Curated Guide to Research
MediaPost's comprehensive guide to current research in the marketplace.
- Purchasing and consumption habits have changed. As communicating with consumers during a crisis challenges brands, many are turning to podcasts to stay in touch.
- As performance and productivity change how we live and work, millennials and Gen X seem most impacted by changes in video-conferencing email, phone, text messages, file sharing and social media.
- Traditional affiliate fees, long the revenue backbone for U.S. cable TV nets, witnessed their first overall revenue declines ever in Q2. Cable network affiliates' revenues sank 3% in the period to $9 billion after three previous sequential quarters of slight 1% increases, according to MoffettNathanson Research estimates from analysis and company reports.
- Americans overwhelmingly support a U.S. ban on TikTok including -- surprisingly -- more than half of frequent TikTok users, according to a consumer tracking study released this morning by Horizon Media. The poll of 900 Americans found 76% support a TikTok ban. Interestingly, 23% said they support the ban regardless of who owns it, including a U.S. company like Microsoft.
- After surging to new highs during the first quarter, video views of content watched on internet-connected devices soared to all-time highs during the second quarter of 2020, according to new estimates released this morning by Brightcove.
- Search terms related to the return to school have climbed, with mental health-related searches 4.3 times higher and social and peer interaction-related searches 2.7 times higher. Other terms related to school also had higher-than-average searches from July 12-Aug. 12 vs. just a month or two earlier.
- Nielsen says 23% of remote workers listen every day to "spoken word" audio -- local news, podcasts, news/talk radio stations -- and 30% listen at least once a week. Music through AM/FM radio and streaming services is more popular with 40% of remote workers listening every day and 35% listening at least once a week. The research comes from a Nielsen Remote Workers Survey fielded from June 18 through June 25 this year.
- Most firms have dramatically increased their use of virtual events during the pandemic. BrightTALK reports. Here's what attendees want out of these sessions.
- U.S. programmatic digital out-of-home advertising spend will more than double in 2020 year over year, totaling $181.6 million, rising to $533.8 million by 2022, according to eMarketer's forecast. The estimate puts programmatic DOOH accounting for 2.2% of total OOH ad spending in the U.S. in 2020. A OOH campaign can be set so inventory is programmatically purchased whenever certain conditions are met. eMarketer explains.
- A study in the "Journal of Applied Psychology" finds that email is "inauthentic," and not useful for expressing emotions.
- The report should make marketers and developers who create skills for voice assistants aware of the vulnerability that could tarnish brands' reputation.
- A report released this week suggests that nearly one-third of respondents want personalized ads and 30% like brands more when they personalize their ads. The way brands collect data is also important. When asked how brands can be more transparent about data collection, 35% of respondents said "being allowed to dictate data collection preferences."
- We knew ads were coming to Facebook-owned WhatsApp, and it seems advertisers are getting ready to scale that engagement -- if brand/agency search terms are any indication of what's in store for the world's largest messaging platform.
- Customers would rather give feedback directly than have firms gather data on them from other sources, Gongos reports.
- Pluto TV, Roku, Hulu, Tubi, and Peacock pulled in an estimated $849 million in ad revenues in Q2, according to estimates from MoffettNathanson Research, amidst a sharp overall rise in connected TV usage.
- The list does provide an accurate peek into a post-COVID world, dominated by ecommerce and food sellers.
- Leveraging its "observational panel" in combination with a custom Scarborough survey that was "linked up" with its "total media fusion" methodology, Nielsen was able to create snapshots of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on average U.S. adults, as well as those who explicit were work-from-home (WFH) employees prior to and after the pandemic. Most importantly, it was able to analyze their TV and digital media consumption explicitly during work hours, finding considerable time spent with conventional TV -- both live and time-shifted viewing -- as well as TV connected devices and internet and mobile based digital media.
- The ad industry often debates whether it is better to reach multicultural audiences in mainstream or multicultural media, but a a new study by Horowitz finds significant percentages of Black (44%), Hispanic (42%) and Asian (30%) American adults say they are more likely to choose brands they see supporting ethnic media by buying advertising in it.
- Despite being a banner year in terms of political ad spending, the U.S. local advertising marketplace will contract 6% this year, according to a revised outlook released today by BIA Advisory Services. The revision -- the second since the COVID-19 pandemic impacted BIA's original 2020 forecast issued late last year -- now estimates total local ad spending will total 140.4 billion, which is down 3% from BIA's last revision in April and down 13% from its original 2020 outlook issued in November 2019.
- Should the industry say goodbye to "Black Friday" and replace it with "Cyber Week" once and for all? Data suggests that this year, Cyber Monday will extend from the day after Thanksgiving through the following week, with more consumers planning to shop online rather than in crowded stores.
- There are some surprising -- and not-so-surprising -- things uncovered about contemporary teens in a new global study of the persons 13-17 released today by GroupM's Mindshare, MediaCom and Wavemaker media shops. That they index incredibly high in terms of daily media usage of social media, messaging apps, texting, and search is not-so-surprising. That they are avid users of television may be. But the most surprising insights are just how "super-savvy" the current generation of teenage consumers actually are.
- Contrary to the overused Madison Avenue trope that contemporary teens are lazy, entitled "Millennials," a new global study from three GroupM media agencies finds the current youth population are the savviest and most socially aware teenage generation to date. "Pragmatic, prudent, individual and aspirational," the report from Mindshare, MediaCom and Wavemaker says of today's teens, adding that they are a "new breed of super-savvy consumers" that brand marketers need to understand and talk to in new and different ways."
- Although 70% of U.S. broadband households think the economy will take a long time to recover, intentions for increased at-home video consumption and CE purchases remain solid, Parks Associates' ongoing research on the pandemic's effects on consumer behavior and attitudes finds.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has been a "perfect storm" that has accelerated adoption and usage of app-based TV viewing that has brought the OTT marketplace to an inflection point that is likely to fundamentally alter the way advertisers and agencies plan, buy and think about the TV advertising mix. That's the top line conclusion of an in depth analysis of app-based TV viewing data being released this week by independent media services agency USIM.
- Comscore's revenue fell 8%, despite growth in TV and addressable TV, due to the pandemic's impacts. Cost cuts helped boost EBITDA.
- Consumers are finally paying attention to how brands use their data and many distrust how it is used. KPMG surveyed 1,000 North American consumers to learn more on how they feel about data privacy. The survey reveals consumers still agree data privacy is important, but now they want companies to take significant steps to better protect, manage and ethically use their data.
- Just as China is expanding its share of the global economy -- surpassing the U.S. as No. 1 for the first time in 2020 -- the nation's ad economy will also expand its share of the global ad economy significantly. According to just-released estimates from GroupM Business Intelligence's "This Year, Next Year 2020" report, China will see a marginal decrease in total ad spending in 2020, but its 2.8% decline is a third of the U.S.'s 7.6% decline and about a quarter of the world's 11.8% decline this year.
- More individuals are considering putting up a website, but don’t want to spend the money to do it. While a website created by a dedicated designer may start off between $1,000 and $3,000, nearly 55% of those participating in a survey from WebsiteToolTester wanted to spend $100 or less on building a website for a business venture. More than that, 22% would want to create one for free. Some 40% of the 1,000 U.S. consumers surveyed in July have considered creating a website for a business or hobby due to the pandemic. Nearly 43% of males and 36% of females, according to the findings. Some 53% of males and 60% of females said having the knowledge to create or design a website would be their biggest hurdle.
- While the overall U.S. ad marketplace likely will experience it's worst recession at least since the 2008-09 financial crisis, the subsegment of business-to-business digital ad spending is expected to grow marginally, according to new estimates released today by eMarketer. B2B marketers are projected to increase their digital ad spending in the U.S. by 22.6% to $8.14 billion in 2020. That's actually a percentage point higher than the growth the segment experienced in 2019.
- Following 14 waves of national consumer research, Mindshare's COVID-19 tracking study shows awareness of brands helping with the crisis has ebbed and now stands at its lowest point -- 30% unaided awareness -- since its first wave in March. Online retailer Amazon remains the top brand mentioned by U.S. consumers as aiding them during the pandemic, but rival Walmart has slid behind automaker Ford's awareness.
