Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Ads Vs. Cachet
The New York Times isn’t shy about castigating Meta for its central role in the creeptastic-sounding surveillance economy. But NYT is following the Facebook playbook of acquiring cool, ad-free properties, giving them a few months to acclimate, then plugging them full of ads.
Just this week, the Times rolled out advertising on The Athletic, the sports publisher it acquired earlier this year. And now Wordle, the daily word game that the NYT bought right around the time it snapped up The Athletic, is introducing ads, too, Ad Age reports.
Wordle ads will consist of standard display and video units as well as sponsored Wordles, which are essentially daily bonus puzzles with brand-related keywords that remain separate so as not to disturb the purity of the daily Wordle. The luggage brand Rimowa is up first.
Wordle had already been somewhat corporatized, since the one-time free game was pulled behind The Times paywall following the acquisition.
The Athletic and Wordle (not to mention Instagram or Oculus) were acquired in part for their prestige, not just their subscriber or user numbers. These are cool and buzzy properties, and The Times wants some of that buzzy coolness for itself.
But when you have an ad business, the beast must feed – and its favorite meal is fresh cachet.
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery
The clone wars is no longer a Star Wars reference. The real clone wars are happening on social media.
The clone wars started a decade ago when Facebook began a years-long campaign to copycat and diminish the growth of new Snapchat products. Since then, Facebook features have mimicked Snapchat’s AR and Stories posts, Pinterest’s photo-recognition features, the Clubhouse live audio boomlet, BeReal’s dual-camera mode and, of course, everything TikTok.
Yesterday, YouTube announced perhaps the most unabashed clone-job yet of TikTok, as it force shifts its advertiser base to better-performing TikTok-like videos (which YouTube calls Shorts). YouTube will auto-generate short, vertical video ads with serious TikTok vibes, including animated text inserts based on ad copy and metadata that brands can upload with their creative. The hoped-for result is a flood of content inspired by TikTok’s quintessential quick-to-the-point and emotion-based style. YouTube will even add a watermark when videos are downloaded to use elsewhere.
TikTok, for its part, announced a new product called TikTok Now, which will prompt users every day to update followers on where they are using the dual-facing camera in your phone. This is a blatant clone of BeReal, a French social media company that’s gained steam lately.
Frozen Blizzard
Microsoft’s $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has hit a roadblock placed by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The CMA will open an “in-depth investigation” into the deal on potential antitrust grounds. This “phase 2” investigation has a statutory deadline of March 1, 2023, so expect no sudden reversal. But the investigation comes at a time of heightened global scrutiny of Big Tech mergers.
Sony, which is Microsoft’s biggest competitor in console gaming (Microsoft already owns Xbox), has accused Microsoft of misleading regulators about its intentions to allow Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty series to be released on Sony PlayStations.
Microsoft claims it won’t make Call of Duty exclusive to its Xbox consoles, but Sony alleged that Microsoft will likely only adhere to the open standard for a few years should the deal go through. Sony is demanding Microsoft commit to cross-platform Call of Duty releases “on equal terms and in perpetuity.”
But Wait, There’s More!
Caught on tape: An Amazon exec threatened to shut down the ecommerce marketplace in Canada if competition reforms go forward. [The Logic]
Adobe will acquire Figma, a web and app design/collaboration platform, for $20 billion. [release]
The hybrid ad tech and sports content publisher Minute Media launched an SSP. [release]
These six ad tech unicorns reached $1 billion valuations in the past year, even after the market’s downturn. [Insider]
VC-backed digital media company Recurrent Ventures has acquired home-design-magazine-turned-digital-media-brand Dwell. [Axios]
You’re Hired!
Semcasting brings on Christy Ercolino as VP of sales for the West Coast. [release]
Out-of-home trade org OAAA appoints Jeff Jan as its head of industry initiatives. [release]
Adobe makes two new additions to its Legal, Security and Policy org. [LinkedIn]
Connatix names IAS vet Joseph Pergola as CFO. [release]
Memsource adds Jason Hemingway as VP of global marketing. [Adweek]
