Tablet ad impressions surge by 34% [infographic]

by Marketing ON 12 July 2012

Ad impressions served on tablets surged 34% in quarter two of the calendar year, while smartphone impressions continued to record strong growth and Apple continued to dominate, according to analysis of impressions served on mobile ad network InMobi.

The network’s quarterly ‘Australian Mobile Insights Report’ revealed that Apple devices – the iPhone, iPod and iPad – increased their share of the rapidly increasingly number of ad impressions being served through mobile devices.

At the overall operating system level, Apple’s iOS grew 10.8% on quarter one to command 64.7% of mobile impressions. The iPhone dominated all other devices, increasing its share from 43.7% to 51.6% and putting it well ahead of the next most prolific device – the iPod with 7.4% of impressions. The iPad was also dominant over its competitors, garnering three-quarters (73.5%) of tablet impressions and 5.7% of impressions across all devices, making it the fourth highest server of ads overall. Its nearest competitor, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 Inch model delivered 11.8% of ads served to a tablet device.

Ad impressions served on smartphones increased by 10% over the period, with Samsung’s S and S II models rounding out the top five devices for ad impressions, making the top five handset list a Samsung-Apple duopoly for the first time. RIM’s BlackBerry 9700 previously sat in fifth place but thanks to a 6.4% drop in impressions served on RIM’s network the handset has dropped to sixth.

Head of InMobi Australia and New Zealand, Francisco Cordero, says the exponential growth in tablets is due to reduced retail prices and richer web browsing experiences associated with the larger screen format, and is only set to continue.

“Samsung and Apple are completely dominating manufacturer shares since the arrival of the Apple iPhone 4S, new iPad and Samsung Galaxy S3,” Cordero says. “With the introduction of new tablets to the market, including the Microsoft Surface and Google’s Nexus 7, and reports that Apple will launch a mini iPad, we expect tablet impressions to double by this time next year from 290 million to 580 million.”

Growth in impressions served on the Android network could not match iOS, with Google’s operating system growing by only 1.8% quarter on quarter to reach 25.4% of impressions. Samsung devices commanded 12% of impressions, an increase of 2.2%, while HTC was down slightly to 6% and RIM languised with 4.2%.

Even higher growth in tablet impressions was experienced in New Zealand, with a 78% jump indicating a strong upward trend in tablet usage across the Pacific region.

Earlier this year, InMobi opened a second Australian office in Melbourne, helping it serve over 1.9 billion ads in Australia between April and June this year.

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Twitter’s top trends of 2011

by Marketing ON 7 December 2011

Twitter is counting down to the end of 2011 with a five-part Year In Review website: a snapshot of the year that lists the trends and happenings in, as well as notable joinings to, the world of Twitter.

It began on December 1 with stories made possible through the microblogging platform such as Shohaib Athar inadvertently live-tweeting the raid on the Osama bin Laden compound in Pakistan.

December 2 brought a list of notable joinings to the Twittersphere, from tennis star Roger Federer, to the president of South Africa, to the US Secret Service.

And December 5 saw the revealing of the hottest topics to be tweeted about over the past year. As well as lists of the most discussed entertainment, sport, technology and world event topics, Twitter revealed 2011′s top eight hashtags:

#egypt – Social media played a notable role in the pro-democracy protests and uprisings in Egypt earlier this year, with the #egypt hashtag being attached to rallying cries as well as calls of support from all over the world.
#tigerblood – Despite zoology’s claims to the contrary, Charlie Sheen’s assertion that he possesses tiger blood, giving him superhuman powers, caught on.
#threewordstoliveby – In which Twitter users list the three words they hold to be very important in their lives.
#idontunderstandwhy – In which Twitter users list something they don’t understand. Obviously. Often about the opposite sex.
#japan – The massive participation in social media in the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster showed Twitter’s potential in emergency situations, as well as being used to deliver messages of support from around the world.
#improudtosay – In a similar vein to number three, users tweet something they’re proud of.
#superbowl – The Superbowl was popular on Twitter. Enough said.
#jan25 – January 25 was the day Wael Ghonim became a symbol for the Egyptian democracy movement (see 1) after being detained and presciently predicting the role of the internet in the movement and in activism in general.

Part four includes stats on peaks seen in the number of tweets per second over the year, climaxing at 8868 tweets per second during the MTV Video Music Awards on August 28.

The fifth and final part of Twitter’s Year In Review is yet to be revealed…

Seven sweeps ratings season 2011

by Marketing ON 1 December 2011

With summer beginning and the ratings period now closed for the year, the Seven Network has become the first television network to make a clean sweep of the weekly audience ratings since OzTAM began measuring television audiences in 2001.

Seven topped the national weekly average network share in the five key metropolitan areas over the 40 week rating period, while the Nine Network came in second (based on combined figures for each major network and their digital channels).

Nine, however, trumped Seven with the most popular broadcast of 2011: the announcement of the winner of renovation reality show The Block, which had 3.4 million viewers tuning in.

The most watched non-reality show was the first episode of Nine’s Underbelly: Razor, which enjoyed an audience of 2.8 million viewers.

In sport, the running of the 2011 Melbourne Cup narrowly pipped the AFL Grand Final to the post with 2.7 million watching, becoming the most watched sports broadcast of the year.

It was a big year for the Australian free-to-air television landscape, with multi-channels becoming becoming established as the norm.

Network Ten came close to stealing second place from Nine while MasterChef was in full swing, but couldn’t quite get there, and it was ‘big event’ programming like MasterChef, Australia’s Got Talent, and The Block that is paying off for the Australian free-to-air television industry in general.

Online advertising up 20%, hits new record

by Marketing ON 7 November 2011

In its quarterly report released today, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has announced an increase of 20% in Australian online advertising spend year-on-year to reach $688 million for the third quarter 2011.

The ‘Online Advertising Expenditure Report’ released by the trade body with data compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers puts roughly half of online spend in search and directory advertising (52.7%) and a quarter in classified advertising (23.4%).

The remaining quarter (23.9%) was accounted for by general display advertising, including email and video advertising which both recorded significant growth year-on-year (38% and 43% respectively).

2011 is the ninth consecutive year to record third quarter growth since the IAB began measurements in 2002, with the $668 million posted last quarter therefore setting a new record.

The graph below shows a category breakdown of the just-completed quarter compared to the previous quarter and the comparable one last year. Most notable is the leadership of the automotive industry after the finance industry’s fall from its dominant position a year ago.