Along the same lines, Sprout Social sent an email headlined “27% of consumers’ opinion of social media has declined” although the underlying report found 27% had a lower opinion of social advertising. Not the same at all. They also found people were more interested in seeing ads from brands (57%) than influencers (43%), which they said reflected a new demand for honesty. Perhaps.
So far, Alexa ignores me when I ask her to write this newsletter. But smart speakers are already having a huge impact elsewhere. UK-based content marketing agency Delineate found that 24% of U.S. households have a smart speaker and 54% of smart speaker owners have used them for shopping.
Since we’re on the topic of sales automation, let’s finish with news that “conversational marketing platform” Drift has added its own tool to help sales reps. Drift provides a chatbot, event-triggered personalized email sequences, and personalized Web site messages. If you’re keeping score, they’ve raised $47 million.
Procrastinators of the world can throw a party whenever they get around to it: Google has once more pushed back complete third-party cookie deprecation. The new target is “early next year.” Reasons for the delay include concerns expressed by U.K. data regulator Information Commissioner’s Office, an ongoing inquiry by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and widespread discontent in the advertising ecosystem.