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digital publishing industries

Growth Gains: Worldwide Ad Spending To Grow Faster In 2024

Recently, the Magazine Manager blog shared the good news that advertising spending in the U.S. grew in 2023. And even though that growth (achieved after nine consecutive months of YoY spending) only amounted to a 0.5% overall YoY gain, it’s still cause for optimism looking ahead.

Add another log to the optimism fire with Insider Intelligence’s latest projection that worldwide spending in digital, traditional, and total media ad spending will all grow faster in 2024 than they did last year.

 

U.S. Ad Buyers, Publishers Use A Combo Of Performance, Attention Metrics

57% of US ad buyers use performance metrics to help determine attention levels, according to an August 2023 survey from Integral Ad Science and YouGov. Publishers are less reliant on performance metrics, with only 43% currently using them to measure attention.

 

AI: The Next Frontier for Growing Brands

Creative professionals and marketers are under pressure to maximize results while minimizing budgets and resources. The report found that 76% of respondents agree that economic fluctuations have amplified the need for strategic pivots in teams’ workflows.

 

Meet “The New Sports Fan” in Infillion’s Latest Research

NFL Swifties. Gen-Z cricket fanatics. And Inter Miami FC followers who have never set foot in Florida. Reaching sports fans today is a lot more complicated than it used to be. Sports fans have always been a coveted audience for advertisers. Viewers are famously engaged and deliver the rapt attention that brands crave, and brands sponsoring teams or games can get a goodwill boost from supporters. One study after another has shown that sports fans are more likely to pay attention to commercials, that they look favorably upon brands that sponsor their home teams, and that this receptivity is growing rather than shrinking.

AI, Revenue Streams, And Breaking Big Tech Dependence — Publishing Predictions For 2024

When Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism released its annual “Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions” last January, Senior Research Associate Nic Newman commented that news organizations that hadn’t yet embraced digital would be at a “severe disadvantage,” highlighting one emerging technology that could offer “the chance for publishers (finally) to deliver more personal information and formats, to help deal with channel fragmentation and information overload.”

That technology was AI, and Newman’s prescient forewarning to “buckle up for the ride” seems almost cute considering how 2023 unfolded.

 

It’s Official: U.S. Ad Market Expanded In 2023, Albeit A Smidgen

Following a weak first-quarter start, the U.S. ad market expanded for nine consecutive months, ending 2023 with a gain of 0.5% over 2022, according to just-published December estimates from Guideline’s U.S. Ad Market Tracker.

 

Shoppers Want AI To Help With Product Research And Customer Service

To improve the shopping journey, 86% of adults worldwide want AI to help with product research or information, according to October 2023 IBM data. Some 82% want AI to help get service, answers, or solutions.

 

Brands Think They’re Delivering Great Shopping Experiences. Consumers Are Delivering Them A Reality Check

New Deloitte Digital research reveals that brands and consumers do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to the commerce experience. Our latest research uncovers what people value most in their B2C commerce experiences and how well brands are delivering on those expectations. We found that nearly 80% of B2C brands believe consumers are impressed by the online shopping experiences they provide. Yet fewer than half of consumers actually are.

Publisher Tips To Take Advantage Of Programmatic Advertising’s Bright Future

For all its promise and revenue potential, programmatic advertising faced “notable challenges” in 2023, according to Assertive Yield’s 2024 Publisher Trends report, which says trends like Google’s cookie phase-out and “a push for sustainable advertising” could impact publishers even further.

However, the report does note the bright side looking ahead, as the programmatic advertising market is expected to see an annual compound growth rate of 12.5% globally through 2030. 

 

As Cookies Disappear, Consumer Caution Grows

For many people, privacy is of the utmost importance when browsing online. Users do not want companies harvesting their data, and using it for personalized advertising. So the recent news of Google phasing out third-party cookies for 1% of users, with a plan to completely do away with them by the end of 2024, should be a welcome change that consumers should accept. However, there is still skepticism surrounding what could ultimately replace cookies, as well as alternatives that are already being tested.

 

The AI Fix: Enterprise Brands Are Using The New Tech To Engage Customers

AI-driven automation is leading to cost savings for most marketing users, judging by The Enterprise Perspective on Customer Engagement & AI, a study from MessageGears done in partnership with Ascend2.

 

AI Adoption Soars: Indusface Study Unveils Impact Of ChatGPT On Workplace Dynamics

Since its launch last November, ChatGPT has not only garnered over 100 million users but has also ignited a 1,700% surge in the quest for artificial intelligence. The debate over its role within workplaces has reached a crescendo. To better understand ChatGPT’s footprint in the UK business landscape, Indusface conducted a comprehensive survey of 2,000 workers, offering insights into its adoption, applications, and the prevailing concerns.

Growth Opportunities: Publishers Focusing On Digital Subscriptions In 2024 

For all the work and focus that publishers put toward their audience-community, sometimes a step back to get a glimpse of what others in their publishing-community are doing is more than just refreshing — it’s essential for survival.

Heading into the new year, the Alliance for Audited Media asked 35 of its audited publishers what they hoped to accomplish in 2024. Almost three-quarters (74%) said that digital subscriptions were going to be an area of focus, with the same percentage saying they were optimistic about growing digital subscriptions. 34% expected advertising to grow revenue, and 29% expected revenue from sponsored content.

 

Striking a Balance Between Hi {First_Name} and Creeping Customers Out

Bad personalization happens every day — the email addressed to {First_Name} or Amazon suddenly sending you lots of dog treat recommendations when you were only pet-sitting for one week. It happens, but it doesn’t need to because there is a right way and a wrong way to do personalization. 

 

2024 Publisher Trends: Global Programmatic & Ad Revenue

In 2023, the programmatic ecosystem faced notable challenges, making it one of the slowest years on our records. On the bright side, the global programmatic advertising market is expected to have an annual compound growth rate of 12,5% from 2023 until 2030.

 

The 2024 Advertising Outlook

In the dynamic world of advertising, understanding broader trends that dictate ad spend is crucial for informed decision-making. Our research indicates a wave of optimism sweeping across the industry heading into 2024. Marketers are gearing up for an active year ahead, with a substantial majority expressing their intent to either maintain or increase their spending in every channel.

NYT vs. OpenAI: Is It A Winner-Changes-All Battle?

Following the holiday headlines late last month that The New York Times would be suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, the AI organization is pushing back, stating in a blog response yesterday that the lawsuit “is without merit” and that it views this “as an opportunity to clarify our business, our intent, and how we build our technology.”

The NYT lawsuit claims that millions of its published articles were “used to train automated chatbots that now compete with the news outlet as a source of reliable information,” and that the defendants should be held responsible for billions of dollars in damages and forced to destroy their models and data that were trained on or use their copyrighted material.

Needless to say, a lot is on the line.

 

Leveraging AI In Marketing

With the proliferation of AI understanding comes more knowledge of how it can be applied to marketing strategies. So, how are marketers currently using AI, and how do they plan to invest in its use in the coming year? To help answer this question, Ascend2 and our Research Partners fielded the Leveraging AI in Marketing survey.

 

Marketers Gear Up For A Brighter 2024

Despite very real concerns about the economy, the majority of marketers around the world are optimistic and expect business to be better next year than this, according to a new WARC report. … Two-thirds (64%) of marketers indicated that economic recession will have the biggest impact on marketing strategies in 2024, while 41% highlighted inflation and the cost-of-living crisis. Yet almost two-thirds of marketers (61%) expect that business will improve next year and 41% believe that marketing budgets will increase.

 

B2B Mixology: Email Is A Top Lead Generator And 2024 Budget Item

Email maintains its position as a top lead generator, and will be an important part of marketing budgets in 2024, judging by the 2024 b2b Marketing Mix report, a study by Sagefrog. As a lead source, email is second only to in-person trade shows & events.

Publishing Paradise: What Would An Ad-Free Facebook Look Like?

Meta announced last Fall that it would be launching a subscription service in the EU, giving Facebook and Instagram users the option to pay for an ads-free experience. And the reactions and hypothetical questions this proposal prompted were instant and only continue to snowball.

For now, speculating and hypothetical pre-planning are about all we can do as Meta’s subscription model takes shape in Europe and casts shadows here in America. 

Looking at it from a publisher’s perspective, I can’t help but think a Meta subscription model here in America could help ease the pain for publishers competing in the social media ad arena.

 

Survey Reveals Marketers Waste The Most Time On Improving Tone

A marketing expert has suggested that almost 50% of marketing teams may need to improve their Tone of voice (TOV) guidelines to improve efficiency. This suggestion follows the recent finding that rewriting copy to improve tone is the most time-consuming part of the copy development process, as reported by 44% of marketers. Clearer TOV guidelines would allow marketers to get better quality content into the market faster.

 

Linkedin Ad Prices Surge As Advertisers’ X Boycott Continues

Prices have surged by as much as 30% – but advertisers are reporting up to 20% ROI for premium LinkedIn campaigns. LinkedIn ad prices have soared due to a surge in demand reportedly driven by the advertiser boycott of X.

 

Email Tide: Usage Booms, Especially When Combined With Other Channels

Email has been booming this year — especially when used in combination with other channels, according to The State of Messaging, a study by Customer.io and Parcel.io. Overall, there was a 26% increase in email volume, at least on the Customer.io platform. But that was outpaced by a 44% hike in brands using two or more channels.

Cancel Culture: More Consumers Would Subscribe If Canceling Was Easier

A study by Toolkits and National Research Group recently asked consumers about their subscriptions to digital publications, and 67% said they’d be more likely to purchase a new subscription if the cancellation process was easier.

“Converting new subscribers is becoming increasingly challenging for many publishers as competition for consumer attention intensifies and they begin to search for growth beyond their most engaged and loyal audience segments,” writes Toolkits’ Jack Marshall. “The data suggest that easier cancellation processes could actually help publishers drive incremental conversions and revenue: If consumers are confident they can easily cancel subscriptions, they might be more likely to subscribe in the first place.”

 

Publishers Forecast To Lose $54B In Revenue From Ad-Blocking

Publishers are estimated to lose $54 billion in ad revenue globally due to ad blocking in 2024, representing about 8% of total ad spend, according to data released Monday.

 

ANA Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Study

Knowledge is power. With programmatic media, data drives knowledge and is the enabler that allows marketers to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their campaigns. Access to data, pulling insights from data, and then acting on those insights provides a pathway for marketers to optimize their programmatic media investments.

 

84% of B2B Deals Are Decided Before Marketers Even Know About Them

B2B selling teams are at a disadvantage, according to the 2023 B2B Buyer Experience Report released from 6sense. The report indicates that marketing efforts play a critical role in the B2B buying journey with 84% of deals decided upon first contact – made by buyers. These insights come at a time when sales and marketing executives agree that revenue generation has become increasingly difficult.

Sign Of The Times: NYT Hires Editorial Director Of AI Initiatives

As the hand-wringing around AI and its place in the newsroom continues, The New York Times is taking a giant leap forward with the announcement of its first editorial director of Artificial Intelligence Initiatives.

And while the human filling those shoes is plenty important — in this case, Zach Seward, a former reporter and Quartz founding editor who NYT leaders described as “the rare journalist to also serve as chief product officer, then C.E.O., and finally editor in chief” — it’s the mere existence of shoes to fill that makes this so newsworthy.

 

Cookie Draw-Down: How It Will Affect Advertisers And Publishers

Digital advertisers are facing a looming crisis — the phasing out of third-party cookies. Publishers would be well advised to help them prepare, emphasizing contextual advertising and first-party data. Senior digital marketers are confident that they are ready for the change. But not junior executives, who are in the trenches, according to Navigating the Privacy-First Landscape, a study by Fyllo. 

 

Retail Media Ad Spend Will Reach Over $100b By 2027

US retail media ad spend will more than double between 2023 and 2027, reaching a total of $109.40 billion, according to our forecast.

 

Why Is The Holiday Period So Important For Advertisers?

What makes the ‘golden quarter’ just so golden? And why are advertisers still missing out on key opportunities over the holiday season?

AI Evaluations: The Lessons Readers Are Telling Publishers

ChatGPT turned a whole 1 year old last week, and proud parent OpenAI rounded out that inaugural year in the spotlight with enough boardroom drama to fast-track a Netflix series.

In that first year, study after study has come out revealing how individual businesses and entire industries are either tiptoeing or cannonballing into the AI waters. I’m of the belief that publishers have much to gain from harnessing a wide variety of AI’s current capabilities, and with the launch of Google’s Gemini, I can’t wait to see what 2024 has in store for the technology.

AI within the confines of journalism, however, still seems to be eluding acceptance.

 

Most Readers Want Publishers To Label AI-Generated Articles — But Trust Outlets Less When They Do

An overwhelming majority of readers would like news publishers to tell them when AI has shaped the news coverage they’re seeing. But, new research finds, news outlets pay a price when they disclose using generative AI.

That’s the conundrum at the heart of new research from University of Minnesota’s Benjamin Toff and Oxford Internet Institute’s Felix M. Simon. Their working paper “‘Or they could just not use it?’: The paradox of AI disclosure for audience trust in news” is one of the first experiments to examine audience perceptions of AI-generated news.

 

Marketers Use Affiliate Strategies Across The Purchase Funnel

U.S. marketers are using affiliate strategies throughout the purchase journey, including upper-funnel awareness (56%), mid-funnel consideration (58%), and lower-funnel conversion (50%), per June 2023 Gen3 Marketing data.

 

The B2B Perspective on Multi-Channel Marketing

Today’s top B2B marketers employ a multi-channel strategy to unlock insights, engage customers, and win faster. But how effective is this approach? Where are the biggest opportunities for growth?

ZoomInfo, in collaboration with research firm Ascend2, surveyed 101 B2B marketing professionals about their experiences with multi-channel strategies — the good, the better, and the possible.

Paying Their Dues: Google Agrees To Pay Canadian Publishers For Content

This time of year, they say it’s the thought that counts.

Well, as good as $70+ million a year does sound, it’s as much the thought that Google is even willing to pay for news that’s making publishers worldwide particularly jolly.

Google has agreed to pay Canadian publishers an annual fee of CA$100 million so that the tech giant may keep their news content in its search results. This follows the passing of Canada’s Bill C-18, known as the Online News Act, this summer, which Google responded to by threatening, “when the law takes effect, we unfortunately will have to remove links to Canadian news from our Search, News and Discover products in Canada.”

 

Google Starts Deleting Gmail Accounts That Have Been Inactive For Over Two Years

Any chance there’s a Gmail account that you all made years ago that you have not been using? Well, it may soon be toast, if it is not already. Google began deleting old Gmail accounts yesterday — old meaning inactive for more than two years. It’s not just Gmail though. It’s Google Drive, Google Docs and Google Photos.

 

Wrong Ads Serve To The Wrong Consumer 1 In 3 Times

Agencies report that the wrong ad creative is served to the wrong consumer nearly one in every three times, according to new research. The joint study from Advertiser Perceptions and Claravine fielded in August analyzed the impact of not having a data standards and a strategy in place. It showed how advertisers and agencies struggle with brand safety and in the process, found a connecting line between data standards, brand safety and ad targeting.

 

B2B Buyer Report 2023

Simply going digital won’t cut it anymore. Faced with economic uncertainty, inflation, and increased interest rates, today’s B2B buyers have complex demands, high digital expectations, and strict budgets. A deep understanding of your prospects’, customers’, and clients’ unique needs is critical to success.