Total media ad spending in the U.S. this year will see its largest increase in a decade, according to new figures from eMarketer. On the strength of gains in mobile and TV advertising, total ad investments will jump 5.3 percent to reach $180.12 billion, achieving 5 percent growth for the first time since 2004, when ad spending increased 6.7 percent.
Mobile will lead this year’s rise in total media ad spending in the US, and advertisers will spend 83 percent more on tablets and smartphones than they did in 2013 – an increase of more than $8 billion. By the end of this year, mobile will represent nearly 10 percent of all media ad spending, surpassing newspapers, magazines and radio for the first time to become the third-largest individual advertising medium, trailing only TV and digital. Though investments in TV advertising will rise just 3.3 percent, advertisers will spend $2.19 billion more than they did in 2013, making it the second-leading category in year-over-year dollar growth.
The surge in mobile advertising is chiefly due to an increased use of tablets and smartphones. According to eMarketer’s latest estimates, U.S. adults will spend an average of nearly three hours per day with mobile devices this year. In 2013, daily time spent on mobile devices and on desktops and laptops was equal, totaling 2 hours 19 minutes, but this year, time with desktops and laptops will drop slightly to 2 hours 12 minutes, while mobile time will increase significantly. TV remains by far the largest beneficiary of adults’ media time, at 4 hours 28 minutes in 2014, hence its persistent lead as the top category for advertising spending.
Strong, steady growth in mobile advertising will push digital ads to represent nearly 30 percent of all U.S. ad spending this year. Advertisers will invest more than $50 billion in digital channels in 2014 for the first time, an increase of 17.7percent over 2013. Just over one-third of that will come from mobile, but by 2018, mobile will account for more than 70 percent of digital ad spending.
The accelerated rise in ad spending is influenced in part by growing revenues from leading internet media companies, particularly those that are capitalizing on mobile revenues. eMarketer projects advertising revenues for a handful of the top U.S. digital ad-selling companies, which collectively will represent 18.2 percent of total media ad spending this year – led by Google and Facebook. Google alone already accounts for more than 10 percent of all advertising spending in the U.S., and in 2016, Google and Facebook is forecast to take a 15 percent share of the $200 billion total media advertising market. Mobile ads on Facebook will total 68 percent of its U.S. ad revenues this year, up from 46.7 percent last year, and while Google’s ad revenues won’t flip to majority-mobile until 2016, they’re shifting quickly. This year, Google’s U.S. mobile revenues will comprise only 36.8 percent of its overall ad revenues, but by 2016, the medium will account for 65.8 percent.
8 AP Style Mistakes Frequently Found in Today’s News Releases
Associated Press news style has been in the news recently, at least for journalists and public relations professionals, after announcing a rash of controversial changes. As you know, it is important that PR, IR, marketing and communication professionals stay abreast of AP style, and its iterations, so you can relate to the media on their level, write cleaner news releases, increase message adoption, and boost awareness.
Of course, you must consider the style preferences of your company or clients, but you also have an obligation to the media – the end user – to craft a well-written story. Here are eight of the most common style bloopers to avoid:
- Dates and times – eliminate redundancies. Too often, we see dates written as “Wednesday, June 4, 2014” when writing simply “June 4” would suffice. Also, write dates as “June 4” and not “June 4th “ and times as “9:30 a.m.” and not AM. Always be careful with EDT vs. EST or CDT vs. CST; simply using ET or CT are nice failsafes.
- Trademark symbols – avoid them. Trademarks and other symbols are not, and actually never have been, meant for use in PR and news copy. Remove these symbols to make it easier for reporters to utilize your releases.
- Percent vs. % – in most cases, spell it out. Standard AP style suggests you write out “percent” in news releases, while utilizing the % symbol in tabular information such as financial tables.
- Entitled vs. Titled – Can you spot the difference here? The survey was titled “Top 100 AP Style Gaffes.” Let’s just say you’re entitled to make a few mistakes, just not AP style mistakes. In short, do not use “entitled” to refer to the title of something.
- Acronyms come later – when referring to organizations: Do not put an acronym in parentheses after the first reference to the organization. Easily recognizable acronyms, by themselves, can be used on second reference without spelling out the organization’s name a second time.
- The dreaded –ly – avoid hyphenating these words: Do not hyphenate a compound modifier when using adverbs that end in -ly, such as commercially-available products. The correct style is commercially available products, no hyphen.
- Write it out – don’t use shortcuts when referring to numbers: As the AP points out, spell out numerals one through nine and use figures for 10 or above.
- Capitalizing job titles after a person’s name – a no-no… AP recommends that you only capitalize a title used before a person’s name, not after. The AP’s titles entry is long but worth a look since this is such a common element found in news releases.
Looking to create a stronger relationship with today’s journalists? Correcting these small mistakes in your news releases will help reporters and other key audiences read, adapt and share your news.
Golden Mic | John Seigenthaler, Legendary Journalist, Political Confidant, Fierce Advocate For Racial Equality
John Seigenthaler, a legendary journalism icon, intimate confidant to presidents. civil rights pioneer and fierce defender of the First Amendment died recently at age 86, and took with him a bygone era of stoic newsmaking.
As a journalist for The Tennessean, Seigenthaler once saved a suicidal man’s life on a bridge over the Cumberland River in Nashville – a bridge eventually named after him. As the newspaper’s longtime editor, he led coverage of the civil rights movement when most Southern newspapers, including the rival Nashville Banner, ignored the growing resistance to racial segregation in the South. Seigenthaler also exposed corruption in the Teamsters union, grave deficiencies in the state’s mental health system and illicit activities of the Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee. And he inspired generations of journalists to greatness. Notable writers under his leadership included author David Halberstam; Bill Kovach, former editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Jim Squires, former editor of the Chicago Tribune; Tom Wicker, former New York Times columnist; and author David Vise of the Washington Post. He was also part of the inner circle of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. For his lifelong dedication to journalism and justice that made the world a better place – Seigenthaler takes the Golden Mic!
Each week, The Spin Cycle will bestow a Golden Mic Award to the person, group or company in the court of public opinion that best exemplifies the tenets of solid PR, marketing and advertising – and those who don’t. Stay tuned – and step-up to the mic! And remember … Amplify Your Brand!