A new study from the AARP surveyed 1,002 50+ presumably US adults to find out how games impact their lives. 

40% of respondents don't play games at all, we feel bad for them (don't express personal opinions -Ed.). The other 60% have a wide range of different game types.

Respondents overwhelmingly agree that there are both cognitive and mental health benefits to playing games with friends. 

With loneliness a major health risk for older Americans, this finding shows how important games can be. 

Klick's Devon Taylor, VP, Group Director, Strategy & Gaming Lead has this to say about the study:

A new report from Integral Ad Science (IAS) looks at the Connected TV market out to 2028. The data in the report is not very fresh, coming from sources as old as 2022 but for CTV enthusiasts it is a good compilation.

It's nearly impossible to buy a "dumb" TV in 2024, so all new TVs are "smart" to some extent. This leads to market expansion simply through product turnover as well as consumer demand.

By 2028 it is expected that 250 million US citizens will be using connected TVs, over 71% of the total population.

Advertisers are attracted to the tracking built into these products, even as the FTC is concerned about the "vast surveillance of consumers." The reasons advertisers give for shifting to CTV start here.

CTV budgets aren't net-new. They tend to come from linear TV budgets, but other areas provide funds as well.

YouTube straddles the space between a pure streamer and a pure social network and provides a unique opportunity there. Something the social networks do not have is a share of the big screen in the living room, something that YouTube dominates.

The platform's recent blog post highlights a large number of upgrades for creators and shows how it is cultivating this group to continue to ensure a rich stream of content.

This infographic shows how B2B sellers deal with prospective clients. The issues ranked by importance in North America echo the issues faced by Reps as they try and get to elusive HCPs.

Coveo surveyed 4,000 consumers in the US and UK to determine their holiday shopping plans for 2024. While these findings aren't super relevant for those working on rare disease or cancer therapies they at least show what behaviors patients are engaging in for their non-healthcare activities.

Email tops the list for places consumers monitor for deals from their favorite retailers and brands. These are the people who sign up for the alerts and will take action if the right deal comes along.

And of course the usual suspects, social and search, are within 4% of email.

We don't really think that food, sweets, and wellness products go together as one category but Coveo does. In any event this category is #2 on the "spontaneous shopping" list. OTC marketers may get some mileage out of this, especially for cough drops or vitamins which straddle the "sweets/wellness" divide.

Prime members know that shipping matters and this chart bears out the same finding. Consumers will buy more just to get that free shipping. 

For anyone looking for more consumer insights, this report is a good read.

MediaPost reports on a fifth upping of the 2024 ad spend forecast by Magna, to 11.4%. This is due to a stronger economic outlook and new ad-funded media options for advertisers. The change in the estimate over time is quite positive:

MediaPost combines all of the major forecasts into a consensus number and 2024 now sits at 8.0% growth.

A new report from CB Insights is based on an admittedly low "n" value of 50 corporate strategy leaders. Healthcare was well represented with 34% (17) of the respondents. 

One of the main messages in the report is that higher performing teams iterate faster and plan for longer durations.

Finally, we'll look at the main pain points of these strategy groups. Alignment with the team is number one, followed by the data required to measure success.

There are more insights in the report plus the ability to download the survey data. Anyone running a strategy group may want to look at this focused survey.

A report from Statista looks at the state of AI worldwide and expects the market to exceed $800 billion by 2030 with a 24% CAGR over the decade.

The expectations that businesses have of AI are not yet being met. Realized results trail expectations in all but one category: product enhancement.

Some other, semi-random, selected stats from the report:

A new report from LG Ad Solutions looks at Asian Americans and their CTV habits. This report is part of a series with other installments for Hispanic Americans and Black Americans.

One of the topics in the report is second screen activities:

The activities they engage in are pretty common, but with substantial uplifts in a few.

Another area where Asian CTV viewers over-index is activities after seeing an ad of interest. 

Cross-cultural marketers who are looking at CTV can grab the whole set to get a fuller picture.

While Apple and Meta get all the VR & AR press, Snap has been working on its Spectacles for five generations and eight years. This review shows that the augmented-reality technology is making progress, but questions whether it will get developer support.

The story includes three demos with first-person views of how the product works. They don't do a great job of selling it tbh (oh no you didn't, you spell that out right now mister -Ed.) ... to be honest.

Americans' access to Telehealth via Medicare is secured for another two years in a 41-0 vote.

This is two stories in one. First, the FTC is suing three PBMs that control 80% of the market over insulin rebates that it claims inflates patient costs. It's an indication of how byzantine the industry is when something called a "rebate" inflates cost.

The PBMs aren't taking this laying down though. The PBMs will defend themselves in court and Express Scripts has filed suit against the FTC claiming it's report on the industry "is riddled with false statements, misleading insinuations and violates the Commission’s duty to follow due process and serve the public interest."

The FTC is no stranger to controversy so expect a good show from this one.

A new report issued by the FTC last week serves to put social and streaming companies on notice for their data management practices. This report furthers the agency's aggressive behavior towards tracking for the purposes of advertising targeting. The report is based on data gathered from the nine companies from 2020 onward.

The markets did not seem to consider this report much of a threat, perhaps because it's an extension of already-exhibited behavior by the agency. Stock prices showed no unusual movement on the day it was released.

Here, we list some of the topics in the 129-page report that are of interest to healthcare marketers. 

For marketers following the FTC's actions there is no real new information here but the detail and length of the report shows the agency means business. The future actions that the FTC discusses are aligned with its past statements.