Media Buying

Marketers have long turned to social media to hear and respond to what people are saying, gauge sentiment, and inform and support their team's marketing strategy. But the coronavirus pandemic has put fresh emphasis on the practice known as social listening.

eMarketer principal analysts Debra Aho Williamson and Nicole Perrin and forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence Eric Haggstrom discuss consumer perceptions of the Facebook ad boycott and where dollars are being redirected. They then talk about how much is too much to pay for streaming TV, advertising expectations for H2 2020 and why WhatsApp Business has grown tenfold in a year.

Laura Martin, managing director at Needham & Company, joins eMarketer co-founder and Insider Intelligence chief evangelist Geoff Ramsey to discuss her outlook for ad spending, the Facebook boycotts, the importance of the gaming audience and why Netflix cannot survive unless it embraces advertising.

Even before COVID-19 caused a spike in TV time in Canada, TV continued to be a strong medium of choice. But amid stay-at-home measures, consumers turned to a blend of TV and digital video for long-form content.

The vast majority of mobile time is browsing online. We estimate that US adults will spend, on average, more than 4 hours with mobile internet, with 88% of that time spent within apps.

Digital media is relatively flexible, which has benefited it during the pandemic. Ivan Markman, chief business officer at Verizon Media, joins eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin to discuss how digital platforms can be even better at supporting this flexibility, as well as the explosion of connected TV advertising and the future of virtual and augmented reality.

US upfront TV ad spending will decline 1.4% in the 2019-2020 season to $20.28 billion, and drop a substantial 27.1% in the 2020-2021 season to $14.78 billion, a $5.5 billion difference year-on-year.

The depth and lasting impact of the global recession, along with the sharp economic downturn in the UK, signal a long and challenging road to recovery.

Since its launch in 2017, Peace Out Skincare—known for its Acne Dot patches—has been rapidly expanding its business through an exclusive partnership with Sephora, as well as its own direct-to-consumer (D2C) business.

Jonathan Adams, executive director and managing partner at Wavemaker, joins eMarketer co-founder and Insider Intelligence chief evangelist Geoff Ramsey in a conversation about the health of the ad ecosystem amid unprecedented disruption. Among the many topics they cover are the balance between subscription- and ad-supported video and the role of walled gardens.

Signs of media buyer optimism in early May seem to have been outliers, based on recent research from Advertiser Perceptions, which has been tracking US marketers' attitudes during the pandemic.

Despite a downgrade to our forecast, digital ad spending in China will still grow 5.0% this year. But there will be a power swap among the major platforms, as Tencent displaces Baidu and becomes the No. 2 publisher. And Alibaba will remain No. 1, but with lowered expectations.

eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson and junior analysts Blake Droesch and Nina Goetzen at Insider Intelligence discuss the recent conversation around a Facebook ad boycott. They then talk about why Zynn ditched its pay-to-watch feature, Snapchat's announcements and why WhatsApp's digital payments service in Brazil was suspended so quickly.

US agencies might be looking at a loss of over 50,000 jobs by the end of 2021, per Forrester estimates cited by AdExchanger. For reference, in total an estimated 250,000 people were employed by ad agencies as of the end of 2019, per IBISWorld.

Mattress company Simmons is turning to TikTok to help drive brand awareness and attract a younger audience as it looks to adapt in a competitive, digitally native space.

For the first time since we began estimating ad revenues at Google, the company’s net US digital ad revenues will decline in absolute terms. Facebook and Amazon will continue to grow but at severely depressed rates compared with earlier expectations.

US adult listeners will spend an average of about 34 minutes a day on podcasts, according to our latest estimates. Time spent is 2 minutes less than last year due to the pandemic's impact on listening behavior, but it should return to pre-contraction levels by 2022.

eMarketer forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom and principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin discuss the implications of users being able to turn off political ads on Facebook. They then talk about the current controversy over Apple's App Store.

When US consumers started spending more time at home in March and April, they also started using social media more, providing an unexpected boost to the platforms. That increased engagement continued into May.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver, junior analyst Blake Droesch and vice president of content studio at Insider Intelligence Paul Verna discuss whether its time to say goodbye to the sharing economy, what it will take to make people feel safe in stores, brands protest response, changing the Upfronts, young people watching more TV, taking mobile gaming more seriously, how looking at a photo can relieve pain and more.