MARKET RESEARCH: Internet Usage Trends of Interest to Marketers

I have always been a proponent of research, data, and analysis. And I had the good fortune of working closely with some of the best researchers in the business over the years, so I may be more willing – and perhaps even better equipped – to use these tools than many of my colleagues.

But what I think is missing most from today’s data-driven marketing world is the ability – and willingness – to ask the right questions. That goes for the questions asked of the subjects as part of the research as well as the questions asked of the data as part of the analysis. And that ability to determine the right questions really comes from experience.

That said, the reason I’m thinking about research is because there has been a flurry of reports in the media about the latest trends in internet usage, as cited in the annual study done by Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Adweek had seven trends, whereas VentureBeat had seven takeaways. And Ad Age topped them both, with 12 key takeaways and a call to panic. That’s 71-percent more takeaways, folks, and did I mention that they said you should be worried? Fear! FEAR!!! It seems to be selling better than sex these days. Sad.

As a marketing communications professional immersed in the digital world, I was keen to read these reports, to see which way the digital winds are blowing. And one thing that stood out for me wasn’t the growth of digital media, which is hardly surprising, but rather the average amount of time an adult spent consuming digital media in 2016: 5.6 hours per day. That seems like an awful lot of screen time. But when you consider the shift toward consuming traditional media – films, television, music, etc. – over the internet, it seems quite plausible. And it would certainly explain why, on a recent visit to the Guggenheim Museum, I noticed several people sitting on the benches in the Thannhauser Gallery with their faces buried in their phones instead of taking in some of the finest artwork in the museum’s collection.

Another interesting albeit unsurprising finding was that online ad blocking continues to grow. Personally, I use the Ghostery browser extension, opting out of almost everything, and can’t imagine how anyone lives online without it. Now I’m hoping someone will create a solution to suppress these advertorials, the sponsored stories from questionable sources that have undoubtedly polluted the public mindset to the point where a feeble-minded man-child ended up in the Oval Office.

The study also noted that, as measurement continues to improve, the ROI on social media ads remains a large, if rarely acknowledged, concern. Which reminds me that I just had a client ask me about advertising on Instagram. It would seem like a hip and happening place to be for most businesses. But once I showed them some of Instagram’s demographics (80 percent of users are outside the US, and 90 percent are under the age of 35), they opted to invest elsewhere, as that’s far from their target audience.

And while the study found that online ad spending finally topped traditional channels in the US last year (how long have we all been predicting that!), the amount of time we are spending on mobile devices – the highest growth segment – is increasing faster than ad spending. As a marketer with deep roots in public relations, I take some comfort in that. With usage increasing faster than ad spending, along with the rise in ad blockers and increasing concern over ROI, it’s likely that earned media and other forms of unpaid communications still have their place, and plenty of it, in the evolving digital landscape.

So what’s my takeaway? Content is still king! King, I say!!! Which is good news for those of us who try to make a living from it.

If you want to see Meeker’s entire 355-page presentation, you can find it here. And if you do decide to browse through it, you’ll likely boost our average of 5.6 hours per day for the next annual survey. But, please, just don’t do it while you are sitting in a museum…the stuff on the walls is infinitely more interesting.