Agency

Fifty-nine percent of marketers’ digital advertising budgets are currently allocated to digital video, a consistent climb in share since 2016, according to the “Digital Content NewFronts: 2018 Video Ad Spend Study”. Furthering the trend, more than 50 percent of buyers plan to increase digital and mobile video spending in the next 12 months, with the additional spend primarily coming from expanding budgets.

Have you ever set out to add complexity to a problem or project?  Probably not.  In the history of business, the typical goal is to simplify, focus in, and define problems and solutions to be grasped and broken down into digestible pieces so teams can move forward without becoming paralyzed by the enormity of the task.  

Millennials’ behavior is among the most scrutinized, but don’t be too quick to stereotype this generation.

Cigna released results from a national survey exploring the impact of loneliness in the United States. The survey, conducted in partnership with market research firm, Ipsos, revealed that most American adults are considered lonely.

TBWA’s cultural insight studio, Backslash, released a report identifying a new modern era of American activism, coined Pan Activism. In a nationwide research study, conducted with strategic brand research consultancy Hall & Partners, it was found that 85 percent of Americans took some form of activism in the past year, such as conversing with those who have differing beliefs or donating to a local business or national tragedy. The findings indicate that modern activism is no longer defined by fringe groups with singular big battles but it is more mass and characterized by small, everyday actions.

Despite a long and relatively steadily improving economy, consumers remain so focused on value that pricing remains retailers’ most pressing business worry.

Here, Duncan Southgate, Global Brand Director, Media, explains why marketers should always look beyond simple, generic rankings when deciding which media channels to use.

For Millennials and most modern consumers, television has been a key part of our daily lives — whether it’s looking forward to relaxing and watching a show after a long day at work or cheering on a favorite sports team during the playoffs. However, the rise of technology has changed the way people consume visual content, making it tough for television to compete with the digital world. Could television really be dying a long, slow death? Here are four reasons why digital media is causing the death of television and why marketers should ditch television for digital media.

Navigating the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) landscape has become difficult. It’s not just the consumer path-to-purchase that’s grown in complexity. The playing field for manufacturers and retailers has evolved as well. Notably, for the first time since 2009, the total number of brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. has declined. As we’ll review a little later, this hasn’t affected all channels to the same extent, but it does highlight the importance of handling product assortment and distribution with utmost efficiency.

As digital makes its mark on the advertising world, it’s all too easy to forget that, collectively, traditional media still rules the roost. But for how long? We discuss this, and more, in the latest episode of eMarketer’s “Behind the Numbers” podcast.

The imperative to compete on the basis of customer experience is heightening the job security risks of chief marketing officers who are struggling to keep up with new digitally driven ways to engage, satisfy and enrich the experience of more mobile, savvy and fickle consumers.

How much time do American consumers spend each day with their multimedia devices, tablets, computers, AM/FM radio, TV, or their smartphones?  By Pierre Bouvard

While today’s media consumers have a greater choice of content through ad-free or ad-blocked environments, the belief that ad-supported media is on the decline is just not true, according to Peter Katsingris, Senior Vice President, Audience Insights, Nielsen.  He noted that despite the changes in content availability through increased platform and device options “over the last 15 years, ad-supported media is still far more dominant and successful than perception may indicate.”

Whether they’re catching up on the news in the car or tuning in to true crime on the treadmill, chances are US consumers are listening to a podcast.

The fast-moving-consumer-goods industry has a long history of generating reliable growth through mass brands. But the model that fueled industry success now faces great pressure as consumer behaviors shift and the channel landscape changes. To win in the coming decades, FMCGs need to reduce their reliance on mass brands and offline mass channels and embrace an agile operating model focused on brand relevance rather than synergies.

Yes, the 72-million strong Millennial generation is coming into their own and are starting to buy stuff. Enamored marketers are salivating (or running scared) at the prospect of serving them.  Older marketers, and students of consumerism, remember the defining impact of the last mega-generational cohort, the Baby Boomers; how they shaped consumer trends, created categories of products and services, and generally made or broke one’s business success.  By Stephen Palacios, Principal, Ahzul

To really understand the attitudinal power of brands we need to look beyond the absolute scores and instead examine relative strengths and weaknesses. If more people say good things about a brand than claim to use it then that difference represents an opportunity to grow, provided that association has a positive relationship with business outcomes.   by Nigel Hollis

Univision Communications Inc. (UCI) announced that Liz Blacker has been appointed to SVP of Branded Content Revenue. Effective immediately, Blacker will be based in New York and report to Lisa Valentino, EVP of Revenue Innovation for UCI.

By Gonzalo López Martí   – Creative director, etc./LMMiami.com

“Students are borrowing money they  do n ot haveto study stuff that does not matterto try and find jobs that do not exist.”
Tweeted by @charliekirk11

Miami-based independent marketing communications firm CCOM Group announced the rebranding of its business to represent the fluent and ‘always-on’ nature of today’s culture and the agency’s relentless effort to help clients authentically navigate this new and evolved space.