The Poisoned Apple Apple has been secretly buying app download ads on behalf of apps as a way to secure iOS subscription fees in perpetuity, according to a Forbes report. Google won’t delete the ads, though they’re placed without the knowledge or consent of the app developers, including Bumble, Tinder, HBO, Masterclass and Babbel, the […]
Whose Free Lunch? Amazon may rebrand IMDb TV, its free ad-supported streaming service, because employees fear the clunky name is a drag on sign-ups, The Information reports. The waffling between IMDb TV, Freedive or some variation of Free TV is amusing. But perhaps the most interesting morsel comes at the very end. “While the business […]
The Location Equation Location data companies have seen an uptick in inquiries from government officials and public health groups, The Washington Post reports. It’s no surprise – health officials and local governments had to track the effects of quarantine measures as well as next-order impacts on public services, such as transportation. Though the applications are […]
Trust, But DoubleVerify DoubleVerify is dropping $150 million to acquire OpenSlate, another ad verification and analytics company. OpenSlate is a specialist in digital and streaming video. Last year, OpenSlate made a risky business choice when it defied a change in the YouTube measurement program shielding accounts from brand safety vendors. (A video of violent or […]
The Coca-Cola Of Accounts WPP won the pitch of the year: Coca-Cola’s media, creative and data agency business. The new account is “unparalleled in our industry in terms of breadth and depth of capabilities,” said WPP CEO Mark Read in a release. The fusion of creative, media and mar tech is indicative of a trend […]
IAB Europe; IAB You’re Up The IAB Europe published a blog post on Friday with the news that the Belgian data protection authority (the APD) will find the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), the industry mechanism for conveying consent signals in the bidstream, to be in breach of GDPR. The decision hinges on the IAB […]
The Fortresses Of Anti-Solitude It’s worth reading at length, but a Q&A between Ben Thompson of Stratechery and Eric Seufert, writer of Mobile Dev Memo, elaborates on platform advertising dynamics, particularly for self-attributing networks like Facebook, Snapchat and Apple. Will ATT and Apple’s privacy policies prove more damaging than expected to platforms like Facebook or […]
The Power Player ID When Google said earlier this year that it wouldn’t support email-based identifiers, it also made a concession to publishers called publisher-provided IDs (PPIDs). Now, PPIDs – which are primarily based on emails collected by publishers – will be available to Google DV360 advertisers. That’s a big advantage for DV360, but Google […]
A Commanding Performance Google is expanding Performance Max, a product introduced last year that buys across YouTube, Maps, Search, Gmail, Google’s display network and Discover, which includes the product discovery and shopping feed. Check out the blog post. As part of the move, Google Local Marketing campaigns and Smart Shopping, a retail-sponsored product solution, will […]
Screen Dreams Has social media outgrown the phone? YouTube may be the biggest player in streaming TV, but other social platforms are eager to follow, spurred on by ecommerce dollars. Late last week, Pinterest announced Pinterest TV, a content app that can be downloaded to Apple or Android TV systems. It’s a natural next step […]
The Value Of Loyalty Retailers are all-in on loyalty programs – which means earmarking serious growth marketing budgets to acquire new subscribers or members. These campaigns typically target regular or high-spending customers who aren’t already part of the loyalty program. That makes intuitive sense for consumers and marketers alike … right? That’s the question at the […]
Hitting For The Cycle 2021 is an off-year, in terms of the four-year election cycle. But political advertising is scorching – and politicians have a few specific demands for digital. For one, the idea of “forced video” exposure is critical, said Megan Clasen, a partner at the political ads shop Gambit Strategies, in a Q&A […]
Spot Me Some Change Spotify reported quarterly revenues of $2.9 billion, with about $375 million of that coming from its free, ad-supported tier. That’s a nice 75% year-over-year jump for Spotify’s advertising business. The company expects to clear $1 billion in ad revenue at the close of 2021, which will mark the first time it’s […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Slow Burn Amid a continuous onslaught of negative headlines, Facebook reported slower revenue growth on Monday as a result of, yep, Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency framework. And Facebook warned that the road ahead will remain rocky. Facebook’s Q3 revenue grew 35% to $29.01 billion, missing expectations […]
Shortchanging YouTube? Are advertisers caught up in the CTV hype? Mike Shields thinks so. In a recent Substack post, he suggests advertisers ditch the various CTV walled gardens and head over to YouTube instead. There are thousands of streaming services, but YouTube and Netflix still corner about 47% of the market and haven’t lost share […]
Pry-vacy Cases The myriad antitrust cases filed against Silicon Valley giants rarely result in legal action. Mostly what you see are record-breaking fines – for the regulators, that is. But these fines hardly break the bank for Big Tech. What’s $300 million here and $1 billion there? It’s monopoly money, after all. More often the darts […]
Squeaky Clean The Disney Advertising Sales group just launched its own data clean room, with assists from the first-party data service providers Snowflake, Habu and InfoSum. It’s no coincidence that earlier this week Snowflake unveiled its Media Data Cloud, a platform to combine first-party data sets for advertising and analytics with Disney and Habu as […]
Party Like It’s 95 Google Chrome 95, the latest browser version, was released from beta on Wednesday. It won’t make marketers quake in their boots, but this is the first version of Chrome that will allow people to opt in to a reduced user-agent string, which is the data passed to a site operator regarding […]
Wait, Wait … Addressable Linear? AMC Networks announced a partnership with The Trade Desk and Magnite to run addressable ads on linear TV. “This is a huge development, for us and for the entire industry, unlocking the value of linear inventory,” said Evan Adlman, SVP of advanced advertising and digital partnerships at AMC Networks. AMC […]
A Stitcher In Time Kargo Global has acquired the online retail advertising company StitcherAds for $64 million. StitcherAds, an Irish startup, specializes in selling on social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, whereas Kargo’s main business is placing ads on the mobile web or within a network of app publishers. “We realized we were […]
Spend Money To Make Money The proliferation of companies launching ancillary advertising businesses is a boon to total ad spend. Buy-now-pay-later players Affirm, Klarna, Afterpay and PayPal spent a combined $52.45 million on TV, print and digital media from January to September this year, Business Insider reports. That’s up 130% from last year. BNPL companies […]
Do Me A Favor Amazon told Congress in 2019 that it doesn’t favor Amazon-owned brands in search results. But that isn’t credible to sellers, who time and again see Amazon rivals shoot into the top three search results immediately. A former Amazon employee told The Markup that Amazon reserved a top search spot for new […]
Platform Peril Seemingly every grocery chain now has a programmatic platform, not to mention Lowe’s, Home Depot, Instacart, GoPuff and buy-now-pay-later companies like Afterpay and Klarna, to be joined soon by Uber, perhaps Shopify and who knows who else. Many of these companies – the BNPLs and all the mobile app-based businesses – got into […]
AndroidTrackingTransparency For smartphone owners with Android 12 or higher, Google has created a new location data option that allows users to share “approximate location data” that’s accurate to within a mile or so, unlike the granular targeting data often in use by mapping or directions apps. This means app developers can request permission for some […]
How Blockbusters Survive Netflix The latest Bond flick, “No Time to Die,” and the Marvel movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” kindled hope for cinemas with blockbuster ticket sales. But Hollywood won’t return to pre-pandemic standards. For one thing, only action or horror movie franchises have performed, “particularly when they are offered […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Deliver Or Delay The global supply chain crunch is hitting the ad industry, even before the Q4 holiday shopping season moves into high gear. Brands and their creative and media agencies plan campaigns months or a year ahead. But those campaign rollouts are being […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Big Game Amazon CEO Andy Jessy (Jeff who?) issued a bold statement at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle this week. “In the case of games, we have a belief that that could end up being the largest category in entertainment over a long period […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Creative Galaxy Snap is fending off competitors with new money-making tools for creators, Variety reports. Next month, Snapchat will launch Spotlight Challenges, cash bonuses ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 for accounts with top views in categories like “Best Trick Shot.” The tool is a […]
Begun, The CDP Wars Have The CDP startup mParticle raised $150 million, bringing its total fundraising to $272 million. mParticle is valued at $800 million, Business Insider reports. The valuation is a smidge short of the billion-dollar club – an arbitrary benchmark, though the CDPs Amperity, Tealium and Segment all recently reached unicorn status. mParticle […]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Ecommerce Byte? TikTok parent company ByteDance is looking to take on Amazon and Alibaba with its own global ecommerce platform, Business Insider reports. The company hopes to expand its online shopping platform outside of China, which could launch as a stand-alone app or within […]
