The Myers Report: YouTube and Meta Dominate as Pinterest, SNAP Gain. Deep Dive into Digital/Social Media Performance
The Myers Report continues to provide invaluable insights into the advertising and media landscape, delivering data-driven evaluations to inform advertisers, agencies, and industry stakeholders. This latest analysis focuses on seven leading digital/social media companies -- Meta, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube. The survey, conducted in October 2024, assessed these companies based on seven key measurement categories critical to evaluating their value, client service, and sales organization performance.
Navigating Ad Noise: Fragmentation and Misinformation on Social Media to Build Authentic Brand Engagement
To better reach their audiences, advertisers are elevating their content creation game while also keeping brand safety and suitability priorities top-of-mind. In an increasingly noisy, fragmented, and rapidly evolving landscape, brands are hungry for strategic media investments that cut through the clutter, build lasting relationships, and ultimately convert to commerce opportunities. MAGNA Media Trials peels back the curtain on data-backed solutions for how advertisers on the social platform Reddit can do just this.
U of Digital Expands Leadership with Madison Brisseaux as Head of Customer Success
U of Digital, the leading education provider for the digital advertising, marketing, and media industry, today announced the appointment of Madison Brisseaux as Head of Customer Success. As U of Digital continues to achieve exceptional growth, doubling year after year, there is increasing demand for its educational services. Brisseaux will work directly with customers to empower teams to feel more confident, knowledgeable, and capable in their roles, and help unlock new opportunities to drive revenue growth.
U of Digital and Nielsen Collaborate to Expand Nielsen's Knowledge Advantage
U of Digital, the leading education provider for the digital advertising and marketing technology industries, today announced a new relationship with Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. With this agreement, Nielsen is making U of Digital’s award-winning digital marketing curriculum and expert intelligence available to its global employee base in support of the company’s commitment to continuous education.
New Mental Health PSA from Seize the Awkward Encourages Young Adults to Say "We Can Talk About It"
Amid rising suicide rates among young adults, the campaign from AFSP, The Jed Foundation and the Ad Council provides resources to start conversations around mental health, with an emphasis on reaching Black and Hispanic/Latine youth
MFM Survey: Financial Staffers Largely Prefer Remote Work Environments Moving Forward
The issue has become a hot potato: should employees continue to work from home (WFH) now that the pandemic is largely under control? Across nearly all industries, very few people say they want to work from an office every workday. It's a topic that has launched thousands of news articles, Reddit discussions, focus groups and surveys.
Ad Council and Leading Tech Companies Team Up to Educate Youth and Parents on the Dangers of Fentanyl
The first phase of a broad effort tackling America's overdose crisis targeting youth taps former drug dealers to deliver the facts on fentanyl in a new platform, "Real Deal on Fentanyl," created by JOAN Creative
Coalition of Nearly 50 Organizations Launches "Tear the Paper Ceiling" Campaign to Raise Awareness Around the 70+ Million Workers in the U.S. Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs)
Today, nonprofit organizations the Ad Council and Opportunity@Work, alongside nearly 50 national organizations and companies, launched Tear the Paper Ceiling. Announced at an event co-hosted with LinkedIn, the national public service advertising (PSA) campaign calls on businesses and decision makers to remove the barriers blocking 50% of workers in the U.S. from accessing upward mobility. The PSAs encourage employers and workers alike to join the movement to tear the "paper ceiling" -- the invisible barrier that comes at every turn for workers without a bachelor's degree.
Ad Council to Take on Overdose Crisis Through New Coordinated National Public Awareness Efforts
Drug overdose deaths reached nearly 108,000 in 2021, the highest number ever recorded in a 12-month period and a staggering 52 percent increase over the previous two years. This rise in overdose-related deaths is being fueled by the prevalence of synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, which were involved in an estimated 66% of overdose deaths during this time period. [1] To address this issue, the Ad Council today announced a holistic approach to the overdose crisis, featuring two distinct initiatives: one with leading social media platforms Google, Meta and Snap and one with public health organizations to address the current overdose epidemic facing the United States that will be underway later this year. The efforts will roll out beginning in the summer of 2022 to educate young Americans and their parents and caregivers about the dangers and prevalence of fentanyl in counterfeit pills and illicit drugs, and, separately, to help individuals with substance use disorders navigate resources and start their recovery journey.
A Mower Healthcare Campaign Reaps Big Rewards
Chris Steenstra and her team were faced with an important yet challenging task. The Account Director and Chief Administration Officer at the Mower agency wanted to inspire young adults to consider a career as a long-term care provider. It's the type of occupation that, even in the best of pre-COVID times, calls for immense compassion and patience without a lot of pay.
The Power of the Pivot: How WMX Thrived in an Uncertain Time
The pandemic forced adjustments to all aspects of life, from home to the office. Everyone pivoted, but innovations at Warner Music Group's content studio earned it the 2021 ThinkLA IDEA Award for Best Pivot.
The Fractionalized Employee
Most of us need to work. It is central to our identity. Yet, even though work is important most of us do not define ourselves solely by work. We have many other identities and responsibilities (parent, caregiver, sailor, artist …) that make us who we are or passions we wish to pursue. To integrate and deal with the spectrum of what life brings we could work at a job with all its benefits but also constraints or be a freelancer/independent worker with all its freedoms but uncertainties. Today, due to several forces there is the possibility of another way as we architect the future of work … a way that benefits both the individual employee and the firm.
Navigating the Perils of Wrong Questions
We have all heard how asking the right question is a key part of getting to the right answer. But what if the real problem is that many of us are running our companies, teams and careers by spending our time solving for the wrong questions?
New PSAs from the Ad Council and COVID Collaborative Target Young Adults and Parents
As the highly infectious Delta variant continues to sweep the nation -- and children, teens and young adults are back to in-person learning and events as COVID cases surge -- approximately one in four of all eligible Americans still have yet to get vaccinated against COVID-19. To help build further confidence among two critical populations, the Ad Council and COVID Collaborative today announced new PSAs speaking to young adults and to parents. With significant support from leading media platforms, influencers and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the dedicated efforts address the many questions young adults and parents continue to have about the vaccines, both for themselves and their families.
Minsky Media Minute: HBO Max Take 2, MRC vs. Nielsen, Omnicom Pays (For) Attention
While I am a huge fan of HBO Max in terms of the content, it has been the single buggiest and annoying app of the streamers, at least on my Samsung TV; consistently crashing and at times not loading. Well, since misery loves company, I'm thrilled to see it wasn't just me. (MediaVillage editor Ed Martin is having the same issues with HBO Max on his TV, too.) A WarnerMedia exec has signaled that all smart TV apps will be revamped and replaced over the course of the next several months.
Canvas Worldwide and Lagunitas Tap Reddit Users to Help Create New Brew for IPA Day
Nobody ever accused the millions of Reddit users of not having strong opinions. So, when Lagunitas Brewing Company enlisted the independent media agency Canvas Worldwide to collect ideas from the popular online community for creating a special small batch brew to mark IPA Day today, they came through.
Quality of Experience and Magazines
In my prior column I wrote about how the techno-youth culture is driving the new emphasis on quality of experience, which is having a seismic effect across the global advertising industry. Magazines always were acknowledged by agency media people to be a quality experience. Today's super-spreading, screen-hungry, techno-youth culture has hit the magazine industry harder than any other traditional medium. Magazine publishers are adapting into digital with much more success than their traditional physical titles are having. The opportunity exists for magazine publishers to lean into digital even more successfully by focusing more on new titles for under-served audience segments, and especially on the quality of the online magazine experience standing out from ordinary digital today.
Village Soapbox – Reflections from a Bloodshot Eye
It's been a challenging and emotionally long week., As Michael Strahan said on ABC's Good Morning America, "This week has been a hell of a year." We have witnessed events that we only imagined happened in Third World countries. We are questioning what it means to be an American anymore. We have no real clue what the next eleven days will bring.
Uncovering Reddit's Underbelly and Why Advertisers Should be Wary
Reddit is far less monitored and censored than most other mainstream social media platforms. When you enter Reddit, you are surrounded by rabbit holes that take you into strange (and sometimes very dark) places. As described by a Reddit user, "The site is made up of 'sub' Reddits, which are all individual communities. Every single post you see on this site belongs to its own community, with its own set of users, and with its own set of rules." Another user adds, "A subreddit is a section of Reddit. You can think of [subreddits] as theme-based sections of a forum. For instance, if you want to talk about gaming you can go to r/gaming but if you want to talk about a specific game like League of Legends you go to r/leagueoflegends."
Village Soapbox: MeetingPrep.com, Leslie Jones, Oculus, Disney, A+E Networks, FreeWheel, NBCU and More
As fast as the color of the leaves are turning, so are the technology updates this week, and some of them are incredibly significant.
