Let’s see what this week’s numbers say about online advertising, shall we?
- The public image of the Advertising and Public Relations (PR) industry isn’t good, according to the latest survey on industry ratings from Gallup. Just 1 in 4 (26% of) US adults have an overall view of the industry that is either very (6%) or somewhat (20%) positive. That’s close to the record low of 25% registered in last year’s survey, and puts the industry in the same company as the Oil & Gas industry (27%), the federal government (26%) and the Pharmaceutical industry (20%). Previous research from Gallup has shown that adults view the honesty and ethics of advertising professionals in a worse light than lawyers and car salespeople. What’s particularly bad about these latest survey results is the 43% of adults who have a somewhat (30%) or very (13%) negative opinion of the advertising and PR industry. That’s the highest share in the survey’s history, dating back to 2001.
- Almost two-thirds of marketers replaced a martech solution in the past year, according to new research from MarTech and Third Door Media, a figure in line with what has been found over the past couple of years. As questions over marketing technology ROI swirl, cost has become the most important reason for replacing a martech solution, per the report. Among the marketers surveyed who replaced a martech solution in the past year, 61% cited cost as an important factor when choosing the replacement, making this the most oft-cited reason. That was followed by integration capabilities/open API (51%) and improved customer/digital experience (50%), the latter of which had been the top reason in last year’s report.
- Communications professionals credit sending press releases through a wire service with raised brand/product visibility (72%) and reinforced brand authority/leadership in their industry (52%), according to a report from PR Newswire. With the top challenge with press releases being that they don’t generate anticipated media pickup, respondents are turning to different channels to distribute this type of content. In fact, 92% of the comms professionals surveyed said they reuse press releases content on other channels. Among these the most common way is to post bits on social media (48% share), followed by writing blog posts/articles (37%). Furthermore, communications professionals are using a mix of paid, owned, and earned media to promote their press releases. The leading channel for press release promotion is social media (83%), followed by a news distribution service (69%) and an online newsroom on their website (61%). About 1 in 10 (9%) turn to paid placement such as native advertising or sponsored content. The typical focus of press releases to be sent out in the next year will be product or service news, as cited by 6 in 10 respondents, with other important areas to highlight being events (47%), company growth (44%), and original content (42%).
- The use of TikTok as a news source continues to grow. In fact, a majority (52%) of TikTok users this year say they regularly get news on the app, up from just 22% who said the same in 2020, according to the latest research on the topic from the Pew Research Center. That means that TikTok users are now more likely to use the app for news than Facebook users are to use the social media giant for that purpose (48%). TikTok now sits only behind X/Twitter (59%) and Truth Social (57%) as a news source for users. However, due to its more widespread use among the adult population, TikTok is a regular news source for a larger portion of US adults overall (17%) than both X/Twitter (15%) and Truth Social (3%). While the age distribution of TikTok users is starting to shift a little older, the platform remains highly popular with youth. So it’s little surprise that its regular use as a news source is highest among the 18-29 crowd, roughly 4 in 10 (39%) of whom report this to be the case. This proportion continues to climb, from about one-third (32%) last year and roughly one-quarter (26%) in 2022. Meanwhile, about one-fifth (19%) of adults ages 30-49 regularly get their news from TikTok, per the report, up from 15% last year.
