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Aim At The Heart, Hit The Stomach
When New York added digital screens to subway cars, Seamless and other food delivery services were natural advertisers, often showcasing food-related content or recipes.
But those were actual recipes. The new digital out-of-home subway trend is to show viral recipes and food creations intended to get people’s blood boiling, not make them hungry, according to the local news site Hell Gate [Editor’s note: can corroborate].
Meals like “brieghetti pie” or “baked brunch boat” are jokingly shared online by horrified observers.
The payout for the content company, So Yummy, is website and YouTube traffic. That’s where people find answers to important questions, like whether they can waffle-cook a hot dog. It’s also where So Yummy makes money on ads and ecommerce.
Content mills aren’t the only ones to figure out this social-outrage food hack. The New York Times perfected the art with recipes like “green pea guacamole” or “potato salad” that subs chickpeas and yogurt for potatoes and mayo.
So Yummy shows how DOOH can achieve the same end result.
The Short Straw
Short-form video is winning right now in terms of content production and advertiser mind share.
But is that good for TikTok?
Intuitively, yes, of course. But one problem for TikTok is that it’s woken up the sleeping giants – GoogleTube and Facebookagram – which are bringing advertisers’ focus back to their ad platforms.
This isn’t a new dynamic, Digiday reports. Snapchat began the heavy lifting to get Silicon Valley and Madison Avenue on board with vertical videos. (Snapchat walked so TikTok could fly.) Snapchat succeeded, but that meant GoogleTube and Facebookagram adopted Stories posts and squashed Snapchat’s growth.
For now, TikTok has effectively maintained its growth rates. But when Google or Meta are in the rear-view mirror, they blot out the sun.
“If YouTube Shorts or Instagram Reels does continue to work out,” says Peter Czepiga, founder of the boutique DTC social agency Flighted.co, “[Google and Meta] can convince creators to post initially and invest most of their time into Instagram Reels instead of TikTok.”
The CTV DSP Wars
Roku turned heads last year when it announced more than $1 billion in upfronts commitments. But the TV device manufacturer is an ad tech player at heart and wants its OneView ad-buying platform to be the top DSP in CTV, says Miles Fisher, senior director of ad platforms, sales and strategy.
That sets Roku up for inevitable confrontation with The Trade Desk and Google, argues Mike Shields in his Next in Media newsletter.
Roku has taken veiled shots at TTD. For example, Fisher says Roku can sell advertisers and agencies on the idea of switching from “incumbents that lack signals.”
But TTD isn’t the only incumbent Fisher could have in mind, according to Shields; Google, Fisher’s former employer, is getting thrown under the bus as well.
Roku is challenging Google’s CTV ad business by building a Google-esque “neutral” buying platform. And Google is challenging Roku with an app-free Google TV operating system and YouTube TV.
There’s room for more than one profitable DSP in the CTV category. But there’s only one winner.
But Wait, There’s More!
Meta regains some of its advertising mojo with the AI ad-buying product Advantage+. [Adweek]
Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein enters DC’s crosshairs. [Semafor]
Last-click attribution, deterministic measurement and Wittgenstein’s ruler. [Mobile Dev Memo]
Reddit adds Horizon Media, PMG and Wpromote to its indie agency program. [MediaPost]
You’re Hired!
IDG hires Steve Corrick as SVP of events for IDC and Foundry. [release]
