Mary Meeker Presents 2011 Internet Trends
Kleiner Perkins partner and former Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker took the stage at Web 2.0 Summit to present her annual trends report. The deck is filled with tons of stats and insights that I found fascinating and felt compared to share. That Mary Meeker is one smart lady…
Her 12 trend topics are below:
1. Globality – We Aren’t In Kansas Anymore…
Meeker revealed that 81% of users of the top ten global internet properties are outside the USA, which makes global markets a force to be reckoned with.
2. Mobile – Early Innings Growth, Still…
iPhones, iPods and iPads have revolutionized the market. But Android tablets and phones, at a different price point, are not to be underestimated.
3. User Interface – Text/Graphical/ Touch / Sound / Move
“Sound is going to be bigger than video. Record is the new Qwerty,” say SoundCloud CEO Alexander Ljung.
4. Commerce – Fast / Easy / Fun / Savings = More Important Than Ever…
The ability to click and buy on a mobile device is making a huge difference in mobile commerce. “It’s now an expectation that if you see it on your screen, you can click and buy it,” says Meeker.
5. Advertising – Lookin’ Good…
Look at Google’s click growth for an indicator of advertising health: 23% of clicks on ads is a good sign Meeker says.
6. Content Creation – Changed Forever
Meeker refers to Joanne Bradford from DemandMedia doing a better job at talking about content creation.
7. Technology / Mobile Leadership – Americans Should Be Proud
64% of smartphones have U.S.A. OSes (iOS, Android, Windows Phone) versus 5% 5 years ago.
8. Mega-Trend of 21st Century = Empowerment of People via Connected Mobile Devices
“The ability to get realtime fast and broad information flow is only going to get greater,” says Meeker.
9. Authentic Identity – The Good / Bad / Ugly. But Mostly Good?
“One of the biggest topics of the next ten years,” Meeker says.
10. Economy – Lots of Uncertainty
Despite lots of indicators of uncertainty, “We’ve had a good two weeks.”
11. USA Inc. – Pay Attention!
The US ranks 10th on a list of country by debt. Greece, by comparison, ranks number 3.
Read MoreFive Social Media Tenets Every Agency Should Embrace
This season, social is the new black. Fashion victim, fashionista: these are words not easily applied to me. However, I have learned one valuable lesson over the years by observing an industry that’s always on the lookout for the next big thing: if you wait long enough, past trends and patterns will make a comeback.
This is exactly to the case with social media right now. As all things social start to mature, the same evolution that took place in the digital marketing industry only a few years ago is emerging: social is fast becoming less about experimentation, and more about regular production. In fact, production is the key word in many ways, which I’ll come back to a bit later.
In recent months, a noticeable shift has taken place among the clients and prospects we’ve talked with at Big Fuel. They fall roughly into three categories: those still experimenting with social media, those using social media consistently as a tactical add-on to their marketing activities, and those trying to make social a more central, strategic component of their marketing efforts.
As we approach 2011 budget deadlines, more and more marketers are trying to switch gears and move from using social as a tactical add-on to making it a core component in their overall efforts. Small, medium and large companies want to know how they can streamline, automate, budget, and measure social media and social marketing. How can it move from a series of handcrafted singular projects to a more consistent, more repeatable, more predictable undertaking?
We have clear answers to that. The key challenge remains implementation.
Marketing integration may have been the Holy Grail for advertisers over the last 15 years, yet the agency world became increasingly fragmented during that period of time. Many agencies that initially dismissed digital as a peripheral activity are now bent on not making the same mistake again with social.
Agencies rightfully see social as central to the future of marketing and work to develop in this space as fast as they can. Yet each agency, each discipline, looks at social through a very narrow lens that only puts the emphasis on their original core competencies. And, this is what really spells trouble for marketers.
Back to the issue of production, as mentioned earlier: It is tempting to draw parallels between social content production/earned media on one hand, and advertising production/paid media on the other hand. However, the comparison can be misleading in many ways. There are at least five key differences about social that every marketer should bear in mind:
1) Forget one-size-fits-all messages targeting “lowest common denominator” audience. Recognize that fragmentation is here to stay, and embrace it at every step.
2) Frequency and freshness of content matters more than production values. Increase your execution capability and move to rapid-fire, low-cost production cycles.
3) Campaigns have a limited shelf life, but quality content is a valuable and reusable asset. Build your library for the long term and ensure that you will be able to do “re-runs.”
4) Stop thinking (and budgeting around) campaign flights and push marketing. Start thinking about ongoing engagement. Audiences can no longer be turned on and off on demand.
5) In a genuine two-way, real-time conversation, it is hard to separate the production arm from the distribution arm. Your brain is connected to your mouth for a reason.
Larger creative and media agencies have legacy economic models built around scale and size that make it difficult to adapt and operate profitably in a world of exponentially fragmented audiences and touch points. When it comes to social, the question is not whether “they get it,” but whether they can evolve to become as fast and nimble as marketers need them to be. Even web agencies, in spite of their digital DNA, can sometimes struggle with things like video production or labor intensive, low tech conversational engagement.
The long-predicted new marketing paradigm is finally here. Marketers need to start thinking, behaving and organizing themselves as content producers who treat engage consumers as audiences, instead of fully outsourcing this function to external publishers. Content is still king, after all.
It’s official: Social is now well beyond a passing marketing fad. Amid this environment, marketers find it increasingly challenging to differentiate brands, products and messages. The push for a constant flow of newness is becoming a key operational requirement – just like in the fashion industry. One thing is certain: more change is yet to come in social media marketing.
Read More85 Awesome, useful and beautiful Social Media infographics
80 Social Media that are worth 1,000 words and more.
A picture is worth a thousand words so we collected 80 amazing, informative, interesting and useful social media infographics also known as charts and graphs. But calling some of these mere charts and graphs would not be doing justice to their beauty or their ability to tell a story. And I don’t think you have to be an creative director like me to appreciate their beauty.
Typically infographics are used to show weather, maps and statistical data, but because the social media landscape is often very complex to articulate it’s spawned a plethora of awesome infographics.
Guru Edward Tufte is reportedly joining the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel to track the recovery to explain $787 billion in recovery stimulus funds. I can’t wait to the infographic for this. And with a little digging I also discovered Obama loves infographics. But I think Brian Solis holds the top slot for amazing social media graphics with the Conversation Prism.
What’s your favorite infographic? If you have others to add to this, please send them our way and we’ll add them to this compendium.
Read MoreSmartphone owners a ‘threat’ to retailers
US consumers are using their iPhones, BlackBerrys and Android phones for in-store research, according to new data from Compete.
A survey from the researchers, covering the third quarter of 2009, suggested that 52% of smartphone owners use their handsets to check product descriptions, that 36% check rival retailers’ prices when deciding whether or not to buy a product, and that 34% used “m-commerce” channels to make purchases.
Commenting on the Compete report, Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer, said rising use of phones to check rivals’ prices represented “both a threat and an opportunity” for retailers.
Users of Google’s Android smartphone are thought to be spending the most via m-commerce, with 11% telling Compete they would consider making purchases of $500 or more with their phones, compared to 9% of iPhone owners and 2% of BlackBerry owners.
Meanwhile, 51% of BlackBerry owners, 40% of Android owners and 28% of iPhone owners are open to making purchases of $10 or less.
Recent figures from Deloitte also indicated that around one in six (15%) of all US mobile users purchased goods and services through their phones from time to time during 2009.
This year, US m-commerce is likely to grow further as consumers continue to migrate from in-store to online shopping.
Grau added: “A retailer’s best defense for maintaining customer loyalty is to develop a mobile offering that allows in-store shoppers access to customer reviews and other product information on its website.
“By providing mobile access to their extensive online product information, they help customers feel more comfortable about making a purchase.”
Data sourced from eMarketer; additional content by Warc staff, 13 January 2010
Read MoreAgencies struggle to meet clients’ social needs
At present, a third of clients are utilizing outside expertise from the ad industry when it comes to handling their social media initiatives.
The continuing growth of digital media has resulted in a “great race” to adapt between specialist and traditional agencies, but neither group is fulfilling the needs of advertisers at present, Forrester has found. Forrester, the research firm, has produced a report aiming to assess how effectively interactive shops, and their more long-standing counterparts, are responding to the changing industry environment.
Sean Corcoran, an analyst at the Cambridge-based firm, argued “we see digital becoming the backbone of marketing and technology becoming so vital that everyone needs digital capabilities… Everyone is coming from a different strength. Everyone is trying to add the other’s capabilities,” he said.
The company conducted a survey of 100 interactive marketers around the world, and discovered that 80% of participants worked with at least one agency on their digital communications. More than half of this group used two such partners, while 25% divided up their new media chores between three separate firms. Despite this, over 60% of the panel said they would rather employ one such service provider to manage their various activities on platforms like mobile and the internet. At present, a third of clients are utilising outside expertise from the ad industry when it comes to handling their social media initiatives. One in four also look to their digital agency when developing their brand strategy, while 26% have requested offline creative work from this source. However, Forrester found that just 22% of its sample regarded their interactive agency as being “ready to lead my brand”, while 33% disagreed with this statement. Similarly, only 23% of contributors believed their “traditional brand agency” was suitably equipped to head up their new media operations, with 46% holding the opposing view.
“We’re all waiting for this big moment when a bunch of interactive agencies take over from the traditional guys,” said Corcoran. “It’s not happening that way, it’s a slow evolution. You’ll see some interactive guys take over and some traditional agencies hold the fort.”
Data sourced from MediaPost/AdWeek; additional content by Warc staff, 11 December 2009
Read MoreHulu and Facebook Taking Share Away from YouTube…
Last week Mashable’s Ben Parr posted this article that made me do a double-take. The numbers speak for themselves:
YouTube’s huge lead in online video just got a little bit smaller due to surging growth from two up-and-comers in the video space: Hulu and Facebook.
Web analytics firm ComScore released their data for online video usage in October, and the numbers are astounding. While Google/YouTube (YouTube) continues to dominate with over 125 million monthly viewers (and over 1 billion views per day), both Hulu (Hulu) and Facebook (Facebook) had double-digit percentage gains, shattering their previous video records.
Online video continues to sustain its surge in growth. According to ComScore, there were 27.94 billion videos viewed in October, up a big 7% from September. Out of that, Google/YouTube is still on top with 10.52 billion videos viewed.
The big mover in October though was Hulu. In September, the News Corp/Disney/NBC joint venture delivered 583 million views. In October, that number shot up by 31.8% to a total of 855 million video views. This is by far a record for the TV video website. Most of this however can be attributed to the fall primetime season being in full swing:
In terms of unique viewers though, there wasn’t that much of a change. YouTube had 125.3 million unique viewers in October, nearly identical to its 125.5 million in September. Hulu didn’t have a lot of growth, either: 42.4 million people tuned in to the service in October, compared to 38.7 million in September.
In fact, the biggest winner seems to be Facebook. In September, it had 31.18 million unique viewers. In October, that number skyrocketed by nearly 25% to 41.15 million uniques. Once again, this is a record for the world’s largest social network, and one that speaks to how powerful Facebook is becoming in the video space.
There were some other eye-popping numbers (84.4% of U.S. Internet users watched at least one online video in October and the average person watched 10.8 hours of video), but the central theme is the same: online video continues to grow and the end is nowhere in sight.
Read MoreAbout Me
Proud father, devoted husband, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Big Fuel, a full-service marketing and communications company based in New York that takes brands from Content To Commerce.
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