Why commercials from Choice Hotels, Great Wolf Lodge and others struck a chord with consumers

Welcome to Ad Age Datacenter Weekly, our data-obsessed newsletter for marketing and media professionals. Paramount launches data-driven self-serve ad platform for new TV advertisers “Paramount launched a self-serve ad platform this week in the U.S. aimed at attracting new TV advertisers as traditional media companies seek to tap into growing digital advertising budgets,” Ad Age’s Parker Herren reports. The details: “Paramount Ads Manager will give small-to-medium-sized businesses access to Paramount streaming inventory on Paramount+ and free streamer Pluto TV with a minimum commitment of $500, with the ability to run campaigns starting the next day,” Herren writes. “The platform will allow the advertisers to target ads by location, demographic and content genres or by inputting the brand’s own data to match against Paramount’s streaming audience.” Essential context: “Paramount’s announcement follows similar launches from TV media companies such as Disney and NBCUniversal, which have also developed platforms meant to entice digital-native marketers to TV,” Herren notes. “The trend also seeks to automate processes as marketers seek more efficient and short-term deals in the TV marketplace, which traditionally prioritized long-term deals prior to shifts brought on by streaming.” Keep reading here. Become an All Access subscriber Get access to exclusive resources including Leading National Advertisers, World’s Largest Advertisers, Agency Report, Agency Review Tracker and TV Pricing Report. Click here Macroeconomic news and data in a nutshell • “More Americans apply for jobless benefits as layoffs settle at higher levels in recent weeks,” The Associated Press reports • “Fed faces wave of data before deciding on end-of-summer rate cut,” from Reuters • “Economists Trim US Inflation Forecasts, Paving Way for Fed Cut,” per Bloomberg • “Mortgage rates fall to the lowest level in four months, while refinances jump 15%,” from MarketWatch Also see: Layoffs and budget cuts—tracking economic moves and news Great Wolf Lodge, Omni Hotels, Choice Hotels, Sandals are tops in driving hotel/resort purchase intent As part of its just-released “H1 2024 TV Transparency Report,” TV measurement firm iSpot.tv is out with new data about commercial effectiveness. Among the findings: Great Wolf Lodge, Omni Hotels, Choice Hotels and Sandals are tops among hotels/resorts in driving positive purchase intent, as determined by iSpot Creative Assessment, a survey system that continuously evaluates ads (TV commercials as well as online-only video creative) by showing them to unique panels of 500-plus U.S. consumers. Top 5 hotel/resort ads ranked by driving purchase intent, first-half 2024 1. Great Wolf Lodge: “Wolf Out” (65% positive purchase intent) 2. Omni Hotels: “Competing With Each Other” (64%) 3. Choice Hotels: “A Stay For Any You” (60%) 4. Sandals: “Saint Vincent” (60%) 5. Sandals: “Jamaica Jamming Sale” (59%)Note: The percentage shown is the share of surveyed consumers who said they were “more” or “much more” inclined to buy the product or service after seeing the ad. The common theme linking most of these ads: scenes of family fun and togetherness. An Omni Hotels spot, for instance, focuses on a family of four, including two siblings who are hypercompetitive (as seen on a tennis court) and spend a lot of time “pestering each other,” per the voiceover—but who “come to the realization that they truly enjoy each other” on a family getaway, as witnessed by their proud parents. A Choice Hotels spot stars Keegan-Michael Key as a husband and father of two. The spot starts with a scene of Key being “a hot breakfast hero” by flipping a big fluffy waffle to his delighted son and closes out with the family of four eating together in the hotel’s dining area. The Great Wolf Lodge spot shows a family of five having a blast thanks to the resort chain’s water park and game room amenities, while a Sandals spot shows happy kids chilling on the beach with their equally chill parents. (Sandals also has another spot in the top 5 that focuses on couples/romance, leaving kids out of the equation.) iSpot says that the “likeability” and “attention” scores for each of these ads were well above industry averages, which drove the elevated purchase intent. Snap links its first-party data with VideoAmp’s identity system “Snap is opening the walls of its garden by linking its first-party data with VideoAmp’s identity system, allowing advertisers to find advanced audiences across Snapchat as well as connected TV networks and other platforms,” Ad Age’s Jack Neff reports. The details: “We’ve been hearing from a lot of our agency partners like Omnicom and some others about the importance of Snap being integrated into some of their planning and measurement tools,” Alexander Dao, global head of agency development and sales partnership for Snap, told Neff. “Now all of Snap inventory is going to be available for planning purposes, and then eventually measurement purposes.” Essential context: “Snap has largely been a walled garden, like other social platforms, retaining user IDs for media planning and measurement within its own ad ecosystem,” Neff notes. “This move puts Snap more in the ‘hedged garden’ camp of allowing at least limited visibility via VideoAmp.” Keep reading here. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Streaming TV usage time hits all-time U.S. high “Time spent on streaming surpassed 40% of total TV usage time for the first time in the U.S., according to Nielsen’s ‘The Gauge’ report,” Ad Age’s Jack Neff notes. The details: “The 40.3% share for streaming topped the previous record for any TV distribution channel, set by cable with 40.1% in June 2021,” Neff writes. “By contrast, in June 2024, cable’s share dropped to 27.3%, while broadcast stood at 20.5%, according to Nielsen.” Essential context: “It’s typical for linear TV to show declines in viewership share in summer months after the seasons of scripted programming end, according to Nielsen,” Neff adds. “Broadcast lost 1.8 percentage points of share while cable lost a full percentage point compared to May. Help could be on the way soon though from the Summer Olympics.” Keep reading here.Also see: Media measurement uncertainty—tracking TV, social and digital Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Just briefly • “Microsoft and CrowdStrike Outage Explained: Airport Chaos, 911 Lines Down and More,” from CNET • “The Data That Powers A.I. Is Disappearing Fast,” The New York Times reports • “AT&T’s Major Data Breach Sparks Another Class-Action Lawsuit,” per PCMag • “Thousands of Life360 users have data leaked following breach,” TechRadar reports • “Google and Howard University to train underrepresented high schoolers in data analytics,” from Forbes Recommends 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 Bradley Johnson and Joy R. Lee. Become an All Access subscriber Get access to exclusive resources including Leading National Advertisers, World’s Largest Advertisers, Agency Report, Agency Review Tracker and TV Pricing Report. Click here

Why commercials from Choice Hotels, Great Wolf Lodge and others struck a chord with consumers

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