Digital Advertisers Hope to Better Dynamically Segment AudiencesAI might prove beneficial in this effort, as well as by dynamically powering creative.September 20, 2018

The vast majority (91%) of advertisers agree to some extent that they put the customer first in all their marketing efforts, according to a survey [download page] conducted by Econsultancy for MediaMath. With that in mind, it’s interesting to look at... READ MORE

Young People Are More Favorable to the Advertising and PR IndustryYoung people also hold more favorable views of media industries than do their older counterparts.

The general public in the US has traditionally had a dim view of advertising practitioners’ honesty and ethical standards. But that doesn’t seem to have fully translated to the advertising and PR industry as a whole, which seems to be met with... READ MORE

Texting is Now Teens’ Favorite Way to Communicate With FriendsTexting is even more ingrained in teens' habits than checking social media.September 19, 2018

There have been numerous news articles in recent years comparing teens’ likelihood to spend time together in person today compared to the past. A new report from Common Sense Media [download page] offers data suggesting that teens are communicating... READ MORE

These Are the Brands Considered Most “Relevant” by Americans in 2018The trillion-dollar brands make their presences felt.

The first two companies to hit a $1 trillion valuation are also the most relevant brands in the US. So finds Prophet’s latest Brand Relevance Index, which measures brands across 4 characteristics generally shared by the most relevant: customer... READ MORE

CMOs’ Growth Strategies Revolve Around Existing Markets Rather Than New OnesGrowth strategies also focus on existing rather than new products.September 18, 2018

CMOs in the US are budgeting more for market penetration than market development, according to the latest edition of The CMO Survey [pdf]. More than three-quarters of spending in the past year has been devoted to growth strategies designed around new and/or... READ MORE

TV Universe Fairly Steady At 119.9 Million Homes for the Upcoming 2018-2019 SeasonThe number of TV homes in the US is up by less than 0.3% from last year.

After climbing by 1.2 million homes last year, the number of TV homes in the US has grown by just 0.3 million this year, reaching 119.9 million for the upcoming season, according to Nielsen’s latest TV Universe estimates. Some 305.4 million Americans... READ MORE

Most B2B Marketers Report Positive ROI… If They Know What It Is.ROI is growing as a primary metric, but some channels are proving difficult to measure.September 17, 2018

B2B marketers are slightly more likely to say they’re perceived as a “cost center” (53%) than as a “revenue center” (47%) within their organizations, according to Bizible’s State of Pipeline Marketing report. That may be... READ MORE

5 Interesting Points About Amazon Shopping BehaviorTwo-thirds of product clicks come from the first page of Amazon results.

Where is Amazon’s product category dominance highest? And how does Amazon compare with Google in terms of product search share and time from search to purchase? These and several other answers are provided in Jumpshot’s recent Q2 2018 report,... READ MORE

Here’s How People Say Tech Fits Into Their Lives – And Will in the FuturePeople envision a much greater future reliance on tech in commuting, managing the home, and shopping.September 16, 2018

Want to predict which new technologies will have a chance to gain widespread adoption in the coming years? One way might be to look at how people rely on technology today and might in the future, as revealed in a recent report [pdf] from Intel. The survey... READ MORE

Marketers Clearly See Email As The Best Content Distribution ChannelAs for the most effective content type? It's a toss-up, but there's strong support for video, webinars and research.September 14, 2018

Websites, blogs and social media are perceived to be effective channels through which to market content to prospective customers, according to a report from Ascend2 [download page]. But none are quite as popular as email, which can be integral to... READ MORE

Will Parents Be At the Forefront of New Tech Adoption?Parents are more excited about technologies than non-parents, and more likely to own AI technologies.September 13, 2018

Consumers are fairly split on whether emerging technologies will bring improvements to people’s lives or cause just as many new problems as solutions, research from Intel [pdf] has found. Predictably, youth are more enthusiastic about tech than their... READ MORE

Pay-TV Cord-Cutting Slightly Eases Again in Q2 As vMVPD Subs Grow, But Losses Are MountingSlingTV and DIRECTV NOW exceeded 4 million subscribers combined by the end of Q2.

Pay-TV providers continue to face cord-cutting behavior from consumers, but Q2 2018 – just like Q1 – turned out to be slightly less painful again than in the year-earlier period. That’s according to data from the Leichtman Research Group... READ MORE

What Are Today’s Teens Talking About? 5 Insights.Almost one-third (31%) of teenagers talk about Apple-owned brands on a daily basis.September 12, 2018

Online and offline conversations are estimated to drive almost one-fifth of consumer sales in the US. So as marketers turn their attention to Gen Z, it pays to know what they’re talking about, especially as a new report from Engagement Labs [download... READ MORE

Most TV Households Report Having Both A Pay-TV And A Streaming Video ServiceAbout 7 in 10 US households now subscribe to at least one SVOD service.

More than two-thirds (69%) of US households have a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service from one of the major players, up from 64% last year, 59% in 2016, and 52% in 2015. That’s according to the latest annual survey on the topic from the... READ MORE

Publishers: Don’t Just Focus on Platform TrafficSearch and social only combine for half of traffic to online media sites. What about that other half?September 11, 2018

Google has well and truly taken the lead over Facebook as a referral traffic source to online articles. But recent data from Parse.ly demonstrates that publishers shouldn’t focus solely on search and social, as they represent only half the story. To... READ MORE

People Don’t Like the Idea of Being Linked to Marketing SegmentsPeople say they expect to be treated as individuals, but at the same time are concerned with first-party data use.

Personalization is all the rage these days – with a primary goal being to enable 1-to-1 communication. A new survey from Selligent Marketing Cloud gives one reason why marketers – who are yet to move to individualized campaigns – may want... READ MORE

Three Short-Term Trends From The Latest CMO SurveyMobile and social budgets are rising, but marketing budget growth overall seems to be decelerating.September 10, 2018

The latest biannual iteration of The CMO Survey [pdf] was recently released, and it contains some interesting – and at times sobering – statistics about the direction of marketing budgets and measurement. Here are 3 takeaways from the report that... READ MORE

Online Sources Growing for Video Content DiscoveryWord-of-mouth remains the top way by which people discover full-length video content, though.

The main ways by which people discover video content haven’t changed much since last year. But as a new report from Nielsen [download page] reveals, online ads and social media platforms are growing in stature as sources of video content awareness.... READ MORE

B2B Marketers’ Use of ABM GrowsQuestions remain as to ABM's effectiveness, though, perhaps due to lack of executional ability.September 7, 2018

B2B marketers appear to be integrating account-based marketing into their efforts at a greater rate this year than last, research from Bizible [download page] has found. This year more than one-third (35.9%) of marketers surveyed said that at least half of... READ MORE

The Pay-TV Industry is Benefiting from Subscribers’ InertiaAbout 7 in 10 US adults retain pay-TV services with no plans to cancel them.

Cord-cutting is a big story these days – and rightly so. That makes it rare to hear about people who are “loyal” to the cord. But in a new report, GfK provides a reminder that fully 71% of all US consumers not only have a pay-TV service but... READ MORE

Retail Spending Grows by 5.4% in H1 2018. Where Are Americans Spending More?Jewelry stores enjoyed a big bump, while it remains a tough scene for office supplies stores.September 6, 2018

Retail and food service sales grew by 5.35% year-over-year during the first half of 2018, according to unadjusted figures released by the US Department of Commerce. While Americans pulled back their spending at office supplies and stationery stores (-6.7%)... READ MORE

US Consumer Spending on Video Games is Soaring This YearSpending so far this year has doubled the rate of growth set in 2017.

Consumer spending on the US video game industry hit $19.5 billion in the first half of this year, representing a 40% jump year-over-year, per The NPD Group. If that pace sustains itself over the course of the year, consumer spending growth on video games... READ MORE

Brands: Avoid These Email PitfallsOver-frequency, irrelevance, and poor writing are all frustrating aspects of the email experience for consumers.September 5, 2018

Email continues to be consumers’ preferred form of brand communication. But that doesn’t mean it’s not without its faults! In a recent study, Adobe breaks down some of the most frustrating aspects of email communications, based on a survey... READ MORE

Most Gen Z Shoppers Say They Often Discover Products on Social MediaMore than 7 in 10 Gen Z and Millennial consumers feel their mobile transactions would increase if all social content were shoppable.

Retail marketers continue to focus their energies on Gen Z and Millennial consumers, and new survey results from ViSenze indicate that doing so should include a healthy level of importance attached to social media. That’s because about 6 in 10 Gen Z... READ MORE

Advertisers Say Blockchain’s Marketing Potential Is Yet to be EnvisionedOne in 10 advertisers surveyed are currently using blockchain technology.September 4, 2018

CMOs around the world are excited about the potential for artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchain to drive more efficient marketing spending. But it’s possible that there are use cases for blockchain that haven’t yet been... READ MORE

Connected TV Device Penetration Has Reportedly Tripled Since 2010Figures vary as to the exact penetration of these devices, but they're certainly growing fast and being used more often.

The penetration of internet-connected TV devices – including connected smart TVs, stand-alone streaming devices (such as Roku or Apple TV), connected video game systems and/or connected Blu-ray players – has tripled in US TV homes between 2010... READ MORE

Voice Commerce Might Present A Loyalty Problem for Brands, But Not ImmediatelyVoice could create a barrier to brand loyalty, but few people are using voice assistants for shopping right now.August 31, 2018

Voice commerce has the potential to erode brand loyalty, as 85% of people who have used virtual voice assistants (VVA) for purchases have at some point bought the first VVA-selected option instead of the specific brand they requested, according to a report... READ MORE

What Could Spur Greater Use of Mobile Wallets?One thing seems to be clear: security concerns represent the main barrier to adoption.

Most adults in the US believe that mobile wallets will replace physical ones by 2025, per new research from Synchrony Financial, but data from InfoScout indicates that adoption of mobile wallets remains quite modest. So what could drive more use of mobile... READ MORE

What’s More Important: Audience or Contextual Targeting?Almost 8 in 10 brand marketer decision-makers plan to improve their contextual targeting in the coming year.August 30, 2018

Roughly 7 in 10 brand marketers find it difficult to balance audience and context, and it’s not quite as simple as simply trying to achieve both, research from Sizmek [download page] has found. In surveying 522 advertising decision-makers in the US and... READ MORE

IM Deemed Most Innovative Communication Method; Email Still Preferred for Brand ContactIt's not just email. Another traditional brand communication method - direct mail - also retains some appeal.

Instant messaging (IM) is the communication method that American employees believe has innovated the most over the past 5 years, according to an Adobe study. But only by a small margin: somewhat surprisingly, traditional stalwart email is in the mix, along... READ MORE

So People Want Brands to be More Transparent on Social Media. What Does That Mean?People want brands to admit to their mistakes and give honest responses to customers' questions.August 29, 2018

Transparency has in the past been pegged by consumers as one of the core values that brands should embody. New data from Sprout Social [download page] confirms the importance that adults in the US place on brand transparency, with 86% saying that it’s... READ MORE

Check Them Out: Google Search Ad Mobile BenchmarksWordStream's analysis reveals average click-through, CPC, CPA and conversion rates, by industry.

Mobile devices are estimated to account for 60% of paid search clicks in the US, with smartphones alone representing at least half. Mobile devices’ share of clicks is particularly influential on Google, so what kind of performance can advertisers... READ MORE

Few Facebook Users Say They’re Using Its Watch ServiceFacebook is the still main platform people use to engage with TV shows, though.August 28, 2018

It’s been a year since Facebook launched its “Watch” video-on-demand service, which allows users to ad-supported original shows from independent studios. But usage of the service remains “modest,” according to research on the... READ MORE

B2B Buyers Complain They Don’t Hear Back From VendorsSomewhat surprisingly, 84% of buyers said they rarely hear back from vendors when they contact them. Is that your experience?

We’ve seen plenty of research from the B2B marketer side about their desire to generate quality leads and their increasing need to meet revenue quotas. So the following statistic might come as a surprise: fully 84% of B2B consumers say they rarely hear... READ MORE

Top 15 B2B Marketing Charts of H1 2018Our most popular - and insightful - B2B charts of the year so far.August 27, 2018

Want to get up to speed with the latest trends in B2B marketing? Check out the most popular charts with our B2B audience so far this year, with data covering topics ranging from buyers’ expectations from vendors to how B2B marketers are tackling demand... READ MORE

The Top Facebook Business Pages Are Posting More But Getting Much Less EngagementIt's probably not worth posting more than 10 times a day.

The top 20,000 brands on Facebook aren’t shying away from the platform: in fact, by the second quarter of this year, they had upped their post volume by almost 20% year-over-year, according to an analysis from Buffer and BuzzSumo. But even all the... READ MORE

Gen Z Seems A Little More Into Snapchat Than Instagram StoriesGen Z are more likely to post Stories on Snapchat than Instagram, as are - to a lesser extent - Millennials.August 24, 2018

Give a slight upper hand to Snapchat over Instagram in the Stories war, if results from a VidMob survey are to be trusted. In its research, conducted among 1,000 16-24-year-olds in the US, VidMob found that Snapchat (73%) edged Instagram (70%) for... READ MORE

Here’s Just How Powerful the Right Product Recommendations Are…A simple click on a recommended product can boost purchase rates and even engagement in follow-up sessions. But, most customers are ignoring them.

Product recommendations that don’t generate any engagement from a site visitor may as well not exist – as they don’t have any real impact. But the right recommendations? Well they result in significant boosts to purchase rates, average... READ MORE

Gen X Has Recovered the Wealth It Lost in the Great Recession. Others Haven’t.Gen Xers have surpassed Baby Boomers in median household income, too. It's probably best not to ignore them.August 23, 2018

A new analysis from Pew Research Center has found that Gen X is the only generation to have recovered the wealth it lost in the Great Recession. Based on an examination of data from the Survey of Consumer Finances (from the Federal Reserve), the Pew analysis... READ MORE

First-Time Purchases Most Likely to Happen In-Store; Repeat Ones At A MarketplaceRetailers are prized for their service and brands for their innovation, while marketplaces boast variety and availability.

Shoppers are more likely to buy something they’ve never purchased before in a store than at an online marketplace such as Amazon or eBay, according to a study [download page] from Salesforce and Publicis.Sapient. The “Shopper-First... READ MORE

The State of Traditional TV: Updated With Q1 2018 DataA new look for our long-running analysis of TV viewing behavior.August 22, 2018

[By MC Editor, JC Lupis] Well, here we are again, examining the latest quarterly Total Audience report [download page] from Nielsen, this time covering data from Q1 2018. We’ve known for some time now that youth are watching less TV, but are the... READ MORE

Audience Identity Efforts Stymied by the Duopoly? You’re Not Alone.Marketers are hoping to be better able to demonstrate the ROI of their audience identity efforts.

US companies are poised to significantly upgrade their spending on identity solutions in the coming years as they seek to better identify their audience members, according to a report from the ANA [download page] conducted by the Winterberry Group. But... READ MORE

Which Market Research Tasks Are Likely to Be Taken Over by AI?Most believe AI will soon take over sample size determinations, reading open-ended responses and running surveys.August 21, 2018

Nine in 10 market research decision-makers believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will have a significant impact on the industry within 5 years, but most don’t know what that impact will look like, according to a report from Qualtrics [download... READ MORE

CX Leaders Are Looking to Respond to Millennials’ PreferencesJust 1 in 10 respondents aren't interested in a CX strategy focused on Millennials.

CEOs are having trouble figuring out how Millennials’ needs differ from their other customers’ needs, according to recent research. Now, the 2018 NGCX Benchmark Report finds that different preferences held by Millennials are forcing customer... READ MORE

Back-to-School 2018: Stats & Research ReferenceA look at BTS spending trends and key data points, as well as links to several related research studies.August 20, 2018

Back-to-school (BTS) and back-to-college (BTC) spending are generally forecast to end up strong again this year, according to a number of recent reports. In this article, we’ll briefly summarize spending trends from the NRF’s back-to-school (BTS)... READ MORE

Demand Gen Focus Sticks With Lead Quality Over QuantityEmail's seen as the best tactic to achieve lead nurturing priorities.

Lead generation strategies are more concerned with the quality than the quantity of leads, according to a new report [download page] from Ascend2. The survey asked 229 marketing influencers – the majority of whom target B2B to some extent – their... READ MORE

Good News. Your Email Campaigns Are Now Reaching 85% of Your List.Inbox placement rates have improved in the US, and globally.August 17, 2018

Inbox placement rates are continuing to improve in the US, with an average of 85% of promotional emails from US senders reaching the inbox in the second quarter of this year, up from 77% during the year-earlier period. That’s according to Return... READ MORE

Small Businesses Not Cowed by Emerging Tech Needs; 4 in 10 Likely to Invest in New Digital PlatformsThe move to digital platforms and technologies seems to have been met with, if anything, a collective shrug.

Rather than seeing the shift to digital technologies and e-commerce as a burden, many small business owners are unfazed and even seeing the disruption as a positive for their business, according to the Q3 2018 Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index [pdf].... READ MORE

The Vast Majority of People Say They’re Shopping Across ChannelsAnd guess where they're shopping online?August 16, 2018

Very few Americans limit their shopping to exclusively online (5%) or offline (10%) channels, according to a report [download page] from Periscope By McKinsey. The survey – which included more than 1,000 US respondents ages 18-70 – found that... READ MORE

The XR Industry Is More Excited About Enterprise Than Consumer ApplicationsMore than 4 in 10 companies say that their consumer VR business growth has been weaker than hoped.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) solutions are seeing faster growth with enterprises than consumers, according to an industry study [download page] from VR Intelligence and SuperData. The survey of 595 VR and AR professionals in different... READ MORE