Let’s see what this week’s numbers say about online advertising, shall we?
- The ad industry looks set for “its best performance in six years, aside from the exceptional post-Covid rebound in 2021.” So declares WARC in a recent global ad spend outlook, which points out that ad spending around the world has more than doubled over the last decade. Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon have earned more than 70% of the incremental global ad spending over the past decade, and is projected to rise by 10.5% this year to pass $1 trillion for the first time. This would represent an almost doubling of the growth rate set last year (+5.7%), and is forecast to be followed by healthy growth next year (+7.2%) and in 2026 (+7.0%). Ad spending is up by 11.2% during the first half of this year, per the report.
- Collaboration between the CMO and the chief information security officer (CISO) is vital to safeguarding brand reputation and enhancing business performance, according to a study from the CMO Council in partnership with KPMG. A significant 44% of marketing leaders surveyed rated the marketing-security partnership as “extremely important,” with an additional 35% considering it “very important.” However, there’s not as much confidence in the willingness to collaborate between parties: just 28% of marketing leaders said that security is “very willing” to work with marketing, while 39% are “willing,” 29% are “hesitant,” and 5% are “unwilling.” The report notes that in almost two-thirds (65%) of campaigns security isn’t actively engaged by marketing during conceptualization and planning. Common collaboration problems identified by marketing leaders include misaligned priorities (65%), inadequate understanding of roles (57%) and lack of communication (51%).
- Half of US video streamers don’t mind ads in paid services, according to research from Kantar Profiles. Video streamers around the world were asked what actions they had taken as a result of paid subscription streaming services showing ads. The largest share (41%) reported that they didn’t take action as they don’t mind the ads or don’t pay attention to them. This figure rose to slightly more than half (52%) among US consumers, and was also high among Boomers (52%). Fewer respondents switched to a different streaming service (11%), started using an ad-blocker extension in their browser to reduce ads (9%) or canceled their subscription (6%), though a sizable share upgraded their subscription (22%), presumably to an ad-free tier. 38% share of respondents said they’re likely to watch an ad before a show starts, while 44% will skip it. (The remainder will either mute it, ignore it, or watch a different show.) The figures are similar for ads that play during a show, with respondents almost as likely to watch the ad (34%) as to skip it (40%). The report highlights that Millennials are more likely than others to watch ads before streaming content, while Gen Zers are more likely to than other generations to skip ads before or during streaming content.
- It’s a tough environment out there for agencies, who are finding it increasingly difficult to source new business. And it might not get easier: 43% of marketers surveyed for a report by Funnel say that artificial intelligence (AI) will make their company less dependent on agencies, and three-quarters (75%) feel that outsourcing rates for the next year at their company will remain flat or fall. In this challenging context, one area the agencies might want to consider is advanced analytics. Apparently, few marketers are performing advanced analytics in-house. While it’s true that a majority (55%) do A/B and multivariate testing in-house, far fewer report the same about attribution modeling (31%), marketing mix modeling (26%), statistical modeling (22%) and predictive analytics (15%), among others. Still, it will be an uphill battle for agencies to win such business. Among marketers who do advance marketing analytics, few outsource it to an agency partner, being instead more likely to perform these functions in-house or collaboratively. Additionally, only 15% of marketers have plans to outsource any advanced analytics responsibilities in the coming 12-18 months.
