• More Americans Are Seeing (And Clicking) Relevant Ads

Digital advertising, when processed to the best of technology’s abilities, has the potential to offer and even treat consumers to ads directly aligned with their interests and needs. New poll results from CivicScience show that 41% of U.S. adults feel that most of the digital ads they see are at least “somewhat” relevant to them, up 11 percentage points from two years ago and six points from last year.

• Entertainment Companies Are Eager To Make Virtual Product Placement Happen. That Doesn’t Make It Easy.

In 2007, a cutting-edge technology made its debut on NBC’s 30 Rock in the form of a joke. SeinfeldVision, as it’s dubbed in the comedy’s Season 2 premiere, digitally inserts 3D versions of Jerry Seinfeld into shows like the fictitious MILF Island without the comedian ever actually appearing on set. Sixteen years later, MILF Island is basically a real show, and a technology once dreamt up for a punchline is basically a reality. Only this time, it’s packages of M&Ms and bottles of soda being dropped into TV shows, not comedians.

• U.S., Worldwide Ad-Cost Inflation Poised To Decelerate This Year

The good news for U.S. and worldwide advertisers is that the rate of advertising cost inflation is projected to decelerate this year, falling below the overall increase in consumer price inflation. In the U.S., the overall rate of ad-cost inflation will decline 1.7 points this year to 4.2% from 5.9% in 2022, according to new estimates released this morning by ECI Media Management.

• B2B Marketing Data Faces Slowing Spend Growth, But Remains Critical To Success

In 2023, US B2B spend on third-party marketing data will increase 3.2%, a slight slowdown from the past three years, according to our forecast. Next year, growth will rebound and spend will approach $4 billion. B2B spend on data grew during the pandemic as marketers could no longer collect first-party data at in-person events. As a result, third-party data became an important resource for B2B marketers. Even as in-person events return, we believe third-party data will remain more important than the physical collection of leads. However, privacy rules restrict how companies can collect and use data, meaning marketers must invest in technology and talent to ensure compliance.

 

• Programmatic Guaranteed Buys Helping Otherwise Slow 2023 Start

Recent Digiday reports have 2023 starting slow for both direct and programmatic ad sales. At the same time, however, some media executives are telling Digiday that they see promise in programmatic direct deals that can “make up for the shortfalls.” Speaking to anonymous publishing execs, Digiday shared stories of programmatic guaranteed buys and their resulting RPMs all on the rise.

• Inside The Super Bowl’s Hottest Ad Trend — Brand Partnerships

Will Ferrell is taking viewers on a joyride this Super Bowl—but he’s sharing the front seat with not one, but two brands, as General Motors teams up with Netflix for an electric vehicle marketing partnership. Similarly, Molson Coors tapped DraftKings for an engagement-boosting betting game and Michelob Ultra will promote Netflix’s golf docuseries as advertisers join forces to rise above their competition …

• Attention Metrics Insights, And Why They Are Becoming So Popular 

Teads, a global media platform, has released research it conducted in collaboration with Censuswide that found 83% of UK marketers believe attention metrics are  important in order to reduce the environmental impact of digital ads. Jeremy Arditi, co-chief executive officer at Teads, believes attention metrics picked up steam in the UK before coming to the United States. Privacy regulation became a driving factor.

• How Will Link-Free Search Impact Publisher Revenue? 

Last week saw the announcement from Google that it plans to integrate the Bard AI chatbot into its search. Microsoft confirmed that it will do the same with ChatGPT in its Bing search engine. The widespread development of AI technologies has been described as ‘the most important shift in consumer technology since the iPhone’. But the introduction of ‘complete answers’ from AI-powered chatbots could have serious consequences for publisher traffic and revenue.

• Predicting the News: Artifact Using AI to Make Feeds More Relevant to Readers

If there was a Venn diagram showing people looking for a solid news aggregator in one circle, people looking for a social media alternative in another circle, and people looking for an entry-level experience into what AI learning is capable of in a third circle, the ensuing, massive intersection would be the all-too-timely bullseye that the founders of Artifact are hoping to hit.

• Alphabet CEO Confirms Google Working on Engaging Conversational AI-Search Feature

Google plans to bring AI-like features to search similar to the large language-model technology in ChatGPT, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during the company’s Q4 2022 earnings call Thursday.

“In the coming weeks and months, we’ll make these language models available, starting with LaMDA, so that people can engage directly with them,” Pichai said.

• Despite Q1’s Slow Start, Publishers Are Bullish About Events Revenue for 2023

With publishers reporting that Q1 advertising revenue is tracking 10% to 25% down from forecasts and with RPMs (revenue earned per 1,000 pageviews) from open marketplace programmatic ads down even further — between 20% and 55% year over year — finding silver linings is more important than ever. And based on four publishers’ experiences so far this quarter, it looks like events might be that small saving grace.

• 7 Subscription Insights From Businesses Outside Publishing

You can get a subscription for almost anything these days, from movies and music to software and socks. On his German-language podcast Subscribe Now, Lennart Schneider talks to decision-makers from a variety of industries about their experiences and challenges in the subscription space. Formerly at German weekly Die Ziet, Schneider recently wrote about the key subscription insights that he thinks publishers can transfer to their own reader revenue strategies.

• Advertising Spend to Increase as Technology Takes Spotlight

Two recently released reports are not only putting an optimistic look at advertising spend in the coming year, but also pointing directly to the technological advances many are taking to make that a reality.

The first bit of good news comes from the Winterberry Group, who estimate 2023’s ad spend to come in at $509 billion, up 6% from last year’s $481 billion. Their findings, released in last week’s “The Outlook for Advertising, Marketing and Data 2023” report, put 60% of that total spend ($307 billion) occurring on online channels.

• 7 Lessons for Publishers, From 7 Different Subscription Businesses

The subscription economy is probably one of the most important economic trends of recent decades, which is why I talk to decision-makers from various industries about their experiences and challenges in my podcast “Subscribe Now”. The podcast is aimed at anyone who works in a subscription company and is looking for new impetus outside their direct industry. After all, many insights transfer well.  Here are seven key subscription learnings from seven different industries for publishers to apply to their own strategies.

• Other Agencies: We’re Not Seeing the Growth the Big 4 Are Forecasting

Top executives of big holding company and independent media services agencies that do not officially release advertising forecast estimates last week told MediaPost they believe the ones that do publish them do not represent what they have been experiencing in terms of U.S. ad spending trends.

Specifically, they said their own internal estimates are closer to ones published by MediaPost last week, based on analysis of data from Standard Media Index indicating the U.S. ad economy expanded only about 3% in 2022, which compares with a consensus of nearly 10% from the Big 4 agency holding company’s more estimates.

• Publishers Report Q1 Ad Revenue Is Pacing 10-25% Behind Forecasts

The first quarter is off to a rocky start for publishers’ advertising businesses, and while that might not come as a surprise given the state of the economy — even for media execs who forecasted their companies’ revenue goals according to the headwinds in the market — January is pacing between 10% to 25% off their projected targets, according to three media executives. Three other execs profiled for this piece said their business is approximately even with Q1 2022.