The Daily: The great big monthly advertising, media, and retail quiz - May

Audio by Ross Benes, Blake Droesch, and Debra Aho Williamson | May 30, 2023

On today's special episode, we continue our new monthly show where we discuss the biggest trends of the moment and the newest research, sprinkle in some analysis, and bundle it up into a quiz. Every month, three of our analysts representing their respective coverage area teams compete against each other. (We also encourage you to play along at home.) We’ll keep a running score all year and crown a winning team at the end of the year. Today, we cover Google reinventing search, Amazon's grocery strategy, and what Twitter appointing a new CEO means for growth. Tune in to the discussion with this month's contestants: our analysts Ross Benes, Blake Droesch, and Debra Aho Williamson.

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Episode Transcript:

Marcus Johnson:

Hello everyone and welcome to the great big advertising media and retail quiz of the month, May 2023 edition, a special episode of the Behind the Numbers Daily, an eMarketer podcast made possible by InMobi.

This is our new monthly show that discusses the biggest trends of the moment and newest research and bundles it up into a quiz with some analysis sprinkled in. I'm your host, Marcus Johnson.

How does this episode work? Well, it's basically a big game show, so feel free to play along. Every month, three of our analyst teams, we've got media and advertising, we've got retail, and then we've got the final one is social marketing and technology, they'll compete against each other. We'll keep a running score all year and crown a winning team at the end of the year who will win a gift card each and of course claim the greatest prize of all, the Victoria Cup, a trophy designed in pottery class by our very own Victoria, who edits the show.

So the quiz has three rounds called I Never Newsed That, Spoiled for Multiple Choice, and Closest Wins. The person with the most points at the end of the game wins the gold medal, three super-duper points for their teams running total. Second place takes the silver, two super-duper points. Third place gets you a disapproving glance, a bronze and a hideously low one super-duper point. So there's lot to play for. It's not really, but...

All right, let's meet this month's contestants who are representing the different teams I mentioned earlier from the digital advertising and media team, Senior Analyst based out of New York, it's Ross Benes.

Ross Benes:

Hey Marcus. Now that I realize that this is a year long thing, I feel pressure to not let Paul and Evelyn and Max down.

Marcus Johnson:

Well, especially because Paul got off to a horrible start. So you really have to carry the team. Let's see how he does.

From the retail team, Senior Analyst based out of New York as well, it's Blake Droesch, ladies and gentlemen.

Blake Droesch:

Hey Marcus. I would say I'm happy to be here, but I'm really not so sure if I am, I didn't listen to the first episode and I don't don't know what to expect.

Marcus Johnson:

Terrific. We made Blake come against his will, but thanks Blake for being here. Like most episodes, to be honest.

From the social marketing and tech team, Principal Analyst who heads up our social marketing and tech team based out of Washington state, it's Debra Aho Williamson.

Debra Aho Williamson:

Hey everybody. And unlike Blake, I did listen to the last episode-

Marcus Johnson:

Oh, she's prepped.

Debra Aho Williamson:

... And I have prepped with some notes on some reports that we've written, so let's see if that helps me.

Marcus Johnson:

Oh, very nice. Very nice. Folks-

Ross Benes:

It seems like me and Blake already going to get smoked.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah, probably.

Debra Aho Williamson:

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying I prepared. Let's just see if I prepared the right things.

Marcus Johnson:

Exactly. So the folks don't know what's coming. So let's see if Debbie's guessed correctly. So if you're listening, you can also be your own team. Keep track of how many points you score and you can match your score against these three folks at the end to see if you beat them. Speaking of scores, let's check in on the overall team scores thus far. We started the quiz last month, Yuri took home three points for team social marketing and technology, so Debbie's team.

Debra Aho Williamson:

Woohoo.

Marcus Johnson:

Susie stole two points for the retail team. Blake is playing for that team today.

And Paul scraped together a singular point for the digital advertising media team. Ross is going to try to make up some of Paul's awful shortcomings.

Ross Benes:

Well, I appreciate his precedent of setting low expectations. That's-

Marcus Johnson:

That's true.

Ross Benes:

... That's something I can admire.

Marcus Johnson:

Stewart, who runs the team, will be keeping score of the game today.

Let's play folks. First round. I Never Newsed That.

This is a round where we discuss a few of the biggest stories of the moment with a question tied to each. After I read the question, contestants have five seconds to send answers to me via Slack. One point for a correct answer. There's four questions in this round.

So first story and first related question. So is Google reinventing search? In its annual developer's conference on May 10th. Google said it will be putting AI into virtually every major Google product from Google Docs to Gmail. So folks can write emails and entire presentations with images from text prompts. But Sara Morrison of Vox notes, the biggest changes are coming to Google's bread and butter, search. As Jason Aten of Inc questions, "What if the top of the search results page no longer is a series of blue links, but instead as recently demonstrated, the first thing people will see when they search is an interactive AI section that generates an answer based on all the information it finds?"

The question for you folks though related to Google is, in what year did Google's search ad revenue share peak in the US? In what year did Google's search ad revenue share peak in the US?

Those answers coming in via Slack.

What do you think? Which year did their share peak?

Okay, answers are in. So Debbie says 2022, Blake says 2019 and Ross says 2015. Ross was closest, but this isn't closest wins. So no points for anyone. It was you could have had 2016 or 2017, it peaked at 67%.

Today, Google's search ad revenue share is at 52%. So 15 point drop since 2016 and 2017 it's for Google. Amazon is still way behind with 22%, Microsoft and Apple with 5 a piece.

Ross, you cover this space for us. What do you think of Google and this idea of them reinventing search? How can you see AI affecting its business, search business?

Ross Benes:

Well, they have to be reactive in embedding AI because everyone else is using it. Microsoft's got off to a pretty hard start with AI. So I just see them investing in it as part of what the rest of the market is and they don't want to be left behind and they don't want to lose the share that they have.

Marcus Johnson:

Jason Aten was noting, so Google's still going to show traditional links below that section, but the reality is that people don't scroll below the fold. So whatever's at the top is probably what people are going to use. And if that's spitting out one answer as opposed to a bunch of links, that could really change the game.

Good guesses folks.

Debbie, I would've said a lot more recent as well. I was stunned that their share's been going down since then, but that obviously doesn't mean their dollars are going down, so they can lose share but still be making a ton of money

Debra Aho Williamson:

And that's why I went with 2022. Because I thought, oh, well that I misread the question or misheard the question. I think I thought it was when was their dollar amount highest? And I thought, oh-

Marcus Johnson:

Ah, okay.

Debra Aho Williamson:

... Well Google's having trouble. So it was probably last year.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah, yeah, looking at, yeah, I was just looking at their advertising dollars. So yeah, Google advertising, it did tick down by a fraction in Q1 and the quarter before that it was down by another 4%. So you're right. Yeah, if it was Google advertising year-on-year, they have seen declines the last two quarters consecutively, but we were looking for share, so Debbie just missed that one. But no one get got any points, Debbie, so don't feel bad.

We'll move to question two. Why isn't Amazon checking out of groceries? Adam Gallagher and Jinjoo Lee note that Amazon is still barely scratching the surface of the grocery market despite years of efforts. Its physical stores accounted for less than 4% of total revenue for Amazon. Physical stores, less than 4% of total revenue for Amazon according to its earnings. Numerator thinks its share of the US grocery space is closer to 3%. Share of the US grocery space closer to 3%. But in its Q1 results, which of Amazon's line items grew the fastest? In its Q1 results, which of Amazon's line items grew the fastest?

Answers please.

Debra Aho Williamson:

What is a line item? Like a business division?

Marcus Johnson:

The business units. Yeah.

Debra Aho Williamson:

Oh. Okay.

Marcus Johnson:

Divisions. Exactly. Yep.

Okay. Ross and Blake say advertising. Debbie says AWS, which is of course their cloud business. It is close, but it was Amazon's advertising services 21%. So Debbie, you said AWS, that grew by 16%. So that was the third most actually. Yeah, third party seller services was in second place and then yeah, AWS was in third, but first was advertising services.

So a point to Blake and a point to Ross.

Ross Benes:

I've already totaled Paul, so I feel good about this.

Marcus Johnson:

He didn't get one point total. He just, after the end, he got just one because he was in the last place, but his score was still pretty low. So you could have also matched his in-game score.

Blake, you cover retail for us, what do you make of Amazon still kind of believing in its physical stores and in groceries and trying to compete with a giant like Walmart? What'd you make of where it's at, at the moment?

Blake Droesch:

Yeah. When it comes to Amazon, I think they're reckoning with the fact that a lot of the growth in advertising is coming from CPG advertisers and that's who they're really trying to court. And even though we've seen digital penetration from packaged food and beverage brands really rise over the last couple of years, the majority of those sales still occur offline in physical stores.

So really when it comes to their investments in the physical space, it's really all about just investing in omnichannel so you can meet the shoppers where they are when it comes to these types of CPG products and then continue to be able to court advertising dollars from CPG brands. So when you talk, whether it's advertising or physical stores, I mean it's really all part of just the Amazon flywheel in general.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah. Yeah. And lucky for Amazon, they have a lot of different business units, line items, divisions that they can rely on. We expect ad revenues to grow for Amazon 17% for the full year to $34 billion and then accelerate next year to 21% crossing the $40 billion mark.

Let's move to our third question. Are we still in an ad downturn? In real terms ad spending is doing just fine, suggests a recent Digiday article, arguing that the ad market is simply correcting itself after the pandemic. The piece points to Google, the largest ad seller, posting constant currency ad revenue in Q1 of 3% year-on-year. Meta was up around 7%. Ad spending on Microsoft grew 6. Amazon's ad business grew, as we mentioned, over 20%. The question is this year we expect total US digital ad spending growth to be at its lowest point since what major event of the last 15 years?

This year we expect total US digital and spending growth to be at its lowest points since what major event of the last 15 years?

So what do we think folks?

Debbie and Blake both say the recession and they would be correct. Ross said the pandemic a good guess as well, but it is the recession just under 8%. The recession of 2008, The Great Recession, the financial crash, had a negative 3% for digital ad spending. There was a dip during the pandemic, but it didn't go down as much as we would've expected. But yeah, we think US digital ad spending growth, it's going to be stuck around 10% each of the next few years. And as I mentioned, it's going to be just under 8% this year.

Debra Aho Williamson:

I'll just say that I was here when we were eMarketer before Insider Intelligence in the 2008 market crash and recession and that was a scary time. We're very happy that advertising rebounded and I'm assuming that the same thing is going to happen eventually with this current downturn, but it's not great for sure.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah. Digital in particular. So digital ad spending growth may be at this new, lower than usual normal, in terms of growth but its share of the ad pie is still growing. So digital will account for 75% of the ad pie today and cross 80% in three years time. So it's still doing a lot better than the rest of the ad market.

Let's move to our final question of the round. Twitter's new CEO was just announced. Elon Musk recently said that former head of advertising at NBC Universal Linda Yaccarino would become the new Twitter... I know some of you with hoping that that was going to be the question, but no, no easy points here people.

The former head of advertising at NBC Universal, Linda Yaccarino would become the new Twitter boss in July. Elon Musk would remain on as obviously owner, executive chairman, and CTO as well. The hope here is that Ms. Yaccarino's background in advertising could help Twitter, which has seen its as sales drop sharply since Mr. Musk's takeover folks this year we expect 17.5% of Americans, 17.5% of Americans to use Twitter. In what year will that share fall below 15% share of Americans using Twitter. What year will that share fall below 15%?

Blake says 2026. Ross says 2025.

Debra Aho Williamson:

My computer is so slow.

Marcus Johnson:

That's okay, you're good.

Debra Aho Williamson:

I'm going to go.

Marcus Johnson:

And Debbie says 2024.

Ross is right with 2025, it's going to go to 13.7%.

This is staggering. So today, 33% of Americans read a print newspaper, 25% of people in the country use Pinterest, but 16% of people use Twitter and Rahul Chadha, one of our colleagues was noting that it doesn't have the share of users that would suggest that it is as big of a platform as maybe some of the headlines, some of the coverage suggest. Debbie, what did you make of this new Twitter CEO appointment?

Debra Aho Williamson:

Oh, well, it was a very interesting development for sure. Starting with when Elon Musk tweeted, before Linda had even told her bosses that she was leaving. He didn't say her name, but he got the press going and yeah, I mean she's got a lot of work to ahead of her to turn around the advertiser industry's impression of Twitter. They've already were leaving Twitter before Elon Musk came and then that sped up after Musk started making lots of changes that didn't appeal to a lot of advertisers. There were brand safety concerns.

And she's got the challenge of just really figuring out how to manage Elon. My colleague, Jasmine Enberg has done some amazing research and thinking about Twitter and basically she thinks that it's going to possibly be able to turn around under Linda, but she's definitely got some challenges ahead of her.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah, cautiously optimistic. One thing they've got to do, which I've spoken to Jasmine about is stem the bleeding of the user declines. We are forecasting that they're going to lose users in the US and worldwide over the next couple of years. Ad revenue, we made a significant cut to our ad spending for Twitter as well.

As I mentioned, there are a lot of other things people are doing in America, more so than using Twitter. One of them is next year, more Americans will log into Reddit than will use Twitter, so she's got her work cut out for her.

All right, let's check the scores After round one, I would check the scores, but Stewart who runs the team is not doing his job even slightly. The sheet is empty. Did you start a new sheet, Stewart? What the hell is going on? There is nothing here.

Stewart:

So Marcus, go to the May tab because this is the May game.

Marcus Johnson:

Oh, he's, he's added tabs folks.

Stewart:

And then I'll fix the-

Marcus Johnson:

Stewart got bored in the background. He's been adding tabs.

Blake Droesch:

Sounds like Stewart's been exceeding in his job.

Marcus Johnson:

You've really got above-

Stewart:

That's four points for Blake.

Marcus Johnson:

... and beyond. Don't add points for Blake, please. Take those away.

Stewart:

Is there a bell?

Marcus Johnson:

Stewart's really on the above and beyond with your score keeping? Okay, the tab. Yeah, I see it now. Thank you. It's my mistake.

So Blake and Ross have two apiece after round one. Debbie just behind with one point, but still all to play for folks. We move to our second round, Spoiled for Multiple Choice.

This is the multiple choice round, obviously, where we dig a little deeper into one of the topics from round one and this month we'll focus this round on Twitter related trivia.

One point for a correct answer, three questions in this round. We'll move a little faster for this one.

Question one, today we expect Twitter to make $1.68 billion from advertising, $1.68 billion from advertising in the US. By 2025 or Twitter make more than 1.68 billion, less, or the same amount? Will Twitter make more, less, or the same amount from advertising by 2025?

Debbie says less, Ross says less and Blake says less. The answer is less. 1.46 billion. So a point each please, Stewart, for each of the contestants.

It's going to be 13% less than they will make this year and this year's numbers down 30% from 2022. Debbie, do you see? I mean, it's going to take a lot to maybe change that in the next couple of updates to the forecast, but we weren't expecting Twitter to be going down before Mr. Musk took over, correct?

Debra Aho Williamson:

No, this is definitely a reflection of Musk being involved and advertisers being much less interested in advertising on Twitter. I will say this forecast was completed before the news of the new CEO,-

Marcus Johnson:

Good point.

Debra Aho Williamson:

... Linda Yaccarino joining.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah.

Debra Aho Williamson:

So we obviously will be watching very closely what she does in the next couple of months, and so when we do our next revision, things could change. But for now, yes, you're exactly right. We're estimating about a 30% decline in revenue this year for Twitter in the US.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah, so 30% decline this year in Twitter's revenue. Yeah, significant downgrade from what we previously had.

Let's move to our second question of the round this year, 17.5% of the US population will use Twitter, 17.5%, but which generation will see the largest percentage point fall? So we're talking percentage point fall in terms of percentage of population. So if it was 50% of the population and it went down to 45%, that'd be a 5 point drop. So which generation will see the largest percentage point fall for percentage of population, using Twitter, gen Z, millennial, gen X or boomers?

Ross says gen Z. Debbie says Gen X and Blake says millennials. The answer is millennials. So a point to Blake, 4.6 percentage points from 25% of the population to nearly 20% of the population using Twitter for millennials, gen X will fall just over four points to nearly 13%.

So the picture by 2025, 24% of Gen Zs will use Twitter, 20% of millennials, 13% of Gen Xs, and just 6% of the older Boomer folks using Twitter.

Let's move to our third question as noted in a recent article by our Social Media Principal Analyst, Jasmine Enberg, who Debbie aforementioned. Spending by Twitter's top 10 advertisers such as Amazon, IBM, and Coca-Cola plummeted by what percentage? The timeframe is from September/October to February/March of this year. So spending by Twitter's top 10 advertisers between that time period, September/October to February/March of this year, fell by how much according to Sensor Tower, 70%, 80% or 90%? How much did spending fall by Twitter's top 10 advertisers during that timeframe?

Debbie says 70%, Ross says 70 as well, and Blake says 70 as well. The staggering reality is apparently 90%, according to Sensor Tower. Spending fell from over $70 million for those top 10 folks to closer to 7. Yeah. You would've thought 70 would've been bad enough. But no, apparently not.

Debbie, Elon Musk was cited as saying that he thinks advertisers are actually coming back to the platform. Maybe not all the ones that left, but they are starting to give Twitter a second look. What's your take of where advertisers are at this point when it comes to advertising on Twitter? Are they that close to flocking back to the platform?

Debra Aho Williamson:

Well, I would say, and this is based on my conversations in reading of Jasmine's research, they're cautiously optimistic. And so it's mostly at this point based on the reputation of Linda Yaccarino. When she was at NBC Universal, she was a very strong leader for that company and helped NBC Universal continue to make revenue and Ross would know this better than I would. But as linear television has lost its dominance, she made a good case for NBC over the years. And so the thinking is that perhaps with Twitter being in sort of an underdog position as well, that she might be able to work similar magic on Twitter. So, cautiously optimistic is the term.

Marcus Johnson:

And she's managing I think slightly fewer people as well than she was at NBC Universal, because Twitter cut its staff back. They're close... I think a less than 2000 now. She was managing about 2000 folks there. Yeah [inaudible 00:22:39]

Debra Aho Williamson:

I would imagine she's probably working with a lot fewer people, which may or may not be a good thing. Right? I mean, you know, need salespeople to go out and sell the product, but yeah, she's got her work cut out for her. But I do think some advertisers I think are going to be willing to give Twitter another look with Linda in charge.

Marcus Johnson:

Right. Right. And she's working with a different type of person as well, a lot of developers. So maybe she's going to focus more on those sales folks, but it is definitely a different crowd in terms of what those folks are doing at the company.

All right, let's check the scores after two rounds. What do we have?

Well, Blake has jumped out in front with four points. Ross just behind with three. Debbie just behind that with two points.

Debra Aho Williamson:

Yikes.

Marcus Johnson:

So Blake, Ross, Debbie. But Debbie, we're into final round now it's called Closest Wins and there are entirely too many points going around for this round.

So similar to I think, was it Susie who was in last place coming into the final round? She managed to pull out second place. So lots of points to give out in this rounds or to play for.

It's time for Closest Wins.

This is the round where the closest guest wins the most points. Three questions, closest guess for each gets three points. Second-closest gets two, furthest gets one.

So question one, Google reinventing search, we're circling back to the topics we had in the first round. Starting your search is what we're talking about.

What Share of Americans will start their search on YouTube when shopping online? What share of Americans will start their search on YouTube when shopping online?

This is according to a March 2023 Jungle Scout study.

So what do we have? Blake says 15, Ross says 20, and Debbie says 14.

So Ross had 20 that is closest. Blake is in second place with 15. Debbie, 14% just behind that.

25%, believe it or not, of people will start their shopping search on YouTube. That's good enough for fourth place of all the places people could start their shopping search. Amazon, 56% of people start there, search engines 42%, walmart.com, 31% and then YouTube 25%, just behind that. So Ross gets the most points, three points, Blake gets two, Debbie gets one.

Folks, hat do you think of that? People starting their shopping searches on YouTube. 25% of people.

Ross Benes:

I mean, when I buy baby products that are way harder to put together than they should be. I watch YouTube videos to see how long is this going to take me and am I too stupid to complete this? So I get the appeal because there's a lot of reviews and assembly videos on there for anything you want to buy.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah.

Blake Droesch:

Yeah. I also think that people look to content creators and experts to get a really valued opinion. YouTube is actually a good place to really cut through the noise and get opinions from people who are actually experts in the field.

Debra Aho Williamson:

I just feel like though search engines are just so much easier. With YouTube, I've tried searching for things before to learn about something and you just have to wade through a lot of videos. You're not sure if the video's actually going to be what you want it to be. Obviously Google and YouTube are the same company, but I just feel like the Google interface is just so much cleaner and easier to navigate.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah, I wonder how much of it is just force of habit. People spending time on those platforms and just living in those platforms and so therefore more likely to go to those platforms without actually thinking through what's going to be the better shopping experience. Because the share of folks starting their shopping search on Amazon and search engines has fallen since the last time they did the study. I think back in fall of last year, the share starting on walmart.com, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok all grew, more people spending time on those platforms when they're starting their shopping.

Question two about Amazon and ad share. So by 2025, Google will have a 25% slice of the digital ad pie in the US, 25% by 2025. Meta's slice will be 18%, but what share of the US digital ad pie will Amazon have by 2025? What share of the US digital ad pie will Amazon have in third place behind Google with 25 and meta with 18?

The suspense. So Debbie says 14, Ross says 13, Blake says 14 as well. Oh, so two people with the same number. That's not happened before, but the right answer is 15. So Debbie and Blake tied with 14. Ross said 13. So Debbie and Blake both get three points each in joint first. Ross will get... Well, let's go to Stewart who is doing the scores for us. Stewart, does he get second place or does he have to get relegated to third and just the point?

Stewart:

Oh wow, we have to look into the rule book for this one.

Marcus Johnson:

Check the bylaws.

Stewart:

I think he gets a second place.

Marcus Johnson:

A second place. Very generous. Very generous. Very generous.

Ross Benes:

That is very generous. Like MLB wildcard standings would amount to be that much generosity.

Marcus Johnson:

So two points for Ross in second place?

Final question folks, and it has to do with ad spending, but total media growth for the final question. Let's check the scores before we go to the final, final question.

Blake has 9, Ross has 8 and Debbie has 6. So Debbie, you can still steal second place with a big answer here. Let's see how they do folks.

So total media growth is what we're talking about. We mentioned earlier that we expect digital ad spending in the US to grow about 8% this year. How much will total US ad spending grow in 2023? How much will total US ad spending grow in 2023? And I'm looking for traditional plus digital to the decimal, if you wouldn't mind. Traditional... Oh that's right, Debbie. Yeah. Don't mess about here on the big quiz of the month, traditional plus digital to the decimal, growth this year for ad spending.

Blake says 6.5, Debbie says 4.1, Ross says 4.3. The correct answer is lower than all of that 3.8. So Debbie was closest with 4.1. Then it is Ross with 4.3 and then it is Blake with a terribly optimistic 6.5%.

Yeah, it's interesting. All flavors of traditional media are shrinking except digital and out of home, but digital and out of home aren't growing enough to get growth above the 4% mark.

So Debbie gets three points, Ross with two, Blake with one.

So as I mentioned, under 4% growth for total media ad spending in the US this year. However, we expect growth to more than double next year for ad spending. 4% this year, 3.8, over 8% next year. But that's driven by a ton of events which have crept up on me at least, paris Olympics 2024, there's a US election, the Men's Euro 2024 football tournament and just an improving economic climate as well. So we're expecting growth to go up a lot next year for total ad spending.

All right folks, at the end of the game we check the scores and Debbie with 9 points in third place, but it's a tie. It's a tie between Blake and Ross with 10 points each. Oh, what does that mean? Well-

Ross Benes:

I'm glad Stu gave me that favorable ranking there.

Debra Aho Williamson:

No.

Blake Droesch:

Yeah, I didn't compliment Stew once.

Marcus Johnson:

Blake take up the lead.

Debra Aho Williamson:

Wait a second. I thought you got second place after and then there was a tie for first. So I get second place and not third?

Marcus Johnson:

No, because you can't have a tie for the whole overall game.

Ross Benes:

According to the made up bylaws.

Debra Aho Williamson:

Oh, I want to see the rule book on that one.

Marcus Johnson:

According to the made up rule book. Yeah.

So we've got to find a winner, we need to find someone for first and someone for second.

So we move of course to the entirely too random tie-break question.

Here we go.

Debra Aho Williamson:

Do I get to play?

Marcus Johnson:

Blake against Ross.

You can Debbie, but it won't technically count.

Debra Aho Williamson:

But it doesn't count?

Marcus Johnson:

Well, you can participate if you want much the same as Stew and Victoria, but there won't be any points awarded unfortunately.

Okay, here we go. Blake and Ross, and also Debbie and Victoria and Stew and everyone else.

Ross Benes:

And if Debbie gets it right, it's like she won the NIT.

Marcus Johnson:

Maybe we should go all or nothing. All or nothing.

No, I'm kidding.

Debra Aho Williamson:

I don't like that.

Marcus Johnson:

It's not all on all or nothing. It's not all or nothing.

Debra Aho Williamson:

I'm just going to go on mute here and let you guys battle it out. I'm done.

Marcus Johnson:

All right, here we go. Send it in via Slack as quick as you can. You have five seconds.

What percentage of all national park land... I told you it was random... What percentage of all the national park land, you took all the national parks, there are 63 in the US... Took them all and looking at the land mass share of land, what percentage of all national park land is just in Alaska? What percentage of all of a national park land is just in Alaska in the US?

Blake says 25%, Ross says 40%. And the correct answer is a staggering 70% of all of the national park land in the US is in Alaska. I think Alaska has like 8 of the top 10 in the country. And every time I look at a map, I'm stunned just how big Alaska is. If this doesn't make sense to you look at it from above.

But it's 70%, which means Ross gets the win for the game, he had 40%, Blake had 25. So Ross gets the tie-break. He is the winner, he gets the gold three super-duper points for him, Blake gets the silver with two and Debbie with the bronze with one. Super-duper point.

Congratulations folks.

Debra Aho Williamson:

So much for all my preparation.

Ross Benes:

Oh. Thank you.

Blake Droesch:

Yes. I mean-

Ross Benes:

So close.

Blake Droesch:

... What can you do? I've never been to Alaska and I don't know, I don't really spend much time reading up on National Park statistics.

Marcus Johnson:

Come on Blake [inaudible 00:33:01] all together.

Blake Droesch:

I'm sorry.

Ross Benes:

I mean I was still like 30 percentage points off so I got closer but not that close.

Blake Droesch:

So is like all of Alaska National Park basically?

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah.

Blake Droesch:

Yeah. Okay.

Marcus Johnson:

It's huge. So we've got the overall scores here. Ross, you won? Yes. So Ross with three, Blake with two.

Oh bloody hell.

Okay, so we move of course to have a look at the leaderboard after today's game.

So Ross had the gold with three points. Blake had to give the silver and Debbie had won for the bronze. But after two months we're all tied up because Ross came in first, but Paul on his team came in last game. So they have a total of four points. Blake got two points this game as Suzy got two last time. So they have a total of four and Debbie had won this round and Yuri had three the last time. So they also have four.

So all the teams are knotted up heading into June, folks. Man, this is-

Debra Aho Williamson:

It's exciting.

Ross Benes:

It's riveting.

Marcus Johnson:

... It's better than succession. I haven't seen it, but apparently it's good.

That's all we've got time for this episode. Thank you so much to my guests. Thank you, in turn, thank you to Debbie.

Debra Aho Williamson:

Well thank you, I think.

Marcus Johnson:

Thank you to Blake.

Blake Droesch:

Thanks for having me.

Marcus Johnson:

Thank you to Ross.

Ross Benes:

Thanks for making me a champion, Marcus.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah, always. You can thank Stewart who threw the game in your favor.

Thank you to Victoria who edits the show, James who copy edits it, and Stewart who runs the team and does the scores on the side.

Thanks to everyone listening in to the Behind the Numbers Daily, a special edition, an eMarketer podcast made possible by InMobi. You can tune in tomorrow to listen to the re-Imagining retail show where Sara Lebow is going to be speaking with Analyst Sky Canaves and chap you just heard from, Blake Droesch, all about retail memberships.

We'll see you next month for the next quiz.