TikTok’s astronomically high engagement revealed

Welcome to Ad Age Datacenter Weekly, our data-obsessed newsletter for marketing and media professionals. Reading this online? Sign up to get it delivered to your inbox here. The midterm election advertising boom Steve Passwaiter, Kantar’s VP/growth and strategy–Media Intelligence and CMAG, says he and his colleagues anticipate a “very strong midterm advertising season being kicked off by both the Virginia governor’s race and the California recall election this fall,” as he notes in an Ad Age guest post. Specifically, Our estimate for the midterm season sits at $7.8 billion for local broadcast, local cable/satellite, radio, digital and OTT. That represents a solid increase from the 2018 midterms, but not quite as dramatic as other forecasters. We believe it will be challenging to replicate the momentum of a unique 2020 in 2022. Specifically, replacing the $1.6 billion between Michael Bloomberg and the Georgia Senate runoff will be nearly impossible in our analysis. Passwaiter also serves up insights about what’s going on in specific states/markets (beyond Virginia and California), including Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin. Keep reading here. TikTok’s engagement level explained TikTok’s user engagement level is “astronomically high,” according to a new study that CreatorIQ, the influencer marketing platform and analytics firm, has shared with Datacenter Weekly. Essential context and insights: • It’s important to note that CreatorIQ’s calculation of its so-called Engagement Rate metric varies a bit from platform to platform because of platform-specific capabilities and terminology. For instance, on TikTok the metric consists of likes, comments and shares divided by views, while on YouTube the Engagement Rate is likes plus comments divided by views. In other words, a strict apples-to-apples comparison isn’t possible because of user interface differences—so think of CreatorIQ’s Engagement Rate as a directional indicator of general user engagement with content in relation to audience. • As part of a benchmark study that looks at Q2 2021 platform performance, CreatorIQ tallied Engagement Rates for creators with varying levels of followers or subscribers across TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. • CreatorIQ categorizes a creator with a following of 1 million or more, for instance, as a “mega influencer.” • On TikTok in Q2, mega influencers had an average Engagement Rate of 11.83%—vs. 0.35% on Instagram, 2.75% on YouTube, 0.01% on Facebook and 0.01% on Twitter. • It’s worth noting that in some cases the engagement gap narrows with audience size. Consider, for instance, what CreatorIQ calls its “nano influencer” category (10,000 or fewer followers or subscribers): The average Q2 Engagement Rate for nano influencers on TikTok was 15.15% and 8.57% on YouTube. The bottom line: The data suggest that TikTok’s users aren’t just mindlessly consuming the platform’s endless stream of short-form videos, but are also reacting to the content at scale. Further reading: “TikTok partners with Shopify for in-app shopping,” from Ad Age. Subscribe to Ad Age Datacenter for essential data and insights on all of the most-advertised brands. +49.2% That’s the increase in estimated spending on national linear TV ads by beer marketers in 2021 so far (Jan. 1-Aug. 15) compared to the same period in 2020, according to TV advertising analytics firm iSpot.tv. A big part of that jump comes courtesy of Mexican beer brands Modelo and Corona, which upped their year-over-year TV ad spend (again, Jan. 1-Aug. 15) by, respectively, an estimated $30 million and $25 million, an iSpot spokesperson tells Datacenter Weekly. U.S. jobless claims data in context “The number of workers applying for and receiving unemployment benefits has reached pandemic lows over the past month,” The Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Chaney Cambon reports, citing the latest data from the U.S. Department of Labor. “Unemployment claims edged up to 353,000 last week from a revised 349,000 a week earlier. ... The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility in the weekly figures, fell to 366,500 last week, a new pandemic low.” Essential context: “Applications for unemployment benefits have trended downward this year after exceeding 900,000 in January,” Cambon notes. Previously: “U.S. advertising employment rose by (only) 1,200 jobs in July,” from Ad Age on Aug. 6. ICYMI: P&G dominates in worldwide marketing “Procter & Gamble Co. is set to reclaim the top spot among the world’s biggest advertisers, displacing Amazon,” Ad Age Datacenter’s Bradley Johnson reports. “Ad Age Datacenter estimates the packaged goods powerhouse spent $11.5 billion on worldwide marketing in the fiscal year ended June 2021, putting P&G in position to be No. 1 in the next Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers ranking.” Keep reading here. Just briefly Permissions sanity: “An end to constant cookie warnings? UK plans post-Brexit overhaul of data laws,” per The Next Web. Hack job: “T-Mobile Hacker Who Stole Data on 50 Million Customers: ‘Their Security Is Awful,’” from The Wall Street Journal. China takes on Big Data: “Unpacking China’s game-changing data law,” from Protocol. Rethinking TV data: “Ad industry needs to replace outdated TV audience measurement,” a guest opinion piece for Ad Age from Kelly Abcarian, executive VP, measurement & impact, NBCUniversal, Advertising and Partnerships. COVID update: “U.S. data show rising ‘breakthrough’ infections among fully vaccinated,” per Reuters (via Yahoo News). See all the winners of Ad Age’s 2021 Small Agency Awards here. The newsletter is brought to you by Ad Age Datacenter, the industry’s most authoritative source of competitive intel and home to the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers, the Ad Age Agency Report: World’s Biggest Agency Companies and other exclusive data-driven reports. Access or subscribe to Ad Age Datacenter at AdAge.com/Datacenter. Ad Age Datacenter is Kevin Brown, Bradley Johnson and Catherine Wolf. This week’s newsletter was compiled and written by Simon Dumenco. Subscribe to Ad Age Datacenter for essential data and insights on all of the most-advertised brands.

TikTok’s ‘astronomically high’ engagement revealed: Datacenter Weekly

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