Visual Search, Connected TV Growth, & More | Weekly Marketing News

5 Min Read

There has been a lot to cover this week in marketing news – with everything from Roku to visual search making headlines. To make it easier for you to keep on top of the most important stories, here are some of the topics that caught our attention.

In digital marketing news, many marketers are considering how visual search can help them reach customers in a more effective way. According to an article from Adweek, 90% of information processed by the human brain is processed visually, so it’s no surprise that the brands would want to adapt their search capabilities to better fit their consumers. Research also shows that millennials in particular are interested in visual search –– 62% are more interested in visual search capabilities than any other new technology. Marketers are already working to take advantage of the higher returns over text-based search, with 35% planning to optimize their websites with visual search this year to better engage and attract customers online.

Connected TV marketing news has also had plenty of updates this week, with ad platforms and streaming services alike seeing growth. The Trade Desk just released their earnings results, and revealed that gross spending on its platforms rose 34% YOY in 2020, reaching $4.2 billion. And according to their co-founder and chief executive Jeff Green, Connected TV was its fastest growing channel, which reinforces their decision to keep moving away from more traditional media channels. Roku also saw growth last year, to the tune of a 58% increase in revenue and a $65.2MM net profit. Ultimately, as the number of consumers who are watching their favorite shows through streaming services continues to rise, marketers should be looking to take advantage of the flexible and data-driven capabilities of Connected TV marketing.

Check out the rest of the articles that were making waves this week in the world of marketing below.

DIGITAL

3 New Marketing Basics the New World Needs – It’s become essential to rethink your marketing strategy during COVID, but it’s even more important to identify your audience’s changing behaviour.

Inside walled gardens: The long-standing challenge of ad measurement and attribution – Holistic approaches to attribution help marketers plan media budgets, optimize within channels, and drive incremental outcomes for their business in the most cost-effective way. But putting such approaches into place can be unwieldy—and it’s getting harder.

Are You Hearing All Customers’ Voices? – The most basic, and often most common, voice of the customer programs exist solely to measure customers’ impressions across touchpoints along the purchase process.

Seeing Is Believing: Why Visual Search Works – Instead of text-based searches and sifting through pages of results, visual search enables enhanced, modern interfaces that help curate and review buying options faster, which comes naturally to Gen Z and millennials. 

CONNECTED TV & STREAMING

Adding OTT/CTV To Movie, TV Show Promo Campaigns Pays – When it comes to campaigns promoting movies and TV shows, going beyond linear to add OTT marketing and connected TV to the mix can produce significant performance lifts, according to research in a report from Effectv, Comcast’s ad sales division.

The Trade Desk Says Advertisers Will Spend Less At Upfront – Here’s a bet the big independent demand-side platform The Trade Desk is inching toward: The upfront advertising market could be down again, as it was last summer, for advertising placed in this current TV season.

Roku Racks up a $650MM Record Fourth Quarter  – Roku announced a record fourth quarter and outperformed Wall Street’s predictions, with a 58% increase in revenue and a $65.2MM net profit. 

Back to the future: Harnessing the potential of CTV – Steve Martin, MD international data and TV at LiveRamp stands at the cross-roads for Connected TV in the UK and advises marketers on accessing the space.

Advertisers favor CTV buys with established media outlets over streaming startups – The biggest advertisers this year plan to spend more on video, favoring the Connected TV options of established networks over streaming startups, according to survey results from Advertiser Perceptions. 

The Trade Desk sees record spending as marketers leap to CTV – The Trade Desk saw gross spending on its platforms rise 34% year-on-year to $4.2 billion in 2020, a new record driven by marketers’ growing interest in data-driven marketing channels, according to earnings results.

MOBILE

Why Brands Need to Build Mobile Marketing Maturity – In 2021, the new reality for brands is characterized by consumers who are spending more time indoors, always on the hunt for new information (and distractions), and longing to stay connected with their near and dear ones by relying on their one constant companion – mobile.

10 Trends #MarketingTwitter Thinks are the Most Exciting for 2021 and Beyond – For 2021 and beyond, marketers now play a much more elevated role in shaping the future of the marketing landscape. Adweek asked #MarketingTwitter what they’re most excited about and how they feel it is changing the industry. 

Instagram Co-Founder Mike Krieger on Innovation and Managing Growth – Mobile Marketing discusses focus in innovation, listening to your users and managing growth with Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger.

WE’LL KEEP YOU UP-TO-DATE

That’s it for the roundup this week, next week we’ll be back with another list of what’s making news in marketing.

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