Intelligence Briefs

The accelerative impact of COVID-19 on digital transformation has led to improvements in mobile marketing capabilities for advertisers. Growth in "m-commerce "and use of social media have provided brands with new opportunities to reach consumers, driving up mobile marketing budgets set to be worth $230 billion globally in 2021. There's just one caveat.

It sounds hard to fathom just one day after a global outage crippled Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, immediately triggering cybercrime concerns that Cybercrime Magazine Editor-in-Chief Steve Morgan will be addressing at Forecast 2022 on November 16. Yet, it is indeed true. Some 27.6 million U.S. households lack a home internet connection.

The increased focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Corporate America is not going unnoticed among Black, Hispanic and other diverse audiences, a new Horowitz Research study shows. As such, to resonate with the multicultural, "brands need to step up," Horowitz advises. Does the concept of "brand" extend beyond the advertiser to the media outlets themselves?

Online audio consumption in the U.S. showed significant gains year-over-year, according to The Infinite Dial 2022 from Edison Research, sponsored by Wondery and ART19. The study also finds the number of monthly podcast listeners declined slightly year-over-year as the U.S. population returns to pre-pandemic routines.

"Have you checked your executive presence lately?" asks veteran public relations executive and "Zoom expert" Rosemary Ravinal. As she sees it, "the elusive quality of executive presence is considered by management experts as a make-or-break factor in high-powered positions and promotions. It combines charisma, confidence, and decisiveness with appearance, demeanor and communication skills which together boost positive perceptions of the individual’s competence and credibility."

Marketing in a cost of living crisis, a shift in Big Tech strategies, and audience fragmentation are some of the big challenges for brands in 2023. WARC’s Marketer’s Toolkit 2023: Global Trends Report, released today, offers a deep dive into the subject.

For the last week of Women’s History Month, Rosemary Ravinal took a deep dive into the reasons why women and men speak differently. "It is a fact that there are gendered ways of communicating which may hold women back from their highest potential," she writes.

You delivered a speech but felt flat. You internalize your disappointment and talk yourself into believing you failed without proof. That’s the post-presentation blues. Pro and novice speakers experience it. How do you move past it? This column from public speaking expert and "Zoom" coach Rosemary Ravinal could help.

So, are you so over that "We Pay The Max" pre-roll ad one sees when accessing streaming audio on one major platform? Perhaps fresh data from a "Viewer Experience Lab" initiative is of importance to both the agency who create the spot, and the media company in control of what's shown.