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

CMOs Want to Deliver Business Growth. These Are Their Strategic Priorities.A look at CMOs' key roles in the organization and how they'll go about delivering them.August 15, 2018

What’s the primary role of the marketing function within an organization? Ask 1,000 CMOs around the world and most will say that delivering business growth is among their top priorities. So found Dentsu Aegis in its recently-released CMO Survey... READ MORE

3 Interesting Stats on Youths’ Emerging Video Viewing MethodsHow much time do teens spend daily watching streaming video? What percentage of their total TV time does that represent? Answers within.

The newest quarterly Total Audience Report [download page] has been released by Nielsen – and it contains a bevy of stats on media usage. Here are a few interesting pieces of data that highlight the emergence of newer video viewing behaviors,... READ MORE

B2B Marketers Are Protecting Data Because Their Customers Expect Them ToThe GDPR is also on their minds: 60% have changed their approach to privacy due to the regulation.August 14, 2018

The GDPR is a concern – in fact it’s a big concern for CMOs worldwide – and it’s causing 6 in 10 B2B marketers to change their approach to privacy, according to a Demandbase study conducted by Demand Metric. However, it’s not... READ MORE

Streaming Video Quality ImprovesThe biggest improvement was reserved for viewers' biggest frustration - rebuffering.

Most online video service providers believe that their quality and reliability will soon match or exceed traditional TV. And recent trends suggest they’re headed in the right direction. A new report from Conviva [download page] – which measures... READ MORE

CMOs: Data Use Presents Biggest Strategic Opportunity AND Biggest RiskCMOs around the world see the ability for data to build better relationships. But data breaches and misuse present a huge strategic risk.August 13, 2018

Data-driven marketing spending has been surging, and new research [download page] from Dentsu Aegis Network confirms the importance that CMOs around the world are placing on data to power their growth initiatives. But not without risk… The Dentsu Aegis... READ MORE

Creatives Envision Tech Having A Strong Impact on Their Output, Still Face Collaboration IssuesCreatives often have to deal with a lack of detail in their briefs, and in-house professionals complain that they're treated as service providers rather than business partners.

Creative professionals and their managers don’t feel that the rise of influencer marketing or the use of social media in advertising will have too much of an impact on their creative output in the next couple of years, according to a study from Wrike... READ MORE

These Are the Highest-Ranking Brands With American AdultsIs the leader Amazon? No. Apple? No. Netflix? Nope. Not a digital brand! Gasp.August 10, 2018

What do you get when you mix consumer perceptions of a brand’s quality, value, satisfaction, and reputation, along with impressions of the brand and propensity to recommend it? Overall brand health, per YouGov’s BrandIndex, which has released a... READ MORE

Are Execs Prioritizing the Customer Experience When Considering AI Use Cases?Executives in this report seem out of touch with consumers' preferences concerning AI, and appear to be ignoring CX considerations.

Marketing is all about the customer experience these days, and artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to help improve the digital user experience in coming years. But a new survey from Capgemini calls into question the extent to which business executives... READ MORE

The Public Has A Fairly Dim View of Major Tech Companies, Despite Enjoying Their ProductsSome 55% of adults feel that tech companies have too much power and influence in today's economy.August 9, 2018

Few tech companies figure among the country’s most reputable, per recent research. Here’s one reason why that may be: fully three-quarters of American adults don’t feel that major tech companies do enough to protect the personal data of... READ MORE

Coupon Distribution Continues to Slowly Shift to Digital Promotions in H1The average shelf life of a coupon dropped in H1 for both Print and Digital promotions.

Promotional activity is following consumer trends: a continued preference for print, but an increasing use of digital. In a “mid-year catch up,” Kantar Media reveals that FSI promotion activity declined on a year-over-year basis in H1, while the... READ MORE

Only 1 in 5 Millennials Describe Themselves As Loyal to Specific Brands. Here’s What Moves the Needle.Turns out Millennials probably aren't that different from the rest of the general population.August 8, 2018

Just 19% of Millennials in the US best describe their purchase tendencies as tending to be loyal to specific brands and largely buying from them repeatedly. That’s according to a report from Morning Consult [download page], which instead found that... READ MORE

Native Formats Capturing Bigger Shares of Advertisers’ BudgetsAdvertisers are retaining an average of almost two-thirds (64%) of publisher-developed content, up from 56% last year.

National advertisers involved in native advertising, branded content and TV integrated marketing are devoting ever-larger proportions of their TV and digital budgets to these efforts and reporting greater maturity with native advertising, according to... READ MORE

Retail Marketing Leaders Are Talking Revenue Growth. Who Do They Need to Get Buy-In From For Their Initiatives?Only 39% of marketing leaders surveyed believe they have the control required to effect change.August 7, 2018

Retail marketing leaders at companies with at least $100 million in annual e-commerce sales are focused on showing results, according to a survey from Nanigans. Indeed, their top 3 priorities are all growth-focused: improving ROI/boosting sales; customer... READ MORE

Connected TV Viewing Continue to Rise, And That Looks Like Good News for AdvertisersVideo ad completion rates are impressive on connected TV devices, which are hogging more ad impressions over time.

Connected TV devices have already overtaken smartphones in premium digital ad views on FreeWheel’s platform. Now it’s Extreme Reach’s turn. In its Q2 2018 video benchmarks report, Extreme Reach reveals that 38% share of impressions during... READ MORE

Top 15 B2C Marketing Charts of H1 2018Our top B2C charts of H1 2018 as determined by you, our readers.August 6, 2018

From media and advertising trends to demographic data and social media usage, our collection of H1 2018’s top B2C marketing charts showcases some of the more important stories running through the industry while also highlighting some must-have... READ MORE

It Looks Like Some Companies Are Struggling to Get Buy-In for ABM EffortsCompanies would like to see more content around measuring ABM impact and attribution.

Account-based marketing began a strong resurgence in popularity a few years ago, but apparently not all are sold on it as yet. In its recently-released ABM Outlook Survey 2018 [download-page], Engagio found that getting buy-in was the biggest challenge for... READ MORE

Advertisers Say Audience Data Accuracy is Important. How Important?Are marketers willing to put their money where their mouth is?

Six in 10 marketers are concerned with the quality of data available from data providers and sellers, reports Lotame in a recent study [download page]. But that concern doesn’t seem to always be translating into action: only two-thirds consider the... READ MORE

These CPG Categories Should Advertise On These Podcast GenresThe top-5 indexing spending categories for avid fans of 14 podcast genres.August 3, 2018

The US podcast advertising market is on the rise, having almost doubled last year by one estimate as listeners seem open to ads. But simply throwing money at podcast audiences probably isn’t the best approach for advertisers. So advertisers take note:... READ MORE

Dissatisfaction With Social Media Privacy, Ad Loads DeepensSearch engine users are now more satisfied with the amount of ads they see than social media users.

On a general level, users of social media sites in the US are less satisfied with those platforms than customers of dozens of other industries, according to a report [download page] from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). In fact, social media... READ MORE

1 in 2 Youth Say They’ve Shopped Online for Groceries in the Past YearThe online grocery buying experience may need some improvement before consumers use it with more regularity.August 2, 2018

1 in 3 American adults reports having shopped for groceries online in the past year, according to a survey of 1,000 US adults from Adobe Digital Insights (ADI). The trend towards online grocery shopping is being driven by… surprise: youth. Indeed, half... READ MORE

Here Are the Most Popular Podcast GenresThe Music and TV & Movie genres not only have the highest number of fans, but also the highest percentage who are "Avid" fans.

Podcast audiences continue to grow, but which genres are proving most resonant with listeners? A new report [download page] from Nielsen examines the genres with the broadest popularity in US households, along with those that boast the most avid listeners.... READ MORE

Large B2C Brands Are Struggling to Optimize Their Marketing BudgetsFewer than half are using marketing mix modeling, and about 1 in 5 don't know what a marketing mix model is.August 1, 2018

The majority (60%) of budget decision-makers at B2C brands with at least $1 million in annual marketing spending report not being very confident in their team’s ability to determine the most effective way to allocate their marketing budget.... READ MORE

Instagram Users Associate Brand Content With the Feed, But Value It More in StoriesOne-third of US Instagram users ages 13-55 report becoming more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Stories.

Instagram Stories boasts more than 400 million daily users, and recent research from Facebook IQ indicates that brands can make their presence felt there. In a survey of 2,400 Instagram users ages 13-55 in the US, Facebook IQ found that one-third had become... READ MORE

These Industries Spent the Most on Advertising in Q2The Prescription Pharma industry spent big on national TV - and national advertising overall.July 31, 2018

Retail may be leading the charge in digital advertising spending, but agency holding group data released by Standard Media Index (SMI) suggests that the Telecom industry was the largest spender on the overall national advertising market during the second... READ MORE

Rising Familiarity With Sharing Services Not Necessarily Resulting in Better Perceptions of ThemAdults are twice as likely to feel that traditional services offer the best overall experience as opposed to sharing economy services.

Some 83% of US adults report being familiar with at least one sharing economy service used for traveling, such as Air BnB, Lyft, or HomeAway, according to a recent report from Ipsos and Allianz Global Assistance. That’s up from about two-thirds (66%)... READ MORE

MarTech’s Evolving More Rapidly Than Marketers’ Use of ItWhile teams may not be keeping pace with innovations, marketers seem quite confident in their tech skills.July 30, 2018

More than two-thirds of marketers don’t think there’s such a thing as the “perfect stack” for marketing technology, believing instead that it’s always a work in progress. Trouble is, they may not be keeping pace with tech... READ MORE

Smart Speaker Owners Starting to Default to Their Devices For AudioSmart Speaker owners seem to be using their devices for audio more often than they were last year.

Streaming music is one of the most common uses of Smart Speakers, and there’s evidence now that Smart Speaker owners are beginning to default to their devices for all their audio needs. Indeed, Smart Speaker owners are more likely to listen to audio... READ MORE

This Chart Reference Guide Provides Updated Household Penetration Rates for 26 Tech ProductsDigital streaming media devices are now almost as prevalent as desktop computers.July 27, 2018

For the first time the three most-owned devices in US households are screen devices, says the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) in announcing the results of a recent study. It may not be surprising that TVs remain virtually ubiquitous and smartphones... READ MORE

Instagram’s Getting Meaningful Ad Spend Relative to FacebookMerkle's average client advertiser spent 23% as much on Instagram as on Facebook in Q2, up from 9% as much in Q1.

Instagram’s catching up to Facebook in daily usage, and it’s slowly making its way on the advertising front, too. Merkle’s latest quarterly Digital Marketing Report (DMR) [download page], covering Q2 activity by its clients, reveals that... READ MORE

Healthcare Ads Drive Action Among People With A Diagnosed ConditionDigital healthcare is growing: half of adults now turn to the internet first for health and wellness research.July 26, 2018

US adults are increasingly looking for health information online – to the extent that half say the internet is the first source they go to when researching health and wellness, according to data released by Kantar Media from its 2018 MARS Consumer... READ MORE

Multicultural Audiences Show Strong Appetites for Music Streaming ServicesBlack and Hispanic consumers are about 50% more likely than their White counterparts to express interest in audio streaming services.

Radio continues to be “the top reach vehicle” for both Black and Hispanic adults, declares Nielsen in a recent report [download page], noting that among people ages 12 and older, Black and Hispanic consumers make up more than 30% of the national... READ MORE

A B2B Buying Process Timeline Indicates That Vendors Can Engage Buyers EarlyMore than two-thirds of buyers engaged with a rep within the first 3 months of the buying process.July 25, 2018

Almost half of B2B buyers indicate that they’re spending more time researching purchases, according to Demand Gen Report’s 2018 B2B Buyers Survey Report [download page]. But separate results from the study suggest that the timeline hasn’t... READ MORE

Email, Paid Search Said Easiest to Analyze; Content & Video TougherMarketers feel that digital marketing channels are only moderately well analyzed for their contribution to revenue results.

Measuring marketing attribution is very important to the vast majority of marketers, reports Ascend2 in a new study [download page] involving 226 marketing influencers fairly evenly split between B2B and B2C channels. Although two of the top priorities for... READ MORE

The State of Email MarketingTo find out what challenges marketers are experiencing and which tactics they are implementing, Return Path partnered with Demand Metric to create The State of Email Marketing report.July 24, 2018

[Sponsored by Return Path] The email marketing landscape continues to evolve but there is at least one constant: competition for attention in the inbox remains fierce. The sheer volume of marketing emails sent daily has made it harder than ever before for... READ MORE

CMOs Own CX, But Not the TechBusiness leaders at large organizations are more likely to say responsibility for the customer experience sits with the CMO than with any other role.

The CMO has gained more responsibility for the customer experience (CX) in recent years, and brand marketers have made the customer experience their top priority this year. A new SAS-sponsored report [download page] conducted by Harvard Business Review... READ MORE

Amazon Ad Spending Continues to AccelerateAgencies upped their spending on Amazon ads by 36% year-over-year during H1.

Jeff Bezos is getting richer… and spending on Amazon ads is growing, quickly. During the first half of 2018 Amazon’s advertising revenue grew by 36% year-over-year, reports Standard Media Index (SMI), which sources data directly from agency... READ MORE

Live TV Cedes Status As Default First Source of TV ContentIn another sign of the changing times, more youth turn to Netflix as their default source of TV content than to live TV.July 23, 2018

More than 8 in 10 American households have access to at least one on-demand TV service, and the proliferation of these content sources is having a dramatic effect on TV viewing behavior, according to a new report from Hub Entertainment Research. In its... READ MORE

B2B Marketers Identify Their Expectations for AIB2B marketers expect AI to be able to help efficiently drive revenue and identify prospects, while also boosting personalization efforts.

Only half of B2B marketers are using artificial intelligence (AI) in their marketing strategy and few are very confident of their level of knowledge of AI in the context of marketing technology. At the same time, they hold high expectations for the benefits... READ MORE

These Tech Systems Will Help Enable Real-Time Customer Efforts, Business Leaders SayThere are plenty of important technologies to manage, but the payoffs are large.July 20, 2018

Six in 10 business leaders at large companies believe that it’s extremely important to deliver real-time customer interactions across touch points and devices today, and 8 in 10 feel that it will be extremely important in 2 years’ time, according... READ MORE

Events Have Different Purposes and Strategic Considerations for B2B, B2C CompaniesB2B companies tend to be more focused on event strategies, but also find it more challenging to align those strategies with overall marketing goals.

B2B and B2C companies approach events with different goals in mind, though they do share some primary objectives, according to a report [download page] from Opus and Event Marketer. Both groups look to drive sales revenue as well as educate customers,... READ MORE

The Top Skills Needed to Get the Most Out of Customer Data Platforms, According to Enterprise ExecsDon't focus solely on technical skills at the expense of soft skills, according to this report.July 19, 2018

Half of executives at enterprise-level organizations believe that they’re facing a high level of risk over the next 5 years from technology-driven disruption by startups or innovations by incumbent companies. That’s according to a report from... READ MORE

In This $20B+ Industry, More Than 60% Don’t Have A Standardized Process for Measuring ROINo, it's not social media. It's sponsorship spending.

North American sponsorship spending is expected to grow by 4.5% this year to exceed $24 billion, according to recent estimates from ESP Properties. But as a new study from the ANA points out, few marketers who are involved in sponsorship and its measurement... READ MORE

Advertisers Are Still Faced With Cross-Channel Problems, And They May Not Be Solved That SoonOrganizational silos and lack of standard measurement are inhibiting audience-based media plans.July 18, 2018

Three-quarters of digital and TV advertising decision-makers currently use cross-channel campaigns and another fifth (22%) plan to within the next year, according to a report [download page] commissioned by 4C and conducted by Advertiser Perceptions. But... READ MORE

Which Industries Spend the Most on US Digital Advertising?Retail is the dominant digital ad spending industry, while the Entertainment sector is hiking its spend the fastest.

Digital advertising in the US continues to grow quickly, with one estimate suggesting it’s now a $30 billion larger market than TV advertising. Which industries are contributing most to digital advertising’s rapid ascent? Recent figures from... READ MORE