So.
Some relatively interesting figures and facts came out over the last week that are of some interest to people whose livelihood is based on advertising creativity and what’s going in our industry of spastic identifiers – some examples being, “New model, multidisciplinary marketing communications firm; creative and strategic boutique; full-service advertising business; fully integrated marketing agency; and (my personal oh, aren’t-we-hip fav), a disruption company.”
SNAPCHAT. According to the Sunday Financial Times (you’ll need a sub to read the story), views have tripled from May to date and now total 6 billion per day. The takeaway? This messaging app is THE HOTTEST new toy – I mean tool – for marketers.
FACEBOOK. In spite of the totally empirical data I collect from after-hours mudslinging get-togethers with my disruptive peers, and from my kid and his friends (all around 21), Facebook is over. Yet Facebook counts 217 million active users in the U.S. and Canada that contribute half of the social-media network’s global revenue. That means, as Business Insider helpfully pointed out, Americans and Canadians account for as much of Facebook’s revenue as the other 1.3 billion users worldwide. What does this say about us as society? That we like to humble-brag a lot? But it says to us as agencies that we are still going to recommend ad placement there, and Instagram once they get things a bit more ironed out. In fact, the two together will become a de rigeur media buy in 2016.
AND MORE FACEBOOK. According to Adweek, its ad sales for Q3 increased 45% year-over-year to $4.3 billion, with mobile revenue responsible for 78% of all of those lovely ad sales – a 66% increase when compared to how mobile versus desktop advertising broke out during the same period last year.
But it can’t be all hearts and flowers for Zuckerberg and Friends. Desktop and mobile referral traffic to its top 30 publishers (which range from Huffington Post to FoxNews.com), fell 32% from January to October, according to stats quoted in this Digiday story.
In non-Facebook-related news, it takes an average of 8,000 impressions from a display ad (i.e. desktop or mobile) to produce a phone call within two weeks, according to Marchex, which has a new analytics platform that can measure when any inbound phone call to a call center or store is influenced by exposure to a display advertisement on a desktop or mobile device. Mobile is enabling consumers to engage with brands more directly, and phone calls to businesses from smartphones are expected to nearly double to more than 160 billion by 2019.
Onward. Selena Gomez is the most engaging celebrity on INSTAGRAM, according to Zefr’s data, averaging 1.4 million likes, comments, and shares for every post in the 90 days after it’s published. This means that Pantene, Adidas, Apple iPhone 6s, and Nicole/OPI nail polish are EXTREMELY happy.
Finally, GROUPON started on Tuesday selling a “Clip-In Man Bun” in blond, brown, or black for the highly discounted rate of $9.99, down from its retail price of $65. Over 5,000 have been purchased, according to the site. Let’s just say Twitter is NOT impressed:
WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS?
–Cosmopolitan (@cosmopolitan)
For the hipster that must remain professional looking at work… I present the clip on man bun
https://t.co/SR0CSXQWZL
–Patrick R Gibbons (@PatrickRGibbons)
#ClipOnManBuns are a thing……………. I think I need a minute to question reality
–Colin (@UberTieGuy)
Am I the only one who thinks that the #cliponmanbun looks like a furry little yarmulke?
–Tatianna @TatiTheGreat_1
The most surprising thing about the #cliponmanbun is that Groupon still exists
— MANPIGEON (@MANPIGEON )
Literally do not want to live in world where this is acceptable! #ClipOnManBun
–Jeni-Marie Pittuck @Jenii_Marie
