How COVID-19 Is Impacting Business Event Planning
70 percent of business event planners have changed previously-planned in-person events to virtual platforms due to the pandemic, and 47 percent expect that once it ends people will still be hesitant to travel, with 27 percent expecting a swift uptick in real-world events due to pent-up demand, according to newly-released survey data from the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA). MarketingProfs

Google ad sales steady after coronavirus drop; Alphabet leads tech share rally
2020 first-quarter advertising sales at Google tallied $33.8 billion, with 73 percent coming from search and 12 percent from its YouTube property, and Google's ad business accounting for some 83 percent of revenue for parent firm Alphabet, according to newly-released financial results. Reuters

Spotify-owned Anchor can now turn your video chats into podcasts
Spotify will utilize its Anchor property to make it possible to convert video meeting content into podcasts, offering marketers new options for making use of a virtual hangout video content podcast conversion feature, Spotify recently announced. TechCrunch

Google’s new Podcasts Manager tool offers deeper data on listener behavior
Google has rolled out a new podcast analytics data feature — Podcasts Manager — that provides marketers an assortment of new podcast listening data, the search giant recently announced. Marketing Land

LinkedIn's up to 690 Million Members, Reports 26% Growth in User Sessions
LinkedIn (client) saw its user base increase to 690 million members — up from 675 in January — with an accompanying 26 percent increase in user sessions, and LinkedIn Live streams that increased by some 158 percent since February, according to parent firm Microsoft’s latest earnings release. Social Media Today

Advertisers Continued to Gravitate to Instagram in Q1
Advertisers moved to spend more on Instagram during the first quarter of 2020, with ad spending up 39 percent year-over-year on the platform, holding steady at 27 percent of parent company Facebook’s total ad spend, according to recently-released Merkle data. MarketingCharts

Brands Are Using More Data And Spending More On It: Study
B2B marketers are making greater use of data and spending increasingly to gather it, according to recent report data from Ascend2, showing that 47 percent use engagement data to make marketing decisions, one of several report statistics of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost

Most consumers are trying new brands during social distancing, study finds
Brands are seeing newfound levels of audience interest, with an uptick in consumer interest for trying new brands that has been observed during the pandemic, with members of the Gen Z and Millennial demographic seeing the biggest increases, according to recently-released survey data. Campaign US

Marketers Ante Up for In-Game Advertising
A $3 billion in-game advertising market in the U.S. alone has attracted additional advertisers, and a new Association of National Advertisers (ANA) examination of data from eMarketer found some surprises in that most mobile gamers were over 35, with 20 percent being over 50, while the majority were female, several of the in-game advertising statistics of interest to digital marketers. ANA

Data Hub: Coronavirus and Marketing [Updated]
Digital marketing has fared better than traditional campaigns in the face of the global health crisis, according to newly-released survey data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) exploring the differences between the pandemic and the 2008 recession. MarketingCharts

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at generic advertising “in these uncertain times” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

WHO Releases New Guidelines to Avoid Being Nominated for Viral Challenges — The Hard Times

Major Relief: Microsoft Has Confirmed That The Xbox Series X Will Play Video Games — The Onion

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — What’s Trending: Embracing Data — LinkedIn (client)
• Lee Odden — 10 Expert Tips for Marketing During a Crisis — Oracle (client)
• Lee Odden — Klear Interviews Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Marketing [Video] — Klear
• Lee Odden and TopRank Marketing — Pandemic Cross-Country Skiing in Duluth, Minnesota: A Personal Timeline — Lane R. Ellis

Have you got your own top B2B content marketing or digital advertising stories from the past week of news? Please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for taking time to join us, and we hope you will join us again next Friday for more of the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news. Also, don't miss the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.

The post B2B Marketing News: Brands Spending More on Data, Spotify Turns Video Chats into Podcasts, & Consumers Trying More New Brands appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Health workers face a growing tide of hostility in Brazil for potentially spreading COVID-19.

In Washington State and Boston, two initiatives are helping prevent potatoes from being thrown out and milk from being poured down the drain. Gavino Garay has more.

A white former police officer and his son were arrested in Georgia on Thursday and charged with murder in the death of an unarmed black man, an incident that has sparked furor in the community and among civil rights activists across the United States. Gloria Tso reports.

Priest Don Giuseppe Castelvecchio hasn't been able to conduct services in his San Fiorano church for two months. In the town where restrictions are easing, his sermons delivered from a loud speaker in a car are a welcome relief. Joe Davies reports.

Rival lawmakers scuffled in Hong Kong's legislature on Friday in a row over electing the chairman of a key committee, a fresh sign of rising political tension as the coronavirus pandemic tapers off in the Chinese-ruled city. Francesca Lynagh reports.

Syria's government allowed mosques to open on Friday for worshipers willing to perform prayers. The mosque had remained closed as part of the measures taken to contain the spread of coronavirus.

Across Africa, centuries-old cultural traditions are being foregone in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen governments impose restrictions on gatherings and other practices around death and burial. Francesca Lynagh reports.

A campaign in Mexico City to get residents to wear face masks is now reinforced with a new secret weapon: clowns. They're telling metro riders, 'Wear a face mask -- don't be a clown!' as they spray riders' hands with disinfectant. Gavino Garay has more.

With a home office like no other, when Red Bull mountain biker Fabio Wibmer 'works', you can expect an array of insane tricks and stunts to keep his roommates company.

With a home office like no other, when Red Bull mountain biker Fabio Wibmer 'works', you can expect an array of insane tricks and stunts to keep his roommates company.

A young boy chooses a nurse as the superhero he wants to play with over Batman and Spiderman in a new artwork by Banksy that encapsulates the gratitude Britons have felt toward the country's National Health Service during the coronavirus crisis.

Not to be beaten by the virus, Landshut pub-owner Patrick Schmidt took his tent, rolled up the sides and condensed the annual Bavarian 'Dult' experience, where locals feast and drink on local specialities to their heart's content, into a drive-through culinary delight.

Two Humboldt penguins, Nacho and Goat, went on a field trip in the forest accompanied by their keepers at Oregon Zoo on Friday (May 1) in Portland, United States.

Not to be beaten by the virus, Landshut pub-owner Patrick Schmidt took his tent, rolled up the sides and condensed the annual Bavarian 'Dult' experience, where locals feast and drink on local specialities to their heart's content, into a drive-through culinary delight.

In Washington State and Boston, two initiatives are helping prevent potatoes from being thrown out and milk from being poured down the drain. Gavino Garay has more.

A campaign in Mexico City to get residents to wear face masks is now reinforced with a new secret weapon: clowns. They're telling metro riders, 'Wear a face mask -- don't be a clown!' as they spray riders' hands with disinfectant. Gavino Garay has more.

Sunny days and warm weather are proving to be as challenging to manage as restaurants, hair salons and other businesses as about half of U.S. states partially reopen their economies after the coronavirus lockdown. This report produced by Zachary Goelman.

The Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism on Monday for revealing one-third of Alaska's villages had no police protection, while the photography staff of Reuters won the breaking news photography award for documenting last year's violent protests in Hong Kong.

Facebook's new content oversight board will include a former prime minister, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and several constitutional law experts and rights advocates in its first 20 members.

Aides to U.S. President Trump say their 2020 campaign will now be focus on two themes: Trump is the only candidate who can resurrect the economy and that Democrats will not be as tough on China, a country Trump is blaming for the pandemic.

It's only 'Rock and Roll,' but one of the world's preeminent museums likes it; New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art will display instruments from Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, Kurt Cobain, Lady Gaga and more until October 1. Rough Cut. (No Reporter Narration.)

ट्विटर पर #AskKapil नंबर एक पर ट्रेंड कर रहा है। ऐसे में लोगों ने भी लॉकडाउन टाइम का परफैक्ट यूज करते हुए कपिल से ही मजेदार सवाल कर डाले। अपनी हाजिर जवाबी और सेंस ऑफ ह्यूमर के लिए मशहूर कपिल ने भी इन सभी को मजेदार अंदाज में जवाब दिया है। हालांकि उन्होंने ज्यादातर केवल उन्हीं सवालों का कोट किया जो उनकी निजी जिंदगी से जुड़े थे।

इस सेशन के दौरान मशहूर शायर राहत इंदौरी ने भी कपिल को टैग करते हुए अपना एक शेर लिखा-नींद से मेरा ताल्लुक़ ही नहीं बरसों से, ख़्वाब आ आ के मेरी छत पे टहलते क्यूंहैं ? इस ट्वीट को कपिल ने कोट करते हुए लिखा-एक बार जा के देख लीजिए छत पे कोई और ना सो रहा हो गुस्ताखी माफ़।

इसके अलावा ज्यादातर फैन्स ने उनसे फैमिली, शो और फिल्मों से जुड़े सवाल पूछे। वहीं कपिल ने लॉकडाउन के दौरान लोगों से घरों में रहने की अपील भी की ताकि उनके बीच संक्रमण न फैल सके। वहीं लॉकडाउन के बाद नेपाल में शो करने, फिल्म बनाने की बात भी कपिल ने की।

कुछ फनी ट्वीट्स भी किए : कपिल ने अपने अपने हंसमुख अंदाज के कारण फैन्स के उल्टे सवालों के भी मजेदार जवाब दिए। एक फैन ने कहा कि ये आस्क कपिल सेशन दिन भर चलाईए। किसी को कहीं जाना थोड़े है, सब वेले हैं। इस पर कपिल ने जवाब दिया कि- ऐसे कैसे, फिर बर्तन कौन धोएगा।

क घंटे में 9000 ट्वीट्स :#AskKapil सेशन के ट्विटर पर आते ही एक घंटे में इसके 9हजार ट्वीट्स हो गए। कपिल से जब एक फैन इस बारे में पूछा कि आपसे इतने सारे लोगों ने सवाल किया है लेकिन आपने जवाब केवल 50 लोगों के सवालों का ही दिया तो कपिल ने उन सभी फैन्स को शुक्रिया किया।

पॉपुलर गेम रियलिटी शो 'कौन बनेगा करोड़पति’ एक बार फिर टेलीविजन स्क्रीन पर लौट रहा है। कोरोना वायरस और लॉकडाउन के माहौल के बीच शो के होस्ट अभिताभ बच्चन ही केबीसीके 12वें सीजन में नजर आएंगे । खबर यह है कि शो के रजिस्ट्रेशन की प्रकिया 9 मई से शुरू हो रही है। केबीसीके इतिहास में यह पहली बार होगा जब शो के रजिस्ट्रेशन से लेकर पार्टिसिपेंट्स के चुनाव तक पूरी प्रोसेस ऑनलाइन होगी।

चैनल ने हाल ही में अपने इंस्टाग्राम अकाउंट पर शो से जुड़ा एक वीडियो शेयर किया है। वीडियो में अमिताभ बच्चन कहते हैं, ‘हर चीज को ब्रेक लग सकता है। नुक्कड़ की चाय को, चाय पर होने वाली हैलो-हाय को। सड़कों के साथ यारी को, ट्रिपल सीट सवारी को। हर चीज को ब्रेक लग सकता है। ऑफिस वारी चकरी को, आधी रात वाली तफरो को, शॉपिंग मॉल वाले प्यार को, चौराहे के यार को। हर चीज को ब्रेक लग सकता है, लेकिन एक चीज है जिसे कभी ब्रेक नहीं लग सकता है और वो है सपनों को’।

इस बार शो की टैगलाइन भी रोचक है और लोगों को कोरोना वायरस और लॉकडाउन की नेगेटिविटी से उबरने की प्रेरणा देती है। टैग लाइन है - 'हर चीज को ब्रेक लग सकता है...सपनों को नहीं'। लॉकडाउन की वजह से टीवी और बॉलीवुड का सारा काम बंद है। ऐसे में महानायक अमिताभ बच्चन ने ये प्रोमो वीडियो अपने घर पर ही शूट किया है।

क्विज शो और गेम से बढ़कर है केबीसी-नितेश तिवारी, लेखक-निर्देशक

हर साल जब भी हम केबीसी के बारे में सोचना शुरू करते हैं तो हम कई तरह की बारीकियों पर गौर करते हैं, ताकि एक प्रभावी प्रस्तुतीकरण बनाया जा सके। हालांकि इस बार हम जिस माहौल में हैं, उसी विषय को इस प्रोमो फिल्म में शामिल किया गया है। केबीसी लोगों के लिए सिर्फ एक गेम या क्विज नहीं है। यह इससे कहीं ज्यादा है। यह लोगों के सपने सच करने का एक बड़ा मौका है। हमारे देश की विविधता को ध्यान में रखते हुए कोई भी व्यक्ति सपने देखना नहीं छोड़ता। असल में सपने ही ज्यादा महत्वपूर्ण हो जाते हैं और यही इस फिल्म के पीछे का विचार है। हालांकि इस फिल्म की शूटिंग करना भी चुनौतीपूर्ण था। पहले मैंने खुद ही एक स्क्रैच फिल्म की शूटिंग की और इसे श्री बच्चन को दिखाने के लिए भेजा ताकि उन्हें मेरे विजन का आइडिया मिल सके। इसके बाद श्री बच्चन ने पूरी फिल्म खुद ही अपने घर पर शूट की। मैं उम्मीद करता हूं कि यह कैंपेन दर्शकों को पसंद आएगा और वे इसमें दिल खोलकर हिस्सा लेंगे।

It might be hard to imagine but space is getting crowded. ‘Space junk’ is becoming a dangerous hazard for orbiting satellites, and now some countries are joining forces to tackle it.

A European coalition is forming around an approach to using smartphone technology to trace coronavirus infections which, it's hoped, will enable borders to reopen. Joe Davies reports.

A town in southern Sweden has turned to a traditional source to try to prevent the coronavirus spreading during an annual festive event on Thursday: Chicken manure. Emer McCarthy reports.

Russell Howard, Nish Kumar, Jon Richardson and others help 'landlady' Kiri Pritchard-Mclean host 'The Big Comedy Quiz at The Covid Arms' and break a Guinness World Record.

Thousands of pink-plumed flamingos were spotted in a lake in India's western Maharashtra state on Friday.

Romans flocked to the city's bars and cafes for their caffeine fix on Tuesday - but only takeaway options are permitted.

Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary sits down with Reuters Tim Hepher to discuss challenges including industry-wide consolidation, environmental taxes, Brexit, the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX and his 5-year, 100 million euro bonus package. Watch here the full event.

Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, only the second woman to hold the position in Spanish history, speaks to Breakingviews Global Editor Rob Cox as Spain prepares to hold parliamentary elections on Nov. 10 for the second time in a year.

Reuters Breakingviews examines how Washington’s new paradigm on China is affecting Silicon Valley, from overseas investments to intellectual property protection to trade.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday that a UK-U.S. trade deal would be very difficult to agree, saying protectionist sentiment worldwide was making trade agreements harder to negotiate.

Tony Blair Reuters Newsmaker event on 'The challenging state of British politics’.

Three Indian soldiers were killed in a gunbattle with militants in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir on Monday, a day after a similar incident in which five were killed.

Pakistan has raised concerns with the United Arab Emirates that many citizens were returning home from the Gulf Arab state infected with COVID-19 and that crowded living conditions for workers in the UAE may be helping spread the virus, officials said on Tuesday.

Pakistan on Tuesday deferred for two months an inquiry into suspected contract violations by independent power producers which may have cost the national exchequer billions of dollars.

Afghan security forces arrested eight members of a network grouping Islamic State and Haqqani militants responsible for bloody attacks in the capital including on Sikh worshippers, the country's security agency said on Wednesday.

Pakistan's finance ministry will share part of the risk banks face in lending to struggling small businesses, in a bid to protect jobs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the central bank said on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka's central bank cut its benchmark interest rates by a further 50 basis points on Wednesday, its third reduction since the coronavirus crisis struck there in March.

Indian troops killed four militants in gun battles in Kashmir on Wednesday, including the commander of the biggest separatist group fighting New Delhi, a police official said, triggering clashes across the disputed region that left dozens injured.

The U.S. special envoy on Afghanistan is on a mission to press Taliban negotiators in Doha and officials in India and Pakistan to support reduced violence, speeding up intra-Afghan peace talks and cooperating on the coronavirus pandemic, the State Department said on Wednesday.

Pakistan's cabinet has declined to include a religious sect that rights group says suffers widespread persecution in a newly formed commission for minorities, after opposition from conservatives in the government, officials said on Thursday.

Pakistan will begin lifting its coronavirus lockdown on Saturday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said, hours after the country announced its highest daily increase in new cases.

More than a third of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Afghan capital have been among doctors and other healthcare staff, two senior health officials said on Thursday, in a sign that the war-torn country is struggling to deal with the pandemic.

Coronavirus cases in Pakistan surged past 25,000 on Friday, just hours before the government was due to lift lockdown measures, with the country reporting some of the biggest daily increases in new infections in the world.

Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents killed a provincial police chief and two others in a roadside bomb attack, the local governor said on Friday, in the latest violence hindering a U.S.-brokered peace process.

Seven people were killed when protesters angry over what they see as unfair food aid distribution during the coronavirus pandemic clashed with police in Afghanistan's western Ghor province on Saturday, according to a local member of parliament.

Artist Ryu Jong-dae experiments with various cornstarch-based bioplastic in the bid to protect the Earth. Rosanna Philpott reports.