Time to Rely on Change

Some shocking stats I’ve run across in the last week have convinced me that the change the ad industry is least prepared for is right on top of us… the mobile revolution isn’t something that’s about to happen, it’s already here. More importantly, it’s already changing behavior in a very drastic way.

Stat #1: Instagram Gets More Daily Engagement Than Twitter
Unpublished ComScore report shows that Instagram gets more daily engagement than Twitter and users spend MUCH more time in the app. Of course, many of them are posting into Twitter, so it’s not all doom and gloom.

Stat #2: YouTube.com Losing Visitors
According to ComScore, September market share for YouTube hit a record low. There’s not a ton of information on the methodology here, but I could see a couple reasons for the drop: a.) ComScore is looking at .com visits, not across devices b.) If it is tracking more than .com, the split with Apple on iOS has had a huge affect. 

Stat #3: People don’t “Use the Internet” Anymore 
Forrester analyst Gina Sverdlov cites a recent Forrester report that shows self-reported online usage is seemingly decreasing. The reality is that people are spending MORE time, but they don’t think of it as “going online”… it’s all fluid.

Google’s Ecosystem Dillemma

WIth last week’s announcement of the Nexus 7, Google’s getting praise for at least beating out the Kindle Fire as an e-reader and media consumption device. 

During Chris Yerga’s demo of the device, however, I noticed there was a glaring omission… earlier this year at the upfronts Google announced a major investment in creating video programming from professional filmakers and TV content creators like Rainn Wilson, The Onion, Jay-Z and more. During the demo, they streamed a couple YouTube videos, but there was no mention of this content play, and YouTube is arguably one of Google’s most important assets.

One of the reasons Apple is great is because it doesn’t just create hardware, it creates ecosystems. I’d argue that Google seems to have an ecosystem dilemma. Is there a global vision of how these new devices, content and technology all fit together?