Industry Insights

According to Bombora Company Surge, during the past 90 days, interest in marketing strategy and digital strategy increased more than any single marketing topic across business services, construction, and manufacturing.

I recently toured the University of Georgia campus with my son and noted a display in the library about the historic integration of the school in 1961 when a judge ordered the immediate admission of two Black students, Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter. I looked at the black and white photos of these brave young adults and wondered, how did they feel? History tells us they were met with taunts and crowds throwing bottles and bricks. It must have been terrifying.

A recent survey conducted by Ascend2 found that data and investing in technology are major focuses to help B2B marketers navigate an uncertain economy. The study found that 78 percent of large B2B marketing organizations experienced a growth of 10 percent or more in 2022 through a heavier reliance on digital channels and renewed spending from clients ready to move past the pandemic.

The holiday season is one of the most popular times of the year for family travel. Whether it’s visiting relatives or gifting loved ones with a vacation, the decisions around when, where and how to travel often involve multiple stakeholders. With each traveler having different interests and opinions, how do you get the entire family on the same page when deciding where to go and what to do?

There is an enormous advertising opportunity in gaming. The global market for in-game ads is expected to reach $18 billion in the next five years, and a recent survey conducted by Deloitte found that gen Z gamers spend, on average,12 hours per week playing video games. However, the reach of this captive audience, especially for high-end gaming typically found on PCs and consoles, is only nearing its potential.

The global COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the use of screens and created an uptick in gaming (primarily due to the need for human interaction and the expanded variety and accessibility of video games). In fact, a 2021 Frontier survey of more than 1,000 parents showed that nearly 63 percent of parents with at least one child (aged 5 to 17) who played video games reported that video games had a positive impact on their child.

Hybrid shopping experiences intertwining in-store and digital experiences are the key to differentiating your brand in the modern, overcrowded commerce landscape. It’s become a non-negotiable for retailers to have an online presence, but brands can enhance their customer experience and stand out from competition by integrating these shopping experiences.

Brand marketers have been battening down the hatches as they navigate the current macroeconomic and geopolitical storm. While much of the conversation and strategizing has been around budgets and profit and loss (P&L) maneuvering with uncertainty clouding the horizon, it would be wise for brands to also allocate bandwidth to proactively devise a digital advertising strategy for 2023 and beyond. The “beyond” in this instance could be inferred as the paradigm shift from the era of personalized advertising to the era of personified advertising.

The latest version of the IAB’s State of Data report makes it clear that the ad world is deep into an era of signal loss. Cookie deprecation looms, yet its state regulations that will likely deliver the crippling blow to behavioral targeting as we know it.

As retailers prepare for another rollercoaster of a holiday season, they have a lot to look forward to. After 2021 saw a 17-year high of holiday shoppers spending 8.5 percent more year over year (YOY), forecasters predict continued growth despite the threat of a recession and looming inflation on the horizon.

Besides the fact that the app is more ideologically similar to gen Z's wants, the app has reached "3.3 million downloads globally in Q1 of this year, a 390 percent jump from Q4 of 2021, according to data.ai. It sits in the No. 1 spot for free apps in Apple's App Store," as reported by Marketing Brew. These numbers are telling an important story: Gen Z is tired of promoting stilted selves.

With this year ending, New Year’s resolutions are on everyone’s minds. Whether intentionally or not, consumers are making promises to themselves and looking for the right products and/or services to help them make good on their goals.

Constant disruption has become the norm for the retail sector, with changing technologies, an increasingly saturated market, and a global pandemic creating continuous chaos in recent years. If you’re a retailer hoping to remain relevant, scale, and increase your ROI, it’s essential to stay ahead of the curve. To help you stay afloat and thrive in today’s turbulent market, here are four common challenges facing retailers — and what you can do to overcome them.

I only started to embrace the emotional side of inclusion after the pandemic started. Intellectually, I understood what this word meant. I’ve written about the topic in multiple large scale studies that were published by the ANA Educational Foundation: The Diversity Disconnect: Charting Future Pathways to Inclusive Growth and My Voice Matters: Linking Inclusion to Business Growth.

“Nomophobia,” or fear of being without a mobile device or beyond contact, is a real thing: more than half (53 percent) of mobile phone users are “anxious” when they cannot locate their phone, run out of battery or credit, or have no network coverage.

At this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (known as COP27), held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, business took a seat at the table more than ever. Last year’s COP26 in Glasgow was a breakthrough for private sector participation; the business community came in force to share sustainability commitments and collaborate on advancing a greener future.

The Big Game is big business. The audience size alone might justify the $7 million price tag for a 30-second spot in the Super Bowl, but this audience is also uniquely eager to watch ads. As many people tune in primarily for the commercials as for the game, the TMA Super Poll found.

Since 2014, the ANA has surveyed its members to identify the marketing word of the year. The 2022 winner Is “Inclusion.”

The question often asked of senior marketers by their C-suite peers and in turn by marketers of their agency partners is: “Are we getting optimal value in return for our marketing investment?” This is a simple question, but one that is not easily answered given the breadth and intricacies of an advertisers marketing communications investment.

The economy has been flirting with a full-blown recession for months, a fear that continues to influence business decision-makers. While the obvious signs, such as hiring freezes and employment stats, get splashed across the media, other indicators are more subtle, and potentially more helpful.