1.According to an earnings report, Walmart Connect, the U.S. advertising division of the big-box store, grew 40% year-on-year in the company’s fiscal third quarter. The company’s global ad sales increased by more than 30%, with India-based Flipkart Ads another area of strength. On a call discussing the results with analysts, executives emphasized
e-commerce expansion supports advertising growth, and vice versa. CEO Doug McMillon also noted that Q3 saw the highest spending all year on sponsored search, a key advertising format. Walmart Connect introduced a number of innovation partners and tech features during the quarter that could help it extend its reach heading into the holiday season.
2.When it comes to marketing to millennials and Gen Z, the idea of advertising can be something of
an untapped resource. With these cohorts, who are largely skeptical of advertising, finding a way to naturally integrate can prove a tedious task. Hershey’s decided to take the plunge into gaming with intrinsic in-game advertising, a method that seamlessly blended one of its brands into select titles. Hershey’s placed advertisements for its Oh Henry! candy bar into premium sports, simulation, racing and casual games, targeting players who were at least 18 years old. Nearly 21.9 million
impressions were delivered from the effort, along with 6.9 point lift in purchase intent. Additionally, the percentage of consumers who said the candy would satisfy their hunger rose by 7.6 points, while those who thought it would provide an energy boost rose by 8.4 points
3. TikTok, the popular short-form video app, has officially launched its in-app ecommerce feature in the United States. The company announced that TikTok Shop will
open to select American brands this week, offering users the ability to browse products and even make a purchase without leaving TikTok. Eligible American brands are able to sell products via in-feed videos, livestream videos (“LIVEs”) and a product showcase tab. TikTok says that it will take a 5% commission fee for each product sale, which is reduced to 1.8% for the first 90 days after registering and being accepted.
The Financial Times reported that TikTok’s North America
general manager Sandie Hawkins will oversee TikTok Shop in the U.S. as part of a general restructuring at the company. (MediaPost)
4. It's official: the ad market is in a recession. For the fifth consecutive month, the U.S. ad market declined in October, continuing a downward slide mirroring the downturn in the U.S. and global economies. In recent weeks, GroupM's business intelligence chiefs Brian Wieser and Kate Scott-Dawkins have
been poking fun at analysts and journalists -- including "headline writers" -- who suggest that the ad marketplace has fallen into recession but SMI index is the most current empirical data on actual U.S. ad spending by the major agency holding companies, big independents, and their clients. It's also weighted to adjust for agencies and advertisers not represented by SMI's pool so it likely is the best month-to-month snapshot of relative advertising growth in the U.S..
5.The advertising market is so bad, it's worse than during the depths of the pandemic. That's according to David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery. During a recent investor conference, he said that the TV ad market is "very weak" and "weaker than it was during COVID." Zaslav also said that Warner Bros. Discovery's Turner network doesn't have local TV station outlets that can run sports content and gain advertising revenue
benefits.
6. Direct Line Group has chosen Dentsu's Carat to handle its media strategy, buying and planning account. The move follows a competitive review in which Carat was up against incumbent EssenceMediacom, Spark Foundry and Omnicom Media Group. The brief covers all of the group’s insurance brands, including Direct Line, Direct Line for Business, Churchill and Green Flag.
Direct Line said it had recently refocused its
marketing strategy as part of a wider restructure and added that Carat will have the task of supporting marketers within its new chief customer office. The review was assisted by intermediary The Aperto Partnership. (Campaign)
7.The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or CCPA, is getting a lot of attention these days. And not just from tech companies and privacy advocates.
As of October 17, 2022, the California
Privacy Protection Agency Board issued revised regulations to the CCPA that propose dozens of changes that were intended to address business concerns that some of the requirements were confusing and costly to implement.
While the proposed regulations are still in draft form and are likely to go through additional changes there are a few clear takeaways:
1) Notice at Collection: Businesses will need to review and update notices at collection; a simple
statement that personal information is being collected in accordance with a privacy policy will not be adequate.
2) Contract Requirements for Service Providers and Contractors: The proposed regulations carry over and emphasize the contractual requirements for Service Providers and Contractors.
3) Limits on Selling and Sharing Personal Information: Covered businesses will need to look carefully at how their vendor relationships could be construed as selling
or sharing personal information and be ready to include a "Do Not Sell/Share" link,
8. Collective behavior is the name for the way that a group of people act as a cohesive unit. It's something you see a lot in nature: birds fly together in flocks, fish swim in schools, ants build anthills and termites build mounds. And it turns out that human behavior on social media is strikingly similar to collective behavior in nature. A growing
body of research suggests that human behavior on social media — coordinated activism, information cascades, harassment mobs — bears striking similarity to this kind of so-called “emergent behavior” in nature: occasions when organisms like birds or fish or ants act as a cohesive unit, without hierarchical direction from a designated leader. (NOEMAG)
9. Some good news for advertisers and publishers! According to a recent study, consumers are more likely to pay attention to an ad if it's relevant to the content they're consuming. And they're less likely to purchase from a brand if its ads appear besides mis- or disinformation. This should come as no surprise, since digital fatigue is affecting
more than a third of consumers. But it's still good to remember that context matters when it comes to digital advertising—and that means not just putting ads in front of people, but also making sure they're appearing where they'll be noticed by the right people. (Four Fundamental Shifts in Advertising & Media, a study by DoubleVerify,, conducted by Sapio Research)
10. There's no reason to panic if Meta is your main marketing channel.
Facebook DAUs were 1.98B on average for September 2022, an increase of 3% year-over-year. And monthly active increased by 2% on a yearly basis. nstagram engagement is plummeting? TikTok usage is growing at Meta’s expense? Let's look at the facts: TikTok expansion isn't reversing Meta's growth, it's just depressing it. Moreover, aggregate time spent on Instagram and Facebook is up year-over-year both in the US and globally. Maybe TikTok won't overtake Reels, but they're not being
destroyed by it either! Sensor Tower data reported by Morgan Stanley shows that TikTok usage appears to be plateauing while Reels usage is growing across Facebook and Meta. And oh yeah—advertising isn't dead yet! Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy was a big hit to Meta’s advertising, but it’s far from dying out completely. There are still plenty of ads on Facebook, and there isn’t another alternative that can compete with them at top-of-funnel advertising
yet!
10.Disney+ wants your date of birth. The service has recently updated its sign-up process to require a birthdate for the primary account holder, in addition to gender. In an FAQ, Disney says that this change is required to ensure that the main account holder is aged 18+. But it also says that the company may use your birthday for other reasons: "We may also use your birthdate as described below under 'Are there other ways you use
my birthdate.'" Those reasons are as follows: To "comply with age-related legal obligations," "personalize your content and experiences," "provide product features and recommendations," operate, understand, analyze, optimize, develop or improve our services," and "deliver targeted advertising to you."
These ways are similar to the reasons Disney says it wants users to submit their gender. The demands for more data come as Disney plans to launch its own ads
service next month – serving ads to users on its cheapest pricing tier of $7.99 a