Podcast ad revenue grew twice as fast as total online ad revenue in the US last year, but it still represents just a small segment of the country’s advertising spend. Perhaps that’s because, for some marketers, podcasts just seem too risky.

Advertising in the burgeoning space where many podcasters are known for putting their own spin on ad copy could seem like asking for trouble.

• “Certain categories, like banking, for example, are very conservative with their messaging,” podcast company Acast’s global head of ad operations, Kevin McCaul, told Marketing Brew.
• “We have seen brands sit on the sidelines because they thought that podcasting was just the Wild West and there wasn’t control.”

Looking ahead: That’s not good news for companies like Acast that generate revenue by selling podcast ads or anyone else trying to make money by podcasting. To address this hesitance, stakeholders from across the industry have been joining forces to develop brand-safety solutions for buying podcast ads.

Early network partnerships

Podcast ad buyers and sellers told Marketing Brew that clients in the space started seriously asking about brand safety as far back as two years ago. That’s no surprise given the pandemic and the political and social unrest that dominated the news cycle in 2020.

• “More recently, over the last six, nine months, we’ve seen this idea of brand safety really, really become more of a challenge vocalized by our clients,” said Jennifer Laine, head of marketing, innovation, and special projects at audio ad agency Oxford Road.

Continue reading here.—AM

Madison Avenue new business teams aren’t exactly thriving this year, according to marketing consultancy R3’s July New Business League report.

If you look at the first seven months of 2022 compared to the same time period in 2021…

• For the top 20 US creative agencies, new business revenue decreased over 50%.
• Globally, the decrease was 26%.
• Media agencies weren’t hit as hard, with US new business revenue decreasing 38% and 19% worldwide.

MediaPost attributed the decline to the general air of economic uncertainty in 2022, as well as 2021 YoY differences being generally hard to compete with post-lockdown.

During Q2 earnings, some holding companies shared how new business efforts fared during the first half of the year:

• WPP brought in $3.4 billion in net new business, up from $2.9 billion during the same period last year. In its earnings call, CEO Mark Read said WPP had a “very solid group of wins across both our creative and our media business, probably a little bit more evenly split creative and media this year than compared to last.”
• IPG CEO Philippe Krakowsky told investors the company remains “net new business positive” even with “increased volatility and growing caution due to macroeconomic concerns.”
• Stagwell Chairman and CEO Mark Penn said the company is experiencing “a resumption of strong opportunities as companies prepare for the end of the year and a successful 2023” after seeing a “slowing of pitches in the beginning of Q2.”
• Dentsu Group President and CEO Hiroshi Igarashi said the holding company’s creative reorg “saw 5x more inbound new business inquiries post launch compared to the two weeks prior to the launch.”
• According to Publicis Chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun, the company had “significant wins” in the first half of the year following “record gains in 2021.”—PB, MS

Retail Brew’s new series will unpack the stories behind the world’s most recognizable logos. First up? Nike.

Original logo designer: Carolyn Davidson

Year: 1971

Opening Knight: In 1971, Phil Knight co-owned (with University of Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman) an athletic-shoe company called Blue Ribbon Sports, a US distributor of the Japanese Onitsuka Tiger brand of running shoes. But Knight and Bowerman were about to introduce their own brand of shoes, which would debut the following year. The company would be renamed Nike, after the winged Greek goddess of victory.

• Knight taught accounting part-time at Portland State University and hired an undergraduate design student there, Carolyn Davidson, to draft logo design options for the shoe. Knight’s only direction was that it “have something to do with movement,” Davidson told ABC News in 2016.
• Among her sketches was a wing-like shape that we know today as the swoosh. After Knight presented her designs to others at his then-small company, he told her the verdict.
• “I remember him coming out and saying they had picked the swoosh, that he didn’t love it, but maybe it would grow on him,” Davidson recalled to ABC News.

Davidson’s bill for creating the Nike swoosh: $35.

Keep reading here.—AAN

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

TikTok: If you need trend inspo for this week, look no further.

Taste the rainbow: Here’s how to choose the best colors for your social media ads.

Link in bio: Click here if your social media bios need a tune-up.

Ahh, work travel, we’ve missed you. We love a conference, don’t you? Free food, smart people with inspiring ideas...aspirational breakfast meetings. Well, marketers, we have news.

::drumroll:: Introducing The Brief: A Summit Presented by Marketing Brew.

Marketing Brew has partnered with some of the world’s most recognized brands and influential marketers to bring you a premiere one-day marketing event in the heart of New York City.

Special pricing ends soon, so don’t wait. Save yourself a seat (and some green) now!

• Burger King is getting a $400 million brand refresh in the US.
• Disney will not sell ESPN, despite interest from some potential buyers.
• Roblox is breaking into the online ad game.
• Billy McFarland, the guy behind the Fyre Festival, is out of jail.
• Queen Elizabeth II’s death has spurred a currency rebrand.

Snap poll: Do you think paying upward of $7 million for a Super Bowl ad is worth it?

Yes

No

It’s corn (from 1967)!

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

• Influencer marketing brand-lift studies are improving
• It’s football season. Do you know what your Super Bowl plans are?
• Kendra Scott beg big on #BamaRushTok 2022, and it paid off