Advertising experts, of course, advise that brands keep marketing in the face of economic uncertainty—like the months-long anticipation of a potential recession that has loomed over the summer months.

• Not everyone takes that advice, with brands like Microsoft axing entire channels from their marketing plans. Plus, companies like Meta and Snap reported a slowdown in ad spend during Q2.

Podcasting, at least, appears to be safe from the ad budget cuts for now: “Our clients are certainly not reducing their investments into the space,” Steven Abraham, president of audio ad agency Oxford Road, told Marketing Brew. “If anything, they’re doubling down because they can afford to,” given that podcasting doesn’t have a “high ticket entry.”

Big picture: Some of the biggest audio companies reported growth in podcast ad revenue for Q2 despite a softening ad market, and buyers responsible for major audio budgets told us they’ve yet to see a significant retreat from podcasting, indicating that the sector could continue growing regardless of the state of the economy.

Status quo

Even so, audio ad buyers are certainly preparing for the possibility of economic-related budget cuts.

• Jennifer Laine, head of marketing, innovation, and special projects at Oxford Road, which works with clients including Constellation Brands, Zocdoc, and Quip, said the topic has been “reoccurring” in executive meetings.
• Jacob Schwartz, associate director for national audio investments at Mediahub, told us he’s fielded questions about potential budget shifts dependent on the economy, but that “no one’s actually really done anything.”

However, some advertisers are shifting from growth-oriented campaigns to performance-focused ones. Keep reading here.—AM

’Tis the season—publicly traded companies are telling everyone how much money they made, and analysts are reading investor transcripts like tea leaves, hoping to map the economic future of the industry.

While the US economy is, like, really weird right now, so far earnings have found open internet ad-tech executives touting a win they can hold over their walled-garden rivals: growth in connected television.

• PubMatic, Magnite, and The Trade Desk each credited their CTV businesses with strengthening their bottom lines during more turbulent times in the advertising economy.
• Though The Trade Desk doesn’t disclose CTV figures, Magnite said CTV represented 42% of its revenue in Q2, excluding traffic acquisition costs, growing 52% year over year to $52.1 million. PubMatic’s CTV business grew 150% YOY.

“I don’t know that we’ve ever experienced a secular tailwind like this before. CTV is evolving faster than anyone predicted,” said Jeff Green, CEO of The Trade Desk, during the company’s earnings call. Though none of the three broke out specifically how much CTV inventory was sold in Q2, it’s an emerging sector that isn’t dominated by walled gardens, Green explained.

Despite their scale, “no one in CTV is big enough to be as dominant in TV as Google has been with search or with Chrome or DoubleClick,” he said. “As a result, the marketplace for premium CTV is fair, especially in relative terms and extremely competitive.”

Continue reading here.–RB

Despite inflation, consumers aren’t giving up on skin-care and hair-care products. But they are opting for cheaper items, sometimes private-label ones, reports Retail Brew’s Jeena Sharma.

“Beauty, especially color cosmetics, suffered overall during the pandemic. Some consumers became more cost conscious and open to lower-priced labels, including private labels, when they otherwise wouldn’t have been prior to the pandemic,” Michelle Kluz, partner in the consumer practice of Kearney—who was also recently named CEO of Stila Cosmetics—told Retail Brew in an email.

Keep reading here.—JS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

Over 280 characters: A guide to Twitter Notes and who really needs to be using them.

Working for the weekend: If you’ve ever wondered why your search rankings fall on Saturdays and Sundays, this article attempts to explain.

0PD: What the heck is zero-party data? We’ve got just the story for you!

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Trends and news help you stay in the know. But the best way to improve your marketing? Study what top marketers actually do.

Enter the Growth Newsletter. Each week, we interview experts to get actionable growth tactics. Then we share them with you. See examples and get the next one here.

Stat: The tennis-apparel market will grow to $2.02 billion in 2022, marking a 3.6% bump compared to last year, according to GlobalData estimates.

Quote: “The Federal Trade Commission is seeking additional public comment on how children are affected by digital advertising and marketing messages that may blur the line between ads and entertainment.” —the FTC, in a press release

Funny headline: “Amazon, DirecTV Agree to Air ‘Thursday Night Football’ in Bars,” from Ad Age. Apparently, many televisions across America’s saloons and watering holes aren’t equipped for streaming.

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

• A conversation with Rare Beauty CMO Katie Welch
• Slowly but surely, streaming is surpassing linear TV viewership
• What happens when high-income households opt out of ads?