Smart Stats: Agency Trading Desks Aren’t Transparent

For a new series, Digiday will be on the hunt for new statistics that have implications for digital marketers and ask industry experts to talk about what each stat means for brands. Here’s our second installment:

According to MediaPost, 85 percent of brand managers think agency trading desks make the price of media less transparent.
Zach Coelius, CEO of Triggit: “Agency trading desks are not transparent about media costs for one reason and one reason only: if clients knew how much trading desks were taking by arbitraging, not a single client would ever work with them again,” said . “There is simply no reason not to be transparent unless there is something to hide.”

 According to Newspaper Association of America, newspapers have a wide digital reach, with 60 percent of respondents to a survey saying they looked at an online versions of newspapers from a laptop or desktop in the last week, while 26 percent said they looked at an online version using a smartphone, and 12 percent looked at an online version using a tablet.

Jeff Hasen, CMO of Hipcricket: “For marketers, it is essential to consider day part and device type. Plus, you should pick a newspaper partner that optimizes for the device and updates content throughout the day. No one wants to read yesterday’s news on a tablet at the dinner table. As for advertising, breakfast sandwiches are irrelevant to all but a few except in the morning. It’s about the right ad at the right time on the right device.”

Moms surveyed by Performics were more likely to own a smartphone and a tablet than other women, and 56 percent of them consider themselves proficient at social networking. Also, 38 percent want even more frequent communications with brands on Facebook — ideally two-way.
David Berkowitz, VP of emerging media at 360i: “Brands generally have been quick studies when it comes to social media marketing. Five years ago, few marketers knew what social media was, and fewer still had any sense of how to use it to build relationships with their customers. Now, moms — a highly coveted consumer segment — are so appreciative of what marketers are doing that it turns out they wish brands communicated even more frequently. This is a major achievement for marketers, and it should inspire them to keep doing more to figure out what their target audiences want and how to use social media to directly involve them.”

EMarketer predicts there will be a massive 1.43 billion social network users in 2012, representing a 19.2 percent increase over 2011 figures.
Beatriz Villamor, social marketing manager at Cake Group: Since Facebook has become mainstream, it’s critical for brands and marketers to be highly strategic in terms of how they will reach their target market and/or audience on this platform, especially since engagement is just as important (if not more so) than awareness and impressions. The latest iteration of Facebook Insights helps identify points of activity, interaction, and engagement. That said, brands and marketers should dive into the data in order to gain further insight into their communities and the larger target market and/or audience.”

Adobe’s latest report on the digital marketing sector for Q1 2012 shows Facebook spend has grown by 93 percent year-on-year.
Shane Vaughan, CMO of Balihoo: “We’re certainly seeing dramatic growth in Facebook interest with both our national brands and local users. As local marketers become more sophisticated, the ability to target beyond geography and into interests, likes and psychographics becomes extremely valuable to them. Most SMB’s are using Facebook to drive demand, either via their Facebook page or out to their website, as opposed to focusing on likes or other social media measures. We typically see cost-per-lead numbers 30-50 percent lower on Facebook than in traditional search, however lead quality is not as high.”

https://digiday.com/?p=10917

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