Globally, time spent online has reached an average of 6 hours and 49 minutes per day on computers, tablets, laptops, and mobiles combined. This is half an hour longer than Internet users were spending just three years ago. On the other hand, when looking at mobile time spent in EMEA, mobile apps account for more than 3 hours a day. In 2021, this figure is expected to increase at least 30 minutes more.
Based on that, mobile devices like smartphones and tablets quickly became the dominant advertising platforms on the planet.
The average person was exposed to about 500 ads in the 1970s, according to CBS News. Today, this figure is about 5,000 ads! This means that brands are in severe competition to promote and market their products or services. During this competition, challenges emerge and turn into an important test to pass for brands or advertisers.
With the increase of ad fraud in advertising today, one of the most important challenges is undoubtedly Brand Safety. According to Traffic Guard/Juniper, the cost of ad fraud is predicted to increase in all regions over the next few years, with the global figure rising to $87 billion from $34 billion. It seems that APAC will continue to be the hardest hit, with losses nearly tripling from $19 billion to $56 billion.
It’s now been a few years since brand safety surfaced as a major issue and it seems that it will not be off our agenda for many years. Nowadays, the aim of marketers or advertisers is not only to establish trust between the brands and consumers but also to strengthen communication between agencies, publishers, and all platforms involved in the advertising process, and in this way, to increase the positive experience of ads on consumers, and accordingly, to increase their brand/ad recall and brand loyalty results. Therefore, they do not want their advertisements to be placed alongside harmful or offensive content and damage their brand awareness and campaign message.
It’s clear that while significant moves have been taken to remedy brand safety concerns from advertisers, the problem has not gone away. We found last year in our 2019 Brand Safety Study that users preferred to encounter ads in Mobile Games than YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram. They stated that being exposed to inappropriate content and “fake news” negatively affected their views about the advertiser or the platform. Obviously, it is still very important for marketers or advertisers to show their advertisements in a safe environment and to convey their campaign messages on safer platforms to their target audience.
The AdColony Brand Safety Survey 2020 was distributed in EMEA. Ages ranged from 16 to 75, participants were typically over 35 years old and skewed slightly female. Scroll down to see the infographic and don’t forget to click it for the full size!
Some highlights from the findings:
- Mobile users prefer to encounter ads first on Facebook (21%), secondly in Mobile Games (19%), and on Google (19%).
- Facebook (47%) and YouTube (25%) are still the top places where consumers are seeing non-brand-safe content, more than the 6% that view it in mobile games. More than half (56%) of those surveyed say this “negatively impacts my perception of the advertiser” to see ads in proximity to this type of content.
- Mobile games and Snapchat have the lowest incidence of “fake news,” just 7% and 5% compared to a whopping 46% on Facebook, 23% on YouTube, and 22% on Google.
- Nearly half (42%) of the respondents say seeing an ad alongside Coronavirus content impacts their perception positively towards the advertiser.
Download the complete Brand Safety Survey 2020 with insights from 15 countries!
About the AdColony Brand Safety Survey
The AdColony Brand Safety Survey asked global consumers questions about their ad preferences and what they observe on various platforms, from Google and mobile games to social platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. The survey reveals what consumers see and feel about offensive content and fake news and uncovers key insights about the state of brand safety across platforms.
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