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U.S. ad business employment hits record high

“Employment in advertising, public relations and related services scored an all-time high in November, adding 1,200 jobs last month to break an employment record,” Ad Age’s Bradley Johnson reports. “Ad agency staffing also scored an all-time high.”

The details: “U.S. employment in the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) classification of advertising, PR and related services came in at a record 504,500 jobs in November based on seasonally adjusted figures. The ad market added 1,200 jobs in November following a gain of 3,000 jobs in October,” Johnson notes.

Essential context: “BLS upwardly revised the October figure from a gain of 2,300 jobs reported a month ago. It downwardly revised the September figure to a gain of 1,400 jobs vs. the 2,800 job increase reported a month ago. This BLS jobs bucket includes ad agencies, PR agencies and related services such as media buying, media reps, outdoor advertising, direct mail and other services related to advertising. Ad agencies account for the biggest portion—about 47%—of those jobs.”

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

Macroeconomic news and data in a nutshell

• “U.S. adds jobs in November as labor market remains slow but steady,” The Washington Post reports

• “Jobless claims inch up to 220,000, layoffs still low,” per MarketWatch

• “US wholesale inventories revised lower in October,” Reuters reports

• “Mortgage rates are falling at the fastest pace since the 2008 housing-market crash,” from Business Insider

• “The Most Important Debate on Wall Street: Is Inflation Licked?,” from The Wall Street Journal

Also see: Layoffs and budget cuts—tracking economic moves and news

Dentsu forecasts 4.6% global ad spending growth in 2024

“Dentsu is expecting global advertising spending to undergo mid-single-digit growth in 2024, bolstered by digital advertising, retail media and connected TV,” Ad Age’s Aleda Stam reports.

The details: “The holding company is projecting 4.6% spending growth in 2024 to $752.8 billion, roughly the same as the 4.7% growth it forecast in its May report,” Stam notes.

Essential context: “This is a conservative prediction compared to Dentsu’s contemporaries,” Stam adds. “WPP’s GroupM reported earlier this week that it anticipates 5.3% global growth in ad revenue next year as the market adjusts to inflation and global economic conditions, including the ongoing Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars. IPG Mediabrands’ Magna predicted 7.2% ad revenue growth in 2024.”

Keep reading here.

Also see: Industry forecasters’ ad spending optimism varies heading into 2024

What makes TikTok brand content connect with consumers

Earlier this week, TikTok and CreatorIQ jointly released new research that examines what makes influencer-driven brand content/advertising connect with consumers on the platform. Among the key findings:

Product demos work: “Content that shows products in use sees a +25% uplift in recall, +23% in ad likeability, +65% in brand affinity and +18% in consideration,” per the joint study.

The first six seconds matter the most: “90% of ad recall impact and 80% of awareness impact are captured within the first six seconds of an ad on TikTok. And showing a person or creator in the first two seconds of an ad increases hooking power by 50% and improves ad recognition by 32%.”

The personal approach resonates: “75% of TikTok users say the platform’s creators feel approachable and they can connect with them. How is this utilized? For example, having the creator directly address the audience from the jump results in a +112% uplift in brand recall.”

Keep reading: Download a PDF of the full report here.

Marketers are overspending by the billions on programmatic advertising

“Marketers should reduce the number of media sellers they work with, including supply-side platforms, rethink the use of private marketplaces and have direct contracts with all primary partners, according to the final version of a programmatic media supply chain study from the Association of National Advertisers,” Ad Age’s Jack Neff reports. 

The details: “In all, the final report concludes marketers could cut as much as $22 billion from the $88 billion spent annually on advertising across the open web by increasing efficiency and eliminating waste,” Neff notes. “Prior releases by the ANA pointed out that marketers are wasting as much as 23% of their digital spending on the open web through duplicative services, buying on too many websites and pouring money into low-quality “made for advertising” (MFA) sites among other things.”

Essential context: “Some of the industry’s biggest players, including Google, Amazon, The Trade Desk and Yahoo, did not participate, though Google data was available from agencies and advertisers, according to the report,” Neff adds.

Keep reading here.

Just briefly

• “23andMe changes terms of service to prevent lawsuits after data breach,” per Axios

• “Your Health Information Was Hacked. What Now?,” from The New York Times

• “Some Android phones can automatically send medical data during 911 calls,” The Verge reports

• “Apple Promotes iCloud’s Advanced End-to-End Encryption Feature as Data Breaches Increase,” per MacRumors

• “Google calls Drive data loss ‘fixed,’ locks forum threads saying otherwise,” Ars Technica reports

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.