In a recent report "Misinformation and Media Quality" the IAS shows that social and mobile are the most worrisome for bad content but are also the most used with no indications they are at risk. This highlights what advertisers are worried about vs. what works for them. 

Projections show the US ad market topping $400 billion by 2024:

Social and mobile are the top channels. The report indicates that while 49% of brand marketers prioritize social just under 40% of "agencies, publishers, and adtech experts" agree.

The top channels for usage are also the top channels for misinformation, likely because of their popularity and open nature. 

This report has a lot more information about the types of misinformation and what companies are doing about it. Grab a copy if you want to compare what marketers say vs. what they do.

Nielsen put out a report on influencers. While the company is struggling with it's reputation regarding TV measurement, at least they are trying to branch out into digital.

The US, followed by Brazil, has the most influencers in terms of raw numbers and the volumes drop off sharply.

Influencer sizes shift significantly by platform with Instagram leading in the Nano market. These smaller influencers obviously have less reach but they tend to have higher engagement and trust.

Influencers do skew younger though (grab the report to see how much younger). Pharma brands do need to consider their audiences before diving in to influencers marketing, but for those that can it's a great place to be. 

This year MM+M wanted book covers for the agency Top 100. The creatives in the industry didn't disappoint. Neither did Klick's ranking as we're still #1 for the sixth straight year.

The reason for this is our focus on people:

No story about Klick's passion for our people would be complete without a link to our careers site. Click it, you know you want to (don't address the audience, but fair comment -Ed.).

A study of 175 Fortune 500 companies went deep with both quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews. 19 of the respondents were from healthcare but this data doesn't get split out much in the report.

Search, both organic and paid, as well as social are the top used channels for the Fortune 500. Email marketing is only at 54% and this workhorse channel needs more respect (biased opinion -Ed.). Healthcare is highlighted as using social but no numbers are provided, and it's n=19.

When asked how they are reacting to a cookieless future, the Fortune 500 are turning to the walled gardens. Search and Social have by far the most love from marketers who are looking to increase investment.

This story from Tint looks at some examples of brands asking for customer mentions, often through the usage of hashtags. This example from Delta even claims usage rights for this content but we don't recommend pharma go that far... please reach out to your hand-raisers before using their content.

The 2014 FDA guidances say that pharma is only responsible for user generated content if they influence it. The actual text reads:

So long as the call for content doesn't influence the results (such as pre-loading a share with brand and condition) then this content has been deemed acceptable by most brands.

A new report from RepTrak looks at how citizens view companies on their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reputations. There is a link between these perceptions and willingness to buy:

It's not just customers that care about this reputation, employees do too. In the time of "the great resignation" companies need to pay attention to their reputation for recruiting:

If corporate reputation is your bag then grab a copy of this thoughtful report.

As a counterpoint to the RepTrak report, this one from eMarketer shows all influences together. While ESG is important, price dominates across all demographics, especially older ones. 

The Guardian conducted some research on podcast advertising and the results show how much more engaged these audiences are. 

The number of UK citizens listening to podcasts has increased significantly from 2021 and more than other channels:

When asked if they paid attention to ads, UK citizens said yes to podcasts:

But don't take the citizens' word for it. The Guardian did some biometrics studies and found spikes in arousal at the start and end of a podcast ad.

This data is from across the pond but it still has some applicability for US audiences.

Pulsar looked at the podcast market and reported on some general data. The top podcast sources are Spotify and Apple:

When it comes to advertisers, Amazon is the leader. This is likely not because Amazon is trying to drive awareness (seriously, who doesn't know about Amazon) but instead reflects the volume of affiliate links that get shared. 

Facebook is still dominant in social marketing but Instagram and LinkedIn are closing fast. Social Media Examiner released their 14th annual industry report and it has some interesting findings.

94% of B2C marketers are still using Facebook and looking at the report it's no wonder why, the largest social network still delivers.

Facebook still leads in B2B marketing as well. This time though we see LinkedIn rising to second from fourth place.

When asked about their most important platform, however, B2B marketers chose LinkedIn over Facebook.

Grab a copy to get a snapshot of what social marketers, mainly from smaller companies, think about the platforms.

A story in Adweek looks at how Reddit is advancing for 2022 and it looks to be moving strongly toward mobile.

Some of the improvements being made:

Reddit looks like it is trying to position itself as the alternative to Twitter and Facebook as these platforms experience headwinds. Marketers should definitely keep tabs on it.

Comparing year-over-year only Apple grew in wearable shipments at 6.6% according to IDC.

For a highly discretionary product like this it makes sense as inflation and economic uncertainty abounds. The holiday season for 2022 will be the true litmus test.