LinkedIn Rolls Out Articles for Pages
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn (client) has launched a new feature that gives pages the ability to share long-form content on the professional social platform, an addition that comes amidst an array of other new features including an enhanced LinkedIn Live Events experience for creating more robust virtual events, the company recently announced. Adweek

Instagram is Developing a New ‘Montage’ Feature to Convert Stories to Reels, New ‘Favorites’ Listing
Facebook-owned Instagram has been testing a new option intended to make it easy for digital marketers to convert existing Instagram Stories content into brief Reels video clips, including automatically synced audio. New tool options for signaling favorite audience selections have also recently undergone testing on the platform — both changes that could eventually enhance how marketers use Instagram. Social Media Today

Almost Half of B2B Orgs Say It’s Become More Difficult to Close Deals
Finalizing B2B deals has become more difficult since the pandemic began, with some 46 percent of B2B organizations citing buying decisions being placed on hold as the primary cause, while 43 percent said that their organization viewed buyer re-prioritization as the top reason, followed by budget cutting, according to recently-released survey data. MarketingCharts

Marketing’s Tech-tonic Shift: 90% Have Changed Their Digital Strategies [Salesforce Study]
66 percent of marketing leaders expect revenue growth in the coming 12 to 18 months, with the top portions of B2B marketing budgets being spent on advertising, tools and technology, account based marketing (ABM), content, and staffing, according to newly-released survey data of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost

B2B US Digital Ad Spend Forecast for 2021-2023
Digital advertising spending in the U.S. is expected to nearly triple from 2018 levels, to some $14.57 billion by 2023, with $5.09 billion expected to be spend on display adverting in 2021 — a 32.6 percent increase from 2020, according to newly-released forecast data. MarketingProfs

Zoom Initiates $14.7B Acquisition Of Five9
Zoom has agreed to purchase Five9, with the $14.7 billion addition of the contact center as a service (CCaaS) firm poised to augment Zoom’s enterprise offerings, the firms recently announced. Demand Gen Report

Spotify ties Nielsen demos to audience measurement on podcasts
Spotify has released a new podcast measurement tool utilizing Nielsen audience demographic data, in an expanded collaboration that is set to provide additional insights to podcast marketers through Spotify’s Megaphone advertising unit, the firm recently announced. Campaign US

LinkedIn Acquires Tutorial Video App Jumprope as it Looks to Expand its Creator Tools
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn (client) has acquired video tutorial creation app firm Jumprope, with the array of creator tools from the acquisition set to help enhance LinkedIn Learning and other areas of the professional social media platform, the company recently announced. Social Media Today

Google parent Alphabet reaches record quarterly revenue, profit in ad boom
Google and its parent firm Alphabet saw an especially strong 70 percent increase in advertising revenue during the second quarter of 2021, the company recently disclosed. That equates to some $560 million is advertising revenue per day during the quarter, and a year-over-year increase of 62 percent, rebounding from the firm’s only revenue decline a year ago due to the global health crisis. Reuters

US B2B ad spend set to pass $30b in 2023, nearly half the dollars will go to digital
In the U.S. alone B2B advertising spending is expected to top $30 billion by 2023, with almost half going to digital, while display advertising spending is expected to surpass that of search advertising by 2023 — two of several insights of interest to digital marketers in newly-released forecast data. The Drum

Salesforce completes $27.7B Slack acquisition
Salesforce has put finishing touches on its $27.7 billion acquisition of business communication platform Slack, with the now-official purchase set to combine Salesforce’s data platform Customer 360 with Slack, Salesforce recently announced. Venture Beat

US influencer spending to surpass $3 billion in 2021
An increase of over 33 percent in influencer marketing spending is expected for 2021 — reaching $3.69 billion — recently-released forecast data shows, with a 12.2 percent rise predicted for 2022 and 11.5% in 2023, climbing to $4.62 billion, according to the forecast. eMarketer

Ehrenberg-Bass: 95% of B2B buyers are not in the market for your products
As many as 95 percent of businesses aren’t presently in the market for most services and goods, however not in all sectors, according to newly-released data from client LinkedIn and its LinkedIn B2B Institute. Marketing Week examines the data, and interviews Jann Martin Schwarz, global head of the LinkedIn B2B Institute, on targeting long-term B2B marketing goals and more. Marketing Week

Twitter’s Fleets Format To Disappear, Just Weeks After Ads Test Commenced
Twitter has abandoned its Fleets feature that automatically deleted messages in the format after 24 hours, noting that the format and its accompanying full-screen vertical ads, hadn’t performed as well as initially envisioned, the firm recently announced. MediaPost

Digital to power a 10.4% recovery in global ad spend
Global digital advertising spend will ascend to $311 billion to hit 15.6 percent growth in 2021, according to newly-release forecast data from Dentsu, the firm recently announced. Social ad spending is expected to rise even more swiftly at 23 percent, with video ads predicted to rise by 17 percent, according to the forecast data. The Drum

Buoyant B2B: Firms Stress Marketing As They Enhance Their Brands
59 percent of B2B marketing and sales executives say their businesses are active in social media, while 39 percent of employees say that they don’t understand their companies’ brands, according to newly-released survey data of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost

What Makes A Brand Best-in-Class on Social?
47 percent of U.S. consumers said that strong customer service made for best-in-class brand social media communication, followed audience engagement with 46 percent, transparency at 44 percent, and creating memorable content at 39 percent, according to recently-released social media survey data. MarketingCharts

Facebook is testing drastic changes to Instagram to make it more like TikTok
Facebook has begun testing changes including full-screen video and more immersive experiences for its Instagram platform, in a move aimed at bringing more entertaining and mobile-first video experiences that better compete with TikTok, the social media giant recently announced. CNBC

Edelman Trust Barometer special report: Brands must be agents of societal change, say consumers
63 percent of consumers say they are more attracted to brands that focus on making the world a better place, while 78 percent said they believe their influence goes beyond the consumer experience to business operations — two of several statistics of interest to digital marketers in newly-released survey data from Edelman’s Trust Barometer report. PRWeek

Most Demand Gen Marketers Hit Their KPIs in 2020
43 percent of B2B demand generation marketers say they met their original key performance indicators (KPIs) in 2020, with 35 percent topping their original targets, according to recently-released survey data. The survey also showed that 18 percent expect their demand gen budgets to significantly expand in the coming 12 months, with 49 percent expected some budget growth. MarketingCharts