David Doty, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of IAB US

The IAB MIXX Awards celebrated 10 years in 2014, what were some of the most popular categories that were entered in your awards?

Doty: Every year we change up the categories to best represent the evolving digital advertising landscape. In 2014, the most popular categories that were entered were: 'brand awareness and positioning', 'branded content', 'cross-media integration', and 'social'. Throughout the year, we saw more brands focus on cross-platform integration and use social media in unique ways. These categories were a reflection of that.

What for you were some of the highlights of the 2014 IAB MIXX awards?

Doty: I always look forward to seeing the outstanding campaigns that set the pace for what will come in this industry. Last year, the highlights were campaigns in the quickly evolving world of mobile marketing. We also saw that long-form digital video is exciting, and that brands can be good citizens, have courage, as well as be good products. In the jury room, we have a spirited discussion about creativity, the state of tech and creativity, and how advertising is changing.

What differences do you see between the SA Bookmarks award entries and the US ones? What new categories did you bring on board for the IAB MIXX awards?

Doty: While I am not as familiar as I soon will be with the SA Bookmarks, I can say that many of the categories indicate to me that digital is global... You have many of the same categories we do. At IAB MIXX Awards, we had three new categories for the 2014: 'data-inspired creative', 'native advertising', and 'IAB rising star digital video ad'. Two of those categories - 'data-inspired creative' and 'native advertising' - are the same as those in the SA Bookmarks Awards. And I find it interesting that you have other ones that just might inspire us, such as 'media plan', 'e-commerce', 'copywriting', and others. There are probably more similarities than differences.

What are some of the biggest digital trends that you're currently seeing in the US?

Doty: Some of the biggest trends we're seeing include the shift in spend to digital video (online video ads streamed increased by 211% between 2012 and 2013), the increase in mobile internet usage, and the subsequent increase in mobile annual ad revenue (mobile now accounts for 17% of digital ad revenue). Across the digital landscape we're also seeing engagement through storytelling across ad creative. Storytelling comes in many forms and we're seeing it adapted for cross-media integration to target the right audience on the right platform at the right time. And of course programmatic buying.

Are you seeing any reverse adoption happening where Africa is leading?

Doty: Similar to the US, smartphone/mobile internet usage is seeing a growth trend (81.6% of South African internet users utilise their mobile devices to access the internet vs. 18.5% utilising traditional method, i.e. PC)*. However, unlike the US, South Africa cites data prices as the largest obstacle versus fragmentation, privacy, and metrics**. High data prices mean that SA mobile users are inhibited from adopting smartphones, while those with smartphones are unable to use them fully, worrying about incurring high data bills.

Another big difference between US and South Africa mobile usage is the use of messaging. In the US, messaging is not very important in the minds of marketers or media companies and is ultimately not a major advertising revenue stream**. However, in South Africa, instant messaging and emailing are the most commonly used activities on the mobile web. Instant messaging continues to increase*.

In any event, the most important thing is that with an increased understanding between our two countries, which we can achieve through IAB in part, we have the opportunity to learn from each other in this transformative time.

*IABSA Effective Measurement Report, May-June 2014
**IAB State of the Mobile World Report, Fall 2014

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