Digital

The digital advertising industry has been slow to adopt suitable measurement for viewability, as old-school metrics like impressions and clicks continue to hold on to their seat at the table.

Casual online and social games have brought video gaming to wider demographics than ever before. And according to a November 2013 report from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), nearly half of US adults over 50 played video games.

Digital media had another banner year in 2013, and some of this year’s trends may provide some clues as to what may lay ahead next year. As more Web users shift to mobile and tablet screens, Web activity using computer browsers declined slightly among the top 10 websites. Online video viewing, however, continued to grow, and YouTube remained the top source for streaming, as 128 million Americans viewed video content on the site each month.

Telemundo Media announced a digital licensing deal with DramaFever.  

Mobile advertising continues to grow faster than expected, largely at the expense of desktop ad spending, which is flattening or declining more rapidly than previous predicted, according to new figures from eMarketer.

All the noise surrounding native advertising complicates a very simple concept.  Have no fear, publishers and brand marketers, native advertising is easy to understand — and execute at scale — with the right technology.  Native is a great way to invigorate digital advertising, and it’s not the least bit confusing.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) releases “The 2013 IAB MIXX Awards Insights Report,” that for the first time takes a revealing deep dive into a curated collection of select winning campaigns, providing analyses on what works and why through the eyes of top digital marketing leaders. Insights on emerging trends and expert commentary on each piece of work are woven together with campaign case studies as well as video interviews.

Univision Communications Inc. announced the appointment of Mehul Nagrani to senior vice president and general manager, Digital. Nagrani, formerly senior vice president, Digital Operations, will continue to be based in New York and report to Kevin Conroy, president, Digital and Enterprise Development.

Programmatic buying has dramatically altered the online video landscape. What was once reserved almost exclusively for banner ads has now evolved into online video’s next big opportunity.

As an end-of-year exercise, I’ve identified three important advances in the T/V (Television/Video) ecosystem from 2013 that will have a favorable impact on the new, emerging ad-supported business model. These are changes that let go of the things that don’t work in the traditional television model, in favor of those that digital T/V brings — promising a better viewer experience, better advertiser value, and more revenue potential for media providers.

Are millennials online video viewing habits substantially different than those of older viewers? Data from a November 2013 survey of online adults in the US conducted by YuMe and IPG Media Lab seems to indicate the answer is “yes.”

Yahoo! Inc. presents “Year in Review 2013”, a retrospective look at 2013 that highlights the interests of millions of Yahoo users; while presenting the most relevant stories, favorite topics and personalities of the year.

Native has become a hot topic in the advertising marketplace, but for the practice to flourish further, it needs consensus on definitions and structure. In response, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and its Native Advertising Task Force has released the “IAB Native Advertising Playbook” to serve as a consistent framework for the discussion surrounding native advertising, identifying it as both an aspiration to seamlessly integrate brand messaging into consumers’ content experiences, as well as a practical suite of ad products that successfully meet that objective.

What happens to your digital life after you die? It’s a question not many consider given how embedded the internet is in their lives. The typical web user has 25 online accounts, ranging from email to social media profiles and bank accounts, according to a 2007 study from Microsoft. But families, companies and legislators are just starting to sort out who owns and has access to these accounts after someone has died.

Marketers are more focused on revenue than ever before, but ROI measurement has a long way to go, as 2 in 5 still don’t have an attribution model in place, and many admit ROI remains elusive.

Despite trends to the contrary, some media futurists believe media hardware and software might be free to consumers down the road — as long as key marketers can hit them with a few messages from time to time.  Make that a lot of the time.

United States consumers, who are “addicted to speed” and often willing to pay more to get it, toggle between Wi-Fi and fourth-generation (4G) wireless technologies to get the fastest possible connection for their mobile devices.  Deloitte’s third edition “Global Mobile Consumer Survey” (GMCS) offers insight into consumer purchasing habits, wants and trends in the U.S., with a focus on mobile devices, technologies and services.

Like other forms of entertainment, sports programming is shifting to the digital space. US sports leagues and broadcasters are streaming increasing amounts of content on their broadband and mobile channels, and consumers are responding by tuning in on multiple screens, according to a new eMarketer report, “Sports Video Streaming: More Like a Marathon than a Sprint.”

In recent years, the costs of video production have dropped tremendously thanks to digital technology, while the barriers to distributing video content have also fallen, owing to the internet. Those two factors have likely hastened the adoption of video marketing, which is now near-ubiquitous among US senior marketing professionals, according to a survey conducted during Q2 2013 and Q3 2013 by the Web Video Marketing Council, ReelSEO and Flimp Media.

Univision Communications Inc. announced the launch of the Univision Deportes app on Xbox One