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Macroeconomic news and data in a nutshell

• “Jobless claims dip to pandemic low of 268,000 as labor shortage forces businesses to avert layoffs,” from MarketWatch.

• “Millions of people quit their jobs in the ‘Great Resignation.’ Here is why it may not last long,” from CNBC.

• “Inflation is coming for your cup of coffee next,” from CNN Business.

Previously:  “U.S. advertising employment increased by 2,200 jobs in October,” from Ad Age Datacenter.

Bringing media capabilities—and control over data—in house

“Bringing more media capabilities in house is a top objective for nearly half of marketers, but lack of resources and institutional reluctance to move away from agency relationships are holding them back, according to a study from Forrester Consulting commissioned by Acxiom,” Ad Age’s Jack Neff reports. “Desire for greater transparency, control over data and assurance of compliance with privacy regulations are among the biggest factors driving media in-housing, according to the survey.”

Essential context:  “The term ‘in house’ doesn’t exactly describe how the landscape is changing,” Neff notes. “It’s often more about taking responsibilities away from traditional media agencies, leading media duties from within, and then relying on other third parties for help.”

Keep reading here.

Subscribe to Ad Age Datacenter for essential data and insights on all of the most-advertised brands.

The most-seen TV commercial stars

Can you name any of the five most-exposed actors on TV? Probably not, but you definitely know their work.

At Ad Age Datacenter Weekly’s request, TV ad tracking service iSpot.tv pulled together a short list of the most-seen commercial actors, as measured by the total TV ad impressions of the ads they star in. Here’s the exclusive list, based on commercial airings data (national broadcast and cable) collected from Jan. 1 through Oct. 24:

5. Milana Vayntrub — “Lily” in all those AT&T commercials: 12.5 billion
4. Jim Cashman — “Jamie,” sidekick to “Flo” in Progressive ads: 15.5 billion
3. Kevin Miles — “Jake from State Farm” in State Farm ads: 19.2 billion
2. Stephanie Courtney — “Flo” in all those Progressive ads: 23.3 billion
1. David Hoffman — “Doug” from the Liberty Mutual “LiMu Emu & Doug” ads: 27.9 billion TV ad impressions

For spoofs on some of their ads, check out a recent “Saturday Night Live” ad awards skit here.

When consumer data ends up in government hands

“A company that collects and sells consumer information gleaned from cellphones said it was the source of some of the advertising data used by the Department of Homeland Security and other government entities to track mobile phones without warrants, shedding new light on how device location data is harvested and sold in a secretive multibillion-dollar industry,” The Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau reports. “Mobilewalla, a closely held digital-advertising company founded in Singapore and now based in Atlanta, said in a letter last week to Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) that it had indirectly provided some of the data used by DHS, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. military for warrantless tracking of devices both at home and abroad.”

Keep reading here.

Marketing on purpose

Datacenter Weekly readers are invited to download a free copy of “Brand Purpose,” a new white paper that examines how consumers value brands with a purpose, what media choices can say about a brand, and what Gen Z expects from brands and employers. Ad Age Datacenter produced “Brand Purpose” based on data and analysis from Kantar.

Get it here.

What marketers need to know to win consumers in 2022.

Just briefly

A reckoning for publishers:  “The sell side needs an answer to the rise of customer data platforms,” a guest opinion post for Ad Age from Optable’s Vlad Stesin.

Holiday data sale:  “Retailers tap shoppers’ data to sell more ads ahead of holidays,” per Reuters.

Roadworthy:  “Lexus shines, Lincoln and Tesla falter in Consumer Reports Reliability Data list,” per CNET’s Roadshow.

Watching the watchers:  “Netflix viewers spent millions of hours watching ‘Red Notice’ and ‘Narcos’ last week,” from Bloomberg News (via Ad Age).

Democracy hacked:  “Iran hackers stole US voter data, posed as Proud Boys in effort to influence 2020 election: feds,” from the New York Post.

A grim new stat regarding the U.S. drug epidemic:  “Drug overdose deaths top 100,000 annually for the first time, driven by fentanyl, CDC data show,” per CNN Health.

The newsletter is brought to you by Ad Age Datacenter, the industry’s most authoritative source of competitive intel and home to the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers, the Ad Age Agency Report: World’s Biggest Agency Companies and other exclusive data-driven reports. Access or subscribe to Ad Age Datacenter at AdAge.com/Datacenter.

Ad Age Datacenter is Kevin Brown, Bradley Johnson and Catherine Wolf.

This week’s newsletter was compiled and written by Simon Dumenco.

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