Last week, I was in New York for Advertising Week 2016 with some of the biggest and brightest minds in advertising, so it’s no wonder I came home with some new insights and takeaways. From panel discussions to networking events, here are some of the top takeaways I gathered for digital marketers and advertisers as we think about what works and what is next.
Native advertising is the now, and the future. Consumers are evolving how they interact and consume media and as mobile becomes even more important for the consumer, so too does native advertising. Dan Greenberg, CEO of Sharethrough, shared some interesting findings from their recent study on stage that demonstrate how native ads generate a powerful signal of intent and engagement; engagement rates for native ad units are 30-50% higher than traditional display.Not only does native advertising go hand-in-hand with mobile, the majority of millennials (nearly 60%) prefer it as more than 90% of the content they discover, search for or share is found in their feeds, Greenberg said.
Mobile matters. Simone Whitcombe, Group Director Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook, said that mobile is the biggest shift in consumer attention since the invention of the television. Mobile was one of the most talked about topics at Advertising Week, as most discussions led back to the importance of including mobile in a campaign strategy.
If a campaign is visual, interesting and attractive to consumers, but they cannot have a good experience with the content on their mobile device, what’s the point? We carry our mobile phones with us everywhere we go, so having a mobile campaign component is a must for all brands.
People are more social than ever. Snapchat Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan revealed at the event that Snapchat has 60 million daily users. There are more people online using social networks on a daily basis than ever before, which opens new opportunities for advertisers and serves as a reminder to make sure content is easily sharable across channels.
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