Author: Jazmin Brooks

Study finds that three in four people find privacy protected ads and the option to control the number of ads they see daily appealing

 
New York, NY – July 21, 2021 – A new study released today by MAGNA and privacy browser Brave, “Delivering Ad Experiences People Want: Challenging the ‘Status Quo’ Ad Value Exchange,” explored how people really feel about the ‘status quo’ ad value exchange, where people receive free content in exchange for being served ads, along with traditional ad tracking. The study found that most people (80%) feel the trade-off is a one-way street. While most people, including Gen Z and Millennials, understand the role online ads play, the majority report negative feelings about ad load (67%) and ad tracking that feels creepy (70%). For this study, MAGNA partnered with Brave, a web browser with a global advertising platform built for privacy that rewards people for their attention.
 
The study’s main objective was to find out how people really feel about online advertising today, if the ‘status quo’ ad value exchange can be improved, and how well ads can perform in an alternative ad value exchange. The methodology was two pronged. It consisted of an online survey with 1,005 responses among the general population to gauge attitudes towards advertising and various ad value exchanges. In addition, the research included five ad effectiveness studies across MAGNA campaigns that ran on Brave. These surveys included 10,218 respondents and measured brand impact among people exposed to Brave’s privacy respecting ads (that don’t rely on third party cookies). The ad effectiveness testing spanned both US and Canadian markets, measuring ads for a range of brands, including American Express in Canada, and Canada Dry, MINI, Energizer and Simple Mobile in the US.
 
“The results of the Brave trial underscore the interplay between a compelling value exchange and an authentic approach to consumer privacy and preference,” said Arielle Garcia, Chief Privacy Officer, UM Worldwide. “Consumers are increasingly attuned to the dynamics of the ad-supported internet, and aware of how their data is used to deliver personalization. Empowering people by giving them more control over how their data is used and greater choice over their online ad experience work hand-in-hand to engender trust – the foundation of a fair value exchange.”
 
Additional findings of the Brave and MAGNA study include:

• Ad tracking and ad load are palpable: People understand the importance of online ads, but incessant tracking and ad load are a considerable issue. The majority (67%) of people feel bombarded by the number of ads on the internet and well over half (60%) feel that they are constantly being tracked by advertisers online.
• Outright ad blocking isn’t the answer: The study found more control (79%) is preferred over outright ad blocking (73%). In addition, 72% of people felt online ads that are presented separately from web content at a convenient time were just as preferred as no ads at all.
• More user control is good for marketers: If people could control their ad load online, 81% reported they would consider taking positive steps that are good for the advertising industry as a whole, including using more ad supported websites without paying for content (66%), support brands they see ads from (61%), and even spend more time online (60%).
• A safe environment allows for high ad interaction: All four brands that participated in the research found 61% to 74% interacted with their online ads when run in a browser offering more control over ad load in a privacy safe environment.
• Privacy respecting ads yield results: MAGNA advertisers who partnered with Brave saw significant increases in key branding metrics including brand association (+15%-+17%), intent to research products online (+30%) and purchase intent (+9%).

 
“We know that Brave users are more receptive to our privacy-based ads based on their high engagement,” said Donny Dvorin, Brave’s Head of Sales. “This study confirmed both consumer acceptance of Brave’s advertising model and that Brave’s unique approach to advertising drives real business outcomes across many product categories.”
 

The full study can be found here.

 
About Brave:
Brave Software’s fast, privacy-oriented browser, combined with its blockchain-based digital advertising platform, is reinventing the Web for users, publishers, and advertisers. Users get a private, speedier web experience with much longer battery life, publishers increase their revenue share, and advertisers achieve better conversion. Users can opt into privacy-respecting ads that reward them with BAT (Basic Attention Token), a frequent flyer-like token they can redeem or use to tip or contribute to publishers and other content creators. The Brave solution is a win-win for everyone who has a stake in the open Web and who is weary of giving up privacy and revenue to the ad-tech intermediaries. Brave currently has over 32+ million monthly active users and over 1 million Verified Publishers. Brave Software was co-founded by Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript and co-founder of Mozilla (Firefox), and Brian Bondy, formerly of Khan Academy and Mozilla.
 
For more information, visit brave.com or follow the company on Twitter @brave.
 
About MAGNA:
MAGNA is the leading global media investment and intelligence company. Our trusted insights, proprietary trials offerings, industry-leading negotiation and unparalleled consultative solutions deliver an actionable marketplace advantage for our clients and subscribers.
 
We are a team of experts driven by results, integrity and inquisitiveness. We operate across five key competencies, supporting clients and cross-functional teams through partnership, education, accountability, connectivity and enablement. For more information, please visit our website: https://magnaglobal.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
 
Media Contacts:
Zinnia Gill
Mediabrands
Director, Global Corporate Communications
(646) 965-4271
[email protected]
 
[email protected]

A Featured Partner at MAGNA’S Equity Upfront™, Black-Owned ReachTV Positioned to Capture an Audience that’s Eager to Travel Again

 
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As air travel is resurging, Mediabrands is joining forces with ReachTV, the rapidly expanding network available on nearly 2,500 screens at some 90 airports across North America and the United Kingdom.

The Black-owned network, which features a mix of original programming and content from a host of familiar networks, was a participant in Mediabrands first annual Equity Upfront^™. Created by MAGNA, the Equity Upfront^™ showcased Black-owned and targeted media businesses to advertisers. Subsequently, Mediabrands pledged it would collaborate with clients across the network to invest a minimum of 5% in Black-owned media channels in aggregate by 2023.

ReachTV, founded by media investor and entrepreneur Lynnwood Bibbens, offers advertisers a “Truth & Positivity” programming philosophy and a clutter-free advertising environment. The partnership comes as the total number of flights have increased significantly since the all-time pandemic low of May 2020, according to the Department of Transportation’s most-recent Air Travel Consumer Report.

“ReachTV is dedicated to presenting uplifting content that appeals to a highly desirable audience of tastemakers on the go,” said Bibbens, who is also ReachTV’s Founder and CEO. “We can help Mediabrands’ clients reach travelers who are emerging from the pandemic with pent-up demand. We’re able to reach them from takeoff to destination and from terminal to bar to airport gate.”

ReachTV measured over 12B impressions annually when travel was at 50 percent of normal levels. In another indicator of a rebounding travel industry, ReachTV impressions were up over 70% last month.

In addition to producing original content, ReachTV is partnered with more than 50 content creators, including NBC, A&E, AMC and NFL Network. Since its 2016 launch, ReachTV has scaled rapidly, across North America, and has established a presence at airports in the top 10 U.S. media markets. ReachTV also is installed at three of the U.K.’s busiest airports.

The Mediabrands/ReachTV partnership includes partnership elements such as snipes during programming, sponsorships, content integrations and additional impressions. The outlet also has customized dashboards for marketers and can pinpoint placements near airport retailers selling their wares.

“The Equity Upfront^™ and spending pledge aim to reverse long-standing inequities in the advertising industry,” said Dani Benowitz, President, US, of MAGNA. “As we launch our partnership with ReachTV, our clients will see the immediate benefit of how minority-owned media companies not only provide them with exciting content environments, but also closely connect them with highly desirable and hard to reach consumers in engaging ways. In addition to supporting equity in media, brands who put ReachTV in their mix are positioned to capture consumers as they start traveling again and excitedly renew connections with loved ones.”

ABOUT MEDIABRANDS:

IPG Mediabrands is the media and marketing solutions division of Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG). Mediabrands manages approximately $40 billion in marketing investment globally on behalf of its clients and provides strategic services and solutions across its award-winning, full-service agency networks UM and Initiative, and through its innovative marketing specialist companies Reprise, Magna, Orion, Rapport, Healix, Mediabrands Content Studio and the IPG Media Lab. Mediabrands’ clients include many of the world’s most recognizable and iconic brands from a broad portfolio of industry sectors. The company employs more than 13,000 marketing experts in more than 130 countries, representing the full diversity of humanity. For more information, please visit our website: www.ipgmediabrands.com and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram.

ABOUT MAGNA:

MAGNA is the leading global media investment and intelligence company. Our trusted insights, proprietary trials offerings, industry-leading negotiation and unparalleled consultative solutions deliver an actionable marketplace advantage for our clients and subscribers.

We are a team of experts driven by results, integrity and inquisitiveness. We operate across five key competencies, supporting clients and cross-functional teams through partnership, education, accountability, connectivity and enablement. For more information, please visit our website: https://magnaglobal.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

ABOUT REACHTV:

ReachTV is the first Nielsen-rated, linear OTT entertainment network featuring a combination of short and long form series. ReachTV’s ground-breaking in-airport linear channels can be seen in over 90 of the top airports in North America and are expanding globally. ReachTV airports see over 1 billion travelers annually and generate over $1 billion in food & beverage/retail revenue every month. ReachTV delivers fresh daily content on the Company’s own patent pending delivery platform, which recreates the entire traditional television network ecosystem in the cloud. ReachTV produces content in its owned and operated studios, and partners with world-class producers to deliver outstanding original programming for its network and other distribution channels. In addition to its original programming, ReachTV channels feature innovative short and long form content from a broad range of production companies and networks such as NBCUniversal, AMC, Bloomberg, Business Rockstars, DraftKings, The Hollywood Reporter, Live Nation, Ovation, PlayersTV, and USA Today. ReachTV partnered to launch a Tastemaker network of Influencers and Celebrities under ReachTV. Social which has now grown in less than 18 months to over 350 million fans.

Contact

Rahel Rasu
Chief Communications Officer, Mediabrands
[email protected]

A new report from Matterkind and MAGNA shows increased ROI for brands that use Advanced Addressable Direct Mail

 
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Interpublic Group’s Matterkind and MAGNA revealed ROI to Sender, a new report that lists the best practices for running a direct mail campaign and explores the value of new product developments like Advanced Addressable Direct Mail (AADM). The report highlights the fact that direct mail still remains an integral component of everyday life and brands are continuing to find innovative ways to reach their customers. The report also analyzes key trends and examines how to incorporate direct mail in a media mix.

ROI to Sender reveals how direct mail, one of the original forms of advertising, is now a $16 billion industry with a core group of loyal users that continue to invest in innovative new product developments like AADM each year. AADM is the latest product advancement that accounted for $150 million last year and is a burgeoning solution that matches a user’s digital profile to their physical location. This solution allows marketers to retarget online website visitors with offline direct mail. This means that brands can re-engage customers using their first-party Customer Relationship Management databases or prospect for new clients by tying digital third-party data to terrestrial household addresses. It’s a targeted digital-to-direct mail solution that lets marketers cut waste and reach only the audience that they want to reach with mail.

According to the report, MAGNA expects the AADM market to grow to more than $500 million by 2025, an average growth rate of +30% per year. This growth opens several new data-driven opportunities for brands to merge direct mail with their addressable media strategy in a familiar way that people expect.

“This new ability to leverage rich, addressable tactics for direct mail is really exciting and something that we’ve seen marketers needing, and wanting, for some time,” said Chris Karpenko, Executive Director of Brand Marketing at the United States Postal Service. “We’ve had great results with direct mail and digital working together within a holistic omni-channel mix. Bringing these channels even closer together, further bridging the online and physical worlds, is crucial to successful marketing.”

“Direct mail and addressability have historically been synonymous as direct mail has traditionally been regarded as a new customer acquisition or traffic-driving strategy for local businesses,” said David Tucker, Senior Vice President Managing Director of US Strategy at MAGNA. “With the rise of advanced addressable direct mail, linking the physical mailer to online activity, many advertisers have also discovered mail’s strength further down the funnel, finding it a cost-effective way to retarget, especially coming off a period where more touchpoints were digital than brick and mortar.”

“With third-party cookies eroding, and CTV screens filled with logged-in streaming users, more of the marketing mix than ever before is anchored around robust, first-party data,” said Marcus Witte, Executive Vice President of Advisory Services at Matterkind. “When using Matterkind’s AADM offering, we have seen ROI increase for brands when direct mail is tied into a holistic campaign based on a person’s digital identity and physical address.”

Key findings from ROI to Sender include:

• Direct mail is the third largest media channel in the US, after digital media and national television, and is slightly larger than local television.
  • By the end of 2020 direct mail was a $16 billion market.
• Interest in mail is high, and more people are realizing the importance of it.
  • According to a USPS survey run by Summit Research in late 2020, 60% of millennials viewed mail as more important to them in 2020 than they did three years ago, while 54% of Gen X note that mail was more important to them in the same time period.
  • An incredible 80% of people said that they looked forward to seeing what was in their mailbox.
• People spend more time reading their mail than in past years.
  • On average, people spent more than 8 minutes opening and reading mail in 2020.
• In 2021, programmatic techniques enable direct mail to be an effective part of the media mix across the funnel.
  • The top 10 adapters account for 30% of direct mail spend and grew their combined spend by 1% in 2020.
• The growth of Advanced Addressable Direct Mail is part of a larger trend toward automated direct mail platforms.
  • The advanced addressable direct mail market will grow by nearly +50% in 2021 and will surpass $500 million by 2025.

 
In 2021, programmatic techniques enable direct mail to be an effective part of the media mix across the funnel and represent an ideal time to bring AADM into the media mix. With audience modeling, smaller batches of mail, shortened production timelines, and creative advances, direct mail can be a strong contributor to results across the customer journey.

To learn more, download the full report.

About MAGNA

MAGNA is the leading global media investment and intelligence company. Our trusted insights, proprietary trials offerings, industry-leading negotiation and unparalleled consultative solutions deliver an actionable marketplace advantage for our clients and subscribers. We are a team of experts driven by results, integrity and inquisitiveness. We operate across five key competencies, supporting clients and cross-functional teams through partnership, education, accountability, connectivity and enablement. For more information, please visit our website: magnaglobal.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Study finds that podcast listening habits mirror TV watching habits, but podcasts are a more effective ad environment, presenting a new opportunity for advertisers

 
New York, NY – June 3, 2021 – Spotify and MAGNA released a study today, “Digital Audio Expansiveness: Growing Landscape & Opportunities,” showing how closely podcast listening mirrors television viewing habits in the U.S. The growth of digital audio was accelerated in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic with a majority of people (72 percent) reporting screen fatigue and 42 percent citing this as the primary factor in listening to more digital audio content.
 
Here are the top findings:

• 60% of podcast listeners listen to a new episode of their favorite podcast within a day while 58% of TV viewers watch a new episode of their favorite TV show in the same time span.
• 75% of respondents said they frequently relisten to podcast episodes, which closely mirrors the 74% of respondents who reported rewatching their favorite TV shows.
• While podcast listening behavior may mirror TV watching habits, reception of advertisements differs between the mediums. 43% of respondents say that they’re receptive to podcast ads compared to a paltry 17% who reported being receptive to TV ads.

 
“We’ve seen massive growth in this space as consumers are increasingly spending more time with digital audio and podcasts as part of their media diets,” said Jon Gibs, Global Director and Principal Data Scientist, Spotify. “At the same time, they’re more open to the ads in podcasts than they are in other mediums like television. This is an amazing opportunity for advertisers to connect with new consumers or deepen their relationships with existing audiences.”
 
Additional key findings include:

• Visually-focused industries (retail, auto, entertainment etc.) reign supreme: Surprisingly, 50% of digital audio listeners are more open to ads from visually focused industries, compared to non-visually focused industries (41%).
• Audio is a multi-tasking friendly medium: 92% of people participated in other activities while listening to digital audio, compared to 84% while watching digital video.
• Positive moods lead to higher receptivity to digital audio: Positive moods like romantic (65%), excited (51%), curious (48%) and happy (40%) led to higher receptivity to advertisements, and when people are in positive moods, listeners are also more likely to trust the product advertised.
• Podcast listeners are more open to discovery. 35% of podcast listeners are actively seeking out new podcasts, compared to just 27% of TV show watchers who are looking for new content.

 
“There’s no doubt the pandemic changed consumption habits and we’re clearly seeing audio and podcast listening are extremely popular right now,” said Kara Manatt, SVP, Intelligence Solutions, MAGNA. “We found it particularly interesting that people are more receptive to ads on audio. Brands should ensure they are leveraging more audio and podcasting to keep up with consumption trends and consider targeting based on moods given the impact positive moods have on listening patterns.”
 
Methodology

The study recruited over 3,000 participants in the U.S. who listened to digital audio or watched digital video in the past 24 hours. Participants then had to describe up to two digital audio or digital video sessions from the past 24 hours in detail in a media diary. Spotify and MAGNA also conducted a deep dive on podcast listening vs. TV show watching behaviors, as well as how media consumption has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
 

The full study can be found here.

 
About Spotify:

Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity—by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it. Spotify transformed music listening forever when it launched in 2008. Discover, manage and share over 70 million tracks, including more than 2.6 million podcast titles, for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features for music including improved sound quality and an on-demand, offline, and ad-free listening experience. Today, Spotify is the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with 356m users, including 158m subscribers, across 178 markets.

About MAGNA:

MAGNA is the leading global media investment and intelligence company. Our trusted insights, proprietary trials offerings, industry-leading negotiation and unparalleled consultative solutions deliver an actionable marketplace advantage for our clients and subscribers.

We are a team of experts driven by results, integrity and inquisitiveness. We operate across five key competencies, supporting clients and cross-functional teams through partnership, education, accountability, connectivity and enablement. For more information, please visit our website: https://magnaglobal.com/ and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

 

Media Contact:

Zinnia Gill
Mediabrands
Director, Global Corporate Communications
(646) 965-4271
[email protected]