Village Soapbox: Q1 2021 Earnings, Tom Rogers, Gina Garrubbo, Barry Frey, "Batwoman" and More

Audio/Videos

Legends and Leaders: Pioneer Tom Rogers on "The Big Lie" and the Failure of Media
Legend and Leader are perfect words to describe Tom Rogers. Tom brought CNBC and MSNBC to the media ecosystem, guided TiVo through its formative years, and is now executive chairman of Engine Media, Inc, which focuses on sports and eSports.

NPR's Gina Garrubbo on Her Path From Sales Assistant to Legendary Leader
Legend and Leader equally applies to NPR President & CEO and IAB Chair of the Board of Directors, Gina Garrubbo. Jack Myers interviews Garrubbo about her successful career in the ad sales business.

Audacy Growing Hand-in-Hand with Sports Betting with Matt Volk
On this week's View from The Grandstand Justin Paura speaks with Matt Volk, vice president of sports at Audacy. Listen to the Paura's latest podcast.

Visa Marketing -- DOOH is Stop-in-Your-Tracks Creative
Check out the latest DPAA Short Connects video series where DPAA President & CEO, Barry Frey speaks with Visa's Director of Global Brand Innovation, Jessica Williams.

Knowledge Exchange

A4 Advertising's Focus on Local Business Uncovers a Resilient Force for Economic Growth
Trisha Patterson spoke with George Costa, vice president local ad sales and Rich Davis, senior director local ad sales, both of a4, on the differences between selling local in 2020 vs. 2021.

The CW Stars Javicia Leslie and Meagan Tandy Connect with Boys & Girls Club Members
Simon Applebaum chats with The CW team about two of their Batwoman stars who are exemplifying the spirit of that show by engaging and inspiring the community.

To Understand Automakers' Support for Voting Rights, Follow the Money
Jim Motavalli examines the motivating factors behind Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis' decision to sign onto an April 13 "Joint Statement on Voting Rights" in Michigan.

The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore: "We Can Make Weather Extremes Less Extreme"
As we celebrated Earth Day this week, Alli Romano spoke with Jim Cantore, veteran meteorologist from The Weather Channel about their digital sustainability platform, Pattrn.

Global Marketing Monitor: Weekly Market Trends (April 17, 2021)
GroupM's Brian Wieser takes a look at which retail sectors are bouncing back and which are slowly recovering.

Meetings Re-Imagined!
Rishad Tobaccowala reflects on how the pandemic has forever changed the nature of meetings, a critical part of everyone's career, and he provides tips on how to get the most out of the new definition of a meeting.

Media Industry's Response to Democracy Teetering on the Edge of Failure
Paul S. Maxwell is understandably frustrated about the state of politics today, but he shares his thoughts on how the media community could possibly work together to improve the situation.

YouTube and Google Ads: A How-To On Bidding to Win
John Donahue provides invaluable advice on strategies to improve your success rate on YouTube and Google Ads.

In a Cookieless World, Verizon Media Brings Innovative Solutions
Verizon Media which has launched several new data and targeting products that take into account the new privacy-centric environment that we find ourselves in. Learn more about those products in this piece.

Advertisers are About to Be Anointed (If They Don't Screw It Up)
Bill Harvey sees a future where companies are far more active in the political arena and they reach a new level of authenticity. Or will they? Read this important perspective.

Post-Pandemic Life? It's Not About Gettin' Some -- It's About Finding Someone
After the 1918 pandemic came the Roaring '20s. With the vaccine rolling out and our ability to engage closely with each other nearing, are we headed towards a bacchanalian era or has the pandemic driven the importance of true companionship? Will you still swipe right? Find out from Kryss Shane.

Advancing Diversity

Customer Satisfaction is Key During Cancel Culture Times: How do Brands Navigate?
Kate Byrne speaks with vice president of global customer support from Zendesk on how brands can stay in synch with the beliefs and attitudes of their customers through customer care.

Media

In a major win against CTV ad fraud, Google, Roku, and a collective which includes Omnicom Media Group, The Trade Desk, and Magnite teamed up and dismantled an ad fraud botnet operation(Pareto) that had been driving an average of 650mm ad requests per day. The botnet had been using nearly a million infected Android mobile devices to spoof the presence of millions of people on CTV devices.

In the 15th annual Deloitte Digital Media Trends study, 40% of respondents said that they would prefer to pay $12 a month for a service with no ads vs. 39% who said they would prefer a free service with 12 minutes of ads per hour. What might concern marketers is that the number jumped to 48% of Gen Z preferring the no-ad version and 46% of Millennials.

The latest forecast from eMarketer projects advertising revenue on podcasts will hit the $1.3B mark this year and grow to $2.74B by 2025.

NFL Media and Hulu have entered into a multi-year carriage agreement. Hulu + Live TV will carry the NFL Network and NFL RedZone.

Dollar Tree has launched a retail media network. The inventory, much of which is mobile, will be sold by Chesapeake Media Group.

It's Earnings Season and here are some highlights:

In a sign of a potential peak moment, Netflix missed its subscriber projections and warned of choppy waters. In Q1 2021, Netflix gained 3.98mm new subscribers, far below the 6.29mm expected and miles away from the 15.77mm subscribers gained in Q1 2020. While they acknowledged the new competitive landscape, Netflix execs blamed the miss on COVID, not the competition.

AT&T has a good Q1 2021 beating estimates thanks in part to a NCAA March Madness and Kong vs. Godzilla. Subscription revenue for Direct to Consumer was up 35% year over year. The company added 2.7mm domestic subscribers which brings total subscription in the U.S. to 44.2mm and 64mm globally. Approximately 9.7mm customers pay for HBO Max specifically while 30.9mm get it as part of their HBO cable/satellite subscription.

AT&T also announced that WarnerMedia revenue was up for the quarter at $8.5B +9.8% year over year. Ad sales totaled $1.8B, up 18.5% which was credited to the return of the NCAA March Madness.

Although better than the same quarter a year prior, AT&T did announce that they lost 620,000 pay tv subscribers (DirecTV/U-Verse/AT&T TV). Their total video subscriber base is now shrinking at an annualized rate of 14.6%. AT&T has previously announced that they are spinning off the Pay TV division.

In similar news, Verizon's Fios TV service has hit a 10-year low on subscribers down 82,000 subscribers this past quarter to a total base of 3.77mm. However, Verizon Fios (ISP Connectivity) had its best quarter in six years adding 102,000 customers bringing their consumer ISP total to 6.3mm Fios connections +5.7% year over year and total consumer broadband connections (which includes legacy DSL) to 6.7mm subscribers.

Snapchat beat estimates as daily active users jumped 22% to 280mm. Revenue for the quarter was up 66% year over year to $769.6mm.