Open(AI) And Shut Cases? NYT, Musk, And The Latest In OpenAI Legal News

OpenAI is constantly (and many would argue deservedly) in the news, but the last few days have seen some major headlines made over matters beyond mere artificial intelligence capabilities.

When we last left the case of The New York Times vs. OpenAI, the paper had filed a lawsuit claiming millions of its articles were being “used to train automated chatbots that now compete with the news outlet as a source of reliable information,” and that it would be seeking billions of dollars in damages from the ChatGPT creator. 

Last week, the tech company stepped up its initial “without merit” rebuttal, claiming the paper hired someone to hack ChatGPT in order to generate the “highly anomalous results.”

 

Paid Search Outperforms Paid Social — With The Latter Far More Likely To Bounce

Visitors from paid social are 41% more likely to bounce, notes Contentsquare’s 2024 Digital Experience Benchmark Report. The study sheds light on the distinct paths and outcomes between paid search and social media channels, revealing critical insights for digital marketers, and finds that paid search boasts a conversion rate four times higher than paid social.

 

The Power of Incentives in Ecommerce

Ecommerce is more than just selling products online; it’s about understanding and reacting to consumer behavior and preferences. With the landscape evolving rapidly, businesses must be agile and informed. ActiveCampaign’s report, ‘Coupons, Discounts & BOGOs (Oh My!),’ provides an in-depth look into the incentives that motivate the modern consumer. This report is a vital resource for ecommerce businesses seeking to navigate the intricate dynamics of today’s market.

 

B2B Dare: The Ecommerce Hurdles And Tools For 2024

B2B ecommerce firms are gearing up for the coming year, despite striking challenges, judging by the 2024 State Of B2B Ecommerce Report, a study by Forrester Consulting, commissioned by Zoovu. The priorities, whether important or critical, are [to] provide more automated and personalized guidance to online buyers (80%), improve demand generation (75%), [and] improve ability to collect and use zero-party data (73%).

Safe Ad Spaces: Consumers More Trusting Of Brands Around Appropriate Content

A recent study on brand safety and the content consumers consider unsafe is also shedding light on brand support of journalism and misinformation.

Integral Ad Science’s “The State of Brand Safety” found that four out of every five consumers (82%) believe content surrounding online ads should be appropriate, while 69% say the amount of inappropriate content (from hate speech and explicit content to misinformation and spam) has increased in the last year.

And when brands advertise near inappropriate content, consumers notice; 71% of consumers have less favorable feelings towards those brands, 70% say they trust the brands less, and 51% are likely to stop using the products or services.

 

The Impact of Loyalty Programs in the Apparel Industry

For brands considering how to retain customers and cut through all the noise, a well-structured loyalty program can be the difference between a one-time purchase and a tried-and-true raving fan. ebbo’s 2024 Apparel Loyalty Programs Data Study takes a closer look at the impact of loyalty programs on the apparel vertical, from strategic and successful wins to untapped areas of opportunity, to give you insights to help you boost your apparel brand’s bottom line.

 

Cookie Deprecation Won’t Change Advertisers’ Preferred Transaction Methods

A lot will change when third-party cookies are deprecated in Chrome, but some general programmatic ad spending patterns will stay the same. Programmatic direct will remain the most popular transaction method, while mobile will keep its sizable lead over other device categories.

 

Claude 3 Is The First To Match ChatGPT-4

Anthropic just released Claude 3, and it’s the first chatbot as good as ChatGPT-4 (Gemini Ultra still lags both). … We’re not saying ditch ChatGPT — instead, compare the tools to find which best suits your needs (we plan to use both). OpenAI might be sitting on a big ChatGPT upgrade, and now would be a good time to release it.

Act Locally: Illinois Joins Those Proposing Journalism Preservation Act

As we wait for the California Senate to hear and ultimately vote on the consequential California Journalism Preservation Act this session, similar legislation is being proposed in Illinois, where the efforts are already being hailed as “the most ambitious package of local journalism policy.”

Introduced by Senator Steve Stadelman last week, the Journalism Preservation Act (SB 3591) calls for tech companies to pay a usage fee to local news organizations for their work, 70% of which would then be required to be invested into journalism jobs.

 

Retail Media Grows Its Share Of Total Us Ad Spend, But Isn’t Overtaking Social Just Yet

Retail media ad spend will make up over one-fifth of total US ad spending by 2027, per our forecast. Social media will maintain its position as second-biggest ad channel through 2027, though not by much.

 

The State of Retail Media: Outlooks, Strategies & What’s Next

Retail media’s rise and impact on the marketing landscape has been undeniable and it shows no signs of dying down. It’s going to be the fastest-growing ad channel across media through 2027 (according to Insider Intelligence), making it bigger than connected TV, digital audio and traditional television advertising combined in the next few years. Recognizing its growth, omnichannel marketing platform Skai has produced a “State of Retail Media” report the past few years to help marketers understand trends driving the channel, as well as current and future retail media challenges and strategies. 

 

Zero-Party Data Revolution: How To Grow Marketing Effectiveness

The death of third-party cookies in 2024 will leave a hole in the marketer’s arsenal, but the change also represents a big opportunity.

Ad Placement, Yield, And Access To Consumer Data Lead Publisher Concerns For 2024

The postmortem on 2023 has shown positive gains and reason for 2024 optimism for advertisers.

For its annual Industry Pulse Report, Integral Ad Science asked brands and agencies on the buy-side as well as publishers about the challenges they expect even with those rosier forecasts. Both said that the biggest media challenge they expect in the next 12 months was ads delivering alongside risky content.

 

Email With A Caveat: Consumers Prefer It, But Heartily Dislike Spam

Consumers love their email, judging by Email And The Customer Experience, a recent study by Sinch Mailgun. Among the individuals polled, 75.4% say email is their preferred channel for promotional messages, while 74% favor it for transactional messages. The study also found that 84.9% check their email at least twice a day, and most are aware of the problem of messages landing in their spam folder. 

 

By 2027, Enterprise Spending On Generative AI Will Multiply Nearly Eightfold In Five Years

In 2027, enterprise spending on generative AI solutions worldwide will reach $151.1 billion, growing nearly eightfold from its total in 2023, according to the International Data Corporation.

 

Brands Need to Embrace and Support Today’s Customer Experience Economy

Brands don’t have the same margin of error they once did, so it’s critical that they embrace and support this new wave of empowered consumers and make it clear how the experiences they deliver improve their customers’ lives. To excel in an increasingly crowded field, Merkle urges brands to focus on responding to consumers’ stated preferences about their brand experiences in an effort to increase trust and build long-term relationships.

Growth Gains: Worldwide Ad Spending To Grow Faster In 2024

Recently, the Magazine Manager blog shared the good news that advertising spending in the U.S. grew in 2023. And even though that growth (achieved after nine consecutive months of YoY spending) only amounted to a 0.5% overall YoY gain, it’s still cause for optimism looking ahead.

Add another log to the optimism fire with Insider Intelligence’s latest projection that worldwide spending in digital, traditional, and total media ad spending will all grow faster in 2024 than they did last year.

 

U.S. Ad Buyers, Publishers Use A Combo Of Performance, Attention Metrics

57% of US ad buyers use performance metrics to help determine attention levels, according to an August 2023 survey from Integral Ad Science and YouGov. Publishers are less reliant on performance metrics, with only 43% currently using them to measure attention.

 

AI: The Next Frontier for Growing Brands

Creative professionals and marketers are under pressure to maximize results while minimizing budgets and resources. The report found that 76% of respondents agree that economic fluctuations have amplified the need for strategic pivots in teams’ workflows.

 

Meet “The New Sports Fan” in Infillion’s Latest Research

NFL Swifties. Gen-Z cricket fanatics. And Inter Miami FC followers who have never set foot in Florida. Reaching sports fans today is a lot more complicated than it used to be. Sports fans have always been a coveted audience for advertisers. Viewers are famously engaged and deliver the rapt attention that brands crave, and brands sponsoring teams or games can get a goodwill boost from supporters. One study after another has shown that sports fans are more likely to pay attention to commercials, that they look favorably upon brands that sponsor their home teams, and that this receptivity is growing rather than shrinking.

AI, Revenue Streams, And Breaking Big Tech Dependence — Publishing Predictions For 2024

When Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism released its annual “Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions” last January, Senior Research Associate Nic Newman commented that news organizations that hadn’t yet embraced digital would be at a “severe disadvantage,” highlighting one emerging technology that could offer “the chance for publishers (finally) to deliver more personal information and formats, to help deal with channel fragmentation and information overload.”

That technology was AI, and Newman’s prescient forewarning to “buckle up for the ride” seems almost cute considering how 2023 unfolded.

 

It’s Official: U.S. Ad Market Expanded In 2023, Albeit A Smidgen

Following a weak first-quarter start, the U.S. ad market expanded for nine consecutive months, ending 2023 with a gain of 0.5% over 2022, according to just-published December estimates from Guideline’s U.S. Ad Market Tracker.

 

Shoppers Want AI To Help With Product Research And Customer Service

To improve the shopping journey, 86% of adults worldwide want AI to help with product research or information, according to October 2023 IBM data. Some 82% want AI to help get service, answers, or solutions.

 

Brands Think They’re Delivering Great Shopping Experiences. Consumers Are Delivering Them A Reality Check

New Deloitte Digital research reveals that brands and consumers do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to the commerce experience. Our latest research uncovers what people value most in their B2C commerce experiences and how well brands are delivering on those expectations. We found that nearly 80% of B2C brands believe consumers are impressed by the online shopping experiences they provide. Yet fewer than half of consumers actually are.

Publisher Tips To Take Advantage Of Programmatic Advertising’s Bright Future

For all its promise and revenue potential, programmatic advertising faced “notable challenges” in 2023, according to Assertive Yield’s 2024 Publisher Trends report, which says trends like Google’s cookie phase-out and “a push for sustainable advertising” could impact publishers even further.

However, the report does note the bright side looking ahead, as the programmatic advertising market is expected to see an annual compound growth rate of 12.5% globally through 2030. 

 

As Cookies Disappear, Consumer Caution Grows

For many people, privacy is of the utmost importance when browsing online. Users do not want companies harvesting their data, and using it for personalized advertising. So the recent news of Google phasing out third-party cookies for 1% of users, with a plan to completely do away with them by the end of 2024, should be a welcome change that consumers should accept. However, there is still skepticism surrounding what could ultimately replace cookies, as well as alternatives that are already being tested.

 

The AI Fix: Enterprise Brands Are Using The New Tech To Engage Customers

AI-driven automation is leading to cost savings for most marketing users, judging by The Enterprise Perspective on Customer Engagement & AI, a study from MessageGears done in partnership with Ascend2.

 

AI Adoption Soars: Indusface Study Unveils Impact Of ChatGPT On Workplace Dynamics

Since its launch last November, ChatGPT has not only garnered over 100 million users but has also ignited a 1,700% surge in the quest for artificial intelligence. The debate over its role within workplaces has reached a crescendo. To better understand ChatGPT’s footprint in the UK business landscape, Indusface conducted a comprehensive survey of 2,000 workers, offering insights into its adoption, applications, and the prevailing concerns.

Growth Opportunities: Publishers Focusing On Digital Subscriptions In 2024 

For all the work and focus that publishers put toward their audience-community, sometimes a step back to get a glimpse of what others in their publishing-community are doing is more than just refreshing — it’s essential for survival.

Heading into the new year, the Alliance for Audited Media asked 35 of its audited publishers what they hoped to accomplish in 2024. Almost three-quarters (74%) said that digital subscriptions were going to be an area of focus, with the same percentage saying they were optimistic about growing digital subscriptions. 34% expected advertising to grow revenue, and 29% expected revenue from sponsored content.

 

Striking a Balance Between Hi {First_Name} and Creeping Customers Out

Bad personalization happens every day — the email addressed to {First_Name} or Amazon suddenly sending you lots of dog treat recommendations when you were only pet-sitting for one week. It happens, but it doesn’t need to because there is a right way and a wrong way to do personalization. 

 

2024 Publisher Trends: Global Programmatic & Ad Revenue

In 2023, the programmatic ecosystem faced notable challenges, making it one of the slowest years on our records. On the bright side, the global programmatic advertising market is expected to have an annual compound growth rate of 12,5% from 2023 until 2030.

 

The 2024 Advertising Outlook

In the dynamic world of advertising, understanding broader trends that dictate ad spend is crucial for informed decision-making. Our research indicates a wave of optimism sweeping across the industry heading into 2024. Marketers are gearing up for an active year ahead, with a substantial majority expressing their intent to either maintain or increase their spending in every channel.

NYT vs. OpenAI: Is It A Winner-Changes-All Battle?

Following the holiday headlines late last month that The New York Times would be suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, the AI organization is pushing back, stating in a blog response yesterday that the lawsuit “is without merit” and that it views this “as an opportunity to clarify our business, our intent, and how we build our technology.”

The NYT lawsuit claims that millions of its published articles were “used to train automated chatbots that now compete with the news outlet as a source of reliable information,” and that the defendants should be held responsible for billions of dollars in damages and forced to destroy their models and data that were trained on or use their copyrighted material.

Needless to say, a lot is on the line.

 

Leveraging AI In Marketing

With the proliferation of AI understanding comes more knowledge of how it can be applied to marketing strategies. So, how are marketers currently using AI, and how do they plan to invest in its use in the coming year? To help answer this question, Ascend2 and our Research Partners fielded the Leveraging AI in Marketing survey.

 

Marketers Gear Up For A Brighter 2024

Despite very real concerns about the economy, the majority of marketers around the world are optimistic and expect business to be better next year than this, according to a new WARC report. … Two-thirds (64%) of marketers indicated that economic recession will have the biggest impact on marketing strategies in 2024, while 41% highlighted inflation and the cost-of-living crisis. Yet almost two-thirds of marketers (61%) expect that business will improve next year and 41% believe that marketing budgets will increase.

 

B2B Mixology: Email Is A Top Lead Generator And 2024 Budget Item

Email maintains its position as a top lead generator, and will be an important part of marketing budgets in 2024, judging by the 2024 b2b Marketing Mix report, a study by Sagefrog. As a lead source, email is second only to in-person trade shows & events.

Publishing Paradise: What Would An Ad-Free Facebook Look Like?

Meta announced last Fall that it would be launching a subscription service in the EU, giving Facebook and Instagram users the option to pay for an ads-free experience. And the reactions and hypothetical questions this proposal prompted were instant and only continue to snowball.

For now, speculating and hypothetical pre-planning are about all we can do as Meta’s subscription model takes shape in Europe and casts shadows here in America. 

Looking at it from a publisher’s perspective, I can’t help but think a Meta subscription model here in America could help ease the pain for publishers competing in the social media ad arena.

 

Survey Reveals Marketers Waste The Most Time On Improving Tone

A marketing expert has suggested that almost 50% of marketing teams may need to improve their Tone of voice (TOV) guidelines to improve efficiency. This suggestion follows the recent finding that rewriting copy to improve tone is the most time-consuming part of the copy development process, as reported by 44% of marketers. Clearer TOV guidelines would allow marketers to get better quality content into the market faster.

 

Linkedin Ad Prices Surge As Advertisers’ X Boycott Continues

Prices have surged by as much as 30% – but advertisers are reporting up to 20% ROI for premium LinkedIn campaigns. LinkedIn ad prices have soared due to a surge in demand reportedly driven by the advertiser boycott of X.

 

Email Tide: Usage Booms, Especially When Combined With Other Channels

Email has been booming this year — especially when used in combination with other channels, according to The State of Messaging, a study by Customer.io and Parcel.io. Overall, there was a 26% increase in email volume, at least on the Customer.io platform. But that was outpaced by a 44% hike in brands using two or more channels.