Digital Marketing Trends, Connected TV Transformation, & More | Weekly Marketing News

5 Min Read

There is a lot to cover this week in digital marketing news. So to make it easier for you to keep on top of the most important stories, we compiled a list of interesting headlines breaking this week.

In digital marketing news, ClickZ recommends that marketers take advantage of their existing video content in order to make a bigger impact through social media. Due to the rise in consumption of videos on social, many consumers are expecting more video content through this channel. And with online video creators making it easier than ever to produce internal video content, marketers should be looking at their own content for ways to transform blogs and internal data into social media content. ClickZ also recommends that brands focus on their own unique data for their content marketing. They suggest that in 2021, unique content will be most popular, and brands will need to find ways to repackage their research and internal numbers as industry insights in order to stand out from the crowd. 

In Connected TV news, a new article from Adweek reveals that, while linear TV struggled during the 2020 pandemic, CTV and direct-to-consumer players have been thriving over the last year. Companies like Vizio saw a 95% rise in streaming hours through their platform. And despite launching during the pandemic, Peacock reached 33 million subscribers since their launch. According to Brian Norris, SVP of direct to scale at NBCUniversal, advertisers are taking notice of this audience growth. NBCUniversal finds that brands who get their start in social advertising are leaning even more into streaming and CTV, due to the measurement and targeting capabilities of this platform. Ultimately, Norris believes that as brands continue to seek new ways to effectively tell their brand story and reach their audiences where they are at, “Everybody knows that Connected TV is only going to grow.” 

Here’s the rest of the marketing headlines that caught our eye this week.

DIGITAL

2021 digital marketing trends you need to know from 13 marketing experts – Experts are recommending that you focus on content and digital customer strategy as two key areas that require rethinking in a post-pandemic world.

In First Year-Over-Year Pandemic Comp, U.S. Ad Spending Surges 22% In March – In the first month to reflect a year-over-year comparison with the beginning of the COVID-19-related ad recession, national ad spending expanded 22% in March vs. the same month last year.

Developing flexibility and agility in digital marketing: Five trends to explore  – Current digital marketing trends are designed to deal with flux and leave the necessary room for change. Here are five digital marketing trends that should play a role in how your brand approaches its marketing strategy well into the future.

Millennials, Gen Z: What’s Trending, 1 Year Into Pandemic – One year into the pandemic, priorities have changed for businesses and young adults alike.  Here are the trends uncovered by recent research among Gen Z and millennials, along with comments from four female entrepreneurs.

CONNECTED TV & STREAMING

Connected TV – a revolution in digital media – The rapid growth of Connected TV only looks set to continue exponentially. CTV ad spend in the US alone reached $8 billion in 2020, according to research from eMarketer, and is set to increase to $18 billion by 2023.

How the Pandemic Accelerated Transformation for Connected TV – While linear TV got pummeled by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Connected TV and direct-to-consumer players have been thriving over the past year. 

Traditional TV Time Sinks During Higher Pandemic Viewing – The obvious: At-home TV viewing grew because the COVID-19 pandemic drove people indoors. The not-so-obvious: Traditional TV networks are not participating in those better in-home viewer growth trends.

Connected TV Ad Volume/CPMs Soar, Programmatic/Data-Decisioning Cited – Connected TV advertising demand continues to surge, according to an analysis published today by a leading Wall Street equities firm, and one of the major reasons is the ability to buy it programmatically.

72% of US Digital Advertisers Believe CTV Reaches Audiences More Effectively Than Linear TV – Tremor Video and Unruly, in partnership with MTM Global, today announced the findings from a study focusing on how CTV is used by advertisers and key areas for development.

Has The Pandemic Opened Demand For Premium Streamer Growth? – Traditional TV upfront market of buying advertising time on live, linear TV networks is on the line again. And here’s a bottom-line question: How much money will actually go to premium streaming this year? $500 million? $1 billion?

MOBILE

Verizon Media Now Has a Way to Target People When No User ID Is Present – As the digital ad industry is working through its existential identity crisis, Verizon Media is introducing an ad targeting offering that won’t require individual identifiers. 

Social media spend study shows digital marketing’s Covid ‘resiliency’ one year on – A year since the first lockdown was implemented, it seems an appropriate time to assess the Covid-influenced shifting social media landscape. According to Socialbakers, global social media ad spend and reach continued to grow in 2020 in spite of the pandemic.

Instagram Tests a Way for Users to Choose How to Handle Like Counts – Instagram is testing a new option that would allow its users to decide how they want to treat like counts. 

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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