year basis, though usage declined from Q1, likely due to seasonality.

About the Data: The Digitalsmiths data is based on a survey of 3,113 adults (18+) in the US and Canada.

The ADI data is based on 16 billion TV Everywhere authentications in North America from 300+ different sites and apps acting as access points for TV Everywhere.

TV multitasking has been on the rise in recent years, though it doesn’t always involved activities related to the programming. A recent report [pdf] from Ericsson ConsumerLab, however, suggests that a large proportion of video consumers worldwide engage in TV-related activities on a second screen as part of their viewing experience – and that many do so regularly.

Indeed, 83% of the more than 30,000 consumers aged 16-69 across 24 markets (who have broadband at home and watch any type of TV/video at least weekly) surveyed for the report said that they engage in TV-related activities on a second screen as part of their viewing experience. This was more prevalent among Millennials (92%), though fully three-quarters of those aged 35 and older professed to doing so.

The frequency of TV-related second-screening was also surprisingly high: 35% claimed to do so at least daily, including almost half (46%) of Millennials.

One of the more common activities is browsing the internet relating to the content being watched. Almost one-third (31%) of consumers surveyed reported doing this on at least a weekly basis, up from 23% a couple of years ago. There’s also been a rise in the incidence of online discussions surrounding the content being viewed (19%, up from 17%) and watching two or more programs at the same time (20%, up from 15%).

Presumably the smartphone would be the choice for the second screen, as the study notes that smartphone video viewing has increased by 4 hours per week on average since 2012. While live TV viewing has dipped over that period, it appears to remain the predominant viewing method, though not by a sizable margin.

On average, respondents spend the most weekly hours watching:

• TV series according to a fixed TV schedule (3.9 hours per week);
• Movies according to a fixed TV schedule (3.6 hours per week); and
• Other TV programs (excluding the above as well as live sports and live news) according to a fixed TV schedule (2.6 hours per week).

Still, respondents averaged 2.5 hours per week steaming on-demand user-generated content, and this occupied the single largest share of time for Millennials, ahead even of TV series.

Overall, scheduled linear TV occupies about 40% of total viewing hours per week across all the respondents, relatively unchanged from last year. Short video clips have grown to account for more than one-fifth of viewing hours, followed by streamed on-demand movies, TV series and other programs (~15%).

About the Data: More than 30,000 online interviews were held with people aged 16-69 across 24 markets: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, the UK and the US. All respondents have a broadband internet connection at home and watch TV/video at least once a week. Almost all use the internet on a daily basis.

Among American adults, women allocate a greater share of their media time to social than any other demographic group, according to a report [download page] from Nielsen. In fact, the more than 6-and-a-half hours per week they spent with social in Q3 2016 equated to fully one-quarter of their total weekly media time, per Nielsen’s figures.

Women have long been known to be heavier social media users than men on average. In this study, they were found to spend 2 hours and 10 minutes more per week on social than men, an average of almost 20 minutes more per day.

Another headline finding from the report is that Gen X (35-49) spends more time on social media than Millennials (18-34). In fact, at just under 7 hours per week (or 1 hour per day), Gen Xers are the heaviest social media users of any of the demographic groups. However, since they’re also the heaviest media users overall, they end up allocating a smaller share (22%) of their media time to social than do Millennials (24%).

Meanwhile, on a racial/ethnic basis, African-American adults spent the most weekly time using social media in Q3 (6 hours and 9 minutes), though Hispanic adults dedicated the largest portion of their media time to social (23%).

The report also examined the habits of heavy social media users, who spend at least 3 hours daily on social media. Among this group, the most common activities performed in the prior 30 days were:

• Visiting a friend’s profile/page (57%);
• Commenting on a friend’s post (55%);
• Sending a message or email (50%);
• Watching a video (50%); and
• Posting picture(s) (50%).

About 1 in 8 clicked on an ad within the prior 30 days, perhaps testament to the rising influence of social advertising.

Heavy social media users are also more likely than lighter users to see the importance of social networks for various brand-related activities. Some 39% say that a social networks is somewhat or very important to find out about products and services, while more than one-third say these platforms are important to receive exclusive offers, coupons and other discounts.

Heavy social media users aren’t the biggest online shoppers, however, They were less likely than other social user groups to have spent more than $500 online in the previous 12 months, and more likely to have spent less than $100 online over the course of the prior year. The top items bought online by social media users, regardless of their usage status, were clothing or accessories and books.

Turning to social’s relationship with TV, Nielsen notes that most Facebook and Twitter activity occurs on the weekend, particularly on Sundays. On an average day, 61% of those interacting with TV on Facebook are female, while 42% are Gen Xers and 40% Millennials.

The study outlines engagement rates per owned TV-related tweet in the 15 minutes after the tweet is sent, revealing that:

• For comedy series, engagement is highest for tweets posted 30-45 minutes after the program and 60-45 minutes before airing;
• For drama series, engagement is highest for tweet posted 15-30 minutes after the program as well as during the first and final thirds of the program;
• For reality series, engagement is highest for tweets posted during the final third of a program; while
• For sports events, engagement is highest for tweets sent 0-15 minutes after the program and 30-45 minutes after the program.

The figures demonstrate that consumers are using social media while watching TV, likely on mobile devices. Indeed, 45% of smartphone owners report using their device at least once a day while watching TV, more commonly to visit Facebook than to visit Twitter or a different network.

The full study is available for download here.

It was a thrilling Super Bowl comeback. But how about the ads? Which brands fared best in the post-game analyses that continue to roll in? Here’s a look at some of the winners and losers, mostly from research examining the digital reverberation or impact of the commercials (it’ll take time to see what type of broader impact the commercials had for advertising brands).

The following list highlights top advertising brands across various metrics – with sources and links provided. Following that list is another with more audience-focused data.

• Most-viewed ad online: Budweiser: “#BornTheHardWay” (more than 34.8 million views across top video platforms and websites through February 6). Budweiser’s spot was followed by Wix.com’s “Disruptive World” and T-Mobile’s “#Unlimited Moves” in the TrueReach rankings. Source: Visible Measures.
• Most-shared ad: Budweiser: “#BornTheHardWay” (435,892). Budweiser’s spot had almost twice as many shares as the next-most shared ad, Mr. Clean’s “Cleaner of Your Dreams”. Source: Unruly (Stats compiled 2/6/2017. List does not include movie trailers.)
• Most-watched ad on YouTube: Budweiser: “#BornTheHardWay”. Anheuser-Busch fared the best of all, with Bud Light’s “Ghost Spuds” coming second in YouTube views (as of 2/6 at 2AM ET). Google notes that ads connected with social and political themes performed very well, accounting for almost half of commercial watch time on Super Bowl Sunday. Source: Google.
• Most effective ad: Hyundai: “A Better Super Bowl” (EQ score of 6.1/10). The EQ score is used to rank ads on their likely emotional, social and business impact, with “the intensity of emotions viewers felt while watching, brand favorability, authenticity and purchase intent” all also contributing. Hyundai’s ad scored well for authenticity, with 88% of viewers saying the content came across as authentic. Coca-Cola’s “It’s Beautiful” – the 2nd-most effective by EQ score – had the highest level of purchase intent, however, with 59% of those watching the ad saying they’d be interested in buying the product. Source: Unruly.
• Brand with the most social mentions: Budweiser. (Analysis between 5PM on Super Bowl Sunday and 7AM the following day.) Budweiser’s commercial received more than 95,000 mentions, well ahead of Coca-Cola’s 44,000. Five of the 10 ads generating the most discussion on social media had a political element. Source: Talkwalker.
• Brand with the most social actions: 84 Lumber. In an analysis of social actions across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube from Feb. 5-6, 84 Lumber ranked fourth among all brands and tops among advertising brands in terms of total actions. The brand – which had just 7 posts during that time frame (compared to 38 for T-Mobile, for example), had the highest number of actions per post. Source: Shareablee.
• Most tweeted-about ad: Mr. Clean’s “Cleaner of Your Dreams.” Source: Nielsen.
• Most talked about ad on Facebook: Audi’s “Daughter”. Source: Facebook.
• Most mentioned brand on Twitter: Pepsi, followed by T-Mobile. Source: Twitter. Worth noting is that only 30% of ads featured a hashtag this year, according to Marketing Land’s analysis, down from a high of 59% three years ago. In fact, more ads this year (39% share) featured a URL than a hashtag.
• Most effective ad, based on viewer surveys: Ford’s “Go Further” (which aired only during pre-game and post-game commercial breaks). “Lightheartedness” was the over-riding theme to the most successful ads, if Ace Metrix’s argument is to be believed (running counter to what YouTube and other sources found). While ads with political themes resonated online, Ace Metrix found that the ads that were best received by audiences were lighthearted and humorous. Source: Ace Metrix.
• Most engaging ad, based on facial tracking: Mr. Clean’s “Cleaner of Your Dreams” and Skittles’ “Romance” (tie). Realeyes agrees with Ace Metrix, also reporting that “humor and light-hearted entertainment were winning approaching among this year’s crop of commercials.” Celebrities and well-known characters also dotted the list, featured in 7 of the top 11 ads based on viewers’ emotions (measured by Attraction, Retention, Engagement and Impact). Source: Realeyes. Also worth noting is that an Experian analysis found that consumers who interacted with brands who featured more emotional ads (such as Airbnb and 84 Lumber) tended to skew towards women and youth (26-35), while those who interacted with brands airing funnier ads skewed more male.
• Top brand by Google desktop text ad clicks: 84 Lumber. It was a “blowout” in this area, says AdGooroo, finding that 84 Lumber captured almost 59% of all US Google desktop search ad clicks on 154 Super Bowl-related keywords on Super Bowl Sunday. Source: AdGooroo. In related data, figures from Quantcast (reported by Search Engine Land) indicate that of the brands releasing Super Bowl ad content before the big day, Snickers saw the biggest lift in search volume.

Audience-Focused Data

• Seven in 10 US homes with TVs in use on Super Bowl Sunday were tuned into the Super Bowl telecast, with preliminary estimates from Nielsen finding that the game drew an average audience of 111.3 million viewers, slightly below last year’s event and also lower than the games played in 2015 and 2014. Nielsen also reports that there were 190.8 million social media interactions related to the game across Facebook and Twitter from 48.3 million people, with social activity peaking between 10:30PM ET and 10:34PM ET as the game ended.
• For its part, Facebook IQ reports that 64 million people joined the conversation on Facebook and 44 million did so on Instagram. Facebook registered 240 million interactions and Instagram saw 150 million of its own, per the report. Facebook also notes that more than 90% of Facebook interactions took place on mobile devices.
• Fans sent more than 27.6 million tweets about #SB51 during the telecast on Fox (including pre- and post-game), says Twitter, with the completion of the comeback ending up as the most tweeted moment.

Pre-Game Research

Roughly 189 million Americans are expected to watch Super Bowl 51 on Sunday, reports the NRF, on par with last year’s figure, based on a survey of close to 7,600 adults. Planned spending surrounding the game is down slightly this year, while attitudes surrounding ads remain steady.

This year almost one-quarter (24%) of viewers said that the commercials are the most important part of the Super Bowl, up slightly from 23% last year. Only a minority (43%) feel that the game itself is most important, while for others spending time with friends (15%) and the half-time show (12%) are the top draws.

Super Bowl ads are generally seen as entertainment, as they have been for some time. Some 78% look at them as entertainment, basically unchanged from 2008 (76%), the first year these stats were available. Close to one-fifth (18%) indicate that the ads make them aware of advertiser brands, also steady from 2008 (17%). The one area where there seems to have been some movement over the past decade or so is in purchase influence: while only 1 in 10 this year claim that the ads will influence them to buy products from the advertisers, that’s nevertheless up from just 6% in 2008.

In other advertising attitudes reported by the NRF:

• Some 16% believe that advertisers should save their money and pass along the savings to consumers, compared to 18% in 2008; and
• 1 in 10 say the commercials make the game last too long, versus 11% in 2008.

In other words, save for some increases in stated purchase influence, perceptions regarding Super Bowl ads have remained essentially unchanged over time.

Below is a brief list of Super Bowl-related research with links to sources for readers interested in delving more into the stats.

• Attitudes towards ads may not have changed, much, but prices have: the average rate for a 30-second spot in the Super Bowl has doubled over the past decade, from $2.4 million in 2007 to $4.8 million in 2016, per Kantar Media. (This year the ads were selling at an estimated $5-5.5 million per 30-second spot.) Including pre- and post-game programming, Kantar Media estimates that advertisers spent $445 million last year on the event, a figure it says almost equals the combined ad revenue of the 4 major broadcast networks in an average week for their complete programming schedules. That number also surpasses the annual ad revenues for some cable networks. Kantar Media also reports that average ad time in 2007 was 43 minutes and 5 seconds, while last year ad time totaled 49 minutes and 35 seconds, the second-highest clutter in the event’s 50-year history (2013 being tops with 51 minutes and 40 seconds).
• This decade, auto manufacturers have been the most likely to air ads in the Super Bowl, with 9 brands last year advertising during the game, according to Kantar Media. (An Experian analysis indicates that auto brands have been successful in generating social media following and engagement from their TV ads.) Last year’s top-spending advertiser, however, was Anheuser-Busch, with $33.6 million in spend. There are generally around 10 first-time advertisers (give or take) each year, representing around one-quarter of advertising brands. Last year, 7 of the advertising brands (or roughly one-sixth) invested more than 10% of their annual media budget in the Super Bowl.
• While the NRF data suggests that 189 million Americans will watch the Super Bowl, a report from Unruly indicates that the audience for advertisers goes beyond those simply watching on TV, although TV is the most popular device for watching the game. Airing ads before the day of the game can have some benefits: 7 of the 10 most-shared Super Bowl ads last year were aired prior to the Super Bowl, according to Unruly’s analysis. Teasers, however, did not perform as well: despite accounting for 29% of the videos, they made up just one-tenth of online views and 2% of shares. Overall, shares of Super Bowl ads last year dropped by 17% from the record year before, with Unruly attributing the decline to a failure of the ads to evoke emotional responses from viewers.
• Some brands have been teasing or releasing their ads before the Super Bowl this year – iSpot.tv data indicates that through January 26, 14 brands had released ads or teasers associated with the game online. At that point, Skittles’ “Romance” was the top-performing spot in terms of earned views (close to 1 million), while Wix.com’s teaser “Chez Feliz” was doing well in generating social actions. Indeed, Wix was the top performing brand in terms of digital share of voice.
• In fact, the share of Super Bowl ads released on YouTube before Super Bowl Sunday grew by more than 200% between 2008 and 2016, according to a recent YouTube report [pdf]. The top 20 Super Bowl ads on YouTube from 2008-2016 together drove more than 440 million minutes of watch time, or the equivalent of watching the event itself more than 1.9 million times (based on a 4 hour game), it said. Of those top 20 ads, 18 were released on YOuTube before the event that year. The top ad during that 9-year period? Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” released in 2014. These ads can have an affect on subscriber numbers: among the top 20 ads, February represented almost 30% of the total new channel subscribers the year each ad was released.
• While the Super Bowl is most popularly viewed on TV (and YouTube notes an almost 3x increase in the Super Bowl ad viewership on YouTube via TV screens), there’s plenty of second-screening that occurs, with Influence Central noting that 78% of survey respondents engage on social media while watching the game. These consumers’ top activity when using social media is sharing their thoughts on the game, per the survey.
• A Burson-Marsteller survey of 1,000 consumers who plan to watch the Super Bowl this year and who watched it last year indicates that for more than 4 in 10 viewers, social media brings them closer to the game. Six in 10 viewers are interested in the extra content provided by brands on social media in addition to their commercials, and 1 in 3 say that an ad is what they’re most likely to post about on social media during the game.
• Analysis from Facebook supports the idea that social media is used heavily around the Super Bowl. Facebook reports that in February of last year, 60 million worldwide generated 200 million posts, likes and comments related to the game. Not too far behind, 38 million people generated 150 million posts, likes and comments on Instagram. The vast majority of this happened on mobile devices, with 89% of posts, videos and photos being uploaded on mobile compared to just 11% on desktops. Interestingly, women accounted for the majority of conversations about the commercials, among both 18-34-year-olds (57%) and 35-54-year-olds (61%).
• In terms of mobile usage, AppBoy data indicates that mobile usage drops during the pre-game show, but then increases after kick-off. App usage decreases again during the halftime show, while social messaging continues after the game’s end, and viewers are more likely to watch mobile video after than before the game.
• Finally, an analysis from Yahoo reveals that more than half of Super Bowl ad searches on the search engine occurred outside of the day of the game, with 21% happening during the week before the game and 41% on the day after the game. Yahoo’s data also supports mobile as TV’s companion: a majority (57%) of game day queries came from smartphones or tablets last year.