Let’s see what this week’s numbers say about online advertising, shall we?

• More marketers this year are forecasting a significant impact on their strategies from brand safety concerns, with 3 in 4 marketing and advertising executives surveyed by Advertiser Perceptions agree that brands need more oversight and control over where their ads are placed, and who profits from those placements. Paid social being the area of most concern for brand safety. Indeed, almost half (46%) identified paid social as a high concern in this regard.
• Marketers continue to invest in digital media, expected to account for about 60% of their media spending in the US this year. Newer channels (relative to legacy media) such as social media, are seeing budget increases globally, but what drives brand lift in emerging media? Nielsen dove into its data to find out. They analyzed more than 1,000 US campaigns in order to identify the drivers that most contribute to brand lift. Leading the way is brand recall, which influences almost 40% (38.7%) of brand lift in these emerging media. Following brand recall is baseline brand awareness, which drives 37.5% of brand lift in emerging media.
• Amidst the economic volatility and uncertainty, some CMOs are reporting a growing sense of pessimism as well as cuts to their budgets, according to the latest edition of The CMO Survey. Roughly 4 in 10 have become less optimistic about the US economy compared to the last quarter, outweighing the 3 in 10 who are looking on the brighter side. 52% – surveyed in January – said that current inflationary pressures have led to decreased marketing spending levels at their company. Around one-sixth said that inflation has led to increased marketing spending levels has remained the same, suggesting that for about 1 in 10 CMOs, inflationary pressures had previously not had an impact, but they’re now having a negative one.
• Almost three-quarters of businesses use video marketing as a part of their overall sales and marketing strategy, according to a GoodFirms survey of 920 primarily small (43.6% share) to medium (35.9%) sized companies worldwide. The research – fielded among businesses in various industries, with IT and Professional Services most heavily represented – found that respondents’ top objectives of an effective video marketing strategy are to increase online engagement (81.2%), brand awareness (74.6%), lead generation (69.6%), and website traffic (62.4%). Currently, the video content type that the largest portion of respondents are using to promote their brand, product, or services is animation – short video ads or GIFs.