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I’ve been looking at a lot of data this week. Sometimes after staring at spreadsheets too long, I see these data points as a thousand points of light – what do they tell us? What trends do they reveal?

Give this song by Neil Young a listen with me as we see what the experts (and the data) are saying this week…

HubSpot CRM Data

It’s all about the data, right? In looking at the HubSpot data through December 2021, we can see some interesting results compared to previous months:

  • Just about all sales and marketing activity was down in December – not a big surprise for year-end, and consistent with December 2020.
  • Sales Emails Sent remain below benchmark, as they have since the pandemic began – though Responses continue to sit well above.
  • While Deals Closed took a small dip in December with everything else, there was a drastic drop in Deals Created (down 90% from November!), bringing them the lowest they’ve been in 2+ years!

Some troubling statistics here – and we continue to see that an omnichannel approach to marketing is required to compete in today’s marketplace. Maybe there’s a warnin’ sign on the road ahead – what do you think? What are you seeing with your teams as we enter the new year?

A Man of the People? Neil Young, Spotify, and Numbers

You’ve probably heard the latest Spotify/Neil Young news (if not, you can get caught up here). Joe Rogan and Spotify may feel like Satan to Neil Young’s camp, but not to their own fans. Seeing how this has played out really got me thinking about audiences and target markets. You may remember I looked at Spotify’s ‘wrapped’ back in December, and Joe Rogan’s podcast was the top streamed for a second year running. So if Neil Young’s streaming numbers were higher, would Spotify have made a different decision? Of course!

Music subscriber market share data was released recently. Amazon Music once again out-performed Spotify in terms of growth (25% vs. 20%), but the standout success story was YouTube Music, growing by more than 50% in the 12 months leading up to Q2 2021.

YouTube Music was the only Western DSP to increase global market share in this period. It particularly resonates among Gen Z and younger Millennials, which should worry Spotify, as their core base of Millennial subscribers from the 2010s is now beginning to age.

How does this impact B2B? As always – make sure you’re targeting the right content to the right audience on the right platform. With competition on the rise, we’re seeing Spotify keep hope alive by assessing two opposing parties and making a business decision based on what the largest portion of their target market will consume (and where they have a vested interest).

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or just say hello.

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat, President | ricke@v-causeway.com | www.linkedin.com/in/rickendrulat