Seat Of Influence
There’s a well-worn cycle in online advertising: One ad seller’s future existential threat is often its biggest revenue source. For a while, at least.
For instance, the long-time biggest ad spender on Google Search Ads was – and is – Amazon. And when TikTok exploded onto the US scene in 2019 and 2020, it was Snapchat’s biggest advertiser.
This dynamic partly explains why Perplexity and other LLMs are mounting massive social influencer marketing campaigns. Perplexity, for one, is hiring a new exec to run its creator program, Digiday reports. (The person who previously held the role – Perplexity declined to name names – is being promoted.)
It isn’t just Perplexity, though. OpenAI raised eyebrows last month when it hosted its first luxe influencer get-together with a sort of wellness-themed adult summer camp vibe. Anthropic is also courting influencers, while the biggies (Google and Microsoft) are reportedly offering deals worth hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece to influencers as a way to humanize their AI products.
Nice work if you can get it. But just ask authors how they feel about Amazon today or check in with news publishers about how their pivot-to-video investments with Facebook paid off.
It’s a tale as old as time. The thing that feeds you today might be fattening you up for its own feast tomorrow.
Ads Are Boss
Xbox is not giving up on its advertising ambitions.
The Microsoft-owned video game brand has spent years trying to figure out how to force ads on gamers, and it may finally have a “solution.” A recent Xbox patent filing viewed by Business Insider describes ads inserted at natural breaks in gameplay – after a player finishes a level, for example – plus the option to watch an ad in exchange for a stretch of ad-free play.
While the patent is still just an idea, it indicates how video game ads may eventually take shape.
But the holdup has never been technical. Microsoft has the data and the infrastructure to run ads; Business Insider reported in July that Xbox was already testing reward-based advertising. The hard part is gamers themselves, who tend to greet advertising with open hostility.
What Xbox ads will look like at scale, however, is still a question mark. Rewarded video is nothing new, but inserting ads at natural interruptions in gameplay is still a nascent trend.
Keep On Streamin’
Nielsen is changing how it measures real-time streaming trends, Vulture reports.
The measurement data company will now supply platforms and studios with daily updates on streaming numbers instead of doing it weekly. Nielsen will also start posting its weekly streaming top 10 charts much quicker than before, only 11 days after each reporting period closes.
The way Nielsen weighs and measures its data hasn’t actually changed, though, according to Brian Fuhrer, Nielsen’s SVP of product strategy. It’s just that the collection process has gotten faster over time, which now results in speedier reporting.
Of course, the change only applies to paying customers. Nielsen will continue to post its top 10 weekly streaming lists publicly, but won’t do so for the daily versions. Still, the weekly lists will be available several weeks earlier than they used to be.
Streaming services have always had faster turnaround times for their own viewership data compared to linear networks. But Nielsen’s update now gives them the ability to compare their shows against competitors faster.
Faster numbers also make for a faster sales pitch. A show that pops on Tuesday, for instance, can be shopped to advertisers by Wednesday, rather than a week later when the moment has passed.
But Wait! There’s More!
Supply-side platform 33Across rebrands as WealthStage, a digital advertising platform for financial services marketers. [release]
OpenAI is in early talks for yet another funding round, this one valued at $1.2 trillion. [The Information]
A 9-year-old charged $118,000 in three weeks to his father’s company credit card to buy YouTube ads promoting his Minecraft and Roblox videos after initially signing up for a $20 promotion. [Tom’s Hardware]
DoorDash invests $425 million in Wonder, a Marc Lore-owned chain of ghost kitchen food halls that is also the owner of Grubhub/Seamless. [TechCrunch]
Shady casino sites may be hiding serious malware infrastructure in plain sight. [The Register]
