Curated Guide to Research
MediaPost's comprehensive guide to current research in the marketplace.
- Amazon, Facebook and Google report earnings Oct. 29. Analysts are looking for these key signals to make a difference.
- Among regular TV sports viewers, 83% access illegal pirated streaming content at least once a week across the globe either paid-for or free, a recent report finds. The Middle East and North Africa have the highest rates of sports pirated content. "With more than half of all fans regularly watching sports content from pirate sources, the industry faces a pressing challenge to reduce illegal consumption and protect the value of sports rights," say the authors of the report.
- As difficult as the 2020 ad recession has been for the U.S., it's proven even more challenging for other major "Anglo" markets, especially Canada, Australia and the U.K. "Canada, which was hit hard in the second quarter (-47%), bounced back strongly to -10% in the third quarter," reads Standard Media Index's just published Anglo markets report.
- I'd like to make a case for MediaPost to weigh in with its first-ever Presidential endorsement, but I'd like to hear what you think first. Should MediaPost endorse a candidate? If so, which one and why?
- Citing its policy against data scraping, Facebook has told NYU researchers to halt a project that explores political ads on the platform.
- U.S. ad spending lagged the erosion of the U.S. economy going in and coming out of the 2020 recession, according to a MediaPost analysis of final quarterly estimates for quarterly ad spending from Standard Media Index and data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. While the U.S. GDP fell 5% during the first quarter, which included the beginning of the U.S. shutdown related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ad industry declined only 3%.
- The pandemic has changed the playbook. In a study of how people and brands have responded to the pandemic and how some brands were able to flourish, Deloitte found that as times got tougher, consumers expected from the brands they frequently use.
- Trimming its Q3 declines from the steep drop in Q2, the U.S. ad market had stronger results than the U.K., Australia, and Canada, which all saw declines in digital media advertising, according to Standard Media Index. The U.S. posted an 8% Q3 gain for digital. Pharmaceutical drugs was the strongest-performing U.S. ad category, up 19%. Automotive manufacturers and dealers were down 19% year-over-year.
- More than half of American adults now stream ad-supported content, including those who subscriber to both audio and video premium streaming services. That's the finding of a collaborative study conducted by Omnicom Media Group, Edison Research and Pandora, which found 54% of American adults stream ad-supported audio, while 79% stream ad-supported video content.
- A Google study testing the use of audience cohorts -- people with similar browsing histories and interests who can be targeted collectively -- intends to support the end of individual cookie targeting and cross-site tracking. It almost seems like a step backward by stepping sideways to achieve its goal.
- A big factor driving digital's increasing share of overall ad budgets is the acceleration of "digital retail advertising," which a new study from Advertiser Perceptions finds is drawing from all sources of established ad budgets, and isn't likely to stop anytime soon.
- Total national TV entertainment advertising sank 25% in September to $2 billion -- mostly due to the lack of TV network prime-time programming for the new TV season, according to MediaRadar. Major TV networks experienced huge TV production delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed out many new TV shows and content launches for the 2020-2021 TV season to start in November or later.
- "As the most efficient advertising vehicle for marketers looking to target 13-to-34 year-olds," Snap is "starting to see major brands embrace the platform for broad reach," writes MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson. Total daily time spent by Snap users watching the company's shows on mobile has risen by more than 50%, according to the company.
- New research shows consumers still have many reservations about D2C brands, and still prefer physical retail.
- Will things ever get back to normal? It's not likely as consumers move from in-store to digital, Precisely reports. Here's what they're investing in.
- Google rated the highest in Creativity and Cultural Relevance, while Amazon ranked as most Reliable and scored high in Responsiveness and Relevance.
- The U.S. ad economy grew 2.7% in September -- its second consecutive month of expansion since the COVID-19 pandemic sent it into decline in March. While the rate of expansion fell by half from August's 5.9% growth, it nonetheless indicates sustained growth for the U.S. ad economy and affirms industry forecaster projections that the ad recession would bottom out during Q2 and that ad spending would once again begin expanding in Q3.
- Joe Biden is being talked about slightly more positively than negatively for the first time during the campaign, according to Engagement Labs' latest three-week rolling average. Biden has a "net sentiment" of +1, meaning slightly more kitchen-table conversations about the candidate are positive than negative -- a big improvement from three weeks ago when he was at -18. By comparison, conversations about Donald Trump for the three weeks ending October 11 are at -26, similar to three weeks ago (-24).
- Study Finds Most Will Be Glued To Election Results, But Biden Supporters More Likely To Believe ThemMore than half of American voters plan to follow the results of the 2020 election "very closely" on Election Day, but supporters of Democratic challenger Joe Biden are more apt to have confidence in the news media to make the right call on the outcome of the election than those who support the Republican incumbent.
- Broadcast TV networks are expected to sink 15.8% to $2.4 billion, with cable TV networks slipping 1% in Q3. The only TV group to gain from July-to-September -- Turner and Walt Disney cable networks -- was up 30% and 8%, respectively.
- VidMob's Insight Stream platform surfaces a continual stream of insights from data that tells marketers why the creative works or does not work at any given time. It also provides the ability to do something with the information.
- Consumer adoption of 5G is ahead of expectations, and average revenue-per-connection is projected to be 250% higher than average cellular connections.
- GHunt analyzes a person's name, Google ID, YouTube channel and services like Photos and Maps.
- Among the agency execs Borrell surveyed, 57% said budgets for OTT and CTV ad buys came from broadcast TV and 42% cited cable tv, with radio at 25%, print at 23%, paid search at 5% and social media at 5%.
- Slightly more than half of ad execs say they have modified their normal advertising and media-buying plans this fall due to the presence of heavy political ad clutter. About a third of the executives -- both advertisers and agency media buyers -- told ad industry researcher Advertiser Perceptions they are "holding back" their media buys to avoid competing with or losing share of mind due to the heavy political ad cycle.
- By a margin of nearly two-to-one, ad executives -- both advertisers and ad agency media buyers -- believe Joe Biden will win the 2020 presidential election. That's the finding of a study about the impact of the political advertising season on conventional advertising and media-buying plans released this morning by Advertiser Perceptions.
- A survey from HarrisX finds that "roughly 3% and 17% of Disney+ and Apple TV+ subscribers, respectively, plan to churn off the services once their promotional offer ends," writes Michael Nathanson, MoffettNathanson analyst.
- U.S. operators will lose another $23 billion between 2019 and 2025, projects Digital TV Research. Global pay-TV revenues will drop 25% from their peak of $202 billion in 2016, although global subscribers will increase by 34 million.
- From July-September, Peacock took 17.2% of new premium streaming subscribers with Amazon Prime Video at 16%, according to Kantar, followed by HBO Max at an 11.3% share.
- Ninety-four percent of active video pirates would switch to a legal method of accessing content, some even if it costs more. That's one of the top findings from the piracy portion of Hub Entertainment Research's new "Privacy + Piracy" report. The report, which is based on a survey of 2,500 U.S. consumers fielded in late August and early September, found 52% of active pirates would only switch to a legal means, only if it cost the same or less than what they are paying now, but 42% would be wiling to pay more.
