Daily September 19

With summer in the rearview mirror, in-person events are in full swing this fall. But a number of publishers have found the costs associated with hosting such events have gone up as a result of inflation and the lasting impacts of the pandemic. Here’s how some publishers are navigating those changes.

Additional coverage:

• Neither streaming audiences nor streaming advertisers are happy about the same ads being shown to viewers over and over again, an outcome that frequency caps are supposed to mitigate. Here’s a breakdown on what frequency caps actually are.
• Axe body spray is dedicating more ad dollars to esports, gaming and entertainment-based marketing channels to attract a bigger share of Gen Z shoppers.
• As more brands toy with NFT-based loyalty programs, coffee shops and sailboats could soon be the next acid tests for whether the promises of Web3 are compelling enough for users to sign up.
• Influencers have become cultural ambassadors across food, sports, skincare, gaming and much more. And agencies continue to work them into more of their clients’ marketing efforts. More in this Digiday+ Media Buying Briefing.
• Turning readers into shoppers has not been as easy as some publishers hoped, but for the few successful media companies, it’s less about ease and more about brand affinity.
• Some Black-owned publishers have seen an increase in ad revenue after some agencies started spending more on their channels. However, securing — and maintaining that funding — remains a challenge for many Black-owned businesses and entrepreneurs.
• How Estonia’s digital evolution could set it up for the metaverse.