Insights from 4A’s Research | Internet Trends 2018

By Marsha Appel, SVP Research Services, [email protected].

 

In case you haven’t yet had the opportunity to examine all 294 slides in the Internet Trends 2018 deck from Mary Meeker at Kleiner Perkins, I’d like to bring your attention to a few points from the report that will matter to your agency in the coming year.

 

  • The battle for consumer eyeballs will only get more intense. Though it hardly seems possible, time spent online continues to increase, now at 5.9 hours daily vs. ‘only’ 5.6 hours the previous year (p.11). More than three of those hours were spent on mobile devices, which means…
  • Consider allocating more media dollars to mobile, because while mobile time spent was up 29%, ad spending on mobile increased only 26%. Meeker has concluded that there is a $7 billion opportunity gap (p.96). Jump in!
  • Now that digital and mobile are mainstream and no longer marketing differentiators, innovations in Voice, AI, and mobile payment will dominate the ad tech news in the coming months.
  • Clever marketers can use social media as a driver of e-commerce. While Facebook and the like have long been a place to build brand awareness, consumers are increasingly using social media as an efficient product discovery vehicle. They then click through to e-commerce sites where 55% of them will make a purchase (p.70+).
  • Amazon’s ascendance:
    • Advertising: Amazon and Google are encroaching into each other’s territory, as Google gets into e-commerce with Google Home, and Amazon becomes an ad platform (p.68).
    • Search: In its march to take over the world, Amazon has the ability to supplant Google at its own game: Search. For product searches, 49% start on Amazon vs. 36% on search engines (p.62).
    • E-commerce: Amazon can not only satisfy the search, but also fulfill the need, with a purchase from Amazon right on the spot.
    • Other sources confirm the wisdom of Amazon’s move into advertising. In a test of retargeting of ads on third party sites, Amazon retrieves roaming consumers and has them click right back to the mother ship to buy.
    • Seize the opportunity: Take heed—a number of agencies have already launched dedicated units to capitalize on the Amazon opportunities.