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

Music Streaming Continues to Surge in H1Music consumption is being powered by streaming's ascent, while vinyl is playing an ever-larger role in physical sales.July 17, 2018

The number of on-demand music streams grew by 41.6% year-over-year during the first half of 2018, according to Nielsen’s latest look at the industry [download page]. Music audio streams (+45.4%) continued to grow at a faster rate than music video... READ MORE

Americans Still Love Small Businesses; Skepticism of Big Corporations Eases SlightlyConfidence in big business remains low, but reaches its highest level since 2001.

Two-thirds of the American public holds either a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in small business, reports Gallup in a recent survey. While confidence is small businesses has eased slightly from the past couple of years, it remains leaps and bounds... READ MORE

Why People Use Social Media – And How They Think Brands Should Use ItSocial is considered the most effective medium for discovering brands and forging emotional bonds with them.July 16, 2018

Social media is most frequently used to connect with friends and family, as two-thirds of people across 9 countries use social for this purpose on at least a weekly basis. So finds Edelman’s Special Report: Brands and Social Media [pdf], which surveyed... READ MORE

This is What Senior Marketers Who Integrate Data and Creativity Do BetterIntegrators use more advanced analytics and collaborate more with IT. But even they could improve in some areas.

Creativity and data analysis are often viewed as separate efforts. But senior marketers who unite data and creativity – dubbed “integrators” – enjoy above-average revenue growth rates, according to a survey from McKinsey. The analysis... READ MORE

Roughly Half of Households Headed by People Ages 55+ Stream VideoOne-fifth of all Wi-Fi households headed by 18-34-year-olds are "heavy streamers," a segment that averages almost 5 hours per day of OTT viewing.

Some 63% of US households with Wi-Fi streamed OTT video in April, reports comScore in a recent presentation on the State of OTT [download page]. The top fifth of these homes by viewing duration – “heavy streamers” – watched an average... READ MORE

Premium Digital Video Viewers Continue Gravitating to Live ContentAd views during live video content grew by 171% year-over-year on smartphones.

Live video is seeing faster growth than any other type of premium digital video content, reports FreeWheel in its Q1 2018 Video Monetization Report [download page]. Within the US live viewing comprised more than one-third (35%) of all ad views for the... READ MORE

These Brands Are Getting the Most Love on Social MediaSocial media brands dominate share of voice among the top 100 most-loved brands.July 13, 2018

Social media, e-commerce and technology companies dominate the list of most-loved brands on social, according to a report from NetBase [download page]. The company scoured expressions of love in 361 million English-language posts of earned mentions across... READ MORE

Senior Executives Describe Their Organizations’ Decision-Making As More Intuitive Than Data-DrivenOrganizations deemed to be "Measurement Leaders" are more likely to prioritize automation and machine learning for marketing activities.

Since the advent of data and analytics there’s been a strong push to make decision-making more about data than intuition. However, a new study from MIT Sloan Management Review and Think with Google finds that decisions are still being made more on the... READ MORE

These Are the Most Common Email Marketing PracticesThe vast majority of company marketers are using basic segmentation, but relatively few have moved on to more advanced segmentation techniques.July 12, 2018

Basic segmentation ranks as the most broadly adopted email marketing practice among company marketers, according to the annual Email Industry Census from Econsultancy and Adestra. Some 82% of respondents worldwide (though predominantly from the UK) use basic... READ MORE

US LGBTQ Consumers Favor Companies That Support Equality, But Feel That Outreach Is Insufficient3 in 4 of US LGBTQ consumers agree that companies supporting LGBTQ equality will get more of their business this year.

Fully 85% of US LGBTQ consumers agree that corporations that support LGBTQ equality are more important than ever, and 78% agree that they tend to support companies that market to and support the LGBTQ community. That’s according to Community Marketing... READ MORE

The State of OTT Video: Mainstream, As Streaming Devices Take Center StageA comprehensive look at the growth of OTT streaming video, including popular devices for streaming and the big 4 services.July 11, 2018

OTT video viewing is a commonplace media activity in the US, growing not only in reach but in time spent, according to a comScore presentation [download page]. Some 59.5 million US homes – representing almost two-thirds (63.5%) of all homes with Wi-Fi... READ MORE

B2B Tech Marketers Focus on Revenue Influence, But Few Measure ItB2B tech marketers understand that revenue metrics are important to senior leadership, but only a minority are measuring their revenue influence.

Influencing revenue is a top priority for B2B tech marketers, says Spiceworks on the basis of a survey of 185 B2B marketers in technology companies across North America and Europe. Fully 57% said that influencing revenue through new account acquisition is a... READ MORE

These Email Marketing Capabilities Will Boost Customer Focus, Decision-Makers SayThe vast majority say segmentation and microsegment targeting would have an impact on customer focus.July 10, 2018

Email marketing should be the “launch point” to customer obsession, argues a report [download page] from Adobe and Forrester Consulting. Yet most aren’t on the path to using email for this purpose, instead relying on promotions and... READ MORE

Here’s How Candidates Evaluate Employer BrandsEmployees are critical to communicating brand strength, whether directly or through testimonials.

More than two-thirds of job candidates believe that employer brand strength is important (35%) or very important (34%) when they’re evaluating a new job opportunity, according to the 2018 Reputation Management Study [pdf] from MRINetwork, conducted in... READ MORE

Marketers Identify The Top Challenges With EmailCompetition for attention in the inbox is the main challenge for email marketers. What tactics are they using to stand out?July 9, 2018

Virtually all marketers face some challenges with their email marketing, according to a study [download page] from Return Path and Demand Metric. The survey indicates that marketers – who use email primarily to communicate with customers and prospects... READ MORE

Half of Single Women Feel They’re Left Out of AdvertisingBrands - particularly in the Travel and Financial sectors - should cater to single women's independence and confidence.

Adults in the US are increasingly putting off marriage until later years, if at all. Indeed, a recent Pew Research Data analysis indicates that 57% of 21-36-year-olds have never married, compared to just one-third (33%) of people that age back in 1985. Now,... READ MORE

These Are Marketers’ Top Concerns With Selling Through E-Commerce MarketplacesMarketers don't like sharing revenues, but also want more audience and customer behavior insights.

More than 8 in 10 marketers have concerns about selling through e-commerce marketplaces, according to a Jumpshot survey [download page] of 307 US respondents working in Retail, CPG and Travel companies that sell both directly and through e-commerce... READ MORE

These Are Considered the Most “Patriotic” Brands. It May Not Matter to Youth.Youth are far less inclined than their older counterparts to describe themselves as "extremely" or "very" patriotic.

Jeep continues to be considered the most “patriotic” brand in the US, according to the latest annual report on the topic from Brand Keys. The survey measured which of 297 brands were most resonant with consumers ages 16-65 when it came to... READ MORE

Smartphones Now Capture Two-Thirds of US Digital Media TimeMobile devices - smartphones and tablets - comprise about three-quarters of digital media time, and are forecast to overtake traditional TV in daily media time next year. July 6, 2018

People in the US spent more than twice as much time accessing the internet through smartphone applications than via desktops in April, notes comScore in a recent presentation [download page] on location data. In fact, smartphone apps accounted for a majority... READ MORE

1 in 4 Marketers Report Changing Their ESP in the Past 2 Years. Why?Technical limitations and deliverability issues topped the reasons why marketers have changed their ESP.

Almost one-quarter (24%) of marketers report having changed their email service provider (ESP) or adding a new dedicated IP address in the past 2 years, according to a study [download page] from Return Path and Demand Metric. Was cost the main reason?... READ MORE

This Handy Chart Tells You Internet Adoption, Social Use and Smartphone Ownership in 37 CountriesFind out which countries across the world sport the highest and lowest rates of digital use.July 2, 2018

Almost half of the world is now online, according to recent research. Now, a new report [pdf] from the Pew Research Center looks further into internet use, revealing that it continues to grow in developing countries while remaining high in advanced... READ MORE

Mobile Apps’ Average Revenue per User Benchmarks for Q1 2018It's hard to acquire organic users, but they certainly spend more than non-organic users.

It’s getting harder to make app economics work. So says AppsFlyer in a report [download page] produced with Facebook, which argues that declines in high-value organic users and rising paid media costs are making it more important than ever for apps to... READ MORE

Consumers Remain Wary of Advanced Retail Personalization, Though Some Attitudes Are EvolvingThe vast majority of consumers find it "creepy" that facial recognition tech would recognize a customer and relay their preferences to a sales associate. But attitudes to this are changing.June 29, 2018

Personalization is all the rage these days, identified by brand marketers as their most exciting trend of the year. But certain more advanced forms of retail personalization seem a step too far for consumers despite some evolution in their attitudes,... READ MORE

Here’s Why SLAs Are ImportantSalespeople operating under an SLA are much more enthusiastic about marketing's role in sourcing leads.

Salespeople are more likely to believe that leads sourced directly from sales are the top source of leads for their organization than leads from marketing. So say sales respondents to HubSpot’s latest annual State of Inbound report, which gathered the... READ MORE

About 1 in 4 Americans Personalize Products Across CategoriesPeople who have personalized a product tend to be young, highly educated, with at least $1,000 of monthly disposable income.June 28, 2018

Some 26% of American adults personalize products and/or services across industry categories, reports YouGov [download page] in a new study. The personalization economy is growing in popularity, according to the results, as the 26% reporting personalization... READ MORE

B2B Marketing Information Revenues Forecast to Slowly GrowBusiness marketing information revenues are expected to grow at a slower rate than financial and industry information revenues.

US B2B media revenues are expected to grow by a compound annual rate of 3.2% from 2017 through 2022, according to PwC’s Global Media & Entertainment Outlook. The business information segment of B2B media revenues is not only the largest, but also... READ MORE

Automation Gets A Boost in Email Innovation EffortsMarketers are also growing more confident in the benefits of applying artificial intelligence to their email efforts.June 27, 2018

When it comes to email marketing, company marketers are more interested in improving their personalization and segmentation efforts than their marketing automation activities, according to the latest Email Industry Census [download page] from Econsultancy... READ MORE

Most People Seem Willing to Use Chatbots and Instant Messaging to Interact With CompaniesWhile many report having already used chatbots to interact with organizations, the results have been mixed.

The vast majority of adults across 6 countries believe that organizations are failing to provide a connected experience, defined as organizations knowing their preferences across all channels and being able to provide them with access to the information they... READ MORE

B2B Video Completion Rates Are ImprovingB2B videos are becoming shorter in length and seeing higher engagement.June 26, 2018

Research has shown that B2B marketers are brimming with enthusiasm about video. But creating a video is different from having it viewed – and viewed long enough for the message to get across. New video benchmarks from Vidyard [download page] offer insights... READ MORE

Long-Form Content’s Majority of Video Time Across Devices Considered the “Status Quo”Long-form content comprised an outsized share of smartphone video viewing in North America in Q1.

During the first quarter of the year video viewers spent more time watching long-form content (at least 20 minutes in length) than content of any other length, regardless of the device used. That’s according to the most recent quarterly report from... READ MORE

US Online and Traditional Media Advertising Outlook, 2018-2022Media advertising market sizing and spending forecasts for digital, TV, magazines, radio, newspapers, out-of-home, video games, cinema, and podcasts.June 25, 2018

PwC has issued its latest annual Global Entertainment & Media Outlook report, a comprehensive study that contains projections for online and offline media advertising markets through 2022. [Editor’s note: If you’re interested in media trends,... READ MORE

Social Media Is Youths’ Top Gateway to News Online, But Facebook Takes A TumbleFewer than one-third (31%) of 18-24-year-olds in the US said they used Facebook for news in the past week, down from almost half (45%) in 2016.

Social media is the main way that youth (18-24) around the world discover news online, whereas older adults are more apt to directly access news stories, according to the Digital News Report 2018 [pdf] from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.... READ MORE

Site Search Continues to be Extremely Important to Shoppers. What Are Their Biggest Frustrations?Shoppers want relevant site search results, but not necessarily personalized ones.

Almost 6 in 10 US shoppers believe that the search box is “extremely important” when they’re shopping on a retailer’s website, mobile site or mobile app, and another 27% consider it “important,” according to the Site... READ MORE

How Are Advertisers Tackling Brand Safety Concerns?Virtually all are planning to take action to change their programmatic strategies, whether that be by putting pressure on partners or moving spend to premium publishers.

Advertisers are almost unanimous in their concern with their ads appearing in brand safe environments, and the majority (58%) are more concerned this year than last with brand safety. That’s according to Oath, which surveyed 304 US advertising... READ MORE

People Are Finding Articles Through Google More Than FacebookGoogle accounts for a larger share of referral traffic than Facebook in 13 of 17 article categories analyzed.June 22, 2018

Google took the lead over Facebook last year in referrals to media sites, according to a recent report from Parse.ly. A new analysis [download page] from the firm delves into the major referrers by article category, finding that Google search is a bigger... READ MORE

Which Tactics Are Proving Helpful in Optimizing Marketing Automation?Personalized/dynamic content is considered very effective - but also very challenging.

Delivering personalized content is the most challenging barrier to marketing automation success, though the integration of all marketing systems is a close second, according to a new report [download page] from Ascend2. Despite the difficulties marketers are... READ MORE

Analysis Suggests Companies Are Getting More Interested in Content About Social & VideoCompany employees are also researching more content about "live" engagement - including live video and trade shows and events.June 21, 2018

“Social” is the intent topic that is currently most buzz-worthy across B2B marketing, according to an analysis performed for MarketingCharts by Bombora. To arrive at its conclusions, Bombora looked into the content consumption behavior of... READ MORE

Are Primetime TV Ad Loads Declining? Not According to This Data.More than one-quarter of each hour of primetime TV on ABC, A&E, Viacom and Discovery is advertising.

TV ad loads are expected to shrink in the face of pressure from video platforms such as Netflix that lack ads, and there have been rumblings from various networks about decreasing their ad loads. But has that happened yet? Research from Kantar Media suggests... READ MORE

Young Buyers Are Driving B2B Expectations of B2C-Like ExperiencesMore than three-quarters of Millennial/Gen Z business buyers say they expect an Amazon-like buying experience.June 20, 2018

More than 8 in 10 business buyers want the same experience as when they’re buying for themselves, reveals Salesforce Research in its second annual State of the Connected Consumer report [download page]. The study indicates that the customer experience... READ MORE

Which Trends Will Most Impact Digital Advertisers This Year?Given concerns over the increasing dominance of Google and Facebook, advertisers view the rise of Amazon in a largely positive light.

The increasing dominance of Google and Facebook is the industry trend that advertisers believe will most impact their business this year, according to Marin Software’s recently-released State of Digital Advertising Report [download page]. The study... READ MORE

Digital Magazine Audience Grows, Still Lags PrintDigital magazine readers now consume as many issues on average in a typical month as do print magazine readers.June 19, 2018

Some 42.4% of US adults with internet access report reading at least a single digital magazine issue in the past 30 days, according to the 2018 Mequoda Magazine Consumer Study. That represents a 15% increase from 36.8% doing so in 2015, as the gap between... READ MORE

Analysis Indicates That Increasing Order Frequency is the Fastest Way to Retail GrowthRetailers can also drive growth by focusing on average order values.

Retailers have shifted from a product-centric to a channel-centric mindset in recent years, and are in the midst of a transition to a customer-centric approach, argues Custora in a recent report [download page]. So which customer-centric KPIs have the... READ MORE

These Are CMOs’ Most Important Media ChannelsDigital channels are considered more important and more effective than traditional channels, a perception that is showing up in budget plans.June 18, 2018

CMOs aren’t relenting in their shift to digital media: 82% expect to to hike their budgets in the next year, for an overall increase of 49%, according to the recently-released Nielsen CMO Report [download page]. Not surprisingly given recent trends,... READ MORE

US Podcast Advertising Market Estimated to Have Almost Doubled in Size in 2017Direct response ads represent the lion's share of podcast ad revenues, but are ceding some influence to brand-related formats.

The total US podcast advertising market grew by 86% in 2017 to reach $313.9 million, according to recent estimates [pdf] from the IAB and PwC. Companies directly reporting podcast advertising revenues – which collectively represent less than 100% of... READ MORE