The digital world is always changing: 2014 saw increased data results and easier access to performance reports, improved opportunities to combine content + commerce and curate in-the-moment sales and an enhanced focus on video in the majority of platforms.

Trends to watch in 2014: video competition between online offerings, new ads for Netflix and Crave television and the continual  Twitter deployment of new analytic features and ad options. Changes to Facebook organic reach is also a top issue to monitor and watch, especially for those working with Facebook Business Pages and accounts.

Twitter Analytics and Ads: 
Twitter released Analytics to personal and business accounts in 2014.

This was huge news for clients, individuals, businesses and just about any Twitter use that did not previously have access to their Twitter data. Slowly but surely, and on the watch for 2015, is the Twitter video and audio card feature. Twitter analytics lets users view and monitor monthly impressions, learn more about their followers and also see the engagement and impressions of each tweet.

As the year passed, more and more tweeters also saw an increase in promoted posts. The Land Rover campaign   was one of the year’s best: perfectly sized images, witty content and a call to action.

Facebook Video Ad Viewer:
Facebook pushed us towards driving video directly out of Facebook’s ad engine instead of deferring traffic to YouTube. The video tailoring is similar to other Facebook ad campaign features with options to tailor your audience based on interests, geographic location, age and gender. (Facebook ads keep the viewer in Facebook, without sending traffic to YouTube, if you upload the video directly.)

What Did We Google?
Google always releases a year end list of the most googled people, celebritites and trends; CNN released this list showing that we didn’t just use Google to connect with the latest news but also to learn. ALS, Bitcoin, ISIS and Ebola were all paired with the search term, ‘What is…’ to make the top list of what searchers wanted to learn online in 2014.

Further proof of the success of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, it had big wins financially, but also in terms of education with their viral campaign: it was one of the top items the general population wanted to learn about this year.

What We Watched… 
Viewers increasingly watched television accompanied by tweets this year, with shows often including per-episode hashtags, to connect us with our weekly episodes.

Nike always evolves with new branding. They hit it big with a round of soccer videos featuring Christian Rinaldo – natural, organic video always plays best and this was an example of casual, professional video that viewers loved.

One to Watch:
A competitor for YouTube to watch is Vessel, an early access web video service. Vessel is promising up to 20x the ad revenue compared to competitors and consumers can access free or paid accounts with exclusive access, up to 72 hours before they hit YouTube or other video players.

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