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?