Outta The Box
Back in the long, long ago – as in, 2017 – Apple News made a tentative step into programmatic territory via an ad sales partnership with NBCUniversal. The arrangement brought programmatic plumbing – ad servers and measurement from vendors like Celtra, Kargo, Moat and IAS – into Apple’s tightly controlled walled garden.
That program is no more, but now it’s NBC that’s doing the outsourcing. NBC News has struck a major ad reseller deal with Taboola, which will be its exclusive programmatic display reseller, Axios reports. Other ad tech platforms will still be able to buy NBC News display inventory, but must do so through Taboola.
It’s an eyebrow-raising deal in part because many people hear “Taboola” and still think primarily of clickbait and chumboxes. For that reason, seeing a brand like NBC News lean on Taboola as its exclusive programmatic display reseller is bound to rankle.
But optics aside, this is exactly the business Taboola has been building toward. Now a public company, Taboola has signed ad resale deals specifically for programmatic display with the likes of Microsoft, Apple News and TV manufacturer LG, which, as of this January, began using Taboola for audience extension campaigns on the web.
NBC News will still sell its direct video and native advertising packages. But when it comes to web banners, it’s outsourcing the maze of ecosystem partners to Taboola.
Deep Six
Who’s ready for another social app – or, more accurately, the resurrection of an old one you probably haven’t thought about in years?
That’s right! Vine is back – sort of – as an unaffiliated (but, we mean, c’mon, look at the name) six-second video-sharing app called Divine, which comes preloaded with more than two million original Vines pulled from volunteers and sites that had archived old posts.
The obvious question is, how will it monetize? “We’re certainly not closed to ads,” Divine CMO Alice Chan tells Digiday. But there will be no ads to start.
There is a sponsor, though. Through mid-September, Divine will feature Taco Bell’s current campaign, which leans into mid-2010s nostalgia, including by reviving menu items the chain dropped in 2016, the year Vine went away.
Divine hopes to build a user base by banning and aggressively policing AI‑generated content. It will also forgo an algorithmic feed and personalized ads.
That kind of ad-free idealism often runs out of steam, but Divine can learn from the mistakes of others.
“As far as we can,” Chan says, “we want to avoid that ‘trap’ of being in that monoculture of a single ad algorithm, which is what has rewarded all the negative behavior on social media, because those platforms really just reward engagement.”
Vertical Video Killed The TV Star
When it comes to data on what people want to watch and buy, mobile has a big edge over TV, writes Mike Shields at Next in Media.
And it seems that advertisers – and broadcasters – are starting to notice.
Social video ad spend is already growing faster than CTV spend, according to the IAB. Plus, there’s a new generation of brands, particularly SMBs, that are social media natives. And they “find social to be more effective in delivering across the purchase funnel than CTV,” the IAB’s Chris Bruderle tells Shields.
Meanwhile, smart TVs, for all their data-driven bells and whistles, don’t seem much more capable of understanding consumers than dumb TVs outside of content recommendations that are the same for pretty much everyone. There’s no insight into purchase intent, with shoppable TV yet to truly take off.
Besides, TV is fighting an uphill battle. Social is dominated by a few big players that claim audiences in the billions, whereas the streaming and TV OS markets are more fragmented. It’s part of why the FCC undoing ownership limits on TV broadcasters is often framed as a way to help increase competition with Big Tech.
That dynamic is also why TV broadcasters are embracing vertical video. In fact, media pundit Evan Shapiro tells Shields that he expects syndicating premium content into vertical formats – think turning “Friends” into a TikTok-friendly microdrama – could be the next big TV trend.
But Wait! There’s More!
YouTube Shorts is drawing more ad spend, but still needs to crack social budgets. [Digiday]
Google Ads now lets advertisers target and bid more on “loyalty program members.” [Search Engine Roundtable]
Target’s profits rebound thanks in part to positive performance by its retail media network Roundel. [Adweek]
The majority of US adults are more concerned than excited about AI, with pessimism especially prevalent in adults under 30. [The Washington Post]
As OpenAI and Anthropic continue to battle for the title of most popular LLM, OpenAI promises to introduce new safety systems that – unlike Anthropic’s – won’t retain a business’s data. [WSJ]
You’re Hired!
OpenX CTO Joel Meyer is the new chairman of Prebid.org. [post]
CTV marketing platform MNTN appoints former Snap exec Frank Lee as SVP of agency partnerships. [release]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
