ExchangeWire Research’s weekly roundup brings you up-to-date research findings from around the world, with additional insight provided by Rebecca Muir, head of research and analysis, ExchangeWire. In this week’s edition: Micro moments; Insta-fashion; Brexit’s effect on ad growth; and Creativity through social media.

Micro moments

The increasing price of advertising is attracting consumers towards moment marketing, research by TVTY finds. It highlights that 90% of brand marketers are feeling the effect of rising ad costs. While one-in-five are cutting costs, such as staff, 80% are increasing their investment in moment marketing.

Moment marketing campaigns allow brands to focus their digital spend around a particular event, or ‘macro moment’, likely to engage their audience. The most common offline macro moments being used are sports events (61%), TV programmes (45%), and financial (22%) data.

TVTY finds that a third of brands (34%) are now taking an even more granular approach to their moment marketing, by targeting ‘moments within moments’. These ultra-targeted ‘micro moments’ mean spend is further optimised at the exact point when consumers are most likely to be paying attention. For example, a brand might choose to only launch a digital display campaign when a specific footballer scores a goal.

Micro moments that are constantly occurring can also be used to trigger ‘always ready’ campaigns. Examples include when the temperature hits a certain level, or when pollen passes a particular threshold. The research finds the top three triggers are: weather changes (21%), competitor TV advertising (17%), and travel metrics, such as flight delays (10%).

Insta-fashion

Instagram is the perfect platform for the fashion industry, research by Feed Fashion has found. Almost half (45%) of respondents follow a fashion brand, business, or fashionista to get inspiration for looks they can put together or buy.

The study finds that those interested in fashion follow, on average, 353 Instagram accounts. This is over 2.5x greater than the average Instragrammer. This audience largely consists of Generation Z and millennial followers. Three-quarters (75%) of high-street fashion followers are aged under 34 years-old.

High-street fashion followers also post three-times as often as average Instagrammers and have 230% more followers. However, fashion brands looking to take advantage of these trends will need to take into account Instagram’s video offerings. In the last six months, video views on the platform have increased 150%.

Nick Fletcher, director of multichannel services, Rakuten Marketing, said: “Instagram has created the perfect environment for fashion brands. It lets fashionistas and bloggers connect with consumers. ‘Behind the scenes’ content at events like London Fashion Week, personalised stories, and the relationships consumers can develop with third-party influencers keep people engaged with brands across the platform.

“The findings show that social has evolved from being a product discovery platform to driving direct-response. Brand marketers need to be aware that consumers are increasingly happy to shop on social. However, retailers cannot look at social in isolation. Consumers’ attention is becoming harder to maintain; so, it’s crucial that brands use a multichannel data set to understand the combination of channels that equates to a consumer’s decision to buy.”

Brexit’s effect on ad growth

The global ad market has strengthened, despite the Brexit vote, finds Zenith’s 'Advertising Expenditure Forecasts’. Ad spend in the UK market will grow 5.4%, fractionally less than the 5.6% predicted before the referendum vote. However, this growth is still down from 9.2% in 2015, the strongest year for the UK ad market in 11 years.

The study finds that most of the impact Brexit will have on the UK ad market will come in the long term. The UK’s new terms of trade with the EU and other countries – whatever they turn out to be – are likely to restrict flows of trade and investment in comparison with the pre-Brexit status quo. This will lead to slower economic growth and slower growth in advertising expenditure.

It suggests that, in the short term, uncertainty about the consequences of the vote will make companies less likely to invest in new products. In addition, consumers will be less likely to take on big spending commitments. This could lead to anything from disappointingly slow growth, to outright recession. Current forecasts predict that UK ad spend will grow 3.4% next year, down from our pre-vote forecast of 4.0% growth.

Matt Byrne, UK Director, FastPay commented: “The UK ad industry has shown great fortitude despite recent economic uncertainty, and this only goes to show a resilience across the board especially from smaller businesses and start-ups that continue to drive digital growth. Right now, however, it is essential that the money keeps flowing down the chain to fuel the start-ups that will enable Zenith’s 2018 prediction for mobile”.

Creativity through social media

Brands should focus on content creativity if they want to increase their sales, according to new research from Yahoo. A study into the attitudes of Tumblr users towards brand content reveals 68% are more likely to buy from brands that share relevant social content.

Three-quarters of respondents (74%) agree that brands can come up with the most entertaining content. A further 70% said if the content provides value and is something they want to read or watch, the source of content doesn’t matter. The research finds that relevant online content can be a gateway to engagement on a number of levels. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents said online content can promote a positive opinion of the brand, as well as brand loyalty.

The key to creating and sharing this content lies in collaborating with the creative community. Three-in-four daily Tumblr users feel closer to a brand when it uses influencers to reach them. Whether photographers, writers, or other content innovators, these influencers have online audiences who share their interests.