5 Key Digital Media and Advertising Trends for 2012
December 9, 2011 by Kevin Michael Gray
Today's featured article is more of a video showcase and it highlights Mashable's 2012 digital media and advertising predictions. What are your predictions? What do you think the new year will hold? Tweet about it @seedingideas
1. Social Curation and Mobile Will Drive Growth for Media Organizations
The rise of mobile and tablets is having a profound impact on media consumption habits. At Mashable, for example, our average iPad app user spends 6 times as much time with the content as our average web user.
More broadly speaking, tablet apps that also take into account what your social network is sharing – like Flipboard, Zite and Pulse – are becoming important new distribution channels. And early signs point to Apple’s Newsstand becoming a key driver of growth for traditional publications. Conde Nast, for example, recently reported a 268% increase in digital subscribers after launching on Newsstand.
Facebook’s social news apps are also opening up Zynga-like opportunities for publishers. Just last week, The Guardian revealed that its app has been installed more than 4 million times and is driving more than 1 million additional daily pageviews for the publication.
2. The Impact of the Second Screen on Television
The growing ubiquity of mobile is being felt in the living room as well. According to data from Yahoo/Nielsen, 86% of web users now use a mobile device while watching TV. That creates new opportunities for marketers to launch more interactive campaigns, and we’re already seeing startups like Into Now and Shazam create platforms for engaging with the second screen audience, with advertisers like Pepsi, Gap and Starbucks jumping on board.
The TV networks are also starting to leverage the second screen. Most networks are now offering up streaming content on mobile devices, and some, like USA, are building robust social experiences for the second screen – features the networks hope will result in stickier audiences and increase ROI for advertisers.
3. An Explosion of Content for Connected TVs
The promise of Internet connected television has lingered for several years – so much so that some might see the medium as a flop. But that’s far from the case.
While current estimates suggest about 35 million people have an Internet connected TV (either via the device itself, a set-top box or a gaming console), 65% of TVs sold in 2012 will be connected TVs. Add to that the likelihood of an Apple–made television hitting the market within the next 18 months and suddenly the outlook looks much brighter.
At the same time, we’re starting to see content providers open up their offerings to alternative viewing options. Xbox just added dozens of live TV channels to its programming lineup. And while that does still require a conventional cable subscription, it will help warm consumers to the idea of consuming content through their televisions via the Internet. Meanwhile, YouTube is investing $100 million in original web-only programming that will also be available on connected televisions, where YouTube is often a default “channel.”
That will ultimately lead to the TV of the future: consumers enjoying the same diversity of choice in video programming in the living room that they currently enjoy on the desktop. And for advertisers, that means the biggest marketing medium of them all opening up to the same type of targeting that was previously only possible on the Web and more recently mobile devices. To that end, LG recently announced a partnership with YuMe to launch an ad network for the company’s connected TVs, with Toyota as a charter sponsor.
