Gearing up for 2020 Ad Spend, Internet Trends Report for Data Nerds & Don’t Silo Social Data

Gearing Up For 2020: Political Ad Spend

If you thought the 2016 election was ripe with ads, just wait until the next one. Political ad spending is expected to total $9.9 billion in 2020, according to the latest U.S. ad forecast. Online fundraising isn’t new, but it is bigger than ever. So, expect to see ads for your favorite candidates popping up soon (and often)… if their campaigns get the targeting right. The Dems are all starting from scratch when it comes to digital strategy, while Trump has managed to streamline voter data files to allow his campaign to target people online more effectively. To get an idea of what that means for 2020, I’ll leave you with this quote that stood out to me: “The modern presidential campaign is now largely won and lost online.”

Zuckerburg’s Plan for Privacy

Facebook is working to strike a balance between users’ demands for more privacy and advertisers who, well, pay the bills. Plans for a tool to let people see and manage off-Facebook activity is rolling out in a few months. Zuckerburg said this about it: “It’s designed to give people more transparency and control over the data other apps and websites share with us.” The most important note about this tool is that measurement will remain intact so organizations can understand the impact of their Facebook investment. Sounds like a good move, but I’m waiting to see.

Annual Internet Trends Report for Data Nerds

Fellow data nerds unite! Mary Meeker was front and center at Code Conference 2019 where she delivered her annual Internet Trends Report. The slides (all 333 pages of them) are juicy, but this article breaks down the most significant trends. One big takeaway: “Americans are spending more time with digital media than ever: 6.3 hours a day in 2018, up 7 percent from the year before.” This growth is coming from mobile, so if your organization still isn’t thinking mobile-first this is (yet another) wake up call.

Receipts Reimagined

With the popularity of apps like MyFitnessPal and LifeSum, people obviously can’t get enough of neatly laid out visuals breaking down their eating habits (or spending habits, in this case). The receipt makeover was a concept designed by Susie Lu, a senior data visualization engineer at Netflix. Or as I call her, brilliant. She wanted to make it easy to “skim to see where your dollars went categorically, and by item.” In my opinion, this design does exactly that.

Tips for Actually Useful Reporting

Want to learn how to put together meaningful reports and perform useful analysis of your website’s content, conversions and audience? I’ve been invited back to Drupal GovCon 2019 for a session I call, “Stop Reporting Pageviews & Other Tips for Actually Useful Reports.” The conference runs July 24-26, and you can catch my session on Friday, July 26 at 10 AM. Interested? Register today.

My Favorite Advice

Don’t Silo Social Data

When it comes to social data, the trouble is that it’s often siloed in one department. Only 1/3 of marketers surveyed share their data with the brand and PR teams. Sprout Social’s Index 2019 offers fantastic insights about social data, packaged neatly in colorful infographics, charts and graphs. One thing that stood out to me in the report was the spotlight on Kraft Foods. Social data was instrumental in the brand’s product development, market research, strategy and focus. It goes to show that when you don’t quarantine data into one area of an organization, all departments can benefit. Many nonprofit communicators fear that sharing data will bring more scrutiny, but this case study shows working together is more fruitful than working alone.

A Very Cool Visualization

The World in Color

These maps are a fun representation of both the size and distribution of world religions. The second-biggest religion in Europe, behind Christianity, is “none.” Apparently, atheist or agnostic beliefs (or lack thereof) is most popular in Western Europe. Another interesting note is Africa is dominated by the world’s two largest religions ⁠— Islam and Christianity. Thought you’d all enjoy this as much as I did!