By Catherine Wolf • December 14, 2023 • 5 min learn •
Ivy Liu
This analysis is predicated on distinctive knowledge collected from our proprietary viewers of writer, company, model and tech insiders. It’s obtainable to Digiday+ members. More from the series →
Fascinated with sharing your views on the media and advertising industries? Join the Digiday research panel.
On this week’s Digiday+ Analysis Briefing, we study how Amazon’s significance to manufacturers’ vacation advertising plans is rising, how a lot advert spending is predicted to extend in 2024, and the way publishers and companies are cautious about devoting extra sources to Threads, as seen in current knowledge from Digiday+ Analysis.
60% of brand name and retailer execs mentioned Amazon will develop extra necessary in the course of the holidays
Brands and retailers are upping their marketing spend on Amazon and making the channel a extra necessary a part of their vacation plans this yr. Greater than half of brand name professionals (55%) mentioned in Q3 2023 that they put at the very least a really small portion of their advertising budgets towards Amazon, up considerably from 15% in Q1. And 60% of brand name and retailer execs mentioned in This autumn 2023 that Amazon will develop extra necessary to their advertising plans in the course of the holidays, an enormous soar from the 39% who mentioned the identical in This autumn final yr. That is in accordance with Digiday+ Analysis surveys of about 100 model and retailer professionals.
Amazon’s worth to manufacturers will increase in the course of the holidays as a result of it not solely acts as a gross sales channel, but additionally as a search engine for product discovery — which means entrepreneurs can goal prospects in the midst of their procuring journeys. This makes Amazon an extremely versatile vacation advertising software, permitting manufacturers to focus on prospects each on the higher degree of the shopping for funnel whereas they’re discovering objects and in addition decrease within the funnel as they really make their purchases, in accordance with Digiday’s recent report on holiday marketing and commerce strategies.
Meanwhile, the percentage of brands and retailers marketing on Google has dropped since last year. Seventy-three % of brand name and retailer execs mentioned in This autumn 2023 that they’ve used Google as a advertising channel this yr, down from 84% final yr. This drop in manufacturers’ use of Google is smart in mild of the truth that manufacturers’ confidence in Google has stalled this yr. About one-third of brand name execs have instructed Digiday all through 2023 that they’re assured Google drives advertising success, whereas final yr about half of brand name execs mentioned so.
Insights and stats:
- Lower than half of brand name and retailer execs (47%) mentioned Google will probably be extra necessary to their vacation advertising plans this yr than it was final vacation season. That proportion is actually unchanged from This autumn 2022, when 45% of manufacturers and retailers mentioned the identical.
- Barely greater than two-thirds of manufacturers (67%) in Q3 2023 mentioned they’d confidence in Amazon as a advertising channel, up from 55% in Q3 2022.
- “For us, Amazon is extra of an consciousness play than a click on to purchase. We’ll use Amazon promoting to construct consciousness with sure audiences, the best way you would possibly use ESPN or Meta … although the product would possibly solely be offered on-line or in-store at Walmart.” — Cheryl Gresham, CMO at Verizon Worth
Read more about brands’ confidence in Amazon
Digiday+ Analysis digest
Global ad spend is expected to grow anywhere from 4% to 7% in 2024. That’s in accordance with promoting predictions and forecasts launched by Dentsu, GroupM and IPG’s Magna final week. And regardless of lingering financial uncertainty, companies and their purchasers are feeling cautiously optimistic headed into the brand new yr amid cooling inflation and expectations that 2024 will probably be a serious yr for political spending. Media companies additionally anticipate different key drivers to gas the advert economic system, together with retail media, digital and related TV.
Insights and stats:
- “We’re not seeing manufacturers holding again. We’re anticipating roughly $12 billion to be spent from an total election standpoint. We’re positively seeing upticks throughout all classes and all verticals, from well being care to finance to homebuilding.” — Kendra Mazey, chief shopper officer at Meeting World
- The highest three media channels by which companies count on purchasers to extend spending in 2024 are all digital channels: social media at 87% of company respondents; search advertising at 57% of respondents; and digital show and web site at 54% of respondents. That’s in accordance with Digiday’s annual media agency report.
- Retail media and streaming and CTV got here in because the fourth and fifth media channels with anticipated funds will increase in 2024. Virtually one-quarter of company respondents (24%) mentioned retail media and streaming and CTV would see will increase subsequent yr respectively.
Read more about agencies’ 2024 ad spending expectations
News publishers are cautious about pouring more resources into Threads, the practically six-month previous X competitor from Meta, as restricted knowledge on the platform makes it tough to find out whether or not investing extra is value it. The Boston Globe, CNN and The New York Occasions mentioned they’ve seen engagement develop on Threads since its launch. However different publishers just like the BBC and the Guardian U.S. have stopped posting from their predominant accounts on the platform. Equally, a Digiday+ Analysis survey of about 200 company professionals earlier this yr discovered that the jury continues to be out on whether or not company execs see a spot for Threads in advertising.
Insights and stats:
- Simply shy of half of company execs (49%) instructed Digiday that they’re undecided in the event that they see advertising potential for Threads.
- The remaining company respondents had been cut up a technique and the opposite, with 26% saying they do see advertising potential for Threads and 25% saying they don’t assume the platform has advertising potential.
- “There’s a pull to Threads — it’s a superb platform, it’s a superb [and] bettering product. And there’s a component of being pushed away from X, the place there’s solely a lot time you’ll be able to spend on it a day now earlier than you simply wish to pull your hair out.” — Matt Karolian, common supervisor at Boston.com
Read more about agencies’ use of Meta’s platformsSee analysis from all Digiday Media Manufacturers:
https://digiday.com/?p=528886
Extra in Advertising and marketing
The State of AI: The paradigm shifts toward data for marketers
December 14, 2023 • 17 min learn
As AI turns into extra mainstream with shoppers, entrepreneurs have began to look to the expertise as an necessary a part of their toolkits.
WTF are shadow vacancies?
December 13, 2023 • 2 min learn
A Robin survey discovered about 40% of survey respondents mentioned they’re presently utilizing solely half of their obtainable workplace area.
What G2’s strategic partnership with Version1 means for esports mergers in 2024
December 13, 2023 • 7 min learn
The previous 12 months have seen an increase in esports mergers and acquisitions. As some groups face financial challenges, their bigger rivals have taken esports winter as a chance to broaden their portfolios into new esports titles and gaming communities. Going into the brand new yr, this exercise exhibits no indicators of slowing.