Perception of the ad industry among U.S. consumers has gone negative for the first time in seven years. Not since 2012, when the "net positive" perception of the ad industry was a negative 4, has the ad industry's goodwill been below water. The data is a Research Intelligencer analysis of the ad industry's performance in Gallup's recently released U.S. Industry Rankings report. The indexes are the net difference of the percentage of Americans indicating they have a "very" or "somewhat" positive view of the industry vs. those indicating a "very" or "somewhat" negative view of it.

NBC's Peacock a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) is the latest entrant in a rapidly expanding universe of OTT services being offered direct-to-consumers. As this delineation from Wall Street equities firm UBS shows, the competition can be grouped into four buckets of niche and/or general interest services using either SVOD or ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) models.

Dentsu Aegis Network's Merkle and 360i, and Los Angeles-based independent Wpromote, rank as the top performance marketing agencies, in Forrester's just-released "Wave" study for the third quarter of 2019. The report, which evaluates 12 agencies overall, scores each on the basis of 28 explicit criteria.

An in-depth, two-stage study of social media platform users conducted by Publicis Media and Twitter finds distinct reasons why people use them. The study, which surveyed nearly 1,500 people and recontacted more than half of those in a follow-up, found people use Twitter to keep current with world events, while Facebook and Instagram are used primarily to keep up to date with friends/family and what's trendy, respectively. YouTube is used primarily to learn about passions and discover new things.

Advertisers and agencies are misaligned on their views of media agency performance on key issues, according to findings of multinational study by ad management consultancy ID Coms. The study, "Media Thinking Report" 2019, updates a similar study conducted in 2017 and finds agencies and their clients are divided on their agencies' media performance, especially when it comes to so-called "media neutrality."

In this week's edition, I examine the strategies associated with the timing debuts of new programming on broadcast, cable and streaming. While some shows generate a considerable amount of buzz before they premiere, others fly under the radar, which raises some obvious questions.

"Growth," and derivative words like "grew" and/or "growing," are the top words used by the management of the world's leading publicly traded advertisers when talking to financial analysts during their earnings calls, according to an analysis of transcripts of calls with 35 companies spending more than $1.5 billion on advertising each annually.

Most big marketers continue to pay significantly higher rates of commission to their agencies for planning and buying digital media than "traditional" ones, according to just-released findings of a new study from the Association of National Advertisers. The report, "Media Agency Compensation Practices," is based on a survey of 86 ANA members conducted in April by JLB + Partners.

"We believe 2020 will be the year that XR explodes into the public consciousness," Isobar's just-published "XR Playbook" asserts, even as it goes on to tick off a significant number of technological and consumer adoption impediments that so far have impeded it.

In terms of potential brand boycotts, Senator Bernie Sanders curries more influence than any other leading U.S. politician, according to findings of a new Morning Consult poll. The poll found 26% would "definitely" or "might" boycott a company's products or services if Sanders called for one. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is deemed the least influential, with only 9% of American adults saying they would definitely or might boycott a company's products or services if he called for one.