Consumers favor brands that take a stance on stereotypes, according to a new survey by Choozle. Thirty-six percent of the 500 respondents reported liking brands more if they ran ads that broke traditional gender roles. Furthermore, 25 percent claimed they would be more likely to buy from a gender-progressive brand.

“The increase of personalization with the help of third party data has created an increase of gender bias in digital advertising,” said Andrew Fischer, CEO and co-founder of Choozle. “With the increase of acknowledgement of gender stereotypes and representation we, as an industry, should strive to create an inclusive ad experience that meets the consumers’ needs.”

Ace Metrix has also released its report on the top-rated video ads for Q3 of this year, tracking a common theme of compassion, philanthropy and self-empowerment that played well with audiences.

 

Meanwhile, Telaria has released its latest study on connected TVs and streaming, finding that more than half of consumers find watching ads a fair trade-off for low-cost content. These ads work well, too: over 50 percent of weekly connected TV users report researching or purchasing advertised items.


TAG has released a study on the pervasive issue of ad-supported piracy sites, finding that despite drastic action by the digital advertising industry the problem still persists. Copyright-infringing content hosts earned an estimated $111 million in ad revenue last year, though steps taken by the marketing industry have reduced their income by as high as 61 percent.

“We have not won the war against ad-supported piracy, but the battle is joined, and we are making good progress,” said TAG CEO Mike Zaneis“Despite the advances made, there is more work to be done, as companies work together to protect their brands against the interrelated challenges of ad-supported piracy, fraud, malware and lack of transparency.”

According to TAG’s estimates, infringing content accounts for $2.4 billion in lost revenue for content creators.


Snapchat’s ad revenue forecast for the year has been lowered due to slowing user growth rates and marketer worries about its “experimental” ad products, according to a new report from E-Marketer. The study suggests that the platform’s global revenues will only reach $774.1 million this year, down from their March prediction of $900 million.

However, eMarketer still claims that Snapchat will surpass Twitter in US ad income next year, with their 2018 predictions being $1.18 billion and $1.16 billion, respectively.

Also contributing to Snapchat’s reduced growth is the slow adoption of their Spectacles sunglasses. According to Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, the AR-integrated glasses have sold 150,000 units since their launch in November of last year.


The global digital games market will hit a value of $100 billion by the end of 2017, a new report by Juniper Research indicates. Driving this growth is the rising trend of free-to-play games on PC, allowing developers to use in-game purchases and advertising.

Research and Markets also released a new report on the global gaming market, predicting a compound annual growth rate of 7.63 percent over the next four years. The report tracked not just video game sales, but also gaming peripherals and even board games.


IDC has forecasted massive growth in the virtual-and-augmented reality marketplace, predicting a 56.1 percent compound annual growth for VR/AR headsets. By their reports, AR headsets will account for more than $30 billion in revenue by 2021. Their report described early growth predictions for VR as “unrealistic,” but attribute the high growth rate to the increasing affordability of head-mounted displays.

Their research indicates that while VR headsets will drive growth in the near term, AR will jump from 10 percent to 25 percent of market share in 2020 and 2021.


A new survey by Simply Measured revealed new information on the top problems faced by agency employees. Measuring ROI was by far the largest concern at 61.4 percent, followed by “tying social to business goals” at 35.5 percent.


While consumers are still wary of facial authentication on smartphones, fingerprint scanners are becoming more and more common. Research by Counterpoint indicates that over one billion phones with fingerprint scanners will be shipped in the next year. This figure is due in part to increased efficiency and declining cost of manufacturing the sensors.


StitcherAds has announced a new product, offering automated integration between Facebook and Instagram ads and retail buying behavior. The company attributes as high as 27 percent of in-store customer visits to paid social-media engagements.


According to Nielsen data, digital video ad spending growth is rapidly outpacing that of linear television. Digital video has increased by 26 percent this year, as opposed to TV’s much more modest figure of 3.6 percent.

Despite the massive growth, digital’s share of the market remains much smaller, at only $9.3 billion for the first half of 2017, compared to TV’s $61.1 billion.


Sponsored content on social media can bring as high as $1.4 billion for top local TV stations, research by Share Rocket suggests. According to their research, which analyzed 210 television markets over 12 months, the top 20 markets alone are worth $747 million for social media value.

Despite higher satisfaction rates for streaming services than TV providers, cord-cutting has diminished in the last year, according to a recent J.D. Power study. The percentage of consumers who claim to want to drop their cable provider has dropped from 9 percent in 2016 to 8 percent this year. The research indicates that streamed and scheduled programming are not mutually exclusive–average consumption of TV has increased from 16.6 hours per week in 2015 to 17.4 in 2016.


WineAmerica, a national association of American wineries, revealed their latest economic impact research. Their data indicates that the wine industry has contributed $220 billion to the American economy this year, through direct wages, supplier contracts and induced impact.