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digital publishing industries

New Study Links Subscription Rates To Cost Of Living

More than a fifth (21%) of Americans pay for their online news, compared to an average of 17% worldwide. That’s according to new research from Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford, which analyzed sample groups from 20 countries worldwide and found that, for most, “payment for online news is leveling off with high levels of cancellation strongly linked to the cost-of-living crisis.”

 

U.S. Ad Revenue At Musk’s X Declined Each Month Since Takeover

Monthly U.S. ad revenue at social media platform X has declined at least 55% year-over-year each month since billionaire Elon Musk bought the company formerly known as Twitter in October 2022, according to third-party data provided to Reuters.

 

Amid Budget Cuts, Email Prevails As Preferred Brand Communications According To New Study

New research from Exclaimer, the leading email signature management software, reveals that 68% of marketers have experienced a reduction in their budgets by at least 5% for the second half of 2023.

 

Which AI Tools Are Most Useful To Local SEO And Marketing Professionals?

92% of local marketing and SEO professionals worldwide experimented most with ChatGPT in their work in July 2023, according to an August survey by SurveyMonkey.

Getting With The Program: Programmatic Advertising In A Cookieless World

At some point, the necessity of having a cookie alternative will hit advertisers of all industries. If the latest numbers from 33Across are any indication, the impact of that hit may surprise and even broadside most.

In looking at the programmatic transactions on its exchange, 33Across found that most still use cookies during the process. And while most industries are incorporating alternatives somewhat — for instance, retailers have increased their non-cookie inventory investments by 77% — only insurance has a sizable start in embracing the cookieless future, with only half of its buys coming from cookies.

 

Deals Drive US Adults To Sign Up For Subscription Services

43% of US adults say discounts are the main reason they sign up for subscription services, per May data from SurveyMonkey. The most popular category of subscriptions among all consumers is digital media, followed by delivery services, gaming, and food and groceries, according to SurveyMonkey.

 

New Wave DM: Direct Mail Now Seen As Part Of Omnichannel Strategy

It’s time to look in on email’s sister medium — the one fondly known as junk mail and snail mail: direct mail. It has a lustrous heritage, having been sent in one form or another since colonial times. But now it is being seen as a performance-marketing channel in the modern sense, according to Delivering Performance: Direct Mail In The United States 2023, a study by Winterberry Group, presented by the U.S. Postal Service.

Instagram Forecast To Hit $71bn Revenue By 2024

Instagram is set to recover faster than other social media rivals following Apple’s ATT and a wider weakening of the digital ad market to reach $71bn by 2024, as consumers and brands look to the image-sharing site’s social commerce future.

Subscriptions See Boost When Audiences Are Involved With Engaged Journalism (New Study)

It’s not just lip service to say that successful publishers listen to their audiences. That input can obviously lead to a better overall product, but, as recent research has also found, it can help boost subscriptions as well.

That’s the latest from two researchers investigating “engaged journalism as a strategy for affecting news organizations’ revenue streams and improving news audience evaluations.” 

 

The 2024 State of CRM Report

The ability to track individual customer interactions and analyze that data is a game-changer, especially in an age where customers crave a personalized experience. This sort of data-driven approach to business relationships is still relatively new, though. In just the last few years alone, CRM has evolved far beyond being just a tool for contact management. 

The Price Of Privacy: Shoppers Are Willing To Trade Data For AI Deals

Consumers may be concerned about artificial intelligence (AI) and their personal privacy. But they are not quite as concerned when bargains [are] on the table. For instance, 87% of consumers will trade personal data for savings, according to U.S. Consumer Perceptions of AI in Retail and Ecommerce, a study by UserTesting, conducted by OnePoll. Moreover, 73% of consumers believe AI enhances their shopper experience, and an equal number say it saves them time. This is true despite the finding that 72% of consumers are concerned about privacy when interacting with AI. 

When It Comes To Where Ads Show Up, Marketers And Consumers Have Different Preferences
Marketers and the people they want to reach aren’t exactly seeing eye to eye when it comes to where ads show up, according to Kantar’s latest Media Reactions report. The study is based on research conducted among about 16,000 consumers and 900 senior marketers around the world. This year, it revealed a “significant contrast” between the ad channels and platforms preferred by marketers and those favored by consumers, according to Kantar.

Media Organizations Create Principles For Governing AI

Bryce Hall, a McKinsey associate partner, recently shared an analogy he heard from a business leader about generative AI: “We’ve just opened Jurassic Park, but we haven’t yet installed the electric fences.”

Earlier this month, 26 global media organizations essentially announced that they weren’t waiting for electricians and contractors, and were instead establishing their own principles that they “believe should govern the development, deployment, and regulation of Artificial Intelligence systems and applications.”

Emphasizing that they embrace the opportunities AI technologies will present to both businesses and society, the organizations are calling for responsible development as they “also pose risks for the sustainability of the creative industries, the public’s trust in knowledge, journalism, and science, and the health of our democracies.”

Sale Ads Are The Best Drivers Of Awareness, Purchase For Digital Shoppers
Ads for products on sale are the most effective form of retail media advertising, with 51% of US digital shoppers saying they pay attention to them and 44% of digital shoppers saying they purchase from them, per Integral Ad Science.

Influencer Grows In Influence, Set To Top $34B In Marketing Spend
The global influencer marketing economy, which expanded 21.5% last year, is on track to grow another 16.9% this year, topping $34 billion in spending. The U.S., which accounts for more than three-quarters of the worldwide influencer marketing marketplace, is expected to expand its share — rising 17.6% this year to more than $26 billion, according to an annual update to PQ Media’s “Global Influencer Marketing Forecast” report.

Marketers’ Brand Safety Tactics May Not Be Enough
Brand safety is a hot topic in the marketing industry. In fact, over 80% of marketing professionals believe it’s a major concern, according to recently published findings by the Journal of Advertising Research. However, with new innovations like the metaverse raising fresh concerns for marketers and more mature platforms like X, formerly Twitter, falling into controversy, brand safety has become an even more debated topic. Plus, according to the Journal of Advertising Research’s findings, consumers are just as aware, even reporting that consuming ads near content considered even mildly negative could turn them off a brand.

Advertiser Associations Set New Diverse Media Investment Guidelines

Last week, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) released new guidelines intended to “help those marketers who are interested in supporting diverse suppliers but are still sitting on the sidelines and not sure where to begin.”

The report, entitled “Guidelines For Getting Started When Investing With Diverse Media Companies,” offered 11 guidelines to directly address what the report calls “a gap between interest and investment — between intent and action” where large companies aren’t investing in diverse suppliers “in any meaningful way.”

 

When Writing For Busy Readers, Less Is More

The average person receives dozens or even hundreds of messages — emails, text messages, and so on — each day, and the average professional spends nearly one-third of their workweek reading and responding to emails. Those numbers don’t even account for all the other communications that professionals receive outside the workplace. For busy readers, handling this torrent of information and messages is like living in an endless game of Whac-A-Mole. Highly relevant updates about health and school can inadvertently get overlooked or whacked with the delete button. And yet there is a distressingly widespread misconception among writers that more is better.

 

Peacock’s Trick To Keep Subscribers Coming Back? Emails — Billions Of Them

Addicted to checking your email? Streaming services — yes, streaming services — might be betting on it. The annual churn rate across streamers in the US in the 12 months ending in June averaged 47%, according to Parks Associates, and consumers report taking longer than ever to find shows to watch, meaning streamers are pressed to find ways to keep viewers from canceling their subscriptions. And there’s a relatively simple channel that some media companies are tapping into as part of their efforts to try to keep viewers plugged in week after week: The humble email inbox. … More broadly, every single premium subscription streamer saw churn rates in June 2023 increase compared to the year prior — with the exception of Peacock, which saw churn rates decline 2%, according to data from Antenna.

 

AI Aggravation: Job Loss, Privacy Are Among Marketers’ Concerns

AI will help brands boost productivity. But it may also lead to job loss and other problems, judging by AI In Marketing and Communications, a study from The Conference Board in collaboration with Ragan Communications. Of the companies polled, 82% say AI will improve productivity, perhaps a lot. But 40% fear it will reduce the number of jobs, and some say it will reduce them a great deal.

Cost Of Doing Business: How Much Does An Ad Agency Cost?

For years, Mirabel’s Marketing Manager blog has been providing tips, best practices, how-to’s, explainers, and thorough breakdowns of every marketing topic under the sun so that businesses and brands of all sizes can make the most of their efforts. About the only thing the blogs haven’t addressed is the cost of an outside agency — and there’s a huge, almost prohibitive reason for that.

In fact, the Association of National Advertisers, 4A’s, and Advertiser Perceptions recently collaborated to put a spotlight on that very reason, with a study entitled “The Cost of the Pitch.” After interviewing more than 300 brand marketers and agency execs, they found that most brand-side marketers (59%) say cost is the most important factor considered when selecting an agency.

 

45% Of U.S., U.K. Advertisers Have Used Same Ad Approach For Past 5 Years

Around half of advertisers have seen privacy changes such as the drop-off in legacy third-party identifiers, with a negative impact on campaigns. About the same number expect upcoming privacy changes and challenges to reduce campaign effectiveness. But even more surprising is that 45% of U.S. and U.K. advertisers have been using the same approach to advertising for the last five years, and 71% of this group don’t plan to change their strategy in the next year. That leaves 32% who will continue to use outdated advertising strategies.

 

Marketers Have Pulled Back On Growth Strategies, Report Says

Growth marketing is shrinking. That’s one of the takeaways from digital agency Dept’s third annual report on the topic, which found a 40% decline in marketers who are using growth marketing strategies this year compared to last among the 450 senior managers or above who were surveyed. Dept defines growth marketing as “the blend” of performance and brand strategies.

 

We Analyzed Millions of ChatGPT User Sessions: Visits Are Down 29% Since May

Generative AI, and ChatGPT in particular have been catnip to the tech press, the mainstream media, and the conversations of professionals in nearly every field. How is it going to disrupt your work?! Will AI replace you? Are Hollywood writers, real estate agents, dog walkers, and anesthesiologists even useful anymore? In concert with the fine folks at Datos, whose opt-in, anonymized panel of 20M devices (desktop and mobile, covering 200+ countries) provides outstanding insight into what real people are doing on the web, we undertook a challenging project to answer at least some of the mystery surrounding ChatGPT.

Trillion In ’24: Global Ad Spend To Enter Four Comma Club

It’s probably more than just the extra Leap Day that will push it over this threshold, but according to the World Advertising Research Center, 2024 will be the year when global advertising spend surpasses $1 trillion. Surveying media industry organizations in 100 worldwide markets and analyzing revenue data from the largest media owners, WARC foresees a 8.2% boost from 2023’s ad spend of $963.5 billion.

U.S. Ad Market Climbs 6.2% In July

After dipping slightly in June, the U.S. Ad Market Tracker posted its biggest gain in monthly U.S. ad spending since April 2022. July ad spending by the major U.S. ad agencies pooling their data in the index rose 6.2% over July 2022, which was down 8.2% from July 2021.

Billboards Claim The Largest Share Of U.S. Programmatic OOH Ad Spend
The largest share of US programmatic out-of-home (OOH) ad spend went to billboards (41%) in H1 of this year, followed by screens and TVs (24%) and display panels (14%), according to Place Exchange.

The 2023 CMO State of the Union
2023 has proven to be the year of radical change in marketing. Cookies are being phased out, AI is becoming more integrated, and tight markets means more trips to the CFO’s office to scrutinize the budget. To top it off, traditional paid channels are getting more expensive and aren’t converting like they used to, leaving CMOs wondering where exactly growth will come from in the next 12 months and beyond. So, what’s a marketer to do?

Meta’s Ad Revenue Share ‘Out Of Step’ With Time Spent On Platforms

For digital advertising, Meta still sits (with Google) firmly at the top. However, according to recently crunched numbers in a separate Insider Intelligence report, Meta’s share of ad revenue is “surprisingly out of step with how much time people actually spend on its platforms, particularly when compared with competitors like YouTube and TikTok.”

 

Ads Are Coming To TikTok Search Results

TikTok users searching the app for specific videos will begin to see sponsored content in search results. The company announced today that advertisers will be able to place ads alongside organic content that appears when searching in the app. When a user clicks on an ad, they can continue scrolling to view search results in a feed-like format. Ads are pulled from other videos that the brand is running on the platform.

 

Journalists Are Opening PR Pitches, But It Takes Longer For Stories To Appear

Publishers worried about efficiency in the newsroom should check out the Q3 Propel Media Barometer. It will tell them how hard journalists are working. It looks like they are doing pretty well despite being overworked. The study found that journalists opened 49.14% of the email PR pitches they received in Q2 2023. This marked a 10% increase YoY. 

 

70% Of SMB Marketers Willing To Pay More For Tools With AI Or Automation

Artificial intelligence remains a big draw with SMB martech buyers: 70% say they’d pay more for a marketing platform that gave them access to AI or automation tools, according to a new study. SMBs (defined by the study as orgs with 250 employees or less) are a target-rich environment for vendors as only 26% have AI and/or automation technology, according to a study of nearly 500 SMBs conducted by digital marketing and automation platform Constant Contact and research firm Ascend2.

Publisher Priorities: Economy, Cookies … And, Yes, Attention Metrics

In asking publishers to rank the Top 3 trends they felt were vital to their company, Emodo found “a clear trend and one somewhat surprising result.”

The biggest priority for more than half (57%) of the respondents was the impact of the economy, while the third-largest priority was privacy and cookie deprecation (for 40%).

“Less expected at number two (52%),” the research found, “was the rise of publisher focus on Attention metrics — a theme that has gripped advertisers and marketers of late.”

 

Email By Design: Tools And Techniques Used In Message Creation

Email design teams are using a wide variety of technologies to personalize their sends, but most are not yet deploying AI, judging by The 2023 State of  Email Design Report, a study by Litmus. The most common design elements now include personalization using dynamic content (63%), personalization in the subject line (60%), animated GIFs or PNGs (58%) …

 

Marketing Uses For Generative AI That Will Outlive The Hype

Generative AI was the shiny new thing this year (despite having been around for quite a while). Curious consumers wrote poems with ChatGPT, created masterpieces with Midjourney, and browsed Google’s and Microsoft’s AI-chatbot search functionalities. As the hype clears, which generative AI applications will be most relevant for business? And how can marketers put those applications to use? Chatbots are useful for retail customer service, where just 3% of organizations expect generative AI to be significantly disruptive, but 93% say it’s a topic of discussion in the boardroom and 62% say they have already established a team and budget focused on generative AI, according to the Capgemini Research Institute.

 

46% Of Marketers Struggle To Find The Best Email Marketing Tool Or Service Provider

The economic landscape is very different for marketers to navigate in 2023 than it was even a year ago, as instability looms over industries and the threat of a recession has business owners remaining cautious on some marketing fronts, but more aggressive in other channels. One channel that consistently delivers results, no matter the economic season, is email marketing. In fact, our recent survey of 300 marketing professionals found that almost 75% considered their email marketing efforts to be effective.

Advertisers Optimistic in 2023, But Need Help

Advertisers are optimistic about their economic future, with three in five planning on spending more in 2023. E&P has that and other highlights from a recent Borrell Associates survey of almost 2,000 local advertisers and ad agencies. In addition to the 62% spending more on advertising this year, more than half (55%) are purchasing digital advertising from a media company.

 

Americans Have High Expectations For Ads, But Don’t Always Remember Them A Day Later

What was the last ad you saw? You might remember if you’re a marketer, but if not, it’s unlikely; most people only remember up to a tenth of the ads they’ve seen in the past 24 hours. That’s one of the findings from market research firm Provoke Insights’s advertising trends report from this summer.

 

AI Insights from The State of PR Technology 2023 Report

The results are in and 76% of PR practitioners foresee that critical thinking will be the paramount PR skill of the future. The truth is, AI can do a lot to speed up productivity. But can it ever quite replace that essential human touch?

 

To Have And To Hold: B2C Brands Face Customer Churn, Channel Shifts

Email ranks as the second most effective customer retention channel. But it is also the channel that has slipped the most even as brands face serious challenges overall, judging by State of B2C Customer Retention, a global study by Spectrm.