A jump in brand content engagement rates, the declining tablet market, growth in book and journal publishing, and more are covered in this month’s installment of TFP’s Media Metrics roundup.

To help you keep up with trends and prepare for changes just around the corner, each month we compile excerpts from some key reports covering issues affecting the publishing and media industries. Here are our top picks.

social media infographic new

Engagement With Brand Content Soared 52% Last Quarter (Advertising Age)

  • U.S. brand content saw 52% more engagement in the first quarter of 2015 compared with a year ago, according to social media analytics firm Shareablee.
  • It reported that users liked, shared, favorited, or commented on brand content across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter almost 13 billion times in Q1, attributing that number to increased engagement rates rather than an increase in the amount of content created.
  • Average posts per brand rose 16% on Twitter, while average actions per brand (favorites or retweets) climbed by 32%.
  • Instagram drove the big push in engagement, with an increase in brand fans of 138% and a jump in posts per brand of 21%. Consumer engagement with brand content doubled on Instagram to 1.9 million actions per brand, reflecting a rate more than 20 times that of Twitter and nearly three times that of parent Facebook, the research found.
  • Just 25 brands out of the 100,000 Shareablee tracked made up 12% of consumer engagement. Most of those brands were sports and media companies, along with five fashion retailers.

A Close Look at Why the Tablet Market Isn’t Coming Tablet BI chartBack (Business Insider)

  • A recent BI report shows the tablet market contracted for the second quarter in a row at the start of 2015, with a 6% year-over-year decrease. In contrast, the annual global tablet growth rate in 2011 stood at 305%.
  • First-quarter shipments of iPads declined 23% year over year, the biggest quarterly decline yet.
  • Low-cost generic tablets now make up 43% of all shipments, compared with a 25% share a year ago.
  • Overall, the report projected a compound annual growth rate of only 2.5% from 2015 to 2020, with just 281 million units shipped by the end of the period.

AAP Says Book and Journal Publishing Industry Grew 4.6% in 2014 (Talking New Media)

  • The Association of American Publishers reported that the U.S. book and journal publishing industry brought in net revenue of $27.98 billion in 2014, a 4.6% year-over-year increase.
  • It said a chunk of that growth was due to a 4.2% increase in the trade category, which generated $15.4 billion in revenue compared with $14.8 billion in 2013.
  • The ebook category saw 3.8% growth with an estimated $3.4 billion in revenue.

Big Mobile Video Trend: Longer Viewing (Media Life Magazine)

  • An Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) study on mobile video usage found 36% of respondents watch video that is longer than 5 minutes on their phones, while 58% said they watch video that’s shorter than 5 minutes.
  • The heaviest video viewers, whether the content is long or short form, are male and under 35 years old.
  • Some 35% of respondents reported that they view more video on their smartphones now compared with last year, and 22% said mobile video usage has resulted in them watching less television.

Magazine Ad Spend Down In Q1 (Folio)

  • Print magazine advertising spending was down 8.7% in the first quarter compared with same period last year.
  • While consumer magazine ad revenue saw a decrease of 7.3%, local and B2B titles were down just 3.9% and 4.1%, respectively, over last year.
  • Overall, ad spending fell 4% in the first quarter, partly due to the loss of Olympic ad spend.

Virtually No Change In U.S. Desktop Search Market Share (Search Engine Land)

  • Between April and May, there was almost no change in desktop search market share among top providers Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Ask, and AOL, according to comScore’s latest search report.
  • Google stood at a 64% share of the search market, while Bing remained at the 20% share it had in March.
  • Slight changes included a .1% loss by Google and a .1% gain by Bing and AOL.

Video Ad Spending Is on a Tear — Here Are the Most Important Trends (Business Insider)

  • A new BI Intelligence report shows more than 35 billion video ads were viewed in the U.S. in December, reflecting a year-over-year monthly growth during the year of more than 100%.
  •  It projected that online video advertising revenue will hit almost $5 billion next year, up from $2.8 billion in 2013.
  • Click-through rates for video ads averaged 1.84%, the highest CTR of all digital ad formats.

Report: 87% of Facebook Customer Messages Are Ignored (Marketing Land)

  • A recent survey found that most companies provide poor customer service on Facebook, with 87% of all customer messages going unanswered.
  •  Of those companies that did answer customer inquiries, responses were selective, with only 37% of all posts getting responses.
  • Of the pages that have the publishing ability enabled (a setting within the Publishing Ability section of the settings page), 65% didn’t respond to any customer posts.
  • However, companies that do respond to customer inquiries do so quickly, the survey found, with 33% of answers to posts coming within 60 minutes and 12% within one to two hours.

Consumers Spend 85% Of Time On Smartphones In Apps, But Only 5 Apps See Heavy Use (TechCrunch)

  • A new Forrester study found that users are in apps 85% of the time they’re using their phones, but just five non-native apps account for 84% of that usage.
  • While those apps vary by user, the overall findings indicate that just a few big companies lead in the apps business, with Facebook accounting for 13% of U.S. minutes spent on apps, followed by Google at 12%.
  • Behind Facebook and Google are Amazon (3%), Apple (3%), Yahoo (2%), Microsoft (1%), and eBay (1%).

Media Metrics is a monthly feature from Technology for Publishing, aimed at keeping you armed with the latest industry data. If you’d like to share something you’ve read, drop us a note. And keep up with the latest industry news coverage by signing up for our This Week in Publishing emails or our monthly Publishing Innovations newsletter.

Tagged with: ,

Posted by: Margot Knorr Mancini

Margot Knorr Mancini
A thought leader in the publishing industry, Margot Knorr Mancini has helped numerous publishers redefine their missions to become nimble content generators with the ability to repurpose content easily and efficiently. As Founder & CEO of Technology for Publishing, her analytical mind allows her to remain a step ahead of the industry, recognizing early trends and developing pivotal best practices.
0