Today in Digital Marketing - How the Hollywood Strikes Could Disrupt the Ad Market

Episode Date: August 14, 2023

Today: The Hollywood strike reshapes advertiser strategies, Buzzfeed turns to AI for engagement, and Google Ads updates Shopping campaign bidding..🌍 Follow us on our social media📰 Subscribe FREE to our daily newsletter.Thanks to our sponsors!- Go to HelloFresh.com/digital16 and use code digital16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping✨ 𝗚𝗢 𝗣𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗨𝗠! ✨Get these exclusive benefits when you upgrade:✅ Listen ad-free✅ Weekly Meta Ad platform updates with Andrew Foxwell✅ Weekly Google Ad platform updates with Jyll Saskin Gales✅ Earlier episodes each day✅ Story links in show notes✅ “Skip to story” audio chapters✅ Member-exclusive Slack channel✅ Back catalog of 30+ marketing science interviews✅ Discounts on marketing tools✅...and a lot more! Check it out: todayindigital.com/premium.🎙️ Subscribe free to our other podcast "Behind the Ad"🆘 Need help with your social media? Check us out: engageQ digital.If you like Today in Digital Marketing, you’ll love Morning Brew.Get smarter in 5 minutes (and it's free!)There's a reason more than 4 million marketers and business people start their day with Morning Brew - the daily email that delivers the latest news from marketing to the ad business to social media. Business and marketing news doesn't have to be boring...make your mornings more enjoyable, for free.Check it out!.🤝 Join our Slack: todayindigital.com/slack📰 Get The Top Story each day on LinkedIn. ✉️ Contact Us: Email or Send Voicemail⚾ Pitch Us a Story: Fill in this form📈 Reach Marketers: Book Ad🗞️ Classified Ads: Book Now🙂 Rate and Review.ABOUT THIS PODCASTToday in Digital Marketing is hosted by Tod Maffin and produced by engageQ digital on the traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw First Nation on Vancouver Island, Canada. Associate Producer: Steph Gunn. Ad Coordination: RedCircle. Production Coordinator: Sarah Guild. Theme Composer: Mark Blevis. Music rights: Source Audio.🎒UPGRADE YOUR SKILLS• Inside Google Ads with Jyll Saskin Gales• Google Ads for Beginners with Jyll Saskin Gales• Foxwell Slack Group and Courses .Some links in these show notes may provide affiliate revenue to us.Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It is Monday, August 14th. Today, the Hollywood strike reshapes advertiser strategies, BuzzFeed turns to AI for engagement, and Google Ads updates shopping campaign bidding. I'm Todd Mathen. That's ahead on a very short episode of Today in Digital Marketing. Beyond the silver screen, Hollywood's current standstill is poised to do more than delay TV and film releases. It's also coming for the ad industry. With a shortage of new material to promote, Insider Intelligence reported today that newcomers to the ad-supported streaming space could struggle to attract media buyers. The strike has already impacted ad decisions, driving rerun spending up to 80%, while spending on new content plummeted to 20%, its lowest since the

pandemic, according to recent data from Guideline. Though reruns benefit both streaming platforms and traditional TV networks during a strike, the report notes that the content drought could cause advertisers to shift their budgets to alternative formats, potentially leading to a redirection of video spend. Comparatively, CPMs on streaming services are strikingly high. Netflix, for instance, has charged as much as $55 to $65 for its ad tier, nearly five times the rate for some linear TV slots priced at $10 to $15 CPM. Meanwhile, more cost-effective formats are getting advertisers' attention, like Retail Media, which is one of the fastest-growing digital ad channels, generating $45 billion this year. Recent research also found that

audio ads produced much higher brand recall and sentiment despite having CPMs up to 10 times lower than premium streaming services. In response, streaming services are adjusting strategies to try to maintain advertiser interest. Netflix reduced its CPMs to around $45 to $55, a move aimed at enticing new advertisers who might see the content drought as an opportunity to explore other and cheaper formats. BuzzFeed says that AI-generated content on its site outperforms content created entirely by humans. It comes when BuzzFeed is adapting its strategy to rely less on social media virality. Instead, it hopes these new AI-generated content pieces will have people going directly to their site.

Those pieces include AI-driven quizzes, interactive chat games, and AI-assisted imagery. An AI-inspired image post that used MidJourney to imagine what Barbie's dream house would look like in each U.S. state saw more than 1 million views and went viral on TikTok and Instagram Reels. BuzzFeed doubled its output of AI-assisted content from Q1 to Q2 and expects a similar growth rate in Q3.

And it's paying off. The company reported that between Q1 and Q2, both views and time spent with AI content increased threefold, driven by higher content output and the new content boosting engagement quarter over quarter. Pour one out for shopping campaigns using enhanced CPCs. Google Ads has started notifying users that it is phasing out enhanced cost per click for standard shopping campaigns this October. Once deprecated, shopping campaigns using the feature will function as if they're using manual CPC bidding. The company says it's being retired because it's since launched

more advanced bid strategies. For those currently employing enhanced CPC in their shopping campaigns, Google suggests exploring the one-click target ROAS experiments accessible in campaign settings within standard shopping campaigns, or you can always use PMAX campaigns. Google says failure to make any changes by October of this year will result in campaigns operating under the manual CPC bidding system. The night calls you out. The night calls you out. A distant skyline that you've never heard about.

It is going to be hot here. 38 degrees. Ugh. That's Celsius. I have no idea what that is in Fahrenheit freedom degrees, but it's hot. I know that much. Yeah.

And it's one of those like feels like 38. So I don't fully understand that, but I know this much. I'm staying indoors. I hope it's a little bit nicer where you are. I'm Todd Mappin. Thanks for listening. See you on a longer show. I hope tomorrow. Bye.