Advertisers are increasingly using clean rooms, but there’s still plenty of laundry to fold.

That’s according to the IAB’s 2023 State of Data report, based on a survey of “data decision-makers” across brands, publishers, and agencies. Released Tuesday, the report found that two-thirds of advertisers “leveraging privacy-preserving technology” were using data clean rooms.

Remind me? A data clean room is a catch-all term that can be boiled down to mean a technology that claims to allow users to merge datasets in a privacy-friendly way.

• Google and Amazon each have their own, while companies like Habu, InfoSum, and Permutive offer the tech outside of the walled gardens, acting as conduits.
• Essentially, clean rooms enable advertisers, publishers, platforms, and other parties to combine their first-party data “in compliance with privacy regulations, while allowing each participant to maintain privacy and control of its data,” according to the IAB.

Almost half of advertisers are using clean rooms for what the report called “data-privacy actions,” including data anonymization and compliance.

Less than a third reported using them for measurement and attribution—like measuring the return on investment of an ad campaign, for example—which suggests “untapped potential,” Jeffrey Bustos, the IAB’s VP of measurement, addressability, and data, told Marketing Brew from the IAB’s annual leadership meeting in Marco Island, Florida.

That isn’t totally surprising. Some advertisers are still learning about the tech; they need to crawl before they can walk and run, he said. In other words, though the tech is being adopted, it isn’t exactly like a new car—you can’t just turn a key and start the engine.

The report also provided a sense of how much brands are spending on clean rooms. Click here to keep reading.—RB

This month, Adobe’s CMO, Ann Lewnes, announced her retirement after 16 years with the brand.

So what? Like the Liz Truss lettuce, Lewnes outlasted the average CMO’s expected tenure before hanging up the pitch deck; in 2020 and 2021, CMOs working at leading consumer brand companies stayed in their roles for an average of about three and a half years, the lowest level in more than a decade, according to research compiled by executive search and consulting firm Spencer Stuart last year.

Adobe declined to make Lewnes, who was also the company’s EVP of corporate strategy and development, available for an interview, but Marketing Brew wishes her the best in retirement.

Big picture: Being a CMO is a tough job, and “winning today is really, really hard,” Greg Welch, a partner at Spencer Stuart, explained. Modern marketers are juggling decaying identifiers, new and often less effective advertising tools, and a more complex regulatory environment with regards to consumer privacy. Oh, and their budgets are often one of the first things cut in a recession.

Sally Witzky, senior director and analyst at Gartner, told us that “marketing is becoming more complex than ever” as CMOs juggle different tasks, like growing revenue “through unexpected market volatility and constant change” and reducing “operational friction that prevents the marketing organization from adapting to the business’s ebbs and flows.” As a result, she said, “CMOs must be tough enough to manage it all simultaneously.”

Looking ahead: So far, some companies have responded by shifting their hiring strategies, looking for CMOs with a background in performance marketing—experience in the math and sciences of the profession in addition to the arts and magic, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle, I think, for our industry for the next couple of years, which means we’ll probably stay tethered to the performance side,” Welch told us. “Today, CEOs need an instant return.”—RB

We’ve spent a good portion of January focusing on what the job market looks like for marketers right now, ranging from what roles agencies are hiring for to the changes marketing recruiters are seeing in 2023.

There’s more where that came from. HR Brew’s Aman Kidwai recently covered online education company Coursera’s Job Skills of 2023 report. According to the report, which outlines the skills that grew fastest last year, several of 2023’s fastest-growing digital skills are applicable to marketing: data visualization, customer success tools, CRM software, and user experience design all made the top 10. Click here to read more.

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

Freshen up: Here are 17 ideas for social posts across platforms including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

$$$: This video from Digiday explains how YouTube’s revenue-sharing model for Shorts will work.

Application time: Use your social media presence to help you land your next gig.

Learn: More money, more problems? Not when it comes to your marketing budget. Join our Financial Forecasting course and learn what it takes to secure the dollars you need to succeed. Click here to lock in your seat.

Ins ’n outs: Inbound marketing can engage, delight, and retain customers with the right content that’ll help brands grow. Learn more about the difference between outbound and inbound marketing in BrandExtract’s illuminating article.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

BeReal is a newer social app that’s gaining popularity. Founded in 2019, it has recently picked up steam. Check out our exclusive report to learn best practices and find out what brands are experimenting with the platform.

Download your free report.

Stat: “The average size of an Ads.txt file among the top-grossing 10,000 publishers has tripled between 2020 and 2022,” according to data from Jounce Media cited by AdExchanger.

Quote: “These extremists are political opportunists who’ve made it their mission to cripple the advertising industry and eliminate it from the American economy and culture.”—IAB CEO David Cohen, reportedly “referring to some high-level officials in the White House and Congress” while speaking at the organization’s annual leadership meeting, per Ad Age

Read: “How bots corrupted advertising” (Wired UK)

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

• How HBO marketed ‘The Last of Us’ into a global hit
• How will brands use TikTok in Super Bowl marketing this year?
• Have we reached the peak of peak TV?