It’s been a crazy week, hasn’t it? Brexit has dominated European debate, while a recent victory in Nevada has demonstrated Donald Trump can no longer be merely written off as a joke. We’ve even been treated to five new ‘emoji’ tools to replace the age-old Facebook ‘like’ button, with ‘wow’, ‘angry’ and ‘sad’ certainly proving useful in summing up our feelings towards the US primaries this week.
In better news, our B2B InTech and B2B InProf events yesterday were a huge success, and everyone here at B2B Marketing would like to thank all our sponsors and delegates for making it such an enjoyable and thought-provoking day.
But – as they say – the show must go on. The news doesn’t stop for EU debate, Donald Trump’s ‘winning, winning, winning’, or even Facebook emojis. So here’s a bite-sized round-up of the best bits of B2B news from the past week.
5. Instagram growth continues to surge
B2B brands are still divided as to whether the Facebook-owned photo sharing app can provide tangible value to their business, but Instagram’s increasing growth – and therefore potential – can’t be ignored forever.
According to eMarketer’s latest internet usage forecast, Instagram will continue its double-digit growth as its user base grows five times faster than general social network usage.
The mobile app will grow 15.1 per cent in 2016, compared to 3.1 per cent for social network usage as a whole.
This year, Instagram will boast 89.4 million US users, which is set to rise by an added 26.9 million over the next four years.
This is almost double the projected increase for Twitter, and far above any other social media channel tracked by eMarketer in the forecast.
4. Advertising spend set to increase in 2016
Over a quarter of CEOs will focus their budget on advertising over the course of this year, according to research from PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Twenty-eight per cent of US CEOs cited advertising as an area for investment in Q4 2015, indicating spend will continue to rise this year.
This represents a 13 per cent rise in priority from Q1 2015, and a 17 per cent rise since the beginning of 2014.
IT investment declined last year, dropping from 33 per cent of CEOs planning to invest in Q1 2015 to 27 per cent by Q4.
3. Facebook launches full-screen mobile Canvas ads
While the validity of Instagram in the B2B space is divisive, Facebook is universally recognised as an essential B2B social platform.
And it has just launched its new Canvas ads feature, which almost instantly loads mobile ads full-screen mode within the app.
The feature will allow ads to automatically open in full-screen when a user taps it on their timeline.
Facebook claims it allows ads to load 10 times faster than the standard mobile web and marketers can build ads using a variety of videos, images, text and call-to-action buttons.
The new tool has the potential to help B2B companies tell their brand story in a more immersive way.
2. Native advertising to dominate display ads by 2020
Native advertising is set to increase by 156 per cent over the next five years and will account for 52 per cent of Europe’s digital display advertising by 2020, according to a new report from Yahoo and Enders Analysis.
The ‘Native Advertising in Europe to 2020’ report forecasts sharp growth in spend on native advertising in the next five years, anticipating it will account for three quarters of net growth in internet display.
The report attributes native advertising’s explosive rise to shifting user behaviour, particularly increasing use of smartphones and tablets for content discovery and consumption.
As a result, the majority of growth in native spending will be on mobile, with €8.8 billion of spend forecast across Europe by 2020 – almost six times the €1.5 billion spent in 2015.
1. British Airways tops B2B Superbrands list
British Airways has retained its number one position as Britain’s most cherished business Superbrand.
The airline edged out Apple in second, with Paypal, Google and Microsoft making up the top five.
In its 21st year, 1500 brands were shortlisted in the survey, with respondents asked to rank their favourite brand based on quality, reliability and distinction.
British Airways claimed the crown for the third year running, with finance and tech brands dominating the top 20.
Make sure to check out the full list of the top 20 Superbrands.
