Snap Rolls Out Story Studio; Criteo Acquires Ad Tech Startup Mabaya

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Snap Story

Snap introduced a standalone video editing app called Story Studio at the company’s annual Partner Summit on Thursday. That new app comes on the heels of Snap’s launch of a TikTok clone called Spotlight. Story Studio was among a slew of announcements at Snap’s Partner Summit, including augmented reality features for creators and developers. The company also said Spotlight reaches 125 million monthly active users (as of January, TikTok had 689 million MAUs). Story Studio is in part a response to TikTok as well, though not as directly as Spotlight. With the studio app, content creators can upload video from Chrome or Safari, and use higher-end software tools like Apple’s Final Cut Pro; And viewers can watch clips even if they don’t have a Snapchat account. A big advantage for TikTok is that its videos can be exported and viewed anywhere. Deadline has more.

Media Mix

Criteo has acquired the Israeli ecommerce ad tech startup Mabaya. Read the release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Criteo said it’s an important building block to offer retail media solutions optimized for marketplace sellers as well as traditional brands. The acquisition follows a solid Q1, in which Criteo’s revenue increased 7% YoY to $541 million. During the pandemic, Criteo saw retailers lean into retargeting in lockstep with the acceleration in online shopping (more products viewed online means more retargeting opportunities). But retargeting is on the decline, and will diminish even more when third-party cookies disappear from Chrome. Criteo said Mabaya would complement its Retail Media solutions, which uses first-party data to identify potential shoppers and link them to ecommerce websites and apps. [Related in AdExchanger: “Retargeting Revives, As Criteo Turns In Another Strong Quarter”]

Well Now

Wells Fargo’s top marketer, Michael Lacorazza, is on the way out after a marketing org restructure, Lara O’Reilly reports at Business Insider. Wells Fargo will also scrap the CMO role. Wells Fargo is following in the footsteps of many large companies that have retired the CMO gig in favor of other C-level titles, such as “chief growth officer” or “chief commercial officer.” In March, General Mills got rid of the CMO title with the departure of Ivan Pollard, with no plans to replace the position. Johnson & Johnson hasn’t had a CMO since Alison Lewis left in 2019. But some brands have gone full circle. Coca-Cola, for example, got rid of the global CMO function in 2017, but reinstated the title last year. At Wells Fargo for now, rather than having a team overseeing marketing across the entire business, each division – such as consumer and small business banking, consumer lending and commercial banking – will have a marketing lead who reports into that unit’s CEO. Read on.

But Wait, There’s More!

Facebook’s EU/US data flows are under threat – and that may spell trouble for other tech giants. [CNBC]

With cookies on the way out, ID tech vendors are desperate to work with publishers … but pubs are skeptical. [Digiday]

ByteDance founder and CEO Zhang Yiming will step down, the latest Chinese tech boss to resign as the government ramps up pressure on the sector. [WSJ]