P&G Cuts Costs But Ups Standards; Elizabeth Warren Talks Google, Apple & Amazon

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign-up here.

Pains & Gains

Procter & Gamble cut its total agency and ad production costs almost in half in the past two years, from $2 billion to just over $1 billion, but maintains it has upped creative standards in the process. “What we found, and I think a lot of brands would say this, is that we were just throwing too much stuff out there. We’re trying to turn down the noise and turn up the quality,” said global brand officer Marc Pritchard in an interview with Ad Age. Pritchard also said he’s open to sharing the language from P&G agency contracts if it helps the buy side improve transparency in media buying. More.

Getting Political

The hegemony of Google, Apple and Amazon stifles competition and snuffs the little guy, says Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. “Google, Apple and Amazon have created disruptive technologies that changed the world, and … they deserve to be highly profitable and successful,” Warren said during a speech this week. “But the opportunity to compete must remain open for new entrants and smaller competitors that want their chance to change the world again.” More at Recode.

Brexit’s Bouncing Ball

Unless the UK can satisfy EU regulatory concerns following its vote to exit the union, it may suffer the same fate the US did when the EU struck down the Safe Harbor agreement [AdExchanger coverage]. British companies wouldn’t be able to store information about EU citizens on their servers, The Wall Street Journal reports. That would be a headache for agencies and ad tech companies, as well as cloud service providers like Microsoft and Amazon. The issue is still up in the air and may not matter for years (or ever), but “the more the UK tries to distance itself from the EU, the harder [it will be] for UK companies to prove that they are safe recipients of data,” said privacy lawyer Eduardo Ustaran. More.

Bears And Elephants

After CNBC reported earlier this week that the Donald Trump campaign was working with Rocket Fuel and its [x+1] acquisition – or at least that Ghostery showed those tags present on the campaign site – the company stock jumped more than 20%. The price has since equalized a bit, but shares are still up for the week. Barron’s cites Mark Kelley of Citigroup, who was unfazed by the brief surge. “We continue to be sellers of FUEL based on our longer-term view of the take rate pressure the company will see as it makes the transition to a self-service offering.”

But Wait, There’s More!