An Off-Platform Solution for In-Game Advertising

• by Colin Kirkland , Staff Writer, 9 hours ago

Although the global games market attracts 3.4 billion gamers and generates revenues of $184 billion annually -- surpassing both the music and movie industries -- there are important reasons why advertisers have been slow to make use of in-game ad opportunities, 

Serving ads to gamers outside of live esports events can be difficult, especially among premium titles that typically require a direct partnership with game developers, which can be an expensive and competitive undertaking.

Advertisers also seem intimidated by the gaming ecosystem’s wide range of targeting opportunities traversing devices, formats, genres and market preferences.

The share of advertisers that plan to increase spending on gaming -- which has fallen 20 percentage points, from 72% to 52%, since 2021 -- could possibly improve if ad monetization within games was more straightforward and less expensive. 

Last month, Alex Brownsell, the head of WARC Media, commented on this issue, saying this task rests on the shoulders of game publishers. But there may be another option. 

One company called Overwolf has come up with a way to make it possible for brands to run immersive ads in premium games without partnering with publishers. 

Overwolf is not a game publisher, but a third-party in-game app and "modification platform" that players of popular desktop games use to run apps that enhance their gameplay via features such as real-time stats, guides, playing tips, social aspects, video capture and more.

Because these apps run throughout entire gaming sessions, advertisers are able to run ads while players are actively gaming. 

“We’re the gamers’ companions, allowing them to play better, win and better enjoy their games that from the product-side. From the brand-side, these apps basically allow us to reach and serve media,” Noam Korin, Overwolf’s vice president of brand partnerships, tells MediaPost.

While ad firms have yet to land sizable amounts of premium gaming inventory, major brands and agencies like Procter & Gamble, Hulu, WPP, Havas, Omnicom and Dentsu are able to utilize Overwolf’s ad technology and create campaigns around key gaming moments without the need to partner with publishers. 

The benefits of this brand option become especially clear when looking at Overwolf’s recent partnership with Monster Energy. 

Already a longtime official sponsor of “Call of Duty,” Monster wanted to target “Call of Duty” players on the precise launch date of the franchise’s newest game, “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” in a more active way via a simultaneous ad campaign and a custom tournament designed to drive awareness and gameplay. 

Upon the game’s release, Overwolf launched a Monster-branded tournament for online gameplay designed to further engage Overwolf users across 20 countries with Monster-branded in-game challenges and prizes.

Overwolf allows brands to serve relevant messages via moment-triggered ads throughout gameplay, by cheering them on when they win, giving them advice when they lose, and rewarding them for helping other players honor their achievement.

According to Korin, this creates a “very strong emotional connection” with gamers. 

To further personalize in-game messaging and develop custom tournaments, Overwolf also collects a deep well of data, including the type of hardware players are using.

For example, if Intel is attempting to sell new hardware to Overwolf gamers, the platform will send an Intel-branded game-relevant message to players who are using older hardware about updating to a newer model, such as “Hey your device is too slow, you might win more if you upgrade your CPU.” 

Monster’s four-week, in-game Overwolf tournament resulted in over 65,000 matches and 14,000 hours played, with a 63% purchase intent uplift, according to Overwolf.

According to Onur Koyuncu, senior gaming marketing manager at Monster, the campaign with Overwolf propelled brand recall in its sector to the top spot among gamers surveyed after the campaign, who ranked Monster as their favorite energy drink brand when gaming. 

Korin tells MediaPost that its campaign with Monster was among its most unique brand launches, as “it combined being in the game on launch date, engaging the gamers in an innovative way through a tournament and promoting the partnership to the gamers while they were playing.” 

Korin says the majority of Overwolf’s 100 million monthly active gamers prefer to view ads instead of paying to skip them. Additionally, Overwolf’s ads are certified brand safe and the company makes a point at working only with Fortune 500 companies across brand safe industries. 

These factors contributed to Overwolf earning over $50 million in ad sales in 2023, more than doubling its ad revenues between 2021 and 2022, according to the company, which continues to work on strengthening brand relations, recently expanding its brand partnerships team and buying publisher ad platform NitroPay.  

Commentary Dodging the Crossfire of Political Advertising

 

Commentary

Dodging The Crossfire of Political Advertising

• by Phil Case , September 4, 2024

Marketers have front-row seats to arguably the most digitally charged presidential election in political history. This year’s political spending will gluttonize digital ad inventory, ripping deeper into an assortment of media that brands typically rely on to drive high-converting traffic. Keeping any brand visible despite limited ad space and consumer fatigue requires well-timed, segmented media placements and a renewed focus on creativity and resonance.

With 2024 political ad spending estimated to reach a record high of nearly $13B, we predict that about 35% of that spending ($4.6B) will be allocated to digital media. The digital economy will be most noticeably impacted by higher CPM’s (about a 20% to 45% increase) during the six weeks leading up to the election.

Brands can expect political advertising to be concentrated on awareness-driving channels such as CTV, YouTube, and Programmatic Display starting in late September with a ramp-up of social media advertising on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and X in October.

Targeting will be centered around the usual swing states with an emphasis on the influx of 16 million first-time Gen Z voters.

For brands to engage this demographic, they could prioritize organic interactions that provide relief from the bombardment of political ads. Light-hearted social media posts or personalized promo emails are a few ways to cut through the noise. Alternatively, brands could consider shifting advertising budgets to TikTok, where political advertising is banned and Gen Zs are easy to reach.

Despite the pressures of political advertising, brands can maintain favorable ad costs with a full-funnel marketing approach that segments media prioritizations month-by-month.

Here’s how: During August and September, brands can prioritize spending on awareness media like programmatic display or YouTube preroll. If timed correctly, brands can multiply the volume of prospects entering the top of the marketing funnel while dodging the heightened CP’s that will plague these platforms in the election heat of October.

Then, shifting spending in October and November to prioritize mid and bottom-funnel media can retarget and nurture a pool of new prospects from awareness to conversion. This enables ad spend to be maximized on channels that are less contested by politicians while simultaneously engaging a wealth of prospects with initial exposure to a brand.

Inevitably, all target markets will be overstimulated by the onslaught of political ads come October; ad fatigue will set in, and engagement rates will fall. Avoiding adjacency with political ad spaces will be insufficient for capturing and retaining the attention of tiresome consumers.

To maintain optimal engagement rates, brands should renew their focus on creativity and resonance within their messaging, which will provide consumers with a much-needed diversion from the chaotic political landscape. Seek to contrast with ads that build connection amid the chaos. Consider building ads that champion consumer stories or showcase how a product can improve life.

Amid these difficulties, we predict that some brands will completely pause their ad spend during October, only to reflood the market with increased spending in the election aftermath of November and December. Combined with the fact that retail brands will be competing for additional advertising space during those same months, don’t expect normalcy to return to advertising rates anytime soon.

Sales & Marketing Management

 

Traditional CRMs are Killing Your Sales Team’s Productivity

By

 Brandon Tucker

 -

September 9, 2024

 

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The traditional customer relationship management system (CRM) is facing an existential crisis. Sellers, once forced to spend countless hours tracking customer data in CRMs with poor UI, are opting to spend their time more efficiently. This shift has driven a need for insight-driven data solutions that can maintain the sheer volume of a company’s customer data and surface actionable, timely insights about buyers.

This technology shift is not just a response to the inadequacies of existing systems, but a strategic leap toward a future where real-time, relevant data reigns supreme in every customer interaction, and sellers can focus their time and energy on doing what they do best – actually selling.

The Decline of the Traditional CRM

At their inception, traditional CRMs revolutionized how sales and marketing departments collectively handled customer data.

But tools and tech stacks have gotten more sophisticated and first-party data has continued to grow. CRMs weren’t built to manage this. They have begun to struggle under the pressure of maintaining complex, diverse data sources. There are a few inherent flaws in the traditional CRM model:

1. User interface issues – CRMs were designed to be a repository of historical customer data. That’s why the user interface (UI) of these systems is often clunky and unintuitive. While CRMs are useful to sales leaders and data teams, busy sales reps – who really only need a single pane of glass to work with instead of the whole house – aren’t able to quickly grab the information they need, especially when having to decipher if the information is outdated.
2. Data silos – As customer data pours in, data from different systems is typically stored in separate databases managed by different departments, making it difficult to maintain a holistic customer view. And as customers become more complex – as they add locations, parent companies or subsidiaries – their information becomes less suited for a traditional CRM. Data warehouses have emerged as a solution to storing data from various applications and engagements, but it’s still difficult to merge and dedupe that data accurately.
3. Manual entry and updates – Traditional CRMs can’t maintain and update customer information in real time, instead relying on overloaded sales personnel to do it. This means insights come with a lag, limiting their relevance and usefulness. A recent Gartner report revealed that B2B contact data can decay at a rate of over 70% a year, so it’s likely that you’ll be dealing with bad data almost immediately, assuming you’re not dedicating resources to constant data cleansing.
4. Difficult integrations – Incorporating third-party data can exacerbate the problems of an unclean CRM. Even the smallest discrepancies in data structures can create huge headaches.
5. Tech sprawl – To combat the above issues, teams adopt new tools that promise to bridge data gaps and are quickly overwhelmed. These tools are often difficult to manage, frequently break, and do only a fraction of what’s needed to enable insight-driven outreach.
6. No activation layer – Even with a team that focuses on cleansing your CRM, activation remains an intensive task that falls on sellers. They have to manually look up accounts, review calls, emails, notes, etc., to gain a real view of the customer.

These issues not only lead to fragmented customer insights but inhibit cross-functional collaboration and hinder seamless customer experiences. With the rise of multi-channel marketing, the challenges only grow.

Insights in Action: Modern Sales Applications

Insight-driven sales applications provide a solution tailored to the modern challenges of sales and marketing. They centralize and manage data but also use generative AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics to provide actionable insights for go-to-market (GTM) teams to act at the right moment.

Real-time Insights

By processing and analyzing vast volumes of data in real time, insight-driven sales applications supply GTM teams with a deeper understanding of customer behavior and preferences. This helps outreach go to the right person, at the right time, with the right message. They also shift the sales role towards building relationships, rather than documenting them.

Holistic Customer View

Modern data solutions integrate first- and third-party data, ensuring the resulting insights are as comprehensive as possible. This allows for personalized, targeted interactions that improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Better Data Quality and Hygiene

Automated processes and advanced analytics ensure that data is accurate and up to date. This not only improves relevance but also helps companies comply with privacy regulations.

Additionally, modernized data solutions make all the difference for data teams. We spend so much time combing through data to cleanse it and analyze it, and the data integrity can easily be compromised. Modern solutions set guardrails so sellers can easily access the context and insights they need to do their jobs well without getting caught in the weeds.

Beyond the Data

The shift from traditional CRMs to real-time customer data platforms is more than a change in software preferences; it’s emblematic of the need for an interwoven, dynamic customer data management experience. Relying on static, siloed customer data to drive sales strategies inhibits your sellers, your marketing team, and your ROI. Conversely, a modern sales solution connects various data sources and provides real-time insights into customer behavior and preferences.

Go-to-market teams should reassess their CRM strategies and leverage the insight-driven, AI-backed tools that are redefining the customer relationship.

By adopting these innovations, companies can create an environment where every customer interaction is powered by informed decisions and personalized insights.

 

Password Sharing Falls Slightly: Heavy TV, Streaming Viewers Are Big Users

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 6, 2024

Password sharing isn’t just for TV entertainment cheapskates. Heavy streaming users -- who pay for streaming services -- are also major consumers of "free" streaming, this according to Hub Entertainment Research.

"It’s a mistake to assume people who use another’s SVOD password do it because they are reluctant to pay for TV," writers of the report say. "When it comes to paid subscriptions, more than four in 10 of this segment pay for a hefty six or more TV services.”

It adds: “Among MVPD and vMVPD subscribers, the password sharers are also much heavier users of premium cable channels. In fact, they are heavier users of nearly all sources of TV, both paid and free, compared to those who do not share passwords."

Perhaps more interesting is that while there have been crackdowns among many streaming services -- Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, Max, and Hulu+Live TV -- there have been only small decreases on a quarter-to-quarter basis.

YouTube TV, for example, dropped to 14% in the first quarter of 2024 from 16% (in Q4 2023) when the survey asked whether “you ever use someone else’ login & password” to access a premium service.

Netflix remained even at 9%. Hulu(+Live TV) dropped to 10%, from 12%. Hulu video-on-demand) dropped slightly to 11%, from 12%. Max dipped to 5%, from 6%.

Amazon Prime Video was the only platform to see an increase -- to 8%, from 7%.

The bottom line is good news here -- big fans of TV/streaming entertainment seem to love TV -- and will do all they can to consume more of it.

In the current thinking of legacy media companies, these heavy users of streaming platforms would seemingly benefit from bundling. More importantly they are still buying legacy, live TV network bundles from cable, satellite, telco and virtual operators -- helping to keep treading water for those legacy media companies counting on live, linear TV revenues for the short term.

So.. maybe it's not all that bad.

Commentary What's Left for Linear TV Businesses? Perhaps Iconic TV Brand Names

 

Commentary

What's Left for Linear TV Businesses? Perhaps Iconic TV Brand Names

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 6 hours ago

What’s left for branded linear TV networks -- beyond their business revenue monetization abilities?

Maybe just their brands' names: CBS, NBC, MTV, Showtime, AMC -- and perhaps even HBO.

HBO is a brand name that was removed from a newly created streaming service in May 2023 by the new Discovery Inc. owners (renamed Warner Bros. Discovery) after it bought WarnerMedia from AT&T. 

The HBO Max streamer, started up in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, was downsizing into just Max.

For decades, HBO also had a companion service -- the premium cable TV network named "Cinemax." That is partly how its original name was derived. Now into the slimmer Max. 

The move was made to broaden the identity that WBD’s all-encompassing streaming platform might also include any and all program content from all types of networks -- general entertainment, unscripted content, and news channels from TNT, truTV, CNN, HLN, Food Network, Animal Planet, and all the rest.

But now factoring into the likely disappearance of the NBA from TNT (with only a slim chance of a return via a lawsuit with the league), Warner Bros. Discovery might need to find extra value in brands it has seemingly pushed aside.

This comes as reports suggest WBD is considering some small assets sales to boost revenues.

Richard Greenfield, co-founder and media analyst of LightShed Partners, believes that as part of this, the company could be helped -- and perhaps even revived -- by re-boosting the HBO brand name again.

Losing the NBA shouldn’t be the end of the company, according to most analysts. But consider that Paramount Global is in approximately the same position, with its own major TV brand name that continues to top live, linear TV -- CBS.

For years, you could find major legacy TV network-based media companies touting all its networks and channels -- which could be a collective of around two dozen or so national TV cable and broadcast businesses.

This all now seems to be a hindrance -- a drag on one’s overall media presence. Similarly, there has been talk that like WBD, the new Paramount Global owners, are also considering some small to medium assets sales. 

So that begs the question -- beyond the usual issues revolving around streaming platforms: What is left in these companies that has any significant, ongoing value?  

It’s in a brand network name -- the name that tens of millions of TV consumers already know. 

This column was previously published in the August 8, 2024 edition of TV Watch. 

 No doubt local businesses are competing with Amazon for local dollars along with businesses with larger budgets! The only savior for local businesses is media marketing consistency in other attractive dayparts then prime for TV and drivetime for radio advertising! Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.

Spending On Retail Media Networks Begins to Decline

• by Sarah Mahoney , Staff Writer @mahoney_sarah, 4 hours ago

 

 

 
Walmart Connect continues to gain shares at the expense of Amazon.

It seems hard to overestimate the growth of retail media networks, with EMarketer’s latest tally coming in at $54.48 billion this year. That puts the channel at No. 4, surpassed only by search ($90.73 billion), social ($86.75 billion) and TV ($58.99 billion.) But new research from Keen Decision Systems says a shift is underway. While retail media networks accounted for 19% of the total media budget in 2023, that declined to 13% in 2024 -- a 33% decrease. 

Amazon, long the leader, still rules with a 42% share, but is seeing the largest declines, down 24% year-over-year. Walmart has been the biggest gainer, with a 20% share. 

Justin Jefferson, Keen’s senior director of analytics and insights, tells Retail Insider what’s driving the shifts.

Retail Insider: MediaPost has been dutifully reporting on the growthquake in retail media networks. Now you’re saying a decrease is coming?

Justin Jefferson: If we take a step back, the long-term trajectory is still up. But we have seen a slowdown in growth, not in the overall budget but in the mix of which retailers are getting the most [traction]. Amazon has, by far and away, been the biggest player.

Retail Insider: Since Amazon started with a 100% share, it can only lose?

Jefferson: Yes. The question is, to what extent can the other retailers eat at that share? People are diversifying away from Amazon because there are so many options, and they've also started to realize that the incrementality and the profitability aren't always there. Historically, the lift you're getting off Amazon has been fairly minimal. People have been overspending on Amazon, which naturally warrants diversifying into other platforms.

Retail Insider: Your research notes Walmart’s share is now 20%, which represents a 60% increase, and Instacart now has a 14% share, which is up 22%. Kroger, with a 5% share, and Target, with 4%, are also up. What’s driving their growth compared to the dozens of retailer networks they compete with?

Jefferson: Walmart has made significant investments to build out Walmart Connect, expanding its scope and scale. It acquired Vizio and has done partnerships with The Trade Desk and with LiveRamp. It has an immense amount of first-party data and has been able to leverage that to enable offsite advertising. That’s been a big part of the growth – not just what we see on the website, on the app and in stores, but partnering and expansion that has grown the network.

Amazon's done much of that, too, trying to move more up the funnel.

Retail Insider: How so?

Jefferson: Let’s say someone is online and searching for Oreos. Maybe you’re a competitive snack brand and want to pursue that customer. Or you are Oreo and want to protect your space. You don’t want another brand to come up. That was the first focus of retail media networks: How do we best capture demand at the bottom of the funnel, where people are so close to purchase?

But now, it’s starting to be considered earlier, more top of funnel, as display and video move offsite.

Retail Insider: Stop there, please. Many people are confused by what “offsite” means for retail media. Explain it to me like I am 5.

Jefferson: Yes. Most people still think about retail media as serving me ads when I'm on that retailer's website or their app and that some type of search triggers the ad I see.

There’s only a certain amount of inventory at that search level, so more advertisers simply mean they have to spend more, and there’s a higher cost per click. And searches aren’t growing that much.

So networks have started to say, “Okay, how do we increase the ad inventory? Because I have consumers’ first-party data, I know they are a prime customer for X brand. How else can I get this ad in front of them?”

They’ve done that by partnering with other networks leveraging that first-party data. So now they can get in front of that consumer even when they're not shopping on Kroger or Walmart.com.

And there’s a lot more ad inventory at the top of the funnel, which drives awareness to enable more long-term demand, eventually leading to more searches. So, everyone has been moving up the funnel, especially Walmart.

Retail Insider: Back to the dominant players. Doesn’t there have to be a shakeout? Beyond Amazon and Walmart, which networks will dominate?

Jefferson: I don’t see a shakeout so much as a rebalancing effect. We will see Instacart, Target and Kroger begin to gain more share at the expense of Amazon and Walmart. I don’t think that will happen overnight, but the share percentages will be a lot more balanced than they are now.

Retail Insider: Amazon isn’t the kind of company that likes to lose share, let alone see ad revenue decline. What is it doing to prevent that?

 Justin Jefferson: Build out its network as much as possible, to go more top of funnel. The search side on Amazon has been saturated and very competitive for a long time, and it's only becoming more so. Cost per click is going up, and the overall efficiency advertisers can achieve has gone down.

If you've got one market that's saturated and capped out, you have to develop another market. That’s why it is developing the video and display side of the business. By building out the non-search side, Amazon can keep the net ad dollars going up.

Retail Insider: What about all those other retailers that have said, “Hey, we have eyeballs too. Our customers are special. We can play this game, too.”

Jefferson: Yes, they are all asking how to monetize those eyeballs. And so many have started networks. However, it comes with a significant investment, and they will have to prove the value and impact to advertisers over time. That requires more tech and larger teams.

There are two options. They can either build the network and try to manage the ad programs themselves  -- or sell the inventory to a player like Walmart. Google has been doing this for a long time with their Google Display Network.

Retailers have to ask themselves if they can benefit more by setting up their own program or by selling their inventory to others. Initially, everyone wanted to jump in and build. Now, more are realizing how difficult and expensive of a process that can be. Over time, many will say it’s not worth it.

 

Commentary

Dodging The Crossfire of Political Advertising

• by Phil Case , 4 hours ago

 Executive Decision Systems, Inc. of Littleton, Colorado sees an ongoing problem when television political advertising pre-empts local marketers! Local businesses use local television station's inventory to grow their market share, compete against big-box advertisers as well as other businesses with multiple locations and remain viable to the local economy! But when national political advertising such as a presidential election comes, local marketers lose their ability to compete or grow their dependence on local market revenue streams as they are pre-empted or put off until the political season ends!  Local marketers suffered during the pandemic and worked timelessly to survive and thrive until now!! From now until November 3rd, political advertising will mount thus depriving local businesses to catch up! Political advertising of the major presidential and congressional and senatorial elections takes their place ahead of local businesses' marketing efforts who get pushed aside thus making it more difficult to catch up with lost revenue and survive. New hiring also presents a problem for those who just became employed when local businesses begin to lose vital revenue! 

Somehow, local TV management must try to find supportive alternative placements for local businesses to connect with their current consumers and potential new business consumers! Local television stations should always remember, if local advertising declines because of lost revenues when the political advertising is over, local-direct advertisers and transactional advertising may not be enough to pay the growing monthly bills!  

Marketers have front-row seats to arguably the most digitally charged presidential election in political history. This year’s political spending will gluttonize digital ad inventory, ripping deeper into an assortment of media that brands typically rely on to drive high-converting traffic. Keeping any brand visible despite limited ad space and consumer fatigue requires well-timed, segmented media placements and a renewed focus on creativity and resonance.

With 2024 political ad spending estimated to reach a record high of nearly $13B, we predict that about 35% of that spending ($4.6B) will be allocated to digital media. The digital economy will be most noticeably impacted by higher CPM’s (about a 20% to 45% increase) during the six weeks leading up to the election.

Brands can expect political advertising to be concentrated on awareness-driving channels such as CTV, YouTube, and Programmatic Display starting in late September with a ramp-up of social media advertising on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and X in October.

Targeting will be centered around the usual swing states with an emphasis on the influx of 16 million first-time Gen Z voters.

For brands to engage this demographic, they could prioritize organic interactions that provide relief from the bombardment of political ads. Light-hearted social media posts or personalized promo emails are a few ways to cut through the noise. Alternatively, brands could consider shifting advertising budgets to TikTok, where political advertising is banned and Gen Zs are easy to reach.

Despite the pressures of political advertising, brands can maintain favorable ad costs with a full-funnel marketing approach that segments media prioritizations month-by-month.

Here’s how: During August and September, brands can prioritize spending on awareness media like programmatic display or YouTube preroll. If timed correctly, brands can multiply the volume of prospects entering the top of the marketing funnel while dodging the heightened CP’s that will plague these platforms in the election heat of October.

Then, shifting spending in October and November to prioritize mid and bottom-funnel media can retarget and nurture a pool of new prospects from awareness to conversion. This enables ad spend to be maximized on channels that are less contested by politicians while simultaneously engaging a wealth of prospects with initial exposure to a brand.

Inevitably, all target markets will be overstimulated by the onslaught of political ads come October; ad fatigue will set in, and engagement rates will fall. Avoiding adjacency with political ad spaces will be insufficient for capturing and retaining the attention of tiresome consumers.

To maintain optimal engagement rates, brands should renew their focus on creativity and resonance within their messaging, which will provide consumers with a much-needed diversion from the chaotic political landscape. Seek to contrast with ads that build connection amid the chaos. Consider building ads that champion consumer stories or showcase how a product can improve life.

Amid these difficulties, we predict that some brands will completely pause their ad spend during October, only to reflood the market with increased spending in the election aftermath of November and December. Combined with the fact that retail brands will be competing for additional advertising space during those same months, don’t expect normalcy to return to advertising rates anytime soon.

Commentary Consumers and Movies: Equally Watching in Theaters and on Streaming?

 

Commentary

Consumers And Movies: Equally Watching in Theaters and on Streaming?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 7 hours ago

Should we stop worrying now that theatrical movies are disappearing into streaming platforms' libraries? It depends. 

For a few years now, entertainment consumers have put movie producers on notice that they consume movies and other entertainment content in a growing diversity of platforms -- in theaters, at home on streaming platforms, YouTube, social media, where and whenever. 

Looking specifically at high-profile theatrical successes like “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” from a year ago and this year's “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine," at times it seems these strong-performing movie titles have pulled the theatrical film business up by its bootstraps by themselves. 

This all comes while looking at bottom-line box-office results, which for this summer box-office period -- the first Friday in May through Labor Day)  -- was down 10% this year (landing at $3.6 billion) versus a year ago, according to IMDb's Box Office Mojo.

But remember this followed year-to-date box office, which was down 29%!

That last number should be taken in context. The writers' and actors' strikes began in the summer a year ago -- creating havoc, including major delays that cascaded over movie scheduling.

For instance, Walt Disney’s “Deadpool & Wolverine" was scheduled to be released in May and was actually released in July. Those extra two months could have added box-office revenues, taking full advantage of the big summer period of consumer activity.

Underperformers include Universal’s "The Fall Guy" and Warner Bros.' "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga." At the same time the period was bolstered by two sturdy -- mid-level successes:  Universal’s “Despicable Me 4” ($335.6 million) and Universal’s “Twisters” ($259.6 million).

So where does this leave streaming movies? A current reading of all streaming content shows just one original movie in the top ten of all streaming content -- Netflix/Paramount+ “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back”  in tenth place, 697 million minutes (July 29-August 4).

Overall, streaming platforms recently hit an all-time high in terms of the top share result -- over 40% versus broadcast TV and cable TV. 

Although streaming movies don’t come close in overall viewing minutes to that of original and acquired TV series programming, here’s something to consider going forward.  Streaming platforms have been shortening the wait time for theatrical movies this year.

The first two months of 2024 have seen the average time between a theatrical-wide release and those movies' streaming debut shrink to 68 days from 90 days, according to estimates. 

Analysis suggests this could be bad news for theaters going forward.

Other factors: Right now the U.S. box office is down 14% from a year ago -- season to date -- and 27% from 2019 (pre-pandemic levels) -- at $5.7 billion. 

Is this because of streaming, as well as some moderation among movie titles that are released? 

Against this backdrop, streaming continues to climb with what would seem rising overall viewership for all content -- including movies. 

All of this begs the question: Are consumers really pulling back on consuming films at movie theater houses, or is there another piece of the puzzle that has yet to reveal itself?

 

Wieser Upgrades '24 For The 5th Time, Cites Stronger-Than-Expected Q2

• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, 8 hours ago

For the fifth time in five consecutive quarterly updates, ad industry economist Brian Wieser has revised his 2024 U.S. ad-spending growth outlook upward.

Citing a "much stronger than expected" second-quarter expansion of 9.6%, Wieser now projects that 2024 will grow 7.2% over 2023. Importantly, the growth estimate excludes what is projected to be a banner year for U.S. political ad spending, which if added in, would boost the 2024 U.S. ad economy up in the double digits -- 10.5% -- if included.

Since first benchmarking his 2024 outlook a year ago at +4.3%, Wieser has boosted the expansion 2.9 percentage points.

Wieser, who was a long-time Wall Street analyst and ad industry forecaster at both Interpublic and WPP before launching Madison and Wall a year ago, is highly regarded for the accuracy of his forecasts.

As for political ad-spending growth, Wieser now says it will be "helpful" to the U.S. ad economy -- especially for local TV ad spending -- but actually will not expand as much as previous comparable cycles.

In an interesting side note, Wieser cited the World Federation of Advertisers' (WFA) recent closure of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) as a "negative factor" contributing to the slowdown of open web ad spending.

The WFA shuttered GARM in response to an antitrust suite brought by X Corp, which alleged the voluntary, self-regulatory ad industry body colluded to deprive the X platform of advertising market share.

"Weakness among this group of media owners is largely responsible for our underwhelming view on the future of the open web," Wieser writes, noting: "In lieu of a global standard-setter such as the WFA’s GARM – discontinued in August after five years – spending on these sorts of media owners will probably be further deprioritized because of the additional costs involved in ensuring satisfactory standards for inventory quality and brand safety."