Welcome to Ad Age Datacenter Weekly, our data-obsessed newsletter for marketing and media professionals.

Google is building separate data clean rooms for audience targeting, measurement

“Google is splitting its data tool Ads Data Hub into two entities, one for marketers and one for measurement partners, a move that will give advertisers new opportunities to use their own first-party data to target ads on Google’s ad network,” Ad Age’s Garett Sloane reports.

Background: “Google launched Ads Data Hub in 2017 for brands to bring data into a secure environment to study their media spend, which goes through Google’s ad network, and to understand how effective those ads were in converting customers,” Sloane notes. 

Essential context: “The ads hub is among an assortment of ‘data clean rooms’ proliferating in advertising. Amazon, for instance, has Amazon Marketing Cloud and Disney launched Disney Select as part of its ad tech and data products as it builds ad-supported media on channels like Disney+.”

Keep reading here.

U.S. ad business employment rebounds

“Employment in advertising, public relations and related services jumped by 6,200 jobs in October,” Ad Age Datacenter’s Bradley Johnson reports. “U.S. employment in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) classification of advertising, public relations and related services came in at 493,900 jobs in October based on figures that are not seasonally adjusted. The ad market rebounded with a gain of 6,200 jobs in October following a loss of 3,900 jobs in September.”

Essential context: The jobs growth represents “a sharp rebound in staffing that indicates a surprisingly healthy ad market despite signs of weakness in internet media,” Johnson notes.

Keep reading for Johnson’s ad industry drill-downs by BLS classifications.

Macroeconomic news and data in a nutshell

• “U.S. payrolls surged by 261,000 in October, better than expected as hiring remains strong,” CNBC reports.

• “U.S. jobless claims dip to 217,000 and stay near pandemic lows,” per MarketWatch.

• “High inflation hardens some midterm election voters’ party preferences,” CNN reports.

• “US housing market expert predicts when mortgage rates might finally fall,” from the New York Post.

Don’t miss: “Layoffs and budget cuts—tracking economic moves and news,” Ad Age’s continually updated blog covering how the marketing industry is bracing for a recession.

Stagwell trims growth forecast

“Stagwell Inc. trimmed its annual organic revenue growth forecast despite a record new business run in the third quarter,” Ad Age’s  Brian Bonilla reports. “Stagwell said it is now expecting 16% to 20% organic revenue growth for the year, a decrease from its previous guidance of 18% to 22%.”

More details: Bonilla notes that “Stagwell raked in $86 million in net new business for the quarter, the company’s highest on record for any quarter in its history, Stagwell CEO Mark Penn said in an interview.”

Essential context: “Stagwell is the latest holding company to release its earnings” Bonilla adds. “While it lowered its 2022 revenue growth forecast, its growth projection still outpaces those of key competitors.”

Keep reading here.

Previously:  “WPP raises its full-year sales forecast on its third-quarter strength,” per Ad Age’s Bonilla on Oct. 28. And “Publicis, Omnicom, IPG raise full-year forecasts”—the lead item in the Oct. 21 edition of Datacenter Weekly.

Apple tops Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2022 ranking for 10th year in a row

“Tesla is now sharing the crown of the world’s fastest-growing brand with Microsoft and Chanel after all three saw their brand value increase from last year by 32%, according to a report from Omnicom’s brand consultancy Interbrand,” Ad Age’s Jade Yan reports.

More details: “The top 10 most valuable brands segment”—what Interbrand packages as its Best Global Brands report—“is typically dominated by tech companies, with the top three usually becoming a tussle between Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google,” Yan notes. “This year, Apple grabbed the top spot on Interbrand’s list for the tenth year in a row with a value of $482.2 billion. Amazon lost out to Microsoft for second place and fell to third, with a value of $274.8 billion. Rounding out the top 10 are Google, Samsung, Toyota, Coca-Cola, Mercedes-Benz, Disney and Nike, which cracked the top 10 for the first time.”

Keep reading here.

See Interbrand’s full ranking here.

TikTok data worries intensify

“TikTok is spelling out to its European users that their data can be accessed by employees outside the continent, including in China, amid political and regulatory concerns about Chinese access to user information on the platform,” The Guardian’s Dan Milmo reports. “The Chinese-owned social video app is updating its privacy policy to confirm that staff in countries, including China, are allowed to access user data to ensure their experience of the platform is ‘consistent, enjoyable and safe.’”

More details: “The other countries where European user data could be accessed by TikTok staff include Brazil, Canada and Israel as well as the U.S. and Singapore, where European user data is stored currently.”

Keep reading here.

See also: “TikTok’s updated data privacy policy does little to settle nerves,” from The Verge.

And: “FCC commissioner says government should ban TikTok,” from Axios.

Just briefly

• “Musk plans to eliminate half of Twitter jobs in cost-cut drive,” from Bloomberg News (via Ad Age).

• “To Craft a Better Employee Experience, Collect the Right Data,” per Harvard Business Review.

• “Roku says advertisers’ budgets are under pressure, 4th-quarter loss to be wider than expected,” also from Bloomberg News (via Ad Age).

• “Smartphone data from drivers could help spot when bridges need urgent repairs,” from MIT Technology Review.

Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2022

In his introduction to the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2022 report, Ad Age Datacenter’s Bradley Johnson reports that advertisers scored “the second-biggest spending gain on record” in 2021, marking “an extraordinary turnaround from the pandemic plunge in 2020. Spending has continued to grow in 2022, though budgets could come under pressure as marketers grapple with inflation, rising interest rates and slumping consumer confidence amid escalating expectations of a recession.”

There’s a lot to LNA 2022—so the Datacenter team has come up with multiple entry points for you to make your own deep dive. To wit:

• “LNA 2022—10 most-advertised brands in the U.S., ranked”
• “LNA 2022—Will ad spending rise in the (coming) recession? It’s happened before”
• “LNA 2022—25 biggest U.S. advertisers, ranked”
• “LNA 2022—U.S. market leaders and category rankings”
• “LNA 2022—Big spending gains and cuts”
• “LNA 2022—What comes next after 2021's ad spending surge”
• “LNA 2022—Ad spending by medium, category and advertiser”

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 Joy R. Lee.

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