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36% of marketers worldwide will increase investment in brand marketing this year, a 13 percentage point increase over 2022
&
40% of marketers worldwide will increase their performance marketing investments this year—down from 46% last year, but only slightly below 2022’s 41%.
The pendulum ever swings back and forth.
(Be more like a scale, balancing the two as needed.)
via eMarketer
🔋
batteries are an “atoms” technology — something that powers our physical world instead of helping us spin a new digital one. So the Decade of the Battery will look more like earlier decades, in which physical appliances like washing machines, refrigerators, and air conditioning were the hot new thing.
(good stuff before the paywall)
This is why I’m interested in battery tech. And “atoms” technology changes in general right now. I think most of the Next Big Things will be infrastructural as the foundation gets reworked to build the next paradigm change (Ambient computing).
About those indirect competitors
So next time you think about how to garner more listeners, think more broadly about where that time will likely come from and what you are up against. It may not be another podcast.
Consumer attention is indeed a battle. They always have choices so the competition isn’t just another podcast, it’s everything.
via amplifi media
The cookie has crumbled and the replacement isn’t out of the oven yet. At least in the short term, ad platforms are turning to Enhanced Conversions.
A Google rep recommended this to me to avoid losing signal after Chrome sunsets them for good this summer.
From Microsoft:
With Enhanced conversions, you can supplement existing conversion measurements by using privacy-safe customer first-party data, such as email and phone number.
Apple enters the chat
Apple has released a new open-source AI model, called “MGIE,” that can edit images based on natural language instructions. MGIE, which stands for MLLM-Guided Image Editing, leverages multimodal large language models (MLLMs) to interpret user commands and perform pixel-level manipulations. The model can handle various editing aspects, such as Photoshop-style modification, global photo optimization, and local editing.
via VentureBeat
I love headlines like this
Netflix’s Threat Isn’t in Hollywood. It’s YouTube
Because they’re a great reminder that your biggest competitor probably isn’t what you’d consider a direct competitor.
YouTube is actually larger than Netflix right now. And growing! And it made more money than Netflix last quarter! It’s an ad-supported service… but has more than 100 million subscribers.
You don’t compete with substitutes, you compete with everything those dollars could be spent on.
Also, YouTube is underrated by many marketing plans. (Probably because it’s not easy or quick.)
Come together, right now
On my TV
ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery team up to launch sports super-streamer
Consolidation—aka The Great Rebundling—is happening.
The service, which each company will own one-third of, will offer consumers access to a host of sporting events, including NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and FIFA World Cup games. It will also feature NASCAR races, UFC matches, and PGA TOUR Golf tournaments.
Live sports may be some streamers savior, but fans are sick of splintering. I wonder if the new service can sign deals. Like, say, for the new, upcoming NBA TV rights.
Finished reading: Prayers to the Nature Spirits by Julia Cameron 📚
God of Coyote, God of Fox,
Teach me with your wily walks.
Make me clever, make me shrewd.
Help me spot my greater good.
Apple is asking its developers and partners to describe its forthcoming Vision Pro headset as a “spatial computing” device
Currently, VR seems more like a video game console competitor and AR a platform play by social media giants.
“Spatial computing” is clear category creation in action and positions it more as a productivity device. Putting it in competition with your next ultrabook, 4K monitor, and home theater.
via Fast Company
Finished reading: Demon Wars by Peach Momoko 📚
Basically a low key year ahead
Chief marketing officers (CMOs) enter 2024 with an imperative to drive efficient growth in a volatile environment. Customer demand and buying behaviors continue to fluctuate unpredictably amid pandemic waves, supply chain disruption, inflationary price increases and geopolitical instability.
via onescreen.ai
Hey, it’s me, your friendly neighborhood podcast stan…
research has shown that audio ads outperform video ads in grabbing attention and generating brand recall.
Fully unqualified armchair neuroscientist pontification: you can close your eyes to tune out those sensory inputs, our ears don’t have an off switch. We’re new, modern folk but our hardware is old, an important sensory input for survival probably hits the brain different. See: music.
via ExchangeWire
So what about those cookie crumbs?
Uncookied Chrome users appear to be monetizing about 30% worse than those [users] with cookies
users of Apple’s Safari browser monetize about 60% worse than cookied Chrome users
The winners of the cookiepocalypse will be (usable) first-party data and AI-powered contextual targeting tools.
And actual customer relationships and email and all the really valuable stuff.
Seemed like Google wanted to be a platform for everything you might need to do on the web. (Which meant more vectors for data collection to fuel the revenue generator: ads.)
Now it is starting to replace Big G products with third-party integrations (Search cache, A/B testing).
Is it now Microsoft?
Google Search’s cache links are officially being retired
Google claims it’s less necessary now that internet reliability has improved.
Google is a cloud computing company. One with a robust PR department that likes to make everything a societal positive. One that needs to find profit, fast.
How do you increase cloud capacity without increasing hardware costs? You delete a bunch of stuff taking up space. Like Search cache. Or Universal Analytics data (148 days until deletion).
What will fill this space?
I’m sure some will be whatever paying customers put there. It mostly, AI.
If you want to glimpse the future of search, don’t look to Google.
In what feels a classic Amazon move, Prime Video ads launched with fixed CPMs lower than competitors.
With the added benefit of using the existing self-serve platform.
I would bet this launches it to a leading CTV ad platform position, especially with ecommerce brands selling on Amazon already.
Finished reading: John Constantine, Hellblazer Vol. 5: Dangerous Habits (New Edition) by Jamie Delano 📚