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Edition #392
On austerity measures, the easing economy and Uber Ads. All this and more in this weeks note.
You may recall my top trend of the year was getting back on the tools. This week Bloomberg reported that Meta is asking many managers to get back to making things or leave. Yet another sign of, getting back on the tools. Austerity is the way.
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It’s also where companies are focusing, how can we get to where we want to go more efficiently. What is the work, that really matters, that will drive the needle. And without the confines of covid putting extreme pressure on everyone, that visibility is clearer.
The easing economy also means that there isn’t the pressure to hire, to avoid missing out. So we have this perfect storm of clarity – of what needs to get done. In this same theme, I popped into Industry Preview earlier in the week, and liked Neil Vogels focus on, we can’t change the market, but we can aim to outperform it.
I like the framing, the team can’t change what’s happening in the macro market. But they have the agency to change what DotDash are doing and can find ways to make it better.
This is where I think the ad industry is facing pressures, to cut some of the fluff and focus on what is essential.
LinkedIn shared this note on reimagining B2B measurement and a few takeaways I enjoyed were, that even keeping budgets the same (and finding efficiencies in that) can better position a brand, amongst competitors cutting budgets.
Notable stories this week
- Mitgo launches their own native advertising platform Takeads.
- Top 27 highest-earnings Substack newsletters generate over $22m a year.
- “Content is like the air the marketing team breathes”. A Cutting Room floor interview with Margaret Jones, of Airtable.
- YouTube started splitting shorts revenue and Twitter is now sharing revenue with creators.
- Uber Ads surpasses $500m in revenue. Expecting $1b in 2024.
- Google Search’s guidance about AI-generated content. “Google’s ranking systems aim to reward original, high-quality content that demonstrates qualities of what we call E-E-A-T: expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness.“
- Disney, NBCU and other Hollywood giants have spent billions chasing Netflix but their streaming strategy could have a major flaw.
- Despite Q1’s slow start, publishers are bullish about events revenue for 2023.
- Reimagining B2B measurement in the new economy.
- Twitter thread on the Bing + ChatGPT partnership. And Googles, Bard AI.
- How Amazon is leveraging AWS to accelerate its courtship of Madison Avenue.
- Ad employment gained 1,400 jobs in January, rebounding from late 2022 loss.
Deals/M&A
- Kargo acquires VideoByte.
- Criteo in new bid to sell itself.
- Penske Media becomes biggest shareholder in Vox through a $100m primary investment.
- ^ Primary means, insiders didn’t sell down shares, the capital is to go into new initiatives etc.
Campaign of the week
- PointsBed with CNBC. Super Bowl LVII culminates an NFL season marked by a surge in live betting. Leading with insights that folks expect from CNBC.
View all 2023 best campaigns.
Smartest commentary
- According to LinkedIn research, marketers are trying to show the value of their campaigns far too soon. We found that 77% of marketers try to prove ROI in month one of their campaign, which is way before the actual sales cycle is complete.
Datapoints of note
- A strong content-lead in increased engagement by 62%.
- The Guardian US nets 40% gain in advertising revenues.
- Twitter reportedly had only 180,000 paid subscribers in the US last month.
- The 2023 Career and Salary survey reveals marketing is still seen as a cost – rather than an investment – by some brands.
- Ever wondered what kids are really doing online?
- NYTimes closed the year at 8.8m digital subscribers.
That’s it for this week.
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