This ongoing report on consumers provides valuable advertising and media news for marketers and advertisers. We curate stories of interest and insight. Use the button below to have each Audience Intel Report delivered directly to your inbox.

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Brand New Brand News

Brand strategy gains importance. CMO’s expect to compensate for tightening budgets with more emphasis on brand strength and outreach to existing customers according to Gartner’s most recent CMO survey.

Celeb helps build half-a-billion-dollar brand. Actor Ryan Reynolds reportedly helped gin brand, Aviation, nearly double its sales in one year after acquiring a stake in the company in 2018. Now the brand’s parent company has sold to spirits giant Diageo in a deal valued at over $600 million. An endorsement is one way to build brand, but is a better way to focus on what makes your brand practical and unique?

A quiet but necessary rebrand. News of a plane crash is always tragic. So, what happens when you manufacture a plane that has become associated with two crashes and a forced FAA grounding? If you’re Boeing, you may begin by fixing the problems with the 737 MAX and then taking the MAX out of the name. It seems that Boeing is finally coming around to the idea of rebranding the 737 MAX, but in a very subtle way.

Consumer TV Consumption Up

Viewing on traditional TV sets takes bounce. After hitting a high during the first months of the pandemic, consumer viewing on traditional sets has been dropping recently. But, according to measurement from industry ratings giant Comscore, the home’s biggest screen is seeing an upward trend in recent weeks and appears to be sticking higher than pre-pandemic levels, offering marketers opportunity for broad reach.

Streaming represents about 25% of TV viewing. Media insights leader, Nielsen, reports that streaming services accounted for about 25% of total TV usage in Q2 2020. Overall, daily viewing time across all devices is up about an hour over 2019 levels.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

The holidays are coming early. Fearing a shipping crunch as the season gets closer, many large retailers are setting their earliest-ever holiday sale plans. According to a Reuter’s report, Target, Best Buy, and Kohl’s have all moved winter holiday promotions up to as early as October.

Have the elves gone too far? The company behind popular Elf on the Shelf merchandise has a new name. Creatively Classic Activities and Books, the Atlanta-based publisher, is rebranding to The Lumistella Company to “reflect the company’s status as a global children’s brand and align better with the company’s vision and mission” along with setting the stage for an increased focus on TV and film production.

Getting your Hallmark holiday film fix. In good news for a host of TV actors and diehard fans of sentiment, Hallmark has announced an extensive slate of new movies for Christmas 2020. The Hollywood Reporter shares that this years’ movies are being shot with scaled-back sets and social distancing in an end to a four-month industry shutdown.

 

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