Explore Our Insights
Articles
Sponsored
Featured
External Link
Customize Your Feed
By Category
By Date
Customize Your Feed
Most Americans Report Being More Likely to Trust A Purpose-Led CompanyFour in 5 Americans feel a deep personal connection with purpose-driven companies.
Three-quarters (76%) of US adults (ages 18 and older) expect businesses to positively impact society instead of just make money. In a new study [download page] of more than 1,100 American adults, Porter Novelli / Cone found that 79% of Americans feel they... READ MORE
Most Americans Say They’re Willing to Pay More For Environmentally Friendly ProductsHalf of US shoppers purchase green because they are conscious of the environment. June 13, 2019
The majority (54%) of US adult shoppers agree (43%) or strongly agree (11%) that they are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products. This apparent willingness to pay a premium for “green” products has increased considerably since... READ MORE
Father’s Day Spending Expected to Reach A New HighSpending on Father's Day is estimated to reach $16 billion this year.
Father’s Day spending is estimated to rise from last year’s $15.3 billion to reach $16.0 billion, says the NRF in a new forecast, pushing this year’s total to a new peak. This growth comes despite a slight dip in the percentage of American adults... READ MORE
Marketers Believe Research and Case Studies Are Their Target Audiences’ Most Trusted ContentFour in 10 marketing influencers also say their content marketing engagement strategy is best in class. June 12, 2019
A full 95% of marketing influencers say their content marketing engagement strategy is either somewhat successful (56%) or very successful (39%) at achieving such primary goals as improving brand awareness, increasing customer conversions and increasing... READ MORE
Customer Lifetime Value Is A Priority. So What Are Marketers Doing About It?Virtually no company marketers say their approach to customer lifetime value is mature.
Do marketers think of the long game when it comes to their customers? Maybe not, as only one-third (33%) of survey respondents report that customer lifetime value (CLV) is a measurable and reported KPI for their company, per a report [download page] from... READ MORE
TV Advertisers Are Embracing Data-Enabled AdvertisingAudience-based TV advertising is also on the rise.June 11, 2019
Data-enabled TV advertising is set to see significant growth in the next year – and is already becoming more widespread. A recent survey [download page] of more than 150 television advertisers and marketers by Blockgraph (a division of FreeWheel)... READ MORE
Growth in US Adults’ Media Time Levels OffBut media usage is expected to grow by 4 minutes per day next year, buoyed by the elections and the Olympics.
US adults’ media consumption appears to be flatlining, as a new estimate from eMarketer projects they’ll spend about the same amount of time on media in 2019 as they did in 2018. The data from eMarketer suggests that adults (18 years and older)... READ MORE
What Metrics Are ABM Marketers Using to Measure Success?Plus - what challenges are they facing in measuring it all?June 10, 2019
The increased adoption of account-based marketing (ABM) doesn’t mean that B2B marketers are taking their eye away from the KPIs they’ve become accustomed to. In a recent Demand Gen Report (DGR) study [download page] – produced with LeanData... READ MORE
Five Points About Podcast AdvertisingIn this growing market, baked-in ads are still preferred, but dynamically inserted ads are growing in use.
With more Americans listening to podcasts than ever before, podcast advertising revenues are also on the rise, with just 22 companies self-reporting revenues of $344.7 million in 2018, in a market estimated to total $479.1 million (up 53% year-over-year).... READ MORE
Half of Global Media Ad Spend Forecast to Be Online Next YearA growing spend per internet user is one of the reasons behind digital advertising's ascent.June 7, 2019
Global internet advertising spend is projected to account for about half of total media advertising dollars next year – and it’s well on its way to fulfilling this projection, according to new research [subscription required] from WARC. The... READ MORE
Lower-Income Americans Still Lagging in Tech AdoptionBut 71% do now own a smartphone - a considerable rise in just a few years.
Perhaps not surprisingly, lower-income adults in the US have lower levels of technology adoption compared to those with higher incomes. A Pew Research study reveals that while 94% of Americans with a household income (HHI) of more than $100K have home... READ MORE
Social Media Dominates Video Content Promotion EffortsThe most popular channel among marketers is Facebook - coming ahead of YouTube.June 6, 2019
A large majority (89%) of marketers use video as part of their content strategy, which is not surprising considering marketers believe video converts better than other content. But how do marketers get their video content to their audiences? A new report... READ MORE
Cannabis Retailers Find Biggest Media Opportunity in Outdoor AdvertisingOutdoor advertising for cannabis reached $3.5 million in 2018.
Ten US states have already legalized cannabis for recreational use and more are predicted to do so in the coming years, with an Illinois bill recently passing through legislature and awaiting signature into law. This opens up a new market for media owners,... READ MORE
Is Your B2B Content Targeting the Wrong Job Level?It's not just the C-Level doing the reading - and on average across job levels, time to consume content is 24 hours. June 5, 2019
The most successful B2B content marketers prioritize delivering content to the right audience, but do they know who is accessing their content most? Although about two-thirds (64%) of the total audience for B2B content are those individuals with a job level... READ MORE
4 Points About Lead Generation Landing PagesMarketers aren't always doing what they believe will bring the best results.
About one-third (35.6%) of marketers believe that the average conversion rate for a typical landing page lead generation campaign is between 10-20%. However, a new survey of more than 160 marketing contacts from SmartBrief shows there is often a dichotomy... READ MORE
What Do Marketers Prioritize When Choosing Social Platforms?Almost half of marketers consider the cost of paid ads when considering a social platform.June 4, 2019
Seven in 10 social marketers say that increasing brand awareness is one of their top goals. To help achieve this, more than half (54%) of marketers are prioritizing potential audience reach when considering which social platforms to invest in, per a new... READ MORE
Millennials Say They Let Their Money Talk When It Comes to A Company’s EthicsAbout 4 in 10 say they would start or deepen their relationship with a business whose products had a positive societal impact.
Millennials spend about $322.5 billion annually, a strong figure but one that’s less than Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. What may set Millennials apart from those other two cohorts is that they are more apt to let their purchasing dollars speak for them... READ MORE
3 in 4 Marketing Execs Expect CMOs to Be More Prevalent On BoardsBut there's a long way to go - only 26 seats on Fortune 1000 boards are held by CMOs.June 3, 2019
CMOs’ roles have changed in scope and importance in the past few years as they take on the responsibilities of customer experience, data analytics and brand. However, very few hold seats as directors on company boards, with a new study [download page]... READ MORE
Does A Higher Volume of Site Personalization Lead to Better Conversion Rates?Conversion rates double from the 2nd to the 3rd personalized page view.
Personalization continues to prove its value, with companies reporting benefits such as positive ROI from implementing it in their marketing. But when some personalization can be creepy, should marketers dial it back? If conversion is your key measure, the... READ MORE
What Kind of Ad Relevance Do Consumers Prefer When Streaming Video?Consumers prefer ads be relevant to the content of the videos they are watching. May 31, 2019
About three-quarters (74%) of US consumers ages 13 years and older watch streaming video at least weekly, with 41% watching daily. Many of these consumers acknowledge that there is a price to watching free videos: the majority (78%) of the 1,500 US consumers... READ MORE
US Out-of-Home Ad Spend Continued to Grow in 2018Q4 2018 out-of-home advertising revenue grew by 7.2%, the largest jump in more than a decade.
US out-of-home (OOH) revenues experienced a 4.5% year-over-year increase in 2018 to reach a new high of $8 billion, according to figures released by the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA). The 2018 growth rate represented a step up from... READ MORE
The 10 Most Valuable Global Retail Brands in 2019Amazon remains at the top again this year. May 30, 2019
The world’s most valuable retail brands experienced a 33% growth in brand value this year, according to data from BrandZ. Reaching a total of $1.4 trillion, the top 75 most valuable global retail brands saw their worth grow by $339 billion from 2018. BrandZ... READ MORE
Captioned Video Ads Show A Lift in Brand LinkageWhy? More than two-thirds of US consumers watch videos with the sound off when in public spaces.
Advertisers are increasing their video budgets this year, but are they missing out on one key element that could make a difference to audience engagement? A new survey from Verizon Media has found that 7 in 10 (69%) US consumers watch videos without sound in... READ MORE
How Are CDPs Helping Enterprise Businesses?The majority of larger enterprise companies have a full view of their customers across digital and offline interactions.May 29, 2019
Roughly half (51%) of global enterprise companies are currently using a customer data platform (CDP), with larger enterprise organizations (those with annual revenues of at least $500 million) being more likely than smaller ones (annual revenue of $50-$500... READ MORE
Enterprise Companies Need Improvement Making Changes From VoC ProgramsMore than half of enterprise companies say demonstrating clear ROI from their VoC program is an obstacle they are facing.
With three-quarters of US consumers saying that customer experience factors into their purchase decision-making, voice of the customer (V0C) programs can play a vital role in improving customer experience. And while three in 5 (60%) enterprise companies say... READ MORE
Small Businesses Remain Loyal to Facebook AdvertisingMore than one-quarter (26%) of US small businesses have advertised on Facebook recently.May 28, 2019
Good news for Mark Zuckerberg – in the US, small businesses have not wavered in their use of advertising on Facebook, according to a survey by CNBC and SurveyMonkey. More than one-quarter (26%) of the 2,100 small business owners surveyed said they had... READ MORE
How Are Email Response Rates Trending?Different industries have seen some notable changes year-over-year.
Email click-through declined for business as usual emails in Q4 2018 on a year-over-year basis, per the latest email and benchmark trends report [download page] from Epsilon. Segmenting the data by industry, financial services (credit cards and banks) had... READ MORE
Asian-Americans Have Strong Purchasing Power. How Can Marketers Reach Them?The majority of Asian-Americans have made at least one purchase online in the past 12 months. May 24, 2019
Reaching the $1 trillion mark in 2018, Asian-American spending power is impressive, to say the least. With data from a recent report [download page] from Nielsen predicting that Asian-Americans’ spending power will reach $1.3 trillion in just 4 years,... READ MORE
Video Games Are Big Business. Here’s What Americans Consider When Buying Them.Gamers say that YouTube videos and user reviews help them in their decision-making process.
About two-thirds (65%) of US adults play video games and three-quarters of Americans have at least one gamer in their household. So, with the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) reporting that US gamers spent a total of $43.4 billion last year on games,... READ MORE
Want Reader Loyalty? Aim to Convert Search Referrals to Direct TrafficSearch-referred visitors and direct traffic have the highest engagement once they land on a media site, but direct visitors are much more loyal.May 23, 2019
There is a positive correlation between the number of times someone visits a website and retention, according to a new study by Parse.ly. In fact, the most loyal readers, people who visit a website most often, are those who come to a site directly –... READ MORE
Private Marketplace Ad Spend to Soon Exceed Open ExchangesGrowth is still expected on open exchanges, but is far less than that of private marketplaces.
US advertisers are set to spend close to $16 billion dollars on digital display ads bought in real-time on private marketplaces (PMPs) by 2021, according to the latest forecast from eMarketer. The analysis also predicts that the dollars spent via PMPs will... READ MORE
How Are Organizations Measuring the Success of Their Voice-Enabled Experiences?Engagement and returning users are high on the list, but a broad range of use cases makes prioritizing development unclear.May 22, 2019
The overwhelming majority of organizations see voice-enabled experiences as important (67% “very important”, 27% “somewhat important”) for their customers, according to a study by Adobe and Advanis, which also found that 9 in 10... READ MORE
Is Tech In the Home A Good Thing? Consumers Weigh In.Technology in the home generates many feelings and emotions, some of which conflict.
Technology has made it less and less necessary to ever leave your home. People can now work from home offices, access quality entertainment from their living rooms, order groceries to be delivered to the door and talk to friends, family and strangers from... READ MORE
More Consumers Are Now Upping Their Spending Than Cutting BackThat's the first time in at least a decade - but it may not necessarily be the new normal.May 21, 2019
In the midst of a recession a decade ago, about 3 times more consumers said they had been spending less money (53%) in recent months than those who self-reported spending more (17%). But for the first time since that period, the share of consumers spending... READ MORE
Digital Coupon Distributions Increase in 2018 but Remain Far Below PrintThe number of digital coupons clipped in 2018 increased by 1.5 billion.
While everyone loves a good BOGO (buy one, get one free) offer, Americans who prefer them in print saw significantly fewer in 2018, especially in the Food category, where print BOGO promotions were down by 50% year-over-year. By contrast, digital BOGO offers... READ MORE
B2B Marketers Expect to Quickly See Results From AI SolutionsSome 84% of B2B businesses claim to be in some stage of AI adoption.May 20, 2019
The majority (84%) of B2B organizations are in some stage of AI adoption, whether it be planning, evaluating, implementing or currently using AI-powered tools. And half as many (42%) are aware of and using at least some of the AI capabilities that already... READ MORE
D2C Brands Point to Social Media As Their Leading Customer Acquisition ChannelSEO and direct traffic also are popular acquisition channels for brands going direct to consumers.
With many retailers having concerns about selling on marketplaces – ranging from having to share a cut of revenues to potential customer relationship issues – some are choosing to cut out the middle-man and sell to customers directly. Clearly,... READ MORE
Building A Data Dashboard? Here Are Some Questions to Ask First.Most marketers want to figure out which are the right metrics to use, and how the data will be used.May 17, 2019
With CMOs in the US using data more than two-fifths of the time in decision making, it’s no wonder that more than half (55%) of marketing influencers say that one of their main objectives for a marketing data dashboard strategy is to improve how marketing... READ MORE
9 in 10 Businesses Think Chatbots Need to Get Smarter Before Customers Will Use Them RegularlyConsumer behavior reflects this too - they prefer online chat to chatbots or virtual assistants.
Businesses and consumers are experiencing a gap in perception when it comes to the use of AI. While almost two-thirds (63%) of businesses believe that chatbots and virtual assistants make it easier for customers to get their issues resolved, only one-third... READ MORE
Young Millennials Have A Positive View of Targeted Ads. Others? Not So Much.18-24-year-olds are the only age group to feel that targeted online ads are more convenient than intrusive.May 16, 2019
Generally, Americans have an unfavorable opinion about online targeted advertising. More than half (51%) of US adults believe that targeted advertisements are an inappropriate use of personal data rather than a convenient way to see products they’re... READ MORE
Almost Half of US Programmatic Display Ad Spend Expected to be Allocated to Video This YearAnd within this figure, more than half of the total programmatic video spend goes towards mobile.
Growth in programmatic spending on connected TV, social video advertising and OTT has contributed to US marketers spending an estimated $29.2 billion this year on programmatic video. This will account for just about half (49.2%) of the total programmatic... READ MORE
Where Is Social Media Marketing Headed?The short answer: slowly away from Facebook, although the network maintains its lead among marketers.May 15, 2019
Facebook remains the most used social media platform among marketers again this year, but Instagram is gaining in popularity as companies plan to increase their activity on the platform, per the latest annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report [download... READ MORE
Five Points About PersonalizationMore than one-third of Americans report having acted on a personalized message.
While very few marketers would dispute the effectiveness of personalization, there are still barriers to being able to personalize at scale, namely the time and cost involved in creating personalized content. A recent survey of more than 1,000 US consumers... READ MORE
Strategic Content Marketers Find Prioritizing Audience Segmentation A Challenge6 in 10 strategic content marketers struggle to understand what is most important to their audience.May 14, 2019
When thinking about audiences within their markets, 7 in 10 (71%) strategic content marketers struggle to prioritize their efforts towards one audience over another, per the latest research [PDF] from the Content Management Institute (CMI), sponsored by... READ MORE
Taste and Price the Top Influencers For Consumers Trying New Food & Beverage ProductsBrand trust and word-of-mouth outrank traditional advertising when it comes to awareness of new products.
More than one quarter (26%) of US consumers consider themselves to be early adopters when it comes to new food and beverage products, while the majority (61%) of consumers take a more ‘wait and see’ approach when a new product is released, according to the... READ MORE
US Online Ad Revenues Pass $100 Billion Milestone in 2018: 8 NotesIn one shift, display advertising spend surpassed search, likely driven by mobile's continued ascent.May 13, 2019
Online ad revenues grew rapidly again this past year, up almost 22% and surpassing a $100 billion milestone to reach $107.5 billion, per the latest revenue report [pdf] from IAB and PwC. Revenues for the 4th quarter grew by about 19.8% year-over-year as the... READ MORE
How Can Marketers Decrease Wasteful Spending?Two-thirds of marketing professionals surveyed say they're either bringing creative and digital media in-house or considering doing so.
Three in 10 marketing professionals say that one of the challenges they are currently facing is wasted marketing spend, per a new report from Albert and Forrester. So, what are marketers doing to turn this around? One approach is considering bringing... READ MORE
1 in Every 10 Adults in the US Doesn’t Use the InternetMore than 1 in 4 adults ages 65 and older are yet to use the internet.May 10, 2019
The proportion of US adults who do not use the internet continues its slow decline, per data from the Pew Research Center, as the percentage of the US adult population who do not use the internet has more than halved in fewer than 10 years. Still, 1 in 10... READ MORE
Increased Amazon Ad Spend Brings ResultsMerkle clients' sales from using Amazon Sponsored Products and Brands more than doubled year-over-year.
Advertisers are reaping the benefits of their increased investments in Amazon Sponsored Brands and Products, per new research [download page] gathered from Merkle clients. While spend on Amazon Sponsored Brands has increased a full 77% year-over-year (YOY)... READ MOREFeel Like You're Always Playing Catchup?
Stay ahead of the curve with our free newsletter. It’s fast. It’s factual. And it’s clear
