Are your local-direct clients certain of what demo their reaching and creating engagement potential in their media marketing quest? Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.

Commentary

50+ Video Homes Show More 'Hybrid' Streaming, Linear

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 20, 2026

As it turn out, TV households for viewers age 50 and up are a bit more progressive than some analysts realize when it comes to adopting new TV-video technology.

TV households for those 50 years old and up actually over-index compared to 18-49 households when it comes to having both streaming and linear TV platforms in homes.

"These 'hybrid' households are actually overrepresented in the population (index 114)," according to a report from Advertising Research Foundation’s DASH TV Universe Study report. “In comparison, households headed by 18-49 year-olds are actually underrepresented (index 85)."

It adds that nearly 46 million 50+ households -- about 70% -- are reachable with linear and streaming ads.

Also, it estimates that 11 million 50-plus households are linear TV-exclusive, and 10 million have streaming exclusivity.

In addition, those newer virtual pay TV platforms (vMVPD) -- as well as ad-supported streaming platforms (AVOD) -- are showing rising indexes for those 50 years of age and up -- with a 102 index and a 93 index, respectively.

Looking at TV homes with viewers 18-49, both vMVPD and AVOD are trending down -- at a 102 index and 107 index, respectively.

DASH says there are 68.2 million households led by people age 50 and up and 66.6 million households led by people ages 18 to 49.

Nielsen estimates that overall, in terms of demographic population, there are 136.12 million persons ages 18-49 and 126.96 million persons 50 years and up in the U.S.

The number of TV homes totals 128.1 million in the U.S., with a total population of 323.1 million.

 Something new to tune to loosen up the day you might have had: Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.

Comedian Plots First-Ever Late-Night Show for YouTube

• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 8 hours ago

A new late-night show premiering Thursday is billed as the first-ever late-night show developed and designed specifically for YouTube.

The show, titled “Good Night with Ben Gleib,” originates from the Los Angeles home of Gleib, 47, a comedian who has a long resumé of cable comedy specials, movie and TV appearances, podcast interviews and show hosting (“Idiotest” on Game Show Network, 2014-17).

Gleib reportedly plans to produce 42 episodes of “Good Night” and 42 episodes of a companion “after-show” at an estimated cost of $1.5 million, Deadline.com reported.

The show starts running on YouTube on Thursday (May 28) at 10 p.m. Eastern. Plans call for one episode to be released every Thursday.

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In a promotional video on YouTube, Gleib positions the show in the context of the changes roiling late-night on network TV.

“Now is the perfect time,” Gleib says. “This is when late-night is under threat. This is when late-night is being canceled. People are talking … is it the end of late night?”

He feels that as a platform, YouTube frees his show from the turbulence that can arise from corporate ownership, especially now. 

“The genre means so much to me. I love the format of it and I don’t think it should die. The natural progression is for it to move to YouTube,” Gleib says.

“This is the time to have an independently owned [show], not [one owned] by corporate multinational conglomerates that control narratives and have agendas,” he says. 

“It’s literally just a show about comedy … a mainstream show that is not overtly political to one side,” Gleib says.

The show will be financed at least in part through Creative Visions, a nonprofit based in Malibu, California.

The organization’s website, creativevisions.org, says it was founded in 1998 “to support creative activists who are using their creativity for good.”

Creative Visions is soliciting donations to support the show. “We can improve people’s lives by exposing them to life-changing ideas through comedy,” the organization says.

In its description of the show, Creative Visions imbues “Good Night with Ben Gleib” with ideals and goals that are loftier than the way Gleib describes the show.

“I want this to be a place we can all gather, feel good, laugh and just unwind,” Gleib says on the promotional video.

Creative Visions, on the other hand, positions Gleib’s comedy show as one that can “enrich the lives of people around the globe,” which seems like a lot to expect from a digital comedy show.

“Join us in creating the first late-night talk show for the internet, evolving the genre to not just feature celebrities, but also the thought leaders, change makers and innovators with the solutions to the problems we all face,” Creative Visions says.

“Through this show we can enrich the lives of people around the globe, by exposing the masses for the first time to these life-changing and planet-saving ideas,” the organization says.

In his promotional video, Gleib says nothing about saving the planet or changing lives around the globe. 

In a promotional clip also seen on YouTube, the comedian is seen interviewing a sex therapist who counsels him on how to persuade a partner to participate in a threesome.

As for “the masses” referenced by Creative Visions, what do they have to lose by taking a few minutes to sample “Good Night with Ben Gleib”? Nothing but their chains, said Marx and Engels.

 

 

Commentary

Netflix Goes Familiar with Morning, Weekday Live Show

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 8 hours ago

Netflix now looks more like a TV broadcast network: It is scheduling a regular, weekday early morning video podcast.

“The Breakfast Club,” a morning show co-hosted by Charlamagne tha God, will stream live every weekday. And that show will essentially compete with other live morning shows on other platforms -- mostly TV broadcast networks or local TV stations.

But it also means going head-to-head with the likes of YouTube. This is part of Netflix overall effort for video podcasts -- as part of a major programming expansion.

This comes as YouTube has aggressively expanded video podcast efforts, including live programming every weekday. It even has a “live” tab to see upcoming scheduled video podcasts.

Shows on YouTube includes “The Pat McAfee Show” which is also simulcast on ESPN, as well as a number of news and politics-focused shows like “Breaking Points” and “The Majority Report with Sam Seder.”

Netflix wants to actively join this pursuit -- now as a “must have” premium platform for many U.S. and other subscribers. For many it’s just a necessary utility now. But increasing it wants more: More regular tune in

Netflix has seen flattening of average daily use by its subscribers over the last few years. For example, in the first half of 2025, average subscriber viewing per day actually slipped about 6% year-over-year in the U.S. to 1.4 hours, according to MoffettNathanson Research.

Other third-party estimates (eMarketer and Nielsen) show average daily time spent by U.S. subscribers was around 60 to 64 minutes per day.

This doesn’t mean Netflix is going to add in normal looking TV newscasts, or even opinion-tinged newscasts. Fully opinionated, free-spirit podcasts are the way to go.

National and local TV newscasts typically skew to a crowd 60 and older years old. Like it or not, podcasts offer up spicy, opinionated content that can observe news and deliver compelling spin to its consumers and fans. And they can skew younger.

But now comes the moment where we wonder about the type of advertisers that will support such content. Are many brands still worried about ‘brand-safe” content? How do video podcasts then fit into the mix?

Considering its growing diverse content, Netflix -- more or less -- wants to find a broad range of advertising interest in all types of new content going forward (video podcasts, special sporting events, gaming) -- targeting young and old viewers.

Again the key word here is broad-based -- which makes sound familiar to that other familiar word: Broadcasting.

Here's some media marketing education I came upon which made quite a bit of sense to share to help educate your local-direct clients on creating sure engagement rates and potential media performance. Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D. 

Commentary

What Most Brands Get Wrong Measuring Influencer Marketing ROI

• by Maria Bailey , Columnist, May 22, 2026

Influencer marketing ROI is measured by combining engagement, content output, consumer intent signals, and retail impact, not just impressions or reach. Many brands make the same mistake when they launch an influencer marketing campaign.  They treat influencer marketing like awareness media, when it’s a behavior-driven channel.

If you’re evaluating partners or building a campaign, understanding how measurement works is just as important as execution.

If you’re only measuring impressions, you’re missing most of the value that an influencer campaign creates for your brand. Some brands value the library of UGC content as much as they do the reach of the program.  One brand was recently able to save over $100,000 in product costs by using UGC content for CRM and ecommerce pages.

Engagement rate (not just likes). Engagement rate shows how much your audience cares, not just how many people saw your content.

A strong campaign typically delivers ~1%+ engagement or higher, depending on the influencer mix. The increase in engagement rate is obtained by carefully aligning the right influencers with the brand.

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Total engagement volume. This is where scale meets impact. Instead of asking: “How many people saw this?,” brands should ask: “How many people interacted with this?”

Tens of thousands of engagements in a campaign signal real consumer interest. It's important not only to measures likes and shares, but to read and scrape all comments for insights and trends as it pertains to your brand.  There is a great amount of valuable information for the brand within the comments of social posts.

User-generated content output. UGC is one of the most undervalued ROI drivers. If distribution is king, content is queen. With so much social media consumption, brands must spend millions to produce enough content to keep consumers engaged.  Not only does it save brands a lot of money in production expense, but UGC content is known to perform better with consumers. With the right usage agreement with influencers, brands could have up to one year usage rights.

What this really means is you’re not just buying reach. You’re building a content engine. When you work with an influencer agency, make sure that all raw content is delivered to you at the end of the campaign. 

Consumer intent signals.  Intent signals are the clearest indicator that influencer marketing is working.

Brands can also survey all influencers for their comments on the product, since many will be gifted the product.

Retail and purchase behavior. If your product is sold in stores or online retail, this is where influencer marketing becomes a sales channel. It’s also important to support the ecommerce destinations of these major retailers. Many buyers want to see traffic to your product pages.

Brands can increase the ROI on their influencer campaign by executing a few key practices:

• Leverage long-term relationships with influencers to match content creators who are fully aligned with the brand’s values.
• Avoid oversaturating content creators.
• Communicate clear brand messaging and goals to influencers so they have direct instructions on helping your brand reach its goals.
• Follow all FTC rules.
• Leverage collaboration and whitelisting of UGC.
• Select influencers based on historical data like engagement rates, sales data and more.

Final Thoughts

The best way to measure influencer marketing ROI is to track how content drives action, not just how many people see it.

When done correctly, influencer marketing delivers high engagement, scalable content, strong consumer intent and measurable retail impact.

This post was previously published in an earlier edition of Marketing Insider.

 If you have a fun Jeep dealer in your DMA....make a call on them and take up the newest patriotic product they may want to share with consumers: Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.

research

Jeep Lands 'Most Patriotic' Brand Designation For 25th Year

• by Tanya Gazdik , Yesterday

The Jeep brand has been named America’s most patriotic brand for a 25th consecutive year, according to Brand Keys.

“That enduring spirit of capability, independence and adventure lives on in every vehicle we make, and we're truly humbled by the deep, lasting connection our customers have to the brand and everything it represents,” says Bob Broderdorf, Jeep chief executive officer, in a statement.

Other brands in the Brand Keys top 10 are Coca-Cola, Ford, Levi Strauss, Disney, Amazon, Walmart, Hershey’s, Ralph Lauren and WeatherTech. This year, the study features the top 100 brands.

One of the more interesting findings this year is not how much the rankings changed, but how little they did, says Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys.

“The consistency among many of the long-term leaders is itself an important story,” Passikoff tells Marketing Daily. “In an environment where consumer sentiment, politics, culture, and trust shift constantly, maintaining a strong association with patriotism over decades is remarkably difficult.”

As America approaches its 250th anniversary, patriotism is both retrospective and forward-looking. It honors where the country has been while signaling where Americans believe it should go, he says. 

"The brands that lead our 25th annual Most Patriotic Brands survey understand that patriotism is not a seasonal campaign, a holiday promotion, or a July Fourth sales event,” Passikoff says. “It is a sustained emotional and cultural value that consumers recognize as authentic or reject when it feels performative. That’s what makes Jeep’s continued leadership especially notable.”

From a branding perspective, it represents one of the most durable emotional brand positions in modern marketing history, he says. 

"Very few brands have maintained this level of resonance around a single national value for 25 consecutive years, particularly because the meaning of patriotism itself continues to evolve across generations,” Passikoff says. “Jeep’s ability to continually align with those changing expectations suggests something larger than successful advertising. It reflects an enduring relationship between brand, identity, and country that has become embedded in American culture itself.”

This year’s survey reached 9,720 consumers, ages 18 to 65, balanced across the nine U.S. census regions for gender and political affiliation. It evaluated 1,200 brands across 120 categories using emotional, psychological, and higher-order statistical analytics. The methodology -- which is validated by the ARF, ANA, and 4As -- measures how patriotism contributes to, not just perception, but brand profitability.

Politically, patriotism has become increasingly contested terrain, Passikoff says. 

“In a polarized environment, interpretations of what constitutes ‘true’ patriotism vary across ideological and tribal lines,” Passikoff says. “Yet our research consistently shows that while Americans may disagree on policy, they still converge around foundational ideals: freedom, fairness, opportunity, and national progress. Brands that authentically reflect those enduring principles transcend partisanship.  Brands that attempt to appropriate patriotism without substance do not.”

 

automotive

Automotive TV Spending Down 18% In April

• by Tanya Gazdik , May 14, 2026

Automakers spent an estimated $131.9 million in April on national linear TV, down 18% year over year vs. $160.8 million in April 2025, according to iSpot.tv. 

Year-to-date spending is also down 20%. Spending so far this year totals $751.7 million compared to $940.6 million in the same period in 2025. 

Household TV ad impressions also fell in April to 15.7 billion (down 7% year over year) compared to 16.8 billion in April 2025. Year-to-date household TV ad impression totaling 59.9 billion are down 18.4% compared to 73.4 billion in April 2025, per iSpot.tv. 

Luxury brands topped the list of the top five brands by estimated national linear TV ad spending: Lexus ($13.7 million), Mercedes-Benz ($12.2 million), Ford ($10.3 million), Subaru ($9.7 million) and Kia ($9.6 million).

Men’s college basketball (Final Four, National Championship) accounted for over 24% of auto industry spend in April, followed by the NBA, with 14.22% of spend, according to iSpot.tv.

Top non-sports-related programming by estimated spend  included La casa de los famosos (1.60%), Marshals (0.91%) and Hermanas, un amor compartido (0.60%) – in part showing brands’ continued interest in Spanish-language programming.

Lexus (23.30% spend Share Of Voice) and Ford (55.54%) prioritized budget toward men’s college basketball games, while Mercedes went big on the Masters Tournament (68.46% of its monthly spend). Subaru mostly skipped the sports to focus on morning news programming, while Kia allocated over 40% of its budget to the NBA. 

“The auto category’s long-standing dedication to live sports remains clear, but the most recent growth story is unfolding across Spanish-language TV,” Stuart Schwartzapfel, executive vice president of media partnerships at iSpot tells Marketing Daily. “Impressions are climbing considerably for Spanish-language networks and programs, providing automakers with an opportunity to expand audiences beyond their traditional playbooks.” 

The top five brands by share of automaker household TV ad impressions were: Toyota (11.20%), Hyundai (8.78%), Lexus (8.32%), Ford (7.55%) and Chevrolet (6.99%).

The top five brands by share of voice on streaming were Hyundai (10.52%), Jeep (9.21%), Volkswagen (7.47%), Ram Trucks (7.45%) and Toyota (7.34%), per iSpot.tv. 

The top programs for automakers by share of household TV ad impressions were  NBA (12.58%), MLB (4.91%), NHL (3.93%), 2026 Masters Tournament (3.31%) and men’s college basketball (3.07%).

The most-seen automaker ads by share of household TV ad impressions were: Chevrolet: This Is Who We Are (3.88%), Subaru: Wild at Heart (1.83%), Buick: Now Is Exceptional (1.82%), Nissan: Go Rogue (1.69%) and Toyota: Industry Plants (1.46%).

The top automaker ads by likeability per an iSpot.tv assessment were  Chevrolet: See the USA (+8.6% more likeable than April automotive norm), Toyota: Rugged Attitude Vehicle (+5.1%), Ford: What You Were Meant To (+4.5%), Toyota: Runway-Approved Vehicle (+3.9%) and Toyota: Roam Anywhere Vehicle (+2.9%).

The top automaker ads by positive purchase intent per an iSpot.tv assessment were:  Toyota: A Night Out (54%), Nissan: Perfect Family Vehicle (52%), Nissan: Extreme Potholes (51%), Toyota: Buddies (50%) and Toyota: More Choices (50%).

The top programs most likely to reach auto intenders per iSpot’s advanced audience ranker, which showcases the programs reaching the highest share of households interested in buying a new car were NBA (22.13%), 2026 Masters Tournament (17.98%), 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (15.55%), MLB (15.10%) and NHL (13.68%). These consumers watched at least one hour of live, national linear TV in April. 

The top non-sports/news program was “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (10.50%), followed by “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” (10.04%) and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (10.01%), per iSpot.tv.

 

Digital-First Streamers Up Ad Spend, Prime Video At $52M

• by Wayne Friedman , 4 hours ago

Among the digital-first premium streaming services, Amazon Prime Video is continuing to spend big on national TV networks for advertising and promotion -- with an estimated $52.5 million since the start of this year through May 17, according to iSpot.tv.

This was driven by 5,874 airings resulting in 2.8 billion impressions for its new sports programming addition: NBA basketball. Spending is up from a year ago -- to $43.3 million in national TV spend.

Live sports continues to be the main beneficiary of this spend, led by NFL football, NBA basketball, and college football and basketball on networks including ESPN, NBC, CBS, and ABC.

Netflix, the largest premium streamer, is also raising its TV advertising-promotional profile with nearly double its spend of a year ago -- $31.9 million.

This year, Netflix’s spending produced 306.6 million impressions from 380 airings.

Netflix touted shows like "The Adventures of Cliff Booth," "The Rip," "Frankenstein" and the Oscar-nominated movie "Train Dreams."

TV shows benefiting her include NFL football on the major networks, including NBC's airing of the Super Bowl as well as NBC’s "Saturday Night Live," and "WWE Friday Night Smackdown."

Last year, Netflix spent $16.3 million in national TV advertising, with 599 million impressions from 443 airings.

Its premium streaming service, Apple TV, is at $17.1 million -- lower than the $22.2 million a year ago.

This year it touted new efforts including: "The Moment," "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" and “Hijack,” and "No Notes." Apple TV produced 852.5 million impressions from 4,191 airings.

Legacy TV-owned streaming services including Paramount Skydance's Paramount+, NBCU's Peacock and Walt Disney's Disney+, ESPN and Hulu -- benefit from those companies' owned TV network advertising inventory. Digital-first streamers need to spend for advertising on those networks.