👀 Axios PM: Mad for ads

Plus: How returns are changing | Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Open in app View in browser   Presented By ExxonMobil   Axios PM By Mike Allen · Dec 26, 2023 🧤 Happy Tuesday! Today's PM — edited by Noah Bressner — is 496 words, a 2-min. read. Thanks to Carlos Cunha for the copy edit.     1 big thing: Mad for ads Illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios   Investors are swirling around a unique sub-sector of the media landscape that wants to put ads pretty much everywhere, Axios Pro Media Deals author Kerry Flynn writes. Think ad-supported water fountains. (Seriously.) Why it matters: The out-of-home media industry, as it's called, has attracted billionaires and activist hedge funds alike — and insiders say it's just getting started. Most of the companies provide advertising on billboards, posters and screens at highways, bus stops, airports and elsewhere. But upstarts are adding even more screens in elevators, gas pumps and gyms. 🔎 Zoom in: The static billboard that defined the industry for generations is transitioning to multilayered digital screens, making ads more targeted and measurable. The ads also are becoming easier to buy. The industry is expected to grow 26.1% to $13.3 billion this year, according to ad agency GroupM. 💧 Between the lines: Hope Hydration — a New York-based startup — is betting that businesses will be interested in advertising on their water fountains. In its Times Square location, the average refilling takes 14.1 seconds. That's far longer than the estimated ad consumption for connected TV. Go deeper ... Get Axios Pro.     2. 🎁 How returns are changing Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios   There's new hope for avoiding the dreaded holiday return line, Axios' Kelly Tyko writes: You can complete some of your returns without getting out of the car or leaving the house Why it matters: At a time when some retailers have added return fees or surcharges, others have rolled out convenient options to make returns easier. Returns can cost consumers big money if they forget to send products back or miss return deadlines. 🔎 Zoom in: Free returns by mail have been increasingly disappearing, with retailers fed up with paying for and processing mailed returns. Target and Walmart now offer curbside returns. Walmart+ members can get returns picked up from home for free. In a service Uber launched, drivers pick up returns and drop them off at UPS, FedEx or the post office. Amazon offers free returns at Whole Foods markets, Amazon stores, Kohl's and Staples locations, and it is testing them at Petco. Go deeper: Holiday returns guide.     A message from ExxonMobil Let's deliver carbon capture for American industry     ExxonMobil is working on solutions to reduce carbon emissions in its own operations — like carbon capture — that could help industries in manufacturing, commercial transportation and power generation deliver lower emissions, too. Learn more.     3. Catch me up Photos: Getty Images 📸 Photos of the year: These pics offer a glimpse into the adversity, resilience and joy of 2023. More from Axios' excellent Visuals team. 🛍️ Holiday sales rose this year and spending remained resilient — even with Americans wrestling with higher prices in some areas and other financial worries. Go deeper. 🇷🇺 Alexei Navalny — the jailed Russian opposition politician — made his first public statement since going missing in the country's prison system and being located at a Siberian penal colony, Axios' Lauren Floyd writes.     4. ☀️ Pic du jour Photo: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images One World Trade Center — as seen from Jersey City — casts a shadow on passing fog as the sun rises over lower Manhattan yesterday.     A message from ExxonMobil Let's deliver carbon capture for American industry     ExxonMobil is working on solutions to reduce carbon emissions in its own operations — like carbon capture — that could help industries in manufacturing, commercial transportation and power generation deliver lower emissions, too. Learn more.   📬 Thanks for reading. Please invite your friends to join. Are you a fan of this email format? Your essential communications — to staff, clients and other stakeholders — can have the same style. Axios HQ, a powerful platform, will help you do it.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. To stop receiving this newsletter, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: