The past week was another intriguing one for interactive marketing data. Here are nine stats that jumped off the digital page:
1. Lots of brands have tested Periscope and Meerkat
Livestreaming marketing vendor Brandlive surveyed 200 executives from retail and consumer goods brands and found 44 percent of their businesses ran a livestreaming event last year. Meanwhile, nearly 25 percent of businesses were impressed enough with the results on apps like Periscope and Meerkat to increase their livestreaming budgets this year, and 39 percent stated the video tactic is integral to their larger marketing mix.
2. Facebook adds 1 million advertisers in one year
The social network said 3 million businesses have now advertised on its platform, up from 2.5 million just six months ago. A year ago, Facebook had 2 million advertisers.
3. Social advertising continues to blow up
Facebook-owned Instagram revealed that it now has more than 200,000 advertisers on the visual social platform. What's striking about that figure is that the app only opened its advertising to all marketers about five months ago.
4. The Internet of Things is burgeoning
Marc Jones, chairman and CEO of Aeris Communications (which provides machine-to-machine Internet of Things services), said at Mobile World Congress his company has 7 million devices on its network, doubling last year's 3.5 million connected devices.
5. BuzzFeed's growth is crazy
Also at Mobile World Congress, BuzzFeed chief Jonah Peretti said the viral site now has 6 billion monthly content views, up from 100 million in 2012.
6.Long live the e-reader
It's been more than five years since the iPad debuted, but e-readers such as Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook are not yet obsolete—even though many predicted their demise when Apple launched its tablet. New York research firm eMarketer prognosticates that e-reader users will actually increase by 3.5 percent, to more than 86 million people this year.
7. Apple finally gets social
The Cupertino, Calif.-based electronics giant was averse to social media in recent years while every other brand jumped into social media with both feet. Well, Apple launched a Twitter page on Thursday morning, and it garnered 25,000 followers in the first two hours. After the first six hours, that number grew to 65,000 followers.
8. Mobile retail ads on the rise
RetailMeNot learned that 87 percent of merchants planned to increase their mobile advertising budget this year. Two-hundred retail decision-makers participated in the digital coupon vendor's study.
9. Digital lead generation wanted
Sixty-one percent of marketers say increased lead generation is their top automation goal. That's according to Direct Marketing News, which cited an Ascend2 study that surveyed 239 executives.