Economics views homo sapiens as rational animals (probably my primary beef with the topic of my major).

But we might be better thought of as rationalization animals.

Meet Effort Justification.

Effort invested = increased perceived value of an outcome.

The IAB has put together a handy podcast ad example gallery.

Could be especially useful when talking to decision makers to show the difference between pre-roll and mid-roll, for example.

Personal consumption expenditure index drop day:

From the preceding month, the PCE price index for November increased 0.1 percent
Prices for goods increased less than 0.1 percent and prices for services increased 0.2 percent.
Food prices increased 0.2 percent and energy prices also increased 0.2 percent.
Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 0.1 percent.

From the same month one year ago, the PCE price index for November increased 2.4 percent

The September dip has been reversed.

2024 saw the streaming TV ad market start to look a lot more digital and less like traditional TV, mostly thanks to the Amazon effect.

A dream combo for advertisers:

Ad-tier subscribers are up

ad-supported streaming “grew dramatically.” In the U.S., the proportion of ad tier users grew from 5% to 17% for Netflix, from 10% to 30% for Disney+, and from 0% to 80% for Prime Video.

Costs are down

That influx of inventory helped bring streaming prices down in the most recent upfront, with buyers saying CPM (cost per thousand viewers reached) discounts ranged anywhere from the mid-teens to 45%, depending on where the pricing started.

What’s 2025 looking like?
Bundles and build outs

via Adweek

Gabe the Bass Player with yet another great post. (Music is a great place to look for marketing inspiration and lessons.)

So hook us in with a great song or two

This is demand creation and capture—where most brands focus their energy.

and keep us hanging around by being consistent.

This is retention—less sexy, way more valuable in the long run.

Everything is customer service. Or you won’t have customers to service.

Another Fed meeting, another fed rate cut

In support of its goals, the Committee decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by 1/4 percentage point to 4-1/4 to 4-1/2 percent

1 dissenting vote &:

The Committee judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance.

Means we might be in a holding pattern before more rate cuts.

But we’ll see what tariffs have to say:

The economic outlook is uncertain, and the Committee is attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate.

“I have no ego in this.”

-a client

The best way to approach planning and performance analysis.

Prior decisions are sunk costs. Analyze, learn, advance.

Are you filtering through the fluff?

Or fluffing up the filter?

As for the promisor…it’s exciting to make the promise. You get to look cool and powerful and helpful. But then when no one is looking and there’s no excitement and maybe you don’t feel like it, you have to fulfill the promise. And it’s important to remember that while you don’t feel like fulfilling the promise, the promisee is somewhere excited that you are going to come through.

Marketing is a pyramid of promises.

Higher promise delivery rate = better reputation = more successful efforts

Will mobile game ads be wired in 2025?

So far AppLovin has the magic 8 ball saying Outlook Good 🎱

AppLovin’s ads are unskippable and pop up between game levels—a sweet spot for undivided attention. 

And for now, for players used to seeing ads for other apps, these retail ads feel like a welcome change, making them more memorable.

Competition is driving ad costs up and novelty will wear off, driving effectiveness down, but this space has had Next Big Thing status for years.

The appeal of late night show hosts was (and still is) their mix of personality and taste. Makes sense that podcast hosts are becoming the new late night hosts.

new statistics from YouTube show the platform has cracked 400 million monthly video podcast watch-hours on connected TVs, saying audiences are watching podcasts in their living room in the same way TV audiences in previous decades casually consumed late-night TV.

Third-party cookies are a tool, not a strategy. They influence how marketing is delivered and measured, but they’ve never been a substitute for a sound marketing plan or strong data practices.

Substitute any form of tech or data solution for “third party cookies” above and it still holds.

The best solution for a theoretical post-cookie world is still the best path forward:

• First-party data
• Build relationships and trust

Inflation is sticking around.

From the BLS:

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in November, after rising 0.2 percent in each of the previous 4 months

Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.7 percent

Shelter index rose 0.3%
Food up 0.4%
Energy up 0.2%

4 tactics from CMOs on maintaining a healthy marketing funnel in tough times

• Bottom funnel traffic started as top-of-funnel, don’t cut your discovery efforts.

Those upper-funnel ads are necessary for lower-funnel ads in places like search to work.

• Make sure any low-cost and no-cost avenues are fully optimized

• Measure on the right time frame

• Be proactive talking with leadership