Let’s see what this week’s numbers say about online advertising, shall we?
- For the 12th consecutive year, Apple reigns as the most valuable brand in the world, though its value has dipped back below $500 billion, according to the latest annual rankings from Interbrand. Despite that, Apple retains a sizable lead over other top brands, most of which have seen growth in their brand values. Apple leads the way in brand value at $488.9 billion, down 3% from last year’s $500B+ valuation. Following it is Microsoft, which followed up from last year’s 14% rise with an additional 11% increase this year, reaching $352.5 billion. Microsoft has again extended its lead over #3 Amazon, which experienced an 8% increase in brand value, to $298.1 billion. Next-placed Google continues to narrow its gap with Amazon, by virtue of a larger 12% increase, to more than $290 billion. After Google, there’s a steep drop-off to the #5 spot, held again by Samsung, which grew by 10% to break the $100 billion threshold ($100.8 billion). It’s worth noting that each of the top 5 brands is a Technology brand, while the others rounding out the top 10 hail from 3 different industries.
- TikTok’s adult user base in the US might be trending older, but the app remains a favorite among US teens. In fact, the latest – Fall 2024 – edition of Piper Sandler’s Taking Stock with Teens report finds that a leading 39% share of teens name TikTok their favorite social media platform. That’s up from 35% share in the previous survey, and represents the highest share achieved by TikTok since it was first included in the research in Spring 2020. TikTok’s rise in this latest edition hasn’t come at the expense of Instagram, which had registered a strong showing in the Spring 2024 survey. Instead, Instagram is tabbed the favorite by almost one-third (32%) of respondents, up a couple of points from 30% in the Spring and from 23% in the year-earlier report. In fact, it’s Instagram’s best result in 5 years, dating back to the Fall of 2019 (35%). Instagram’s also made significant gains in popularity as measured by monthly use. Fully 87% of the teens surveyed said they use Instagram at least once a month, up from 80% in the Fall of 2023 and marking the highest figure on record for the social platform since the survey debuted in 2016. TikTok was next in usage, cited by 79% of respondents, up from 74% a year ago.
- Programmatic digital out-of-home (prDOOH) is forecast to be included in a greater share of campaigns in the coming months, according to a VIOOH survey of 1,200 advertisers and agencies across the US, UK, Australia, Germany, France, and Brazil. These respondents, who have either already purchased prDOOH in the past year or are digital buyers open to buying it, report having included prDOOH in more than one-quarter (27%) of their campaigns over the past 18 months. In the 18 months to come, though, survey participants expect prDOOH to be included in more than one-third (35%) of campaigns. Respondents in the US are leading the way, having used prDOOH in an average of 29% of their campaigns over the previous 18 months and believing they’ll place, plan or buy such advertising in 37% of their campaigns in the year-and-a-half ahead. The US advertisers surveyed expect to increase their investment in prDOOH by 29% in the coming 18 months, with budgets most commonly coming from digital channels (including DOOH) rather than traditional channels or being the result of new funds being added for prDOOH. Overall, close to two-thirds of advertisers surveyed agree to some extent that the ability to change creative messages in real-time is important to them (65%) and that they’re more likely to use programmatic advertising in all channels due to the flexibility it offers (64%). For the time being, fewer than 1 in 10 (9% of) respondents are actively integrating DCO into their prDOOH campaigns, though US marketers are ahead of the pack in this regard (16%). Despite obstacles including budgetary constraints, training, and limited access to necessary data sources for relevance, close to 2 in 3 (63% of) respondents agree that they’ll make greater use of dynamic creative in prDOOH campaigns in the 18 months ahead.
- The majority of young adults in the US follow social media influencers on a regular basis. Moreover, trust in influencers, which has at times been low, appears to be on the rise, at least among youth. Research from Morning Consult finds that the share of Gen Z adults who trust social media influencers “a lot” or “somewhat” grew from 51% in 2019 to 61% in 2023. So what type of information do young adults seek out from influencers? In surveying more than 2,200 US adults, Morning Consult found that the leading topic for which Gen Z adults seek out information from social media influencers or content creators is media recommendations. The next-most sought out topic for Gen Z adults is fashion & beauty (60%).
