The Daily: July's great big monthly advertising, media, and retail quiz—Travel, Threads, and Prime Day

On today's special episode, we continue our 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 keep a running score and will crown a winning team at the end of the year. Today, we cover how much the world is traveling again, how Amazon Prime Day did, the staying power of Threads, and more. Tune in to the discussion with this month's contestants: our analysts Carina Perkins, Max Willens, and Yory Wurmser.

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Episode Transcript:

Marcus Johnson:

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Max Willens:

Inflation is a really big piece of it. A lot of it too is the measurement challenges that we see in lots of areas that are driving lots of incremental spending, things like retail media, things like social video, and also a lot of uncertainty hanging over the web display markets.

Marcus Johnson:

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Great Big Advertising, Media, and Retail Quiz of the Month, July 2023. A special episode of the Behind the Numbers daily: an eMarketer Podcast, made possible by Verisk Marketing Solutions. This is our monthly show that discusses the biggest trends of the moment and the newest research, and bundles it up into a quiz with some analysis sprinkled in.

I'm your host, Marcus Johnson. Let's get to it. How does this episode work? Well, it's a big game show. Every month, three of our analyst teams, one, media and advertising, two, retail, and three, social marketing and tech, compete against each other. We're keeping a running score. At the end of the year, we'll crown a winning team who will win a gift card each and, of course, claim the crown jewel of professional sports, the Victoria Cup, a trophy designed in pottery class by our very own Victoria who edits the show. The quiz... You guys didn't seem too interested in the prizes, I'm not going to lie. That's sad to-

Max Willens:

I've already destroyed some family heirlooms to make space for the Victoria Cup. So-

Marcus Johnson:

As you should.

Max Willens:

Is that excited enough?

Marcus Johnson:

The quiz has three rounds, I Never Newsed That, Spoiled for Multiple Choice, and Closest Wins. Person with the most points at the end of the game wins the gold medal, and three super-duper points for their team's running total. Second place takes the silver and two super-duper points. Third place gets you a measly one super-duper point. Why even bother at that point? All right, let's meet this month's contestants who are representing the different teams I mentioned earlier. We start with the chap from the Digital Advertising and Media Team, Senior Analyst based out of Pennsylvania, ladies and gentlemen, it's Max Willens.

Max Willens:

Yo.

Marcus Johnson:

There he is. Representing the Retail Team, Senior Analyst from the South Coast of England is, of course, Carina Perkins.

Carina Perkins:

Hello.

Marcus Johnson:

Hello there. Finally, we have Co-Team Captain of the Social Marketing and Tech Team, Principal Analyst based out of New Jersey. He's back, ladies and gentlemen, it's Yory Wurmser.

Yory Wurmser:

Hey, everyone.

Marcus Johnson:

Hey, fella. How did it go last time, Yory? I can't remember how many points you got.

Yory Wurmser:

I think I came out on top last time I was out here.

Marcus Johnson:

Uh-oh. Fighting words. He did. He did indeed win the gold. But it's all to play for this time. Listeners, you can be your own team. Keep track of your points total and 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 this quiz in April, so after three rounds, Digital Advertising and Media is last with five points. Sorry, Max. Hopefully you can bring that back. Social Marketing and Tech, Yory's team, is next with six. Out in front for now, we'll see if Carina can hang onto that lead, is Retail with seven super-duper points. That's the overall super-duper points scores. We, of course, start in-game scores with everyone on zero. Stuart, who runs the team, will be keeping score of the game, of course.

Let's play. Round One: I Never Newsed That. In this round, we discuss the biggest stories of the moment with a question tied to each. Folks have five seconds to send their answers via Slack. One point for a correct answer. There are four questions in this round. First story, first related question, and we're talking about Amazon Prime Day. Prime Day gave us online shopping a 6% boost this year with sales nearly reaching $13 billion, according to Adobe Analytics, notes our very own Retail Briefings Analyst, Rachel Wolf.

That $13 billion includes money made on Prime Day, July 11th and 12th from other retailers, not just Amazon. She explains the average order size ticked up to $54 from $52 last year, according to Numerator, and two out of three households placed at least two orders. However, the question is, name one of the three, so potentially three that you can choose from, but just name one of the three top-selling categories on Prime Day. Name one of the three top-selling categories on Prime Day.

There's Slack answers coming in. Yory says electronics, Max says consumer electronics, and Carina also incorrectly says electronics. It was actually home goods, household essentials, and apparel and shoes, were the top sellers apparently. I was surprised to see that as well. So folks, why do we think that these were the top three selling categories, and not electronics like I would've guessed as well?

Max Willens:

I think discount size and depth is probably a big part of it. I haven't dug into data on this but, anecdotally, when I was combing through the offers, it seemed like a lot of the consumer electronic stuff relative to previous years was a little lighter. So 12% to 15% off AirPods or something is nice, but it's not going to make me sit up straight in my chair. Whereas a pair of sneakers available for 55% or 60% off is definitely why people are sitting at their computers on the morning of Prime Day in the first place. So, that would be my guess. I should have just based my answer purely on my own behavior because all I ever buy on Prime Day is discounted sneakers, much to my wife's dismay.

Carina Perkins:

I think it's really interesting to see household essentials in there as well, 'cause I think that really reflects consumer sentiment at the moment. I think that's a really interesting development that people are waiting for sales like Prime Day to buy their essentials.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah, absolutely. It was fascinating to see as well, shoppers are comparison shopping more. Half of folks who shopped on Amazon for Prime Day compared prices with other retailers. Half of folks. That's way up from 2021 when one third did. So, a lot more people comparison shopping. All right, folks. Let's move to question two. I'm talking about ad spending. When will US ad spend feel better?

So the US ad market spending grew in May for the first time in 11 months, according to Standard Media's US Ad Market Tracker, jumping 2.5% seems low, but the tracker fell into the red last July, 2022, and has stayed submerged every month ever since, battered by high inflation, rising interest rates and plenty of uncertainty. This year our Forecasting Team expect the US ad market to grow nearly 4%. That is down from 8% last year. So 8% last year, 4% this year for US ad spend.

But the question is, does our forecasting team expect next year's US ad spending growth rate to be higher, lower, or roughly the same as this year's 4%? Do we expect next year's US ad spending growth to be higher, lower, or about the same as this year's 4%? What do we think? What do we think? Max says higher. Carina says higher, and Yory also correctly says higher. It is indeed. Over 8%, you're expecting from next year, 4% this year, over 8% next year. So 8%, 4%, 8%, going from last year, this year, next year for US ad spending. Max, you are on the Digital Ad Team for us. What are your thoughts about some of the reasons why we're stuck at 4% this year and bouncing up to 8% next?

Max Willens:

Well, I think that the second part of the question is easier to answer than the first. Next year, we'll have a presidential election and an Olympics. Those are reliable bumpers for any ad market. I actually think it's a side of how persistent we think the Molez is going to be, that we expect it only to bump up 8%, especially because of how tepid it's going to be this year.

Really, there's a lot of things dragging things down. The inflation is a really big piece of it. A lot of it too is the measurement challenges that we see in lots of areas that are driving lots of incremental spending, things like retail media, things like social video, and also a lot of uncertainty hanging over the web display markets, which are about to get turned upside down by Google deprecating support for third party cookies.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah. Lots of events, as Max said, Paris Olympic and Paralympic games, the US presidential election, the 2024 UEFA, European Football Championships. Then yeah, it's 8% next year for total US digital ad spending. Digital, which has obviously grown incredibly strong last however many years. 8% this year, going up to 11% next year. It's not the kind of bump you'd expect from digital, but maybe this is the new normal for digital growth, especially considering that it's about 70%, 75% of the pie at this point. TV will actually have a bit of an upswing going from negative 8% in ad spend this year to +1 for next year which, for TV, will be pretty impressive.

Max Willens:

Thank your local presidential and congressional candidate for that one.

Marcus Johnson:

Yep. So, everyone's off the board. One point a piece, as we go into question three in the round. Are people traveling as much as they used to? We're talking some travel. So a recent economist article notes, "Tour operators are inundated with bookings, hotel chains are raking in record profits." They say, "Major low-cost European airline EasyJet keeps raising its earnings forecast, and International Airlines Group and Ryanair are both back in the black following the pandemic."

All told, 2023 worldwide tourist arrivals are expected to reach 95% of pre-pandemic levels, up from 63% in 2022. This was a prediction from the UN's World Tourism Organization. But things are still expensive and folks aren't flushed with discretionary income as they continue to reel from high inflation. The question is, in your home market... So Carina, for you, that's the UK. Max and Yory, the US. In your home market, what was the inflation rate in June. In your home market, what was the inflation rate in June?

Max and Yory are going for a different answer than Carina. Carina, very specifically, says 7.9%. Max says 4%, and Yory says 3.3%. So Yory gets the point because it's 3%. Max, you're a little far away with 4%. It was 4% last month, 3% this month. Carina, 0.2% for 7.9%. So Carina and Yory get a point. Max, close but no cigar. Both fell a point. US and UK inflation both fell a point, but the UK fell from closer to 9% to closer to 8%. The US fell from 4% to 3%, that's May to June.

Most of the major economies are lower than the UK. Germany, 6.4%. India, about 5%. France, 4.5%. Japan, just over 3%. Carina, in the UK. To see it still that high, given that in the US it was about 9% last summer at the peak of things, how is the consumer sentiment around inflation at this point? Is it, it's come down so people are feeling a lot better? Or is it still, considering it's stuck at 8%, pretty harmful for people's wallets?

Carina Perkins:

Actually, consumer spending has been remarkably resilient despite really high inflation in this country. Inflation is high here because we've had the impact of the war between Russia and Ukraine. That's affected the whole of Europe really. We've had food inflation in double digits. Then in the UK, we've also had the implications of Brexit to deal with, which has pushed up prices in some areas.

So I think, actually, we've seen quite resilient spending. I think though that, not only is inflation quite high, but interest rates have also been going up and that is also going to increase costs for homeowners. So, I think that people are going to be slightly encouraged that inflation is not increasing so quickly, but prices are still rising. So I don't think we're going to see everyone suddenly rush out to spend their money.

Max Willens:

It's funny. I feel like, in the US, there's a lot of cautious optimism that the second half of this year is going to be a little less rocky than the first. But I feel like every time I think about the UK, I imagine it going the opposite direction, just because when the winter shows up, everyone's got to heat their homes again and energy prices are probably still going to be bananas in the UK. Does that sound right to you, Carina and Marcus? Would you guys see on the horizon for the UK?

Carina Perkins:

It sounds about right. From an energy perspective, we're in a better place than we were. Energy prices have come down quite a lot, although I think European gas prices have started to go up again a little bit, but we are in a better place. But, you're absolutely right. The cost of fuel is much, much higher than it was, and that's having a big impact on people's budgets.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah, I think Carina is spot on. I'm over in the UK at the moment, and one of the main things that I've heard in conversations in the last week is people saying, "Hey, my energy bill did just go down by a heck of a lot," which is some reprieve, but things still aren't, aren't fantastic. Let's move to our final question of the round, folks. We're talking about threads, of course.

Threads is here. Meta-owned Twitter arrival Threads launched at the start of July, to much fanfare. The new conversation app lets folks post twice as many characters, and videos that are twice as long as Twitter. But, as of right now, Threads has no direct messaging capabilities, hashtags, or post editing features. The question is though, who did Threads take the most rapidly downloaded App crown from? Who did Threads take the most rapidly downloaded App crown from? What do we think, folks?

Max says TikTok, Carina says Temu, and Yory correctly says ChatGPT. ChatGPT is the answer. So it took ChatGPT two months to reach 100 million users. TikTok, it took them nine months, I believe. But yeah, ChatGPT is the answer. All good guesses though, folks. So Yory gets the points, and we've finished I Never Newsed That. Let's take a look at the scores before we head to the next round. Yory out in front with three points. No one should be surprised, given his previous performance. Carina has two. Max has won. There's still plenty to play for, folks.

We move, of course, to the second round. It's called, spoiled for Multiple Choice. This is the multiple choice round where we dig a little deeper into one of the topics from round one. This month, we'll focus this round on Threads trivia. So one point for a correct answer, three questions in this round. Question One, Threads was able to acquire over a 100 million users within a week after launching, in large part because Meta made it really easy to set up a Threads account for Instagram users. Some estimates have Threads at over 150 million users already.

Twitter, who Threads is seen to be going up against has 360 million users worldwide, 3-6-0 million users worldwide. However, we forecast that number is falling, has been since last year. The question is. Over the next two years, so by 2025, how many users do we estimate Twitter will lose worldwide? How many users do we estimate Twitter will lose worldwide over the next two years? 10 million, 20 million, or 30 million? 10, 20 or 30?

Answers coming in. Yory says 10. Max says 20. Carina says 20. The answer is 30 million. 30 million, somehow. We expect, I think it's 10 million in the US. So Yory, you said 10 million. That's correct for the US. Worldwide, we're expecting a rather surprising 30 million users to stop using Twitter. For context, Twitter has that 360 million users. Snapchat has twice as many Worldwide. TikTok has nearly three times as many as Twitter worldwide, but we are expecting Twitter users to fall.

Folks, what have we made of the arrival of Threads? Max, I think I've talked to you about this on one of the weekly listens. But Carina, Yory, any thoughts on the platform and its staying power?

Yory Wurmser:

It's a little early to tell, I think. It doesn't have a lot of the features that X has. I guess we have to start using X, right?

Marcus Johnson:

Oh yeah, we do.

Yory Wurmser:

The logo has popped up onto the site. But I'd say they'll iterate pretty quickly. I'm unsure though. I don't think it's a slam dunk it'll be able to have staying power.

Marcus Johnson:

Carina, any buzz in the UK about this new app?

Carina Perkins:

A little bit, but I'm with Yory in that I'm a bit skeptical, at the moment, about it.

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah, maybe it's too soon. It's only a few weeks in, in this instant gratification culture. We want answers. We want them now. Question Two, let's go there. We're still talking about Threads. One of our latest reports is from our Principal Analyst who covers social for us, Jasmine Enberg. She writes that, "Twitter and Instagram have plenty of user overlap." So, there are plenty of folks who use both Twitter and Instagram. Plenty of overlap. The question is, what share of US Instagram users used Twitter as of June last year?

So, this is months before Elon Musk's takeover. What share of US Instagram users used Twitter? So if there are a 100 Instagram users in America, how many of them used Twitter as well as Instagram, as of June last year? According to our US Digital Trust benchmark survey, was it 42% of Instagram users who use Twitter? Was it 57%? Or, was it 75%? 42%, 57%, or 75%? Answers are in. Yory says 57%, Max says 42%, and Carina says 57%. The correct answer is 57%. So Carina and Yory get a point a piece. 57% in terms of overlap.

Max Willens:

You are going to have to scrub my presence out of this episode. This does not look good.

Marcus Johnson:

We'll just cut your whole section out.

Max Willens:

Yeah, this is the joy of having access to all of our forecasts at the tip of a finger. I don't have to retain it in my brain, I can just look them up. I will say though, I don't want to rehash the rant I uncorked about Threads in that weekly listen episode, but I think that Threads-

Marcus Johnson:

Max doesn't think it's going to be around for very long.

Max Willens:

I do not.

Marcus Johnson:

To summarize.

Max Willens:

They basically... It's funny, during that conversation, you brought up Lemonade, which was supposed to kill Instagram after ByteDance introduced it, and I'm pretty sure that Lemonade is already on life support. Basically, all of these copycat apps essentially struggle for a lot of similar reasons, which is that they don't have a clear use case that is appealing enough to the core user base. So saying, "It's like Twitter but without the news and politics," is, to me, not a very appealing brand proposition at all. It's certainly not for a large scale social platform. So I think that's something that is going to be a significant challenge to them as they continue to roll forward.

Yory Wurmser:

The difference with Lemonade is, people are desperate for an alternative to Twitter right now, or a lot of people are. So there's a big desire for jumping onto something, but the network effect isn't there yet. So, who's going to be the first one there? It could be Bluesky. It could be Mastodon. I don't think Mastodon's ever going to do it. It could be Threads. But I think there is going to be an alternative to Twitter, I just don't know which one's going win out, and at what time.

Marcus Johnson:

I wonder if the alternative is TikTok or Instagram. It's not the same platform, obviously, they're not head-to-head competitors. But in terms of time spent, maybe people spend less time there, they take that time elsewhere.

Max Willens:

I think there's a version of events where it's something like Discord too. That user paradigm is different, but it is a place where you can chat along about... I think about the way that I used it. One of the key things that I first fell in love with Twitter for is being able to use it as a running chat room when watching sporting events. Twitter is still great for that, but I'm in a couple Discord servers that have effectively replaced that when I watch certain teams and leagues. So if Discord can carefully build something where there's maybe one room or server that's great for the presidential debates, for example, or other big tent political moments, it might be able to carve some share out too. But, we'll have to see.

Marcus Johnson:

It's nice to talk through your feelings when you watch the Knicks lose so regularly. So, I can see why that would-

Max Willens:

It's definitely... It helps me get it all out. Yeah.

Marcus Johnson:

All right, folks. Let's move to Question Three. Final question of the round. Twitter traffic fell in the first days of Threads launching, according to data from SimilarWeb and CloudFlare. Over that time, the first few weeks of Threads launching, over half of US Twitter account owners said they were very or somewhat likely to try Threads in the next few weeks, per Ipsos.

But which group of folks was most likely to try Threads in the few weeks after it launched? Which group of folks was most likely to try Threads in the few weeks after it launched? Was it A, creators. B, Twitter account owners. Or C, Instagram account owners? Which group of folks was most likely to try Threads? Creators, Twitter account owners, or Instagram account owners? Last person.

Carina Perkins:

Sorry.

Marcus Johnson:

You know who you are. Carina said creators.

Carina Perkins:

I had a bit of a delay in understanding the question. It took a while to filter into my brain.

Marcus Johnson:

It's not my best written question. They're all pretty rubbish.

Carina Perkins:

Yeah, the delivery was questionable.

Marcus Johnson:

Okay. I was just trying to be nice, Carina. Don't pile on. Max says creators, Carina says creators, and Yory says creators. You're all correct. It's, of course, creators. You guys all get a point. Overall, 34% of the total group of folks surveyed said they were likely to give Threads a whirl in the few weeks after it came out. So, a third of people saying they'll give it a try. Also, quite interesting, this is from an Ipsos survey, 17% of US Twitter account owners, so nearly one in five US Twitter account owners, were very likely to or already had migrated their Twitter activity to Threads. So, I thought that was interesting. Some folks saying-

Max Willens:

They'll be back over.

Marcus Johnson:

They're [inaudible 00:24:00] over there. Probably, yeah. Folks, that's all we got time for. For the second round, Spoiled for Multiple Choice, let's check the scores. After two rounds. Yory's still out in front with five, Carina with four, but Max is just behind that with two. There's, of course, all to play for as we move into our highest scoring round. This is Closest Wins.

This is the round where the closest guess wins the most points. Three questions. The closest guess gets three points. Second-closest gets two, furthest gets one. So Max, even though you're at the back, within a question or two, you could be leading. So, it's all to play for still. If you get the first one wrong, then you're probably in real trouble, and no real point of continuing on. But for now, you're in good shape.

So we start with Question One, and we're referring back to three of the topics that we talked about in the first round. So Prime Day, ad spend, and travel. They're our three questions. So first question in Closest Wins, Prime Day, talking about prime memberships, what share of US or UK, based on your home market, what share of your home market, US or UK, households have a prime membership, according to our forecasts? What share of US or UK households have a prime membership, according to our forecasts? What do we think? Yory says 70%. Max says 40%.

Max Willens:

It's too late to ask now, but is this closest-

Marcus Johnson:

Max, do you live in America? My goodness, man. 40%? Sorry, go on. What's your question?

Max Willens:

Is this highest without going over, or just closest to the number, whether you overshoot it or not?

Marcus Johnson:

Yeah, just closest to the number. Yeah. So it's the point differential, plus/minus differential.

Yory Wurmser:

Max is playing Price is Right rules.

Marcus Johnson:

A lot of people who play all kinds of... People think they're playing all kinds of game shows that they're not actually on. So, Yory almost hit it right on the nose. Yory said 70%. The answer for the US is 71%. Yory said 70%, so he was one percentage point away. Max was, well, you know.

Max Willens:

I was teasing. I was teasing.

Marcus Johnson:

It wasn't close. Yeah.

Max Willens:

I was kidding.

Marcus Johnson:

It was really far away. Max said 40%. That's miles away. Carina said 70%. The answer for the UK is 64%. So, Carina was just six off. So Yory is first, Carina is second, Max is a horrendously distant third. But the answers are 71% of households have Prime in the US, and 64% in the UK.

Carina Perkins:

I had the US figures in my brain there.

Marcus Johnson:

Oh, I see. Yes. Yeah, you did. You did indeed. But both quite high shares. The US continuing to climb. The UK's share is flattening out now. But, the US will get to 75% in a couple of years time, which is just insane. We move to our second question of the round. We're talking ad spend again, we're talking about mobile ad spend specifically. What share of all advertising dollars in the US, or the UK for Carina, are spent on mobile? What share of advertising dollars in the US or UK are spent on mobile?

Carina Perkins:

That's all advertising, not just digital?

Marcus Johnson:

Total. Yes, indeed. Yep. Good clarifier. Carina says 35%, Max says 51%, and Yory says 45%. Very close indeed, gents. Carina, you're way off. The real answer is 49% in the US, so Max was just two off. Yory, with his answer, was just four off. Carina in the UK at 61%, so Carina was... We won't give it a numerical value, we'll just say way off. Carina was way off.

Carina Perkins:

Way off.

Marcus Johnson:

So Max gets three points, Yory gets two, Carina gets one. It's very nice folks. The US will just cross the 50% mark next year for mobile share of total ad spend. Which, I was quite surprised to see it hadn't reached halfway. The UK, out in front with 61% share for mobile. All right, folks. We're on to our final question of the round. Let's check the scores. Yory is way out in front, he's actually won. So Yory, if you want to sit this one out, you're welcome to. Or you can play, win this question and crush your opponent. So, it's up to you. Yory has 10 points, Carina has seven, Max has six. So we're playing for silver, folks. We're playing for silver and bronze.

So we're talking about travel for the final question. Travel intentions, more specifically. Travel News and Guides website, The Vacationer, asked Americans in May where they intended to travel this summer. The options were domestic only, international only, both, fancy, and I won't travel. But, what share said domestic only? What share of Americans in May said that they intended to travel this summer, but domestic only. No one has any idea. There are no answers. Here they come. Max says 36%, Carina says 55%, and Yory apparently conducted the survey because he spot on with 62%. The answer is 62%. Yory, that's too accurate. Why are you cheating?

Carina Perkins:

Yeah. Yory, I'm starting to get a bit suspicious now.

Yory Wurmser:

That, believe it or not, was a lucky guess. I had 60% and I was like, "Let's put a little twist on it."

Carina Perkins:

I nearly went for 61%, and then I decided it was going to be too high. So I'm [inaudible 00:29:46].

Marcus Johnson:

You've got to go instinct here. You've got to instinct. So Yory gets three points, Carina gets two, and Max gets one point, for that final round. So 62% said domestic only, 17% said both, just 6% said international only, and 15% of people said they won't be traveling this summer. All right, folks. Let's head to the scores. We don't need the entirely two random tie-break question. We move straight to the leaderboard and, of course, no surprises because he'd already won halfway through the round. But Yory, he is the winner of this week's quiz of the something, I don't know what it's called, the title's too long. But, Yory wins. He gets the gold medal and three super-duper points. Congratulations to him.

Yory Wurmser:

Thank you.

Marcus Johnson:

In second place, you may have worked it out, but Carina takes the silver and two super-duper-

Carina Perkins:

Yes.

Marcus Johnson:

Points for her team, for Retail. And Max comes in a lowly third, with a bronze medal and one super-duper points. Close between you guys at the back, but that's how the cookie crumbles, as no one says. Well played, folks. Thanks for playing. Let's look at the total scores. Where's the total leaderboard? It's over here Stuart, have you updated it already?

Stuart:

Updated.

Marcus Johnson:

Wow.

Stuart:

Updated.

Marcus Johnson:

Finally doing your job, sir.

Stuart:

Thank you. I'd also like to say that Yory is in high contention for MVP.

Marcus Johnson:

He is, yeah.

Stuart:

He's definitely leading the MVP race.

Marcus Johnson:

He is indeed. We will be giving away our most valuable player award. Of course, we will not be calling it the Michael Jordan trophy because that's bias. Poor LeBron James. We'll call it the Mark Dolliver award. For folks who have been with the company for a while, long time listeners, you know who I'm talking about. Mark Dolliver used to work for the company, always on the weekly listen, most valuable player of everything.

Yory Wurmser:

It will be a great honor, to whoever wins it, to win the Mark Dolliver.

Marcus Johnson:

All right, folks. Let's check the overall scores, the total points leaderboard for the teams. Max was representing Advertising and Media. He took home the bronze, one super-duper point, bringing his team's total to six. Carina brought home the silver, two super-duper points, and she was playing for Retail. That brings their overall total to nine. Yory, who was playing for Social Marketing and Tech, brought home three super-duper points. Again, really, Yory, you should just come on every week because your team's really letting you down. Nine points total for that team as well. Three super-duper points for Yory gives the team a total of nine, so you would've worked out that Social Marketing and Tech are tied with nine as well, alongside Retail, and Advertising and Media is way back.

Max Willens:

We're going to mount a furious comeback, just you wait. By we, I mean someone else on my team because I barely know what it does.

Marcus Johnson:

Well, thank you guys so much for playing today. You've been great sports. Congratulations to Max.

Max Willens:

Always a pleasure, Marcus.

Marcus Johnson:

Congrats to Carina.

Carina Perkins:

Thanks, Marcus. Fun to be on.

Marcus Johnson:

And most congrats, of course to Yory.

Yory Wurmser:

Always a pleasure.

Marcus Johnson:

Thank you guys so, so much for being part of this month's quiz. Thank you, of course, to Victoria who edits the show and fashions the cup. Thank you to James who copy edits the show, and Stuart who runs the team, and is finally getting good at keeping the score. Thanks to everyone listening. We'll be back with the August quiz at the end of August. We hope to see you tomorrow though for the Behind the Numbers weekly listen, an eMarket podcast made possible by Verisk Marketing Solutions.