1. $700 million Spent on Ads for Georgia Senate Elections
Ad spending for the two Georgia Senate seats exceeded $700 million over the last two years. A significant portion of this amount, $521 million, was spent in just the last two months for the runoff elections held on Jan 5, 2021. Republican groups slightly out-spent the Democrats on the runoff ads – $282.6 million to $237.5 million.
2. Google Looms Large Over ID Resolution Market
According to a report by Advertiser Perceptions, 47% of advertisers and agencies are planning to spend more on identity resolution services in 2021 than the previous year. 29% of the advertisers and agencies are opting for Google as their primary identity resolution solution, followed by LiveRamp and Salesforce (13%).
3. Hulu, YouTube and Roku are the Top CTV Ad Revenue Generators of 2020
Hulu topped the charts garnering 24.2% of US Connected TV ad spend in 2020, followed by YouTube and Roku at 18.5% and 9.1% respectively. Accurate audience estimates and improved outcome measurement for money spent were two important preferences of marketers throughout 2020.
4. LGBTQ+ Consumers Prefer the Brands and Media that Care for their Cause
4.5% of the LGBTQ+ individuals in the US population account for approximately $1 trillion (8%) of the country’s disposable income. According to a YouGov survey, LGBTQ+ consumers prefer brands that represent them. They are loyal to brands and media that exhibit sustained support for LGBTQ+ causes. 72% of LGBTQ respondents were more likely to purchase from companies that advertised in LGBTQ digital and print media.
5. Slack’s Massive Outage Gives a Day Off at the Start of New Year
Slack is a widely used messaging platform that has become a crucial technology for connecting employees working from home during the pandemic. However, it started the new year off with an extensive outage as workers returned to their home offices after the holidays. Slack has an estimated customer base of around 10 million users worldwide.
6. Ongoing Hacks at US Federal Agencies ‘Likely Russian in Origin’: FBI, NSA
Security breaches at networks of at least 10 U.S. federal agencies and several major tech companies including Microsoft were “likely Russian in origin” says the US Government. A joint statement by the FBI, the NSA and Homeland Security’s cybersecurity advisory unit, CISA, said that the government was “still working to understand the scope” of the breach, but that the breaches are likely an “intelligence-gathering effort.”
7. Google to Add App Store Privacy Labels to its iOS Apps
Google is preparing to roll out privacy labels across its sizable iOS app catalog as soon as this week or the next. A story by Fast Company speculated that Google’s slowdown on releasing iOS app updates could be because it was not ready to be transparent about the data it collects from its users. The report stated that ‘not a single one’ of Google’s apps had been updated since December 7, 2020.