The best APAC digital marketing stats from December 2016
30% of online sales in SE Asia through social
That astonishing estimate comes from consulting firm Bain & Co and is reported in the Wall Street Journal.
The success of social sales is thought to be due to a profusion of SMEs using new social messaging functionality to support ecommerce (such as Facebook, Line and Instagram) and the lack of a dominant ecommerce player such as Amazon.
In 2015, Facebook rolled out its Shop section in Southeast Asia, allowing those who run business pages to feature products. Messenger works in tandem with Shop, allowing businesses to showcase and discuss their products with customers.
Line offers a tool for SMEs in the region called Line@. Promotions are broadcast using the tool and customers then message a company to make a purchase.
Facebook Shop
Australia bricks-and-mortar boom
A study by Roy Morgan Research of Australians aged 14+ and their shoping habits has shown an increase in bricks-and-mortar retail store visits in financial year 2015-2016.
There were 90m more visits, year on year, the first increase for five years. A total of 1.43bn store visits were made, with clothing, hardware, discount and department stores enjoying increases.
Newsagents were the only stores to see a decrease in footfall, linked to the decline of print news. Music store footfall plateaued.
Improved customer experience in-store leading to more enjoyable shopping trips is thought to be one of the factors in this turn around in footfall.
Roy Morgan, July 2014-June 2016. Base: Australians 14+
Video ads in SE Asia are too long
Completion rates for 30-second video spots in Southeast Asia are 20% shorter than those for 15-second videos.
Research by TubeMogul (reported in Mumbrella) shows that marketers in the region haven’t moved towards shorter spots yet, in the way that those in the US, UK and Australia have.
The trend is particularly noticeable in food and drink, where the research was focused, with 94% of Southeast Asian marketers investing in 30-second spots.
This is, in part, a hangover from longer TV creative. Shorter video is seen as more suitable for mobile views.
Southeast Asian food and drink video ad split and completion
Netflix surges in Australia
Netflix subscriber numbers in Australia are now comparable to rival Foxtel. Roy Morgan Research figures show that 750,000 subscribers have been added since May 2016.
In November, 5.8m Australians aged 14+ had access to Netflix in their homes (that’s 29% of the population), through 2.2m subscriptions (more from B&T).
The research showed that time spent watching Netflix is comparatively low:
- 42% of Netflix subscribers streamed less than three hours a week.
- 16% didn’t watch anything at all.
However, a majority of Foxtel subscribers watched at least eight hours a week of content.
Indian internet users to hit 600m by 2020
The number of internet users in India will hit 600m by 2020, almost double the current number, according to a report by ASSOCHAM and Deloitte.
The current level of internet penetration in India is 27%, some way behind China’s 50.3%.
India has 240m smartphone subscribers but only 31,000 WiFi hotspots. That’s a ratio of around one hotspot to 8,000 smartphones, far below the global average of one hotspot to 150 smartphones, with the report highlighting 55,000 villages currently without mobile connectivity.
Digital advertising makes up almost half of total Australian ad spend
Online ad spend was 48% of total ad spend in Australia for H1 2016, according to a Commercial Economic Advisory of Australia (CEASA) statement.
A recent IAB and PwC report estimated online ad spend at more than A$1.88bn in Q3 2016, a 20.3% increase year-on-year The report also detailed change in spend in formats with classifieds up 13.4%, search and directories up 22.8% and general display up 21%.
Video is in the ascendancy, with FMCG advertisers now spending roughly three times as much on video as they are on general display.
Chart showing general display advertising expenditure by sector as percentage of total display ad spend
Ad spend down in Thailand after death of king
Ad spend in Thailand fell by 42.6% in November after the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Nielsen Thailand data (reported in The Nation) show ad spend of Bt 6.11bn, down from Bt 10.65bn in November 2015.
Television, radio and print account for more than 80% of ad spend in Thailand. All three have declined over January to November 2016, compared with the same period last year.
Australian multiscreening
The average number of connected devices (excluding TVs) per household has increased from 3.9 to 4.5 over the last four years.
Oztam’s Australian Multi-Screen Report shows, however, that the majority of viewing still takes place on the TV set.
Source: Estimates based on OzTAM Metro and Regional TAM Establishment Surveys.
Mobile usage surpasses TV in India
Time spent on smartphones in India has surpassed other media, according to a report from the Mobile Marketing Association and Kantar IMRB.
The average consumer spent three hours a day on their smartphones in 2016, a 55% increase on the previous year.
