This week in marketing revelations, we salute the year’s most patriotic brands, millennials are confident in their financial futures and US gamers choose their preferred method of payment.

And The Most Influential CMOs Are . . .

Forbes, in partnership with Sprinklr and LinkedIn, released a report of The World’s Most Influential CMOs for 2017.

  1. Keith Weed; Unilever
  2. Antonio Lucio; HP
  3. Phil Schiller; Apple
  4. Linda Boff; GE
  5. Leslie Berland; Twitter
  6. Marc Mathieu; Samsung Electronics America
  7. Musa Tariq; Ford
  8. Jonathan Mildenhall; Airbnb
  9. Raja Rajamannar; Mastercard
  10. Karen Walker; Cisco

“This year’s top 50 CMOs reflect the growing diversity of the marketing world,” the report notes. “A third of the top 50 are women, including three out of the top ten spots, while another three of the top ten are men of color. There’s value in being in the right industry at the right time. Technology, telecommunications and internet companies dominate the list—accounting for 40 percent of the top 50—followed by financial services at 18 percent.”

“As marketing has shifted from being all about the brand to being all about the customer, the role of the CMO has completely changed,” said Ragy Thomas, Sprinklr CEO and Founder. “Leading CMOs must orchestrate more personalized, more holistic experiences for customers. They have to go from being the mouthpiece for the brand to being the eyes and ears.”

Patriotic Brands

As we head, flag held high, into the Fourth of July holiday, Brand Keys has revealed the most patriotic US brands as chosen by consumers. A national sample of 4,860 consumers, 16-to-65 years of age, balanced for political party affiliation, were asked to evaluate which of 280 brands included in the 2017 survey most resonated as patriotic. The results are:

  1. Jeep
  2. Levi Strauss
  3. Disney
  4. Coca-Cola
  5. Ford
  6. Hershey’s/Twitter
  7. Ralph Lauren
  8. Jack Daniel’s
  9. Sam Adams
  10. MSNBC

Social Influence

Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook’s community has reached two billion people on Tuesday. The social media giant holds a strong position within the marketing space with its wide array of advertising options and analytics tools.

Sixty-four percent of consumers say watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced a purchase decision in the last month, according to Animoto. Sixty-seven percent of US marketers run video ads on Facebook, Animoto reports, while more than half (51 percent) do so on YouTube.

Facebook Live accounts for 45 percent of the digital video market share, according to Magid’s “Annual State of Digital Video” report. YouTube Live is a close second in the market share at 44 percent, followed by Instagram (28 percent), Twitter (19 percent), Snapchat (17 percent) and Twitch (12 percent).

More than 80 percent of Gen Z and 74 percent of millennials say social media influences their shopping, according to Yes Lifecycle Marketing. In comparison, 58 percent of Gen X and 41 percent of baby boomers said the same.

I Accept You . . . Now Go Away

According to a new study conducted by Defy Media’s Acumen Research and TMI Strategy, young consumers get annoyed by ads that interrupt their viewing or social media experience—but are receptive to ads or brands that respect their online space.

Of the more than 1,300 participants 13-to-25 years old, 80 percent understand that ads on the internet are a “regular part of life,” and 84 percent say they’re not willing to pay for an ad-free experience all of the time. Despite this sentiment, 66 percent use an ad blocker on at least one device.

Custom content seems to be the way to go, at least according to 17,000 consumers surveyed by Time, Inc. About 90 percent of respondents (including millennials, Gen Z and baby boomers) like the idea of custom content as a way for brands to engage with them, and 89 percent of people believe that type of content is a great way for brands to break through the rest of the clutter online.

Apple ‘Whoa’ And Marketing ‘Woe’

More than two thirds of the iPhones that Apple has sold in the past 10 years are still in use today, according to Newzoo’s Global Smartphone and Tablet Tracker. China is by far the iPhone’s largest market, accounting for almost one-third of all iPhones that were used in April. According to Apple’s financial statements, it had sold 1.08 billion iPhones till March.

Marketing video for mobile isn’t always a walk in the park, according to a study from YouAppi. Forty-four percent of participating marketers and agency pros confessed that developing compelling creative was a hurdle, and 28 percent named a lack of funds in their budget as a contributing factor. Meanwhile, 21 percent said they faced pressure to act too quickly before they had their strategy in order.

Consumers are still on the lookout for the latest and greatest apps, according to AppAnnie, who reports that the app economy will be worth $6.3 trillion by 2021. Total time spent in mobile apps will exceed 3.5 trillion hours in 2021.

Tech Smarts

Smart speakers are changing the way consumers shop and discover products, but may also be putting radio back into American living rooms. According to a study by Edison Reseach presented at the RAIN Podcast Business Summit, 18 percent say smart speakers are the way that they most often listen to audio—just behind AM/FM radio (20 percent) and smartphone/tablet (28 percent).

Wearables aren’t out of style yet—far from it—according to a report by IDC. In fact, the wearables market is expected to nearly double in size by 2021.

Meanwhile, in the world of AR/VR, HTC Vive is the most popular VR platform to develop for, according to the Virtual Reality Developers Conference’s second annual VR/AR Innovation Report. So, what kind of experiences are being developed for this immersive technology? A majority (78 percent) of responses cited gaming and entertainment. Education and training made up 27 percent and 19 percent said they were working on branded experience. (A few respondents cited multiple projects.)

How Gamers Pay Up

Gamers are shying away from pre-paid cards and bank transactions for their purchases, according to findings by SuperData Research. A shrinking population of “unbanked” consumers is also contributing to the shift away from cash-based payment methods, the company explained.

More than half of all global digital gaming transaction value was powered by eWallets and credit and debit cards last year, with PayPal and Visa being the top eWallet and credit/debit card, respectively.

North America has the highest market share of eWallet and credit/debit card payments, SuperData reports. Credit/debit cards and eWallets account for a combined 76.8 percent of North American digital game transactions, compared to a global average of 55.4 percent.

Can’t Buy Me Love

Can money buy happiness? A little over half of US millennials think so, according to new research by Mintel. Fifty-three percent of millennial respondents agree that the more money you have, the happier you are, compared to 38 percent of Americans overall. Half (51 percent) of millennials are confident in their financial future, with only 24 percent considering saving for retirement to be a financial challenge.