Digital American Newsletter

On an average day, between 15-25% of all online sessions include "unauthorized" ads. That percent increases to almost one third during the holidays.

Unauthorized ads are malware driven pop-ups, banners, or product ads that are designed to look as if they are part of the base site. The vast majority redirect shoppers to competitive products and websites.

Malvertising, as it is sometimes called, is more likely to be seen on a desktop or laptop than a mobile. However, as mobile shopping grows, the gap is closing. Within websites, unauthorized ads most often show up on product pages, followed by checkout pages and search results.

Fake ads are equally prevalent across product categories.

The most active online shoppers tend to see more malvertising, because they often have downloaded a wider range of browser extensions, increasing their chance of infection.

Experts estimate that websites lose between 2 and 5% of annual revenue due to unauthorized ads that hijack their customers. Reinforcing the trend’s significance, Amazon filed a lawsuit earlier this year to unmask the companies behind malvertising that has plagued its brand.

Sources: Fast Company 2018, Media Post 2018, Namogoo 2918

Consumers haven’t given up on home broadband connections yet, but a striking trend is emerging. An ever-growing group of Americans only access the internet via their smartphone.

28% of Americans age 18-29 and 24% of those age 30-49 years old do not have high speed connections at home. Overall, 20% of consumers are cellphone-only internet users, up from 12% two years ago.

Several forces are driving this trend. First, a greater percentage of people now have smartphones, and some “skipped” the step of having high speed access at home. Second, a number of Americans who previously had broadband have abandoned it; the percent with connections has actually declined slightly since 2015.

Smartphone-only internet users tend to be younger, less educated, lower income and non-Caucasian. To some extent this signals they may tend to have lower socioeconomic status. However, the data is conflated by the fact that many 18-29 year olds are still in school, working part-time or not at all.

Stay tuned as this trend develops because it could have powerful implications. There is a significant difference between marketing to consumers who are smartphone first vs smartphone only.

Sources: Engadget 2018, Pew Research Center 2018, Telecompetitor 2018

Almost half of 18-29 year olds have deleted their app, 47% stopped using the platform for several weeks or more, and 64% changed their privacy settings since it was revealed in March 2018 that Facebook was improperly sharing users’ information.

Other generations have followed Millennials’ and Gen Z’s lead. In total, almost three quarters of US consumers have proactively taken steps to limit their interactions with Facebook.

For the first time ever, the percentage of Americans that use Facebook has declined: from 67% to 62% in the past year. Among 12-34 year olds the trend is much more pronounced. 79% used Facebook in 2017, 67% in 2018.

Why are consumers taking a step back? The majority do not trust the social media company, feel they have little control of their personal data and believe the information they see on social sites is unreliable.

Some brands have disconnected from Facebook too, including Tesla, SpaceX, Pep Boys and Sonos. Diminishing ROI, less organic reach, and frustration with the social media company’s approach to data security are all likely drivers.

Sources: Edison Research 2018, Forbes 2018, Pew Research 2018

Americans are experimenting with buying items via their smart speakers, and they are starting with grocery, personal care and beauty products.

That’s because consumers’ CPG purchase habits fit well with the strengths and limitations of smart speakers. Many shoppers know off the top of their heads the brand, flavor and size of their favorite CPG products. With one quick command, Alexa or Google can add an item to their cart.

Buying fashion, electronics and other categories via voice commands is not likely to catch on quickly. Sorting through options, looking at pictures, and reading reviews—which are typical parts of the shopping process—cannot be done on a smart speaker.

Roughly 20% of Americans currently own smart speakers, and that number is increasing rapidly. Three quarters use their speaker multiple times a day and 41% of them say talking to Alexa, Google or Siri feels like interacting with a friend.

Shopping is the third most popular activity on smart speakers, after listening to music and asking general questions. Almost 40% of smart speaker owners have made at least one purchase already.

Sources: Digitas 2018, eMarketer 2018, Google 2018, OC&C Strategy 2018

Brands should be just as concerned as politicians about false posts on social media. That’s because there are usually at least two fake brand stories that have spread so widely they rank on Snopes’ Hot 50 Fact Check List. (As I write this, three falsehoods—Pepsi wanting to eliminate "Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, Bush’s Baked Beans being recalled, and KFC using mutant chickens—are on the list.)

These harmful narratives are hard to contain or dispel. Research from MIT shows that false rumors spread orders of magnitude faster and further, plus live longer than the truth. People eagerly share them because they are novel and evoke strong emotions like surprise or disgust.

Discouragingly, this misinformation is predominantly spread by humans via Facebook, Twitter and other social or messaging platforms. Bots are not key drivers.

The vast majority of Americans believe they can spot false stories. However, they are quite worried other people cannot. Research into our ability to identify false stories generally indicates we are not as good as we would like to be at separating fact from fiction.

Sources: The Atlantic 2018, BuzzFeed 2018, Chicago Tribune 2018, Harvard Business Review 2018, Washington Post 2018