Olympics TV ad data revealed, WPP’s big boost, and the Russia-Ukraine effect: Datacenter Weekly

Welcome to Ad Age Datacenter Weekly, our data-obsessed newsletter for marketing and media professionals. WPP’s ‘outstanding’ results “WPP has reported what it calls ‘outstanding’ full-year results for 2021,” Ad Age’s Alexandra Jardine reports, “boosted by new business gains such as Coca-Cola, the strong performance of GroupM and increased demand for digital and e-commerce and technology services from its clients.” Essential context: The holding company’s revenue rose by 6.7% to 12,801 million pounds last year, or 12.1% on an organic like-for-like basis. As the last of the major holding companies to report full-year results, that compares well to its major competitors. Publicis reported organic revenue growth of 10%, Interpublic 11.9% and Omnicom 10.2%.” Keep reading here. Subscribe to Ad Age Datacenter for essential data and insights on all of the most-advertised brands. Macroeconomic news and data in a nutshell • “Fewest Americans collecting unemployment aid since 1970,” per the Associated Press. • “Key inflation gauge hit 6.1% in January, highest since 1982,” also from the AP. • “Home equity sees largest December monthly growth in history, data shows,” Fox Business reports. The Russia-Ukraine Effect • “Major marketers brace for repercussions from Ukraine invasion,” per Crain’s Chicago Business (an Ad Age sibling publication) in partnership with Ad Age. • “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could make many, many things more expensive,” Vox reports. • “Inflation fears could limit the U.S. sanctions response to Russia’s Ukraine invasion,” from The New York Times. Join us on March 10 for our free Ad Age In-Depth: Unlocking the Metaverse virtual event. Political ad dominance “Republicans are massively outspending Democrats when it comes to political advertising in four out of the top five gubernatorial races in the U.S.,” according to the latest Ad Age Campaign Ad Scorecard analysis. Essential context: “Among the five states—Pennsylvania, Texas, Illinois, Alabama and Nebraska—with the highest ad spending so far on gubernatorial campaigns across TV, radio and digital, $49.9 million has been spent by Republicans vs. $8.2 million by Democrats. Those figures tally booked spending by campaigns and the political action committees that support them from Dec. 28, 2021, through Election Day as of Feb. 16, 2022.” Keep reading here. Submissions are now open for Ad Age’s Small Agency Awards. Winter Olympics audience and advertising data TV advertising measurement and analytics company iSpot.tv is out with final data about the Beijing Winter Olympics. Some key highlights: • NBCU coverage of the Winter Olympics reached 163 million people in the U.S. across linear and streaming TV, not including 31.7 million out-of-home viewers. • NBCU’s linear broadcasts of the Games reached more than half (75.1 million) of U.S. households. • NBCU’s streaming of the Games on Peacock and other platforms reached an additional 27.4 million viewers across 12.8 million households. Some 66% of those who streamed did so exclusively—meaning they didn’t also catch coverage via linear TV. • The Winter Olympics generated 19.96 billion total TV ad impressions for advertisers. • Toyota was the most-seen advertiser during the Winter Olympics. • The most-seen marketer categories that advertised during the Winter Olympics were automakers, movie studios, streaming services and credit card companies, in that order. • iSpot says that TV commercials that aired during the Winter Olympics earned 15% more attention than the norm—due in part to NBCU’s decision to lower its ad load (which was 22% less than that seen on competing programming from ABC, CBS and Fox). Beyond Nielsen More on data-rich alternatives to Nielsen—all from Ad Age’s Jack Neff: • “Comcast will let Nielsen rival VideoAmp use its huge data set” • “ANA readies pilot of Nielsen TV panel alternatives that will likely include Kantar” • “Discovery and Omnicom will use Comscore and VideoAmp data to test Nielsen alternative” Ad Age Agency Report 2022: Call for entries The upcoming Ad Age Agency Report 2022 will include the industry’s definitive ranking of agencies, agency networks and agency companies. Make sure your agency is included by completing Ad Age Datacenter’s questionnaire, available at AdAge.com/arq. Watch for it: Ad Age’s 78th annual Agency Report comes out online and in print on April 25. See last year’s report here. Just briefly • “Ukraine computers hit by data-wiping software as Russia launched invasion,” Reuters reports. • “Tech Giants to Be Forced to Share More Data Under EU Proposal,” per The Wall Street Journal. • “Credit Suisse faces fresh scrutiny over culture after client data leaks,” from CNBC. • “GroupM opens programmatic ad market as industry looks for pricing transparency,” Ad Age reports. • “The C.D.C. isn’t publishing large portions of the Covid data it collects,” from The New York Times. • “Why Becoming a Data-Driven Organization Is So Hard,” from Harvard Business Review. 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. Subscribe to Ad Age Datacenter for essential data and insights on all of the most-advertised brands.

Olympics TV ad data revealed, WPP’s big boost, and the Russia-Ukraine effect: Datacenter Weekly

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