Hello Bidtellectuals!

This week’s Bidtellectual of the Week goes to all our Bidtellectuals (and partners!) weathering the crisis in Texas right now. We are thinking of you.

Weathering the Texas Storm

Government officials are calling the Texas weather disaster “a Katrina-scale crisis” and an “absolutely awful nightmare.” Many lost electricity, running water and cooking gas, and at least 31 deaths have been reported since the crisis began.

Aside from the loss of life, the weather has also wreaked havoc on houses and cars, especially the hailstorm that ravaged everything that came in the way. The cars were dented so badly that specialists who deal with such cases might be needed to take up the task of hail dent repair. Besides this, the roofs were also massacred.

However, thankfully, power is now being restored across the state. Now, homeowners will be looking to assess any damage that their property has suffered and determined what their next steps will be – for some, this may be calling someone similar to this Roof Repair Milwaukee company in their area to come out and repair their roof, and for others it could be getting an electrician out to fix any wiring that has been affected by the weather.

In Austin, the local power company said nearly 97% of its customers had power this morning. Not to mention, the storm’s damage to the rest of the area – houses, cars and farms seem of such little convenience compared to the loss of life that has been suffered. Still, there is help all around. From getting in contact with contractors like those found at this site – https://texasdamageconsultants.com to fix any damage houses may have suffered, and of course crisis teams are helping with supplying necessities like food and health supplies as well. After this horrendous outcome from the storm, homeowners are now trying to find ways in which they can prepare themselves in case it happens again, this can mean barricading doors with sandbags and installing secure fittings, to resealing their garage and using Outdoor car covers to protect their vehicles for an extra layer of protection. To our partners and clients, we are here for you. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Global Debt Reaches All Time High

Yikes. The wold’s global debt rose to an all-time high of $281 trillion by the end of 2020, or more than 355% of global GDP, according to the Institute of International Finance. Governments, companies and households raised trillions to offset the pandemic’s economic toll last year, and the hole is expected to deepen in 2021.

Holiday 2020 Review & ASOS Enters Programmatic

• eMarketer released the Holiday 2020 review and the numbers are GOOD!! Total retail spending was up 6.5% to $1.064 trillion. Cyber Monday was the heaviest online spending day in history, rising 15.6% to $10.78 billion. Overall, the holiday season performed better than expectations.
• ASOS’s new programmatic ad business may indicate a trend for retailers: build your own – especially as online ordering has boomed in 2020. “There will be a big trend of retail websites monetizing their users and media space more directly, as third-party cookies will prevent a lot of existing measurement from working, meaning planning will be more about the context of where you place an ad rather than following individual users across the web,” said John Barham, managing director of digital agency Roast.

trust.txt – The New Safety Guard?

Everyone – especially ad folks – is trying to restore trust in the news business as fears of misinformation and negative content are rampant. The latest answer is trust.txt: a machine-readable text file that news publishers add to their websites. The purpose of trust.txt is to distinguish legitimate news organizations from non-legitimate ones, in a way that’s optimized for a for automated processes like programmatic advertising and web crawling. Of course, like anything, it needs to scale and be adopted by a wide community for it to be worthwhile. Its success – or concept – remains uncertain.

Just Global Dick Reed Awards

Congratulations to the winners of Just Global’s second annual Dick Reed Awards!

Bidtellect was proud to be named a finalist for the Most Collaborative Partnership, and Sales Directors Jonno Burden and Lane Johnson were each nominated as finalists for Salesperson of the Year!

ICYMI: On 2020: A Reflection

2020 is over, right? At least it says so on the calendar. Read CEO Lon Otremba’s thoughtful reflection on 2020: its challenges, triumphs, and lessons – and what it could mean for 2021.

Read it here: Bidtellect’s 2020: What We Did & What We Learned

Case Study of the Week: Tax Solution Provider Beats CPA Goal By 76%

A leading tax preparation solution provider wanted to reach consumers and measure the direct action of those that started the tax filing process, but struggled with name recognition and tight budget. Read how Bidtellect overcame the challenges.

Stay safe,
Charlotte