Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. (Scroll down to watch them all.)

A few highlights: Walmart wants you to know about “thousands of new rollbacks” (temporary price reductions). In an updated version of an existing campaign, McDonald’s hypes what it wryly calls “The Not Homemade on Purpose Deal”—a new collection of $3.99 meal bundles. (See also: “McDonald’s plans to reopen some of its Ukraine restaurants,” per Bloomberg News via Ad Age.) And PNC promotes its business banking services.

“Our data is becoming the cornerstone of the CTV measurement market through some of our licensing partners,” Townsend said, pointing to iSpot, Comscore, VideoAmp, 605, TVSquared and Nielsen. “[They] all rely on our data to fuel their ad currency products.”

Opendoor has expanded its TV strategy more broadly in 2022 after Corns joined as lead marketer in January. According to TV advertising analytics firm iSpot, the brand’s presence on TV was sparse in 2021, garnering under 300,000 ad impressions throughout the year versus 3.75 billion so far in 2022. Earlier this month the brand agreed to pay $62 million to the FTC over allegations it misled consumers in its marketing campaigns. The brand in a statement on its site said the complaint dated back to a period between 2017 and 2019 and that it has “modified” such marketing messages since then.

It is now more than half a year since NBCUniversal joined the alternative media measurement movement by tapping new-wave measurement provider iSpot.tv. So what has been discovered so far?

In this video interview with Beet.TV, Sean Muller, Founder & CEO, iSpot.tv, lifts the lids on the main trend lines.

CM Group, the leading provider of world-class technology solutions that allow marketers to build stronger and deeper relationships at every stage of the customer lifecycle, today announced that it has been recognized as the “Best Overall MarTech Company” by MarTech Breakthrough, for the third consecutive year. Cheetah Digital, which CM Group acquired earlier this year, was awarded "Best Overall Marketing Campaign Management Solution.”

To identify the brands with the highest digital engagement, WWD consulted data from Tribe Dynamics, Spate and the L2 Digital IQ Genius List and identified the best-selling products in Sephora and Ulta e-commerce.

CreatorIQ is an intelligent influencer marketing platform with a bunch of creator identification features. Brands can use its AI-powered system to find recommended influencer profiles, use filters to narrow down their search, compare profiles and analyze performance metrics.

In May of 2020, Tubular Labs named Moonbug one of the leading digital kids’ entertainment companies in the world based on the total number of minutes watched worldwide. The company’s YouTube channels are viewed over 9 billion times on average every month globally and has more than 440m subscribers.

Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. (Scroll down to watch them all.)

A few highlights: Gatorade says, “You get the most from the game when you’re having fun” in a spot featuring cameo appearances by Karl-Anthony Towns, Paige Bueckers, Fernando Tatis Jr., Sydney McLaughlin and Trevor Lawrence. In a moment of comically over-the-top musing, Progressive’s Flo says that she and her colleagues are “like knights sworn to protect our kingdom.” And Moen shows off one of its touchless kitchen faucets.

Automakers spent less on national TV ads in July 2022 than they did in July 2021 — 41% less, in fact, according to MediaPost. Last year, the Olympics, NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup all aired in July, which provide ad opportunities for companies who sponsor major sporting events. According to Stuart Schwartzapel, senior vice president, media partnerships at iSpot.tv, automakers are currently focused on buying ads around “comfort food” viewing, i.e. syndicated dramas and sitcoms. Toyota, for example, spent 4.43% of its budget toward “The Bachelorette” and 3.13% of its budget toward “Friends.” Subaru was the automotive brand who spent the most in July, allocating $10.5 million for TV ads. Most of Subaru’s budget emphasized drama and action shows (17.9%) and reality shows (17.6%).

It turns out that consumers are actually open to giving brands data about themselves, as long as it’s done in the right way.

A recent study from Sailthru — the marketing automation company in the CM Group portfolio trusted by NASCAR, Fashion Nova and Conde Nast — showed that 55% of consumers will trade personal and preference data to feel part of a brand's community.

The United States Postal Service, Charmin and Samsung ran the most “likeable” commercials during the first half of 2022, according to the latest TV Advertising Snapshot report from iSpot.tv.

Johnny Cash delivered for USPS, whose “We Go Everywhere” spot (featuring the Cash classic “I’ve Been Everywhere”) follows a mail carrier making the rounds. Viewers “enjoyed the audio and thought the message portrayed USPS as a caring brand,” iSpot said.

“Okay. So that sets up the B part of my question better, which is we held a measurement conference, as you guys know. And iSpot.tv came out and said they're doing $100 million in verification for CTV measurement. So my question is, are you guys getting outflanked in the connected television business by a private guy who's got exclusives on LG's CTV data, plus he's got VIZIO data? So can you talk about your competitive position going forward in CTV, please?”

AbbVie’s autoimmune blockbuster Rinvoq spent a second month leading the highest pharma TV ad spend as its battle with Sanofi’s Dupixent, a fierce rivalry, continues.

Spend on Dupixent TV ads had topped iSpot’s top 10 in April and May, but AbbVie came roaring back to first place in June and is in the top spot once again for July.

The journey marketplace — which include airways, cruise lines, and travel web-sites — dished out $559 million on Tv set advertisements from Jan. 1 by way of June 30, a 151% maximize from the $223 million those organizations expended on Tv adverts during the same time period in 2021, in accordance to estimates from Tv measurement organization iSpot.

Following halting advert shell out in 2020, these companies are almost back to pre-pandemic commit ranges. Vacation businesses invested $585 million on Television set adverts in the course of the very first 50 % of 2019, for every iSpot.

According to the latest data from real-time ad trackers at iSpot, AbbVie spent a whopping $39.2 million on TV ads for Rinvoq in July. The biggest was for its new rafting commercial, with just over $15 million going toward airtime for the ad last month.

The travel industry — including airlines, cruise lines, and travel websites — dished out $559 million on TV ads from Jan. 1 through June 30, a 151% increase from the $223 million those companies spent on TV ads during the same time period in 2021, according to estimates from TV measurement company iSpot.

After halting ad spend in 2020, these companies are nearly back to pre-pandemic spend levels. Travel companies spent $585 million on TV ads during the first half of 2019, per iSpot.

I’m really excited about all of the talk of new currencies for TV as it merges with CTV and the digital ad ecosystem. It's great that we’re now seeing companies like iSpotTV, VIZIO and Samsung bring massive directly measured panels to a market that previously only had Nielsen’s highly curated but relatively small panel.

Aussie consumers have low levels of trust for advertising, but will pay more to purchase from a trusted brand, a new report from Cheetah Digital reveals.

What can marketers do to keep up with this seismic shift in consumer expectations where hyper-personalised relationships with brands are the only way forward? This question – and more – was unpacked in a recent Cheetah Digital-hosted webinar I was a part of, alongside an expert panel of guests, including: Teresa Sperti, founder and director at Arktic Fox, and Adam Posner, CEO and founder, The Point of Loyalty.

To remain competitive in today’s signal-saturated world, marketers need to deliver relevant, personalised content throughout the customer journey. According to a new eConsultancy report, in partnership with Cheetah Digital, entitled 2022 Digital Consumer Trends Index: Consumer Attitudes and Trends in Personalisation, Privacy, Messaging, Advertising and Brand Loyalty, UK consumers are rewarding brands that make personalisation a priority. More than half of the respondents said they would trade personal and preference data to feel part of a brand’s community.