No one advertiser, country, or consumer is exactly alike, but that doesn’t mean they don’t follow the same global trends. For this week’s insights, we show advertisers’ planned use of video in different channels, smartphone penetration of key geographic markets, and how different groups “second screen” in front of the tube.

Advertisers and agencies have a variety of social channels and ad formats to choose from, but for 2015 they indicate that for their video campaigns, Facebook will be the most used channel. This survey by Mixpo shows that 87% of advertisers plan to run a video ad campaign on Facebook, surpassing YouTube (81.5%). This is truly explosive growth, since the very first Facebook video ads were available to advertisers only in March 2014, while advertisers have been buying ads on YouTube for many years.

Second, these maps from eMarketer depict when countries pass the 50% market penetration for smartphones. By the end of 2015, half of customers in most of the top global consumer markets will have smartphones. These consumers represent a large majority of discretionary spending in these markets; generally, smartphone users have more disposable income. As digital habits switch to smartphones, consider a shift in spend from traditional media like TV, magazine, and digital display to one channels with proven effectiveness on mobile including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These platforms track unique customer identity across multiple devices and their ad units work on mobile natively.

Finally, the GlobalWebIndex, which surveys internet users in all of the countries mentioned in the maps above, produced this graph which shows the second screen behaviors of the Millennial, Gen X, and Boomer generations. Nearly 70% of Millennials and close to 50% of Gen X have second screened on their phone while watching TV. This presents you with the opportunity to sync ad campaigns of TV with social media ad campaigns to make your content really resonate with your audience and stick in their minds. 

Check out how OMD and McDonald's use social.com to run global video advertising campaigns. Read the case study!