Bing, with help from Microsoft Research, is using Natural Language Representation models to improve results on each search. On Tuesday the Microsoft search engine introduced a feature that serves a
one-word answer for queries, as well as a carousel of related excerpts from a variety of resources.
Consumers are shifting from an "acute" phase of concern about the pandemic to a "transitory" phase that will ultimately lead to "normalcy," top analysts at market researcher Global Web Index said late
Tuesday during a press preview of their latest wave of COVID-19 tracking studies.
After the pandemic, 28% of consumers surveyed will spend more time comparing makes, models, prices and promotions online.
As I'm writing this, it's the 60th day we've been self-quarantined in Hoboken New Jersey. I'm in my apartment with my wife, my son who turns 21 this week, and my 80-plus-year-old mother-in-law. In
this week's edition, I provide my first-person account of TV viewing life under quarantine.
WPP's GroupM was the big winner in terms of net new business gains during the first quarter of 2020, according to a just-released compilation by Comvergence. With $962 million in first quarter gains,
GroupM's media services units became an even bigger fish in what turned out to be a smaller first quarter pond, as total new business activity slowed due to the pandemic.
Like much of the rest of the global economy, new business activity slowed precipitously for the media services industry during the Q1 2020. Total volume of media account turnover declined 51% to $2.9
billion from $4.95 billion in Q1 2019, according to just-published estimates compiled by Comvergence.
Marketers are complicit in the toxicity of social media, they misunderstand its function and how brands should participate in it, and yet they appear to be held hostage by it. Those are some of the
main paradoxes confronting brand marketers, according to a damning new report from the social media analyst at Forrester Research. "Every company should ask the question, 'Should we be on social
media?'," writes Forrester analyst Jessica Lieu in the new report, "It's OK To Break Up With Social Media."
Survey respondents went from spending nearly six hours every week behind the wheel of a car to a quick six minutes each day.
While COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders have impacted all industries in the past few months, the search term "Coronavirus exit phase" continues to rise, up 232% by May 15, according to recent CodeFuel
data.
Like most industries, the global marketing and media research trade faces an uncertain future in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's impact on business economics. To benchmark the magnitude of
the effect, ESOMAR conducted a survey of its members in April and found most expect some "slight" to "big" negative disruption that is likely to result in a significant amount of layoffs for marketing
and media research professionals.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of members os the Association of National Advertisers currently work with a minority-owned market, advertising or research agency, according to findings of a just-published new
report from the ad a trade association on "supplier diversity."
The pandemic will give rise to the "next normal," which will largely be defined by a change in consumer psychographics, not consumer behavior.
A lack of commuters is balanced by home listeners -- but it's the established shows that are feeling the love, not new launches.
At a time when analysts already are projecting U.S. ad spending could decline as much as 17% in 2020, one category appears to remain buoyant: political. Advertising Analytics has revised its previous
forecast for U.S. political ad spending up 11.7% to $6.7 billion due primarily to the fact that there will be less "face-to-face" campaigning and candidates will need to rely even more on advertising
to influence and persuade voters.
Political ad spend for the 2020 political season so far is at $2.19 billion -- more than $1 billion more than spending at this point in 2016 and 2018 -- two big political election years -- according
an estimate by Advertising Analytics. Driven by higher-than-expected primary spending and the absence of live event campaigning, political advertising is now expected to total an even bigger record of
$6.7 billion this year. Advertising Analytics is raising its estimate by 12% because of primary spending, higher fund-raising, and what it says is the "lack of face to face campaigning" -- due to
COVID-19 disruption.
Homebound consumers bought more sweets and convenience foods, such as ice cream and frozen entrees, than they did a year earlier.
Twenty-eight percent of 69 videos checked against factual data repositories were found to include misinformation, and some came from national news sources. Factual videos from government and
professional sources comprised just 11% of the most-viewed videos, and 10% of views.
Nearly nine in ten advertisers are deferring campaigns with just over half holding back spend for six months, according to a WFA report covered in "Campaign."
At a time when many marketers are trying to come to grips with the physical dislocation of consumers from their brands in the real world, interest is spiking among both brands and agencies in
accessing content about "digital strategy. "This showcases adapting to the new normal," Michael McLaren, CEO of the B2B Group at Merkle, in analyzing the most significant findings in a unique tracking
index of the content being consumed by the top 500 advertisers and the leading ad agencies.
The vast majority of consumers say they are unlikely to have their sentiment about a brand change either way if their ads appear next to coverage of COVID-19, and there has been relatively not change
over time. That's the conclusion of the second wave of consumer studies conducted by IAS (Integral Ad Science) probing the impact the pandemic coverage is having on advertising adjacencies.
While COVID-19's impacts may have played a part, several providers cited a decrease in new subscribers, rather than an increase in cord cutters, as key drivers of losses.
Half of corporate America's C-suite expects their company's operations to stabilize from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic by the third quarter of this year. That's the good news, according to a
survey of 150 C-level executives fielded April 23 & 24 by consultant West Monroe. The bad news is half believe it will take longer, including more than a quarter who believe it won't be until 2021 or
"beyond" before their businesses return to normal.
The global ad economy will outpace the contraction of real GPD following the economic impact of COVID-19 through the rest of 2020, according to an updated forecast released today by technology and
market analytics platform Omdia.
As cooped up as Americans have been with pandemic stay-at-home restrictions they won't be hitting the road all that quickly once the restrictions are officially lifted. Only about half (51%) say
they'd be comfortable traveling for vacation by car 30 days afterward. When it comes to air travel, especially internationally, it will take even longer for most Americans to feel comfortable.
Key questions for brands are how consumer shifts in behavior will forecast demand, how much marketers should spend initially to reach customers, and what type of messages customers will expect.
Some more revealing data from the out-of-home industry shows Americans are slowly regaining their mobility after months of staying at home. This unique data visualization from Geopath and Intermx
shows the percentage of Americans traveling one mile or more from their homes daily.
One of the surprising effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the media supply chain is a sudden decline in the supply of premium video ad impressions served -- especially for high-demand CTV, or
connected TV -- ads. That's the top finding of the first quarter Video Benchmarks Report from Extreme Reach, which found that after maintaining a relatively stable 50% share of video ad impressions
served, CTV suddenly plummeted in the first quarter of this year.
Linear TV viewing for kids 2-11 dropped 8% for national kids TV networks in April vs. the same month a year ago, according to a Nielsen analysis -- an improvement over regular 20% declines from 2018
and 2019, Bernstein Research says.
Half of ad execs don't expect anyone to buy more than one quarter's worth of TV ad inventory in this year's upfront network TV ad marketplace, negating the very nature of the upfront.
Thirteen email service providers are rated by several factors, including overall current offering and strategy.