Digital video growth is on an upward trend – but is it here to stay? If the OTT (over the top) space is any indication, the answer is yes. Read More

How Grocery Store Online Ordering – also known as Buy Online Pick Up in Store (BOPUS) is changing the landscape of weekly grocery runs one household at a time. Read More

What is native advertising and how is it different from content marketing? They’re quite different, but when used strategically together, make a winning team. Read More

Any road trip has a destination—more or less.  The same should be true when starting a digital campaign.  Only by knowing key objectives and measures of success can a road map to achieving them be determined. Read More

Data of all kinds is essential to business-making decisions.  Data influences everything from B2B and B2C advertising campaigns to the way business is done in healthcare and politics. Read More

The power of multi-screen advertising is something that the ad industry is continually trying to figure out and manage. As the number of screens that a user leverages and the plethora of data companies grows, the need to execute these multi-screen campaigns with as little waste as possible becomes more and more important... Read More

From Google to social media, search algorithms change on an almost weekly basis. Google alone makes between 500 and 600 algorithm updates annually, posing a new obstacle for marketers to learn and optimize every few months... Read More

In the ever-evolving digital space, there can be a direct connection made between advances in technology and advances in data collection. As we continue to incorporate technology into our everyday lives at faster and faster intervals, the future of data collection and utilization can be both enticing and frightening... Read More

Banner blindness is a real thing. Consumers are becoming proficient at ignoring ads, making it important for advertisers to implement different techniques to attract interest and engage consumers... Read More

1. The MNI Ad Network is the #1 Local Ad Focus Network in the nation, reaching 93% of the total U.S. digital population, or 235,234,000 unique visitors, last month... Read More

The MNI Ad Network is the #1 Local Ad Focus Network in the nation, reaching 94% of the total U.S. digital population, or 236,175,000 unique visitors, with digital ads last month... Read More

It’s true—at least at most traditional marketing agencies. And this is a big miss. Creatives get into the business of marketing to express, create and, ultimately, receive some internal self-worth from sharing the thoughts and ideas that come out of their needy brains... Read More

Ad blockers! Ad Blindness! Ad Viewability! These are some common buzzwords you see and hear in digital media. Ad blocking is a hot topic: Digital advertising is constantly evolving to make sure publishers are reaching the desired audiences and that they’re seeing the brand’s ads... Read More

The other day I was scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed after work, smiling at cute animal videos and liking friends’ life updates. I came upon an ad that caught my attention with the words, “Buy your mom the perfect Mother’s Day gift! Donate school for a year to an underprivileged woman.” Oops! I had forgotten that Mother’s Day was less than two weeks away... Read More

Our experts break down the major media trends in TV, display, mobile, programmatic and any media as it applies to consumer shopping behaviorso far in 2017... Read More

At this stage in the digital game, there is little to no debate over the value of social media. Facebook users spend an average of 50 minutes a day on their properties, with the other platforms not far behind. Video has seen a renaissance within the digital space, led by the expansion of social capabilities such as Facebook Live... Read More

The MNI Ad Network is the #1 Local Ad Focus Network in the nation, reaching 94% of the total U.S. digital population, equating to 237,075,000 unique visitors last month... Read More

2017 is an exciting year for digital media, as total digital ad spending will eclipse TV spending for the first time ever this year! Trends that were in their embryonic stages just a year ago... Read More

As 2017 is in full swing, the digital ad space will continue to expand and advance, creating more opportunities for advertisers and marketers alike to play within the ad field. Consumers are media multitaskers; always connected and always on. The tech world is constantly introducing new and innovative devices and platforms to the market increasing the number of smartphone users in the U.S... Read More

The MNI ad network reaches  93% of the total U.S. digital population, equating to 238,582,000 unique visitors in November 2016... Read More

Google recently announced they will be updating their search ranking algorithm to punish websites that use invasive interstitial advertisements on mobile websites. The update will be rolled out on Jan 10th 2017, and will be lowering the search ranking of websites that use these interstitial advertisements that block out content on mobile platforms... Read More

Mobile is the now and future of search engine marketing. Last year there were more searches happening on mobile devices than on desktop, and the need for mobile search optimization has never been more essential. To help achieve better results there are quite a few different tools to manage and optimize your SEM campaigns, without having to segment each device and risk hurting campaign performance or managing each device-specific campaign individually... Read More

Native ads are the most recent evolution in digital advertising, placing aesthetically-matching inventory alongside editorial content. Native advertising is also typically unaffected by ad-block software. Facebook native advertising is not necessarily new, , as it is seen as the most prominent social platform, both in terms of users and digital ad spend... Read More

YouTube is known for its never-ending collection of comical cats and hilarious post-anesthesia meltdowns. But move over, Keyboard Cat and make room for branded content! YouTube has quickly become millennials’ go-to source for entertainment and information. The video hosting and sharing site reaches more millennials than any cable network in the U.S. With millennials making up more than one-third of the population, it’s easy to see why advertisers should be looking to YouTube... Read More

User engagement helps marketers understand how users interact with their site by analyzing the time spent on site, flow of activity and clicks as the user browses through content. Analyzing time on site, tracking clicks driven to a brand page, or capturing user information via on-page forms are all important starting points in assessing content... Read More

Remember the first moment that you remember movie magic? Mine was watching a T. rex tear through a fence in the middle of a tropical storm on Isla Nublar. Jurassic Park is still one of my favorite films, because it showed me a world I always wanted to imagine would be reality, and there it was, happening right in front of me. When I think of the way video marketing is going, I think of Jurassic Park. Not because it features prehistoric chomping dinos, but because it offers up a story that... Read More

Today, the use of mobile devices is at its highest number, increasing on all platforms and continuously being the main point of contact for consumers of digital media.  Of course, advertisers and marketers are well aware of these digital marketing trends, and the reliance consumers have on their mobile devices. eMarketer predicts that the number of smartphone users will increase by 8.7% in 2016, and as a result, location-based services are expected to rise at near equal pace... Read More

The digital landscape is an ever-evolving form of advertising that allows brands to continually get smarter with their online targeted advertising. One aspect that has continued to evolve is personalized retargeting, from both visitors to your site as well as new opportunities with CRM. The goal of retargeting is to drive an already interested or informed consumer back to your site to convert an action. Read More

1. Programmatic TV will come close to being a $1 Billion market in the U.S. this year[1], and is predicted to account for $10 Billion of TV budgets by 2019 [2]. 2. Globally, a minimum growth of 1.5x in total video streams for the 2016 Rio Olympics is estimated, which translates into 2.85 billion worldwide video streams. For the U.S. alone, a 2x growth in total digital video advertising streams is expected... Read More

With Rio 2016 quickly approaching, the inspiring and patriotic television ads grow in frequency. Behemoths of sport Nike and Gatorade have begun their large scale TV ad campaigns.  With exclusive coverage of the games, NBC is impressively bullish on the exposure of the Olympics, “the biggest event in media history,” with both live streaming and television coverage according to NBC Sports Chairman... Read More

Digital video is wonderful content that can do many amazing things for a brand—educate, simplify, elicit emotion, tell compelling stories, change perceptions, etc. However, I have heard so many companies say, “I spent tens of thousands of dollars on a video, and it didn’t work.”  When trying to understand WHY it didn’t work, more often than not, the video was posted to their website/YouTube channel... Read More

From Instagram to Airbrush, we’ve all seen and experienced our fair share of photo editing apps. Each one provides us with a new feature that not only renders the photo, but more specifically the person in it. As time goes on, consumers, especially from a younger age range, continue to let social media rule their lives, and their self-esteem... Read More

This year, 164 million U.S. internet users will stream video content through a connected TV, and this number is predicted to reach 200 million by 2019. Consumer habits are shifting—they’re choosing to stream videos so they can control how and when they watch. Marketers need to mirror this shift. The trouble is, more than half of media buyers don’t know how to purchase it. Read More

Globally, the rise in ad blocking grew 41% year-over-year, with 16% of the U.S. online population blocking digital ads during Q2 2015—equating to45 million people refusing digital and mobile advertising. The effects of ad blocking are substantial, with an estimated $10.7 billion loss for the industry in 2015. So, the question remains—what will marketers do differently to navigate the digital and mobile advertising landscape in 2016? Some marketers are fighting. Read More

In the last 16 years, we’ve gone from a 24-hour news cycle to a 24-minute news cycle to a 24-second news cycle. This election, deemed the Snapchat election, is an ephemeral way of referring to the shrinking attention span of the American consumer. More than half of U.S. political ad agency professionals anticipate advertising budget increases of up to 20% in the 2016 election. Read More

If you’re planning any online advertising, you should be aware of the top performing ad sizes and which will be the most effective for your digital advertising campaign. Unfortunately, there’s not one universal banner ad size that performs best across the board, but there are a few standouts that take top honors. The options seem endless when looking at ad sizes—should you go with a standard banner, leaderboard, square... Read More

Flash is dead. For many years, Flash was the go-to creative for advertisers. It was simple, easy to make, would animate just like an HTML file, and it was significantly cheaper to produce. Ever since the start of Flashmageddon, we have been preparing for Google to reject flash/.swf banners completely.  In February 2016, Google announced that they will no longer be accepting flash/.swf banners, starting June 1, 2016. Read More

Today, more than 84% of U.S. adults are connected to the internet, enabling us to communicate, share photos, look up news and information, and conduct business across the country and around the world. As a result, we have seen more technological developments impacting digital marketing in the past ten years than ever before. And in the next five years, we’ll see the number of advancements grow and evolve. Read More

My friend and I were talking about how we rarely go to the movie theatres anymore. Why? Because even though we’re sitting in front of a giant movie screen, we have to put away our phones. The choice is between giant movie screens that require our complete attention on one task, which is watching a movie, versus phones, which give us a million different options. Our discussion made me realize how hard it is for most. Read More

It’s no secret that Nielsen and comScore, used by media planning companies, are battling it out to become the leader of cross-screen media measurement, and speculation was fueled by last September’s announcement that comScore was merging with Rentrak. Nielsen has had a stranglehold on the top spot for some time. But with this merger the pressure is on, as both companies see the need to measure. Read More

Marketers know your internet behavior, patterns, and interests in the blink of an eye. It’s like they’re watching your every move. Have you ever been served an ad that makes it seem like the advertiser knows you? You can thank behavioral targeting for that. Targeting media companies and third-party data providers analyze our internet behaviors, seeking out as much information as possible. Read More

Let’s be real: ‘Big Data’ is an overused term that basically says, “We have a bunch of data—so much so that we don’t even know what to do with it.” It’s a clear reminder to marketers that we still struggle with properly capturing it, and when we do, the obstacles of organizing and analyzingit are more real than ever. Read More

Have a favorite blogger? Trust your closest friends? Then you already know that consumers trust their peers for purchase decisions. According to a study from Pew Research Center, 74% of adults use social networking sites. What do adults do on social networks? They are just as likely to share a kitty pic they snagged this morning as they are to engage. Read More

Of course, being a mom is wonderful and has brought me more joy than I could ever imagine, but with all of that love and joy comes a whole lot of stuff. From diapers and wipes, to food and formula, it’s hard to remember it all. I have a sweet 10 month old at home who lights up my life. And as my husband and I are preparing for our first trip without her. Read More

Social Media marketing trends that we’ve seen take hold for the last year or so are expected to continue into 2016, with a new year bringing new ways for marketers to use social media to connect with their audiences. Relevant content will continue to be absolutely critical in 2016—the sun around which all the other trends will orbit—as consumers of all ages are expecting more from their digital devices: more interaction, more functionality, and more personalization. Read More

Traditional advertising is becoming far too impersonal for the everyday millennial. More than half of all consumers who research products or brands learn about them on different social media platforms. With Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram taking over the digital landscape, what better way to get deep and personal with your prospective clients than to use these platforms? Read More

“Change.” In 2008, Barack Obama was crowned with the prestigious title of Advertising Age’s Marketer of the Year. That year, the President forever changed the strategy for winning the nation’s most coveted seat. His direct message and social media push transformed him from an unknown senator competing against two of the most experienced politicians, to the recognizable and trusted face of Hope. Read More

Viewability may be the latest buzzword on every digital advertiser’s mind, but that doesn’t mean the industry has the metric figured out. In fact, viewability has quickly become one of the most debated topics in digital media as the industry strives to arrive at a standard approach to its measurement and use as a pricing model. Recently, our third-party verification partner, Integral Ad Science (IAS), released their Q2 2015 media quality report. Read More

I recently read an article about how the selfie and other social media trends are redefining women’s approach to beauty. It described how celebrities and the “no makeup selfie” are encouraging women to embrace their natural beauty. On the other hand, millennials are also putting on full faces of makeup to achieve that perfect selfie. Read More

I set a minimum of three alarms and calendar alerts on a daily basis. Still, I often write the most important tasks on yellow Post-It® notes and reference them while completing my errands. A recent study by Randy Garner, Professor of Behavioral Science at Sam Houston State University, proved that my habit is not as odd as it seems. Read More