U.S. Ad Market Posts Third Consecutive Gain In September, Albeit Marginally (mediapost.com)

A study released today by R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company (RRD) reveals that 91% of marketers with print marketing programs are embracing strategic integration of print and digital channels in 2024. Of those, 51% describe their print and digital marketing channels as “closely integrated and tightly coordinated.” The Print Impact Report, the company’s latest annual printing industry report, compares how 300+ marketing decision makers are planning, executing, and adjusting their strategies as well as integrating technologies into print marketing campaigns. The Print Impact Report found marketers are embracing technology to support their print campaigns, with 31% of marketers planning to use AI to support their print marketing efforts and 32% already using the technology. The study also found that 39% of marketers have adopted web-to-print technology, citing the following main advantages: reduced costs through on-demand printing (50%), personalization and customization of the message (37%), improved efficiencies and streamlined workflow (36%) and enhanced brand consistency (31%).

In what appears to be a first-of-its-kind boast, Cox Media Group claimed in marketing materials that it can use microphones in smartphones and other web connected devices to listen in on people's conversations, and then target ads to people based on those conversations. “It's True. Your Devices Are Listening to You,” the Cox Media Group (CMG) Local Solutions division wrote on a website (now archived) touting “active listening” technology. “With Active Listening, CMG can now use voice data to target your advertising to the EXACT people you are looking for.”

If you thought the punchline was going to be a Wanamaker paraphrase, "the trouble is I don't know which two-thirds," you might be right. But the point of this column is that AI-enabled media-buying now has a benchmark -- 69.5% -- according to GroupM, which devoted a chunk of its mid-year update to calculating that figure. It also updated its own internal estimate for when AI-enabled media buys will top 90%. "Two years ago, we said we would pass 90% by 2032. We are now going to hit more than 90% in 2029, three years earlier than we had previously predicted based off of just how quickly this space is growing and how quickly tools are being incorporated," GroupM Global President of Business Intelligence Kate Scott-Dawkins late last week said during a press briefing ahead of today's update release.