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Crystal ball. Industry prognosticator, The Winterberry Group, is projecting estimated advertiser spending of $509 billion in 2023, up 6% from $481 billion last year. Spending on TV (linear, addressable and CTV) is projected to increase by 12.5%.
More ads for the mouse. After launching an ad-supported tier in December, Disney+ is preparing to roll out more robust Hulu-like targeting beginning in April. By July, Hulu’s “full suite of ad products and services” will become available across Disney’s streaming portfolio according to the streamer.
Can you open this jar? The Association of Pickleball Professionals (yes, it’s a thing) has signed a 2023 broadcast rights deal with CBS Sports and ESPN. The agreement calls for 12 hours of live matches and highlight programs to appear on the CBS Sports Network, with eight hours of recaps on ESPN2. An additional 200 hours of coverage of APP Tour events will be livestreamed on ESPN Plus and APP TV.
Your reality is not my reality. A survey conducted at the annual Game Developers Conference held bad news for the metaverse. A full 45% of respondents believe that “the metaverse concept will never deliver on its promise.” This number is actually up from last year’s 33% who gave the virtual reality platform a vote of no confidence.
And a quick look back. Retail holiday sales ended up falling a little short of National Retail Federation expectations. Sales for the November through December 2022 holiday season grew by 5.3% over the same period in 2021, reaching $936.3 billion. The NRF had originally forecast growth in the range of 6% to 8%.
Bumps In The Stream
Ads for the win? Reporting its fourth quarter earnings last week, Netflix said it had added 7.7 million subscribers. That’s three times the number it added in the preceding quarter. They credited part of that growth to the introduction of the lower-priced, ad-supported tier in November.
This doesn’t sound good. Spotify is cutting 6% of its global workforce according to CEO, Daniel Ek, who explained, “I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth.” Spotify has a total workforce of around 9,800 people, which means about 600 employees may be impacted.
Supporting Characters
Bushwood is back. As part of a teaser campaign for Super Bowl 57, Michelob Ultra put together a star-studded group on the iconic Caddyshack golf course. Serena Williams, Brian Cox, and many others take interesting approaches and strategy to the green, as seen on the YouTube and NFL Championships commercials.
Two-pronged approach. Brands are continuing to test how much juice they can squeeze out of their Super Bowl advertising utilizing TikTok. Experts tell us more will be running promotions on TV and creating viral campaigns on Tiktok to support their efforts, stating not promoting online or with influencers is a “missed opportunity.”
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