Curated Guide to Research
MediaPost's comprehensive guide to current research in the marketplace.
- The ad industry had mixed reactions Wednesday to news that Google will not build alternate identifiers or use consumers in its products following the phaseout of third-party cookies. In a statement, Network Advertising Initiative President/CEO Leigh Freund said privacy is a shared commitment, but should not be used as a barrier allowing platforms or tech companies to hold all data about online activities. Advertising Research Foundation CEO/president Scott McDonald doesn't think the move will harm advertisers.
- How can the data and insights industry help the lone data advocate in the agency world?
- There is apparently no standard for how prime-time series handle the Coronavirus pandemic. Many incorporate it into their storylines, while others touch on it briefly and then move on to an unspecified near-future time after the virus. For those that are existing in the time of COVID, there is one disturbing and baffling detail. In virtually every series, the main characters put on their masks to go outside, but as soon as they go inside, whether to a workplace or other venue, they take off their masks -- despite being in close quarters to multiple people with whom they obviously don't live. This, of course, is the opposite of CDC guidelines, not to mention common sense.
- As far as the media marketplace goes, 2020 was a tale of two economies. While advertising and marketing spending experienced one of its worst years after -- decline 7.1% in the U.S. and 6.8% worldwide -- consumer spending on media actually soared, rising 5.6% and 6.1%, respectively. That's the finding of a MediaPost analysis of two reports released by media industry economists PQ Media, including today's "Consumer Spending On Media" report, and November 2020's Advertising & Marketing Spending Forecast.
- Consumer electronics, sporting goods, and consumer product goods saw an uptick in digital ad spend toward the end of 2020, according to data released Monday.
- 2020 was a banner year for consumer spending despite -- or perhaps because of -- the pandemic, as homebound consumers boosted spending on media content and technology to stay in touch and stay informed and entertained.
- The data will enhance the Omni marketing operating system's ability to provide a single view of the consumer that can be dynamically shared across all marketing practices.
- Wall Street analysts have a favorable view of the Twitter features announced last week, which include the ability for users to charge their followers for access to additional content and to create and join groups based around specific interests.
- Like many other forms of media, the speed of initial engagement for newsletter subscribers correlates to their ultimate lifetime value. That is the findings of a new report from DMi Partners, analyzing nearly 8 million new email subscriber acquisition acquired by 10 major publishers. While the findings relate explicitly to email newsletter publishers, they are relevant for brand marketers who utilize newsletters or similar email registration programs as part of customer relationship management, loyalty or other programs, often involving opt-ins for first-party consumer data.
- Japan, the third-largest ad economy in the world, fell 11.2% in 2020 due to the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nation's macroeconomy, according to estimates released this morning by Dentsu.
- Google and Amazon are ranked most trustworthy by U.S. adults, although nearly a third don't think Google's advertising display practices are transparent. Nearly three quarters want platforms to take responsibility for fact
- After rebounding from the recession in August and expanding for the remaining five months of 2020, the U.S. ad economy got off to a wobbly start this year, with ad demand declining 4.6% in January vs. the same month in 2020, according to a MediaPost analysis of the most recent data from Standard Media Index's U.S. Ad Market Tracker.
- In the wake of a pandemic-disrupted year and declining ad business, just one of the six major TV platforms saw an uptick in ad dollars in 2020: local TV stations' advertising.
- For the full 2020 year, Nielsen lost 3.2% in revenues to $6.3 billion. 2021 revenue growth is forecast between 2% and 3%.
- The past year offered a wealth of evidence of how brand messaging has shifted, what worked and didn't, and how consumer behaviors accelerated. The question is: which consumer behaviors will stick and which will revert?
- If TV advertising messages are a barometer of how Madison Avenue thinks, COVID-19 peaked in the minds of the ad industry's creative departments during Q2 2020, with nearly a fifth of all U.S. national TV advertising related in some way to the crisis.
- The podcast audience is more ethnically diverse than the U.S. population as a whole, and one of the most among all media.
- Consumer conversations changed dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Engagement Labs.
- The vast majority of marketing execs surveyed late last year believe virtual online events are here to stay, and more than half (58%) say they are budgeting more this year to host them.
- We may never know whether the chicken or the egg came first, but we do know more advertisers believe the media buy comes first than do their ad agency counterparts. That's one of the findings from ID Communications' 2021 Global Media Trading Report, which asked advertisers and agencies, which drives the other.
- Some companies believe unless they achieve CX transformation now they won't be around in 10 years -- but most think they're doing fine. Customers don't agree, Merkle reports.
- IPG Mediabrands is rejoining the ad agency data pool powering Standard Media Index's U.S. competitive ad-spending intelligence database. The addition will give SMI 100% coverage of the major agency holding companies in the U.S., as well as "several large independents" that are also joining the pool.
- The solution offers what the company says will be a measure of sponsorship investments based on sales revenues and brand health over a set period of time.
- Ford and other companies are interested to know what changes will stick after COVID-19, said Ford's Sheryl Connelly.
- While the trust Americans hold in the major television news brands has generally trended downward following the U.S. presidential election, trust in the winner of that election -- President Joe Biden -- has surged to the highest point since being tracked by consumer research firm Brand Keys for MediaPost.
- Nearly a year into quarantine, people continue to search on Google for "things to do during" certain times, with searches for the phrase rising 300% globally year-over-year. There are early signs that some consumers are preparing to go back out into public settings, with "makeup app," "long tops for girls," and "wedding suit" rising.
- Less than half the time (48%) marketing industry researchers spend doing their jobs actually involves designing, fielding or analyzing research, according to findings of a survey of 531 research professionals conducted in the fourth quarter of 2020, according the findings of Greenbook Research Industry Trends data.
- Of all the ethnographic research about how people's media behaviors have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, I find mobile to be one of the most interesting, and enlightening. Not because it exposed any new epiphany, but because it reaffirms an ongoing development I believe defines mobile as a medium: It's not one.
- Even as ad agencies consider plans for returning to life as "normal," including business travel to clients and in-person industry events, most big advertisers plan to stay close to home for the foreseeable future, according to findings of a new study released this by the Association of National Advertisers. Three-quarters (76%) of respondents said their companies currently do not allow business travel for their executives, and only a fraction (2.5%) said they would be willing to travel domestically by air for a business trip.
- Since the coronavirus outbreak, consumers are streaming significantly more globally, with U.S. and U.K. users reporting 46.9% and 32.4% increases, respectively.
