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Consumers are frustrated by intrusive or invasive ad experiences, and they’re concerned about how advertisers use their data. Here’s how consumers perceive their ad experiences across media channels, how they avoid ads, and how brands, advertisers, and publishers are responding.

On today's episode, we discuss the current state of the so-called "metaverse," what the future of mixed reality could look like, and how marketers are getting involved. We then talk about what the new James Bond film’s opening weekend tells us about the state of the movie theater industry and what kinds of alternative content theaters might feature to stay relevant. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer Briefing director at Insider Intelligence Jeremy Goldman.

“Loyalty in retail is the absence of something better,” he said, per an NRF blog post. More on this: Retailers face significant near-term challenges as they combat supply chain disruptions, labor issues, and the ongoing pandemic. Shoppers have continued to show that retail is an important part of their lives, Cornell said.

Calling it Starling as a Service—a term she used again in her latest blog post—the CEO discussed how the technology could be used for industries like healthcare, retail, and utilities. Boden also stressed that BaaS is designed to offer advantages in areas such as cost and convenience.

Tune in to our inaugural episode of Brand Anatomy, where we get exclusive looks inside leading brands. Today, eMarketer Briefing director Jeremy Goldman sits down with JibJab CEO Paul Hanges to discuss how the company—a leader in viral content dating back to 1999—listened to customer sentiment during the pandemic, improved its product, and reinvigorated its brand.

At least nine of the 17 largest outages in AWS history originated from IAD data centers, according to AWS Maniac, a blog tracking AWS service disruptions. AWS is responding by disabling scaling activities that triggered last week’s event. The problem: We’re starting to see cracks in cloud infrastructure providers' ability to keep a growing list of internet services and apps online.

More on this: In a blog post announcing the tie-up, Plaid CEO Zach Perret noted that the companies’ customer bases overlap, and cited neobanks Current and Brex as examples. Plaid now has about 5,500 customers, per TechCrunch, which said that the deal will also expand Cognito’s reach. The combination is valued at about $250 million, the publication reported.

MoneyLion already operates a blog called MoneyLife, where it uploads articles and videos educating users on financial concepts like credit, investing, and crypto. It will now use Malka’s expertise to create more evergreen and engaging content to drive user retention.

Should the CFPB help streamline the account-switching process, banks whose revenue depends heavily on overdraft fees risk losing many customers: 61% of US Adults said they were somewhat or very likely to change their primary bank to avoid monthly service, overdraft or other related fees, according to data cited in Civicscience’s company blog.

The news: Facebook is expanding its test of tools that allow advertisers to keep their ad placements from appearing alongside certain topics, per a company blog post from last week. The “Topic Exclusion” feature can currently be used to bar content tied to news and politics, social issues, and crime and tragedy.

It categorizes users into segments, allowing advertisers to "reach intended audiences across channels, like the LinkedIn Audience Network, without the need for individual-level tracking across sites," per a company blog post. In the absence of super-granular metrics, LinkedIn is also testing using AI to measure conversions—but it will likely be a while before those tests yield meaningful results.

In a blog post published Wednesday, TikTok said it is working to provide those resources. Why this matters: After a fall report on Instagram found that the app had harmful effects on teens and children, social platforms have been racing to introduce safety features for underage users and to get the word out to regulators and advertisers that their products are safe for children.

Mobile messaging app adoption accelerated in 2020, particularly in the early months of the pandemic, as housebound consumers sought out ways to stay connected with friends and family.