Meta Must Face Class-Action Over Inflated Audience Metrics, Court Confirms (mediapost.com)

The U.S. ad market expanded for its 13th consecutive month in April, rising 9.1% over the same month in 2023, according to the latest installment of data from Guideline's U.S. Ad Market Tracker. April also in the first month in quite some time to post an increase on top of a prior year increase, albeit a modest one: April 2023 was up 0.7% over April 2022. That said, the data indicates the U.S. ad market is well past its recessionary period and fully into an expansionary mode, with recent months rising at high single-digit increases or approach of surpassing double-digit ones.

Marketers and their creative partners know there is no sure thing when it comes to marketing. They spend resources creating assets; producing images and messages hoping to drive success for their brands. No matter the category, competition is always fierce and consumers have become increasingly fickle when it comes to their brand preferences. The pandemic has presented new challenges for marketers. With non-essential stores closed or closing, many retail brands have had to play catch up by creating or significantly increasing their digital presence as customers’ traditional shopping patterns adapt to this “new normal.” Brands and creative agencies are constantly looking for ways to improve their odds of success in today’s evolving marketplace. Research can certainly play an important role in this quest. Successful campaigns start with the answers to three critical questions: *What do your customers really want and need? *Do your customers believe your product meets those wants and needs? *What do your customers need to see/hear to convince them that your product is the right choice? read more at: https://www.jschmid.com/blog/breakthrough-creative-research/

As part of its ongoing mission to ensure consumers are given a clear choice in how they receive essential information — on paper or digitally — and that they are not charged extra for paper bills and statements, Keep Me Posted (KMP) North America is investigating how large corporations are addressing consumer needs and expectations. Most recently, KMP looked at the billing practices of the top 10 Fortune 500 telecommunications companies to see how they align with KMP’s best practices for essential communications, which include: *No charges or other penalties for choosing paper bills *Prior consumer consent required before ceasing to send paper documents *No change in paper bill frequency without prior agreement *No difficulty to revert back to paper correspondence *Continued access to online options. The good news is that eight of America’s top 10 telecommunications conglomerates put their customers’ communication preferences first, do so without fees and make information on their practices easily accessible.