Media Info Bureau

International marketing intelligence service WARC's latest Global Advertising Trends report has been released. In it, WARC outlines "the new, long-term shifts in e-commerce, social media, online video and gaming for brands and consumers." What's the key takeaway for broadcast media executives? Linear television advertising plummeted.

"Effective communication skill means connecting with the other person in a way that invites them to offer you valuable information as well as willingly receive what you say," notes sales training expert Barrett Riddleberger. In this column, he asks readers to determine which of four personality traits they believe they exhibit.

Our editor-in-chief had a dream last night that he was running a Top 40 radio station. After recalling the key points of what he saw as he slept, he wishes that it wasn't a figment of a fantasy, but rather a blueprint to fix a format reliving 1991 — not a good thing, for all you kids out there.

A newly released report from S&P Global Ratings offers an update of its pay-TV video subscriber forecast. It assesses how any changes could affect S&P Global Market Intelligence ratings on companies in the U.S. pay-TV ecosystem.

A 2017 webinar featuring Veritone executive Paul Cramer yielded some eye-opening details on an"AI"-powered way to "aircheck" for an advertiser. That webinar came on a day when Google's Chrome browser was experimenting with a "mute" setting for autoplay video ads that start playing when one scrolls to the ad on a web page. The discussion remains timely.

Radio and TV C-Suiters are obsessed with millennials. They've been credited with upending entire industries, says an eMarketer analyst, and retail is hardly an exception. He's penned a piece on what retailers need to know about attracting and retaining consumers from this consumer group. It could help you, too.

Deloitte just released the results of its 15th annual Digital Media Trends Survey. It reveals how COVID-19 and shifting generational preferences are reshaping the U.S. media and entertainment landscape. How this may impact the future growth of broadcast television and radio makes this essential reading for your organization.

Kagan is putting the finishing touches on its annual Sports report. It examines how 2020's sports programming numbers stacked up against prior years. The report also provides status updates on the latest in the sports programming market and how pay TV operators are responding to the increases in sports programming costs.

Edison Research and NPR have jointly released their findings from a first-of-its-kind study on Radio. The report identifies six segments of radio listeners, their listening behaviors and their attitudes toward advertising. 

Simple hand and arm gestures may be more effective than emoticons to improve engagement during Zoom meetings. Research from the University College London (UCL) shows that an intuitive set of hand signals can warm up the virtual meeting room and help participants communicate better, Rosemary Ravinal points out in this column.

"As consumers have spent more time at home throughout the pandemic, headphones really have become an integral device in our daily lives," the U.K.-based research house Futuresource finds. "Households have spent more time multitasking." What defines their audio choices?

Can a non-sales person lead a sales team? Of course, says sales training expert Barrett Riddleberger. Many companies have leaders over sales teams that have never made a sales call in their life. In fact, many small business owners are the sales managers of their sales teams and have never been a sales rep, either. In this column, Riddleberger shares three reasons why, in his view, experience matters.

Hispanic consumers are gaining more confidence in the nation's economic outlook and their own finances as COVID-19 vaccines become widely available and government support helps hard-hit households recover from the devastating pandemic. That's according to new research from Florida Atlantic University.

Have you assessed the maturity of your consumer data? What about the level of capabilities seen across your organization? It may be a fine time to do so. The Mobile Marketing Association has just released its findings of a survey powered by EY that reviewed consumer data accessible to senior U.S. marketing leaders. Your clients have a lot of work to do.

Newly released Nielsen research looks at consumer sentiment regarding the COVID-19 recovery. It examines several consumer sentiment areas and includes insights about activities consumers engage in, including health, schooling, employment, and transportation during the pandemic.