Scout: This Week’s Top Content from the World of Digital Marketing (3/24/22 - 3/31/22)

Welcome to Scout! Each week, our team tracks down the best digital marketing articles, POVs, and reports...so that you don't have to. Call it a weekly attempt to earn our "merit badge" for the marketing and advertising community. Check out the following links to stay ahead of the curve: 

1. The Brand Marketer’s Guide to Decoding the Metaverse [:04] 
 
While still highly experimental for brands, the metaverse is on the verge of changing the marketing rule book. Is now the time for your brand to invest in the space? Here’s a helpful starting point for curious strategists. 

2. Streaming Audio Climbs the Charts with Marketers, but Some Want More Certainty [:04] 
 
Many marketers are finding success with their forays into podcasts and streaming music, but measuring results can be a challenge—and ad prices are rising. Also, the top platform for podcasts may surprise you (hint: it’s not an audio platform).   
 
Shameless plug alert: Have you listened to AdTech Unfiltered? 

3. Delays To ID Deprecation Have Advertisers Slow-Rolling Their Measurement Solutions [:03] 
 
A new survey found that two-thirds of marketers have pressed pause on actively transitioning from third-party identifiers. With Google’s decision to delay third-party cookie deprecation in Chrome until 2023, it seems many advertisers are choosing to simply kick the can down the road and—at least in the short term—ignore the problem. 

4. Q&A with IAB EVP and General Counsel Michael Hahn on the Lively Privacy Regulation Landscape [:08] 
 
With regulators and consumers alike taking a good, hard look at privacy, the IAB has had its hands full of late. IAB EVP and General Counsel Michael Hahn details the group’s latest viewpoints in this Q&A that tackles everything from GDPR, to Google, to CCPA and more. 

5. The N.C.A.A. Undervalued Women’s Basketball. Marketers Didn’t. [:05] 
 
With NCAA Tournament games drawing big ratings and often dominating Twitter, women’s basketball players now receive the second-most endorsement money of any college athletes and attract sponsors as varied as Gatorade, Beats by Dre, NBA 2K, Coin Cloud and the Black-owned curly hair care line Uncle Funky’s Daughter.

6. Meeting the Moment with Advertising Automation [:18] 
 
As the advertising landscape continues to fragment at breakneck speed, its extraordinary complexity is proving to be a massive obstacle for marketers (we know, we’re preaching to the choir here!). This guide explores why advertising automation is essential to the future success of the media buying marketplace. 

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Check the Basis blog next Thursday for another edition of Scout!