Curated Guide to Research
MediaPost's comprehensive guide to current research in the marketplace.
- Of those who recently received physical threats, 25% say they were delivered via their personal email accounts.
- Effective Super Bowl ads typically focus on creativity and brand recall. This time, DISQO analyzed viewer behavior.
- Acxiom consumer research suggests that Apple and other services may have an opportunity with some consumer segments that could be reaching maximum penetration with Disney+.
- Tom Capper is known as a thought leader with a penchant for challenging industry norms and developing unique SEO strategies and tactics.
- In this era of "Peak TV+," there are so many good series year-round on so many different platforms that I am constantly discovering new shows to watch, many of which have already been on-the-air for multiple seasons. Nobody has to watch the so-called "least objectionable programming" anymore, and those under 30 have probably never even heard that phrase. In this week's edition, I organized reviews of 95 series worth bingeing.
- A new survey says 98% of U.S. consumers now subscribe to at least one streaming media service, and 75% subscribe to two or more services.
- But Disney+ Hotstar's low sub pricing will also keep the streamer's global revenue down at about half of Netflix's, projects Digital TV Research.
- How does a new film attract the attention of moviegoers when it's competing with a franchise that garnered more than one BILLION dollars at the box office? Lionsgate Films had to contend with just that when they released their murder mystery "Knives Out" on the same Thanksgiving weekend as "Frozen 2". Not only that, they're also both family-friendly films competing for much of the same audience. Their solution? A "gamified transmedia" experience. In partnership with AvatarLabs, Lionsgate created puzzles for fans to solve using the "Knives Out" marketing materials; including its trailer, posters and red carpet events. Each puzzle was coordinated with the film's paid creative, where participants could find clues to the mysteries. Each solved mystery earned entry into the $250,000 grand prize sweepstakes. To kick off the promotion they scripted a custom shot trailer with talent, created an Instagram story and launched an interactive campaign hub that drove fans to every element of the larger marketing campaign. For maximum impact, they ran instant-win prizes to further incentivize people to enter. They offered an array of puzzles and difficulty levels to engage with a broader audience through a variety of touch points and platforms, while also leveraging publicity opportunities for cast participation.
- A number of recent trends in media-buying including the ascendance of procurement and shifts to machine-based programmatic buying may have appeared to have shifted industry perceptions of the value of media as more of a commodity than a "quality," a new study from consultant ID Communications indicates it has actually moved in the other direction over the past couple of years.
- A drag-and-drop tool allows users to place surveys in all corporate and customer emails, the company says.
- In the past year, Pinterest has invested in the ability to deliver returns on accountable performance advertising -- including conversion optimization, ads and shopping -- and to scale campaigns and improve on automation through tools like automated bidding.
- Facebook today released findings of its Community Standards Enforcement Report showing marked improvements in the prevalence of objectionable content on both Facebook and Instagram and discussed steps it's taking to improve them even more.
- Pandemic-driven, at-home TV consumption went in two different directions last year. Digital video continued to see rapid gains.
- Three-quarters of U.S. adults say they "tune out" digital ads because of more time spent on computers, mobile devices and TV sets, according to findings of a Harris Poll conducted for out-of-home ad trade association the OAAA. The study asked respondents a wide range of questions on their commuting and work-from-home behaviors and plans during the pandemic and in the months to come, as well as some of their media habits, and the question about digital media burn-out -- and digital ad tune-out -- was characterized as "these days," and represents an increase of 7 percentage points from September 2020.
- Kantar said 96 commercial spots aired in the game, for a record 57 total minutes. Automotive was again the top spender overall at $75 million, for a 14% share, followed by premium TV and video streaming services marketers with an 11% share and $57 million in total spending. ViacomCBS's Paramount+ was the most prominent brand overall.
- An overwhelming majority of consumers have a "positive" attitude toward brands that promote social good, according to a multinational survey released today by Dentsu. The study, conducted among social media users in the U.S., U.K., Japan, China and India, found that U.S. social media users indexed about average for all the major social good criteria, while China and India over-indexed and Japan under-indexed.
- "We envision Tubi becoming a $1 billion business and a core pillar of Fox," said Lachlan Murdoch, Fox Corp. CEO, during an earnings phone call with analysts.
- Even as the ad industry and the trade press obsess on over-the-top, connected TVs and online streaming services, the percentage of American households that own an over-the-air (OTA) TV antenna has surged over the past year to 40%, according to findings of Horowitz's just-released "State of OTA 2020" report. While the report does not address the impact the COVID-19 pandemic might -- or might not -- have had on TV antenna adoption, it does break out penetration figures for various demographic groups and provides rankings for the features influencing TV antenna adoption, including stronger reception, better video quality and access to content.
- Despite years of discussion surrounding the impact of digital media adoption, 44% of CMOs surveyed for the World Federation of Advertisers characterize their own organization's marketing transformation as not yet, or just beginning. Only 2% describe it as "world class." That's the top line finding from the WFA's just-released "Marketing Transformation: Delivering The Future Fit Organization" report, which was conducted in conjunction with Dentsu Schema.
- Social media platforms have become more responsible in two key areas -- promoting respect and demonstrating accountability, according to the latest edition of IPG Mediabrands' "Media Responsibility Index." The data showed some average improvement for all areas of responsibility except two: protecting people, and children's well being.
- MVPDs need to offer video streaming and other advanced features as value-addeds to help stem the accelerating rate of pay-TV cancellations, new Parks Associates consumer research finds.
- As some streaming TV platforms' "reach" levels near broadcast/cable TV network numbers, they could compete for exclusive live major sports franchise deals, with a 55% reach number of U.S. TV households, according to an analysis of Nielsen data and other metrics by MoffettNathanson Research.
- The process of buying cars has changed "profoundly" during the past year, according to Marchex.
- A study of reactions to a video ad found that while sadness decreased sharing, other emotions like disgust slightly increased it. Emotion-provoking ads can create performance, though not in the traditional sense. Emotions also can make an ad go viral, and entice consumers to latch on to the brand for life.
- One of the unintended consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is that it has impacted some advertising categories more than others, and while much of the focus has been on sectors such as travel, restaurants, movies and live entertainment, demand for cosmetics and fragrances has also crashed due to continued social distancing.
- The biggest surprise among the 68 TV Super Bowl LV commercials was how few addressed the elephant in the room. Only 7.5% of the spots actually even referenced the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a unique analysis of ads appearing in the Big Game by CreativeX, an analytics firm that utilizes proprietary computervision technology to organize and catalogue the types of creative featured in Super Bowl ads.
- The national TV audience for Super Bowl LV fell 15% from the Big Game in 2020, according to estimates released this morning by Samba TV. The estimates, which also show big declines for the pre-game and half-time shows, is based on household tune-in data from Samba TV's connected TV universe.
- The 2020 pandemic-influenced ad recession had a pronounced impact on all the major Anglo markets -- the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand -- tracked by Standard Media Index, but there appears to have been less of a lag for the U.S. pulling out of it. That is one of the main findings of SMI's just-published Anglo Market Intelligence report, which shows ad spending across the five nations averaged an 8% decline during 2020 vs. what advertisers spent across those markets in 2019.
- The 2020 pandemic-influenced ad recession had a pronounced impact on all the major Anglo markets -- the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand -- tracked by Standard Media Index, but there appears to have been less of a lag for the U.S. pulling out of it.
- This week, Whole Foods Market announced a series of virtual live cook-along events to celebrate Valentine's Day weekend at home. Thirty-six percent of consumers surveyed by Suzy plan to cook dinner at home this year, while 28% plan to order from a restaurant and 23% will dine in at a restaurant. The study was fielded on Jan. 14, 2021.
