Top 10 'most social' display advertisers and brands: US

AT&T is the top US display advertiser for social formats, while Mars is the top brand for producing socially enabled ads, according to new data.

The findings come from comScore’s new Ad Metrix Social measurement tool, that provides greater visibility into display ads appearing on social networking sites and socially-enabled display ads appearing across the web.
This new capability is available for all countries currently reportable in Ad Metrix: U.S., Canada, U.K., France and Germany.
Top 10 media owners running social display ads
The top display advertiser in terms of its number of socially-published ads in August was AT&T with 3.9 billion. AT&T, the top display advertiser overall, had a share of ads published on social media sites similar to that of the total U.S. online ad universe.
Among the top ten social display advertisers, IAC had the highest percentage of ads published on a social media site at 38.8 percent, 31 percent higher than the total Internet average.
Each of the other top ten display advertisers on social media sites were somewhat underrepresented on these sites in relation to the total.

*Social Ad Index = % of Advertiser’s Social Ads / % of Advertiser’s Total Ads x 100; Index of 100 indicates average representation.
Top 10 advertisers running social display ads
Mars Incorporated ranked #1 on the list of the top socially-enabled display advertisers in August with nearly 300 million impressions among its brands, which include popular candy brands M&Ms, Snickers and Skittles.
Nearly 30 percent of Mars Inc.’s display ads were socially-enabled – approximately 42 times higher than the total online average. Kraft Foods ranked second with 179 million socially-enabled display ad impressions, followed by Energizer Holdings with 101 million and General Motors at 97 million.
Nearly all of the top ten advertisers were consumer packaged goods companies, highlighting an industry segment that is currently demonstrating the heaviest focus on these types of advertising messages.

*Social Ad Index = % of Advertiser’s Social Ads / % of Advertiser’s Total Ads x 100; Index of 100 indicates average representation.
Socially-Published Ads vs. Socially-Enabled Ads
“comScore is excited to introduce this new Social module to our Ad Metrix product, offering clients unparalleled visibility into the social side of the display advertising landscape,” said Jeff Hackett, comScore Executive Vice President. “Social networking publishers, led by Facebook, not only account for one out of every three display ads appearing online today, but they are increasingly being woven into the fabric of existing display campaigns. comScore now offers advertisers and agencies a unique way to understand the intersection of social media and display advertising.”
The core enhancements to Ad Metrix involve detailed reporting and analysis of two different types of social display ads: socially-published ads and socially-enabled ads. Socially-published ads refer to any brand’s display ads that appear on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Linkedin. In order to improve brand-level classification of the non-IAB standard hybrid text/image ads that appear on Facebook, comScore developed a proprietary classification technology to assign these ads to the appropriate brands.
Socially-enabled ads are standard IAB display ads that click through to Facebook or other social networking sites, often including an emblem with verbiage such as “Like us on Facebook” Or “Follow us on Twitter.” Increasingly, brands are utilizing these social calls-to-action in their display ad campaigns as a means of bolstering their social media presence.
“ComScore is excited to introduce this new Social module to our Ad Metrix product, offering clients unparalleled visibility into the social side of the display advertising landscape,” said Jeff Hackett, comScore Executive Vice President. “Social networking publishers, led by Facebook, not only account for one out of every three display ads appearing online today, but they are increasingly being woven into the fabric of existing display campaigns. comScore now offers advertisers and agencies a unique way to understand the intersection of social media and display advertising.”
The core enhancements to Ad Metrix involve detailed reporting and analysis of two different types of social display ads: socially-published ads and socially-enabled ads. Socially-published ads refer to any brand’s display ads that appear on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Linkedin. In order to improve brand-level classification of the non-IAB standard hybrid text/image ads that appear on Facebook, comScore developed a proprietary classification technology to assign these ads to the appropriate brands.
Socially-enabled ads are standard IAB display ads that click through to Facebook or other social networking sites, often including an emblem with verbiage such as “Like us on Facebook” Or “Follow us on Twitter.” Increasingly, brands are utilizing these social calls-to-action in their display ad campaigns as a means of bolstering their social media presence.
www.comscore.com/companyinfo.