Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
A Verified Love Triangle
When Netflix jumped into ad sales, it promised to include ad verification through both DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science.
And so it came to pass. On Monday, DV and IAS both released their verification solutions for Netflix inventory.
Considering the sky-high prices that advertisers pay for Netflix ad space (even after some price cuts and concessions), they need third-party measurement to be confident that the CPMs are justified.
Netflix’s inventory is in high demand, but that also makes it a target for fraud. And just because Netflix is the new hotness doesn’t mean advertisers don’t need to ensure that their ads are viewable in order to deliver ROI, DoubleVerify’s VP of product marketing, Nayef Hijazi, tells AdExchanger.
But if there’s one thing for certain, it’s that demand for AVOD inventory is only growing.
The very existence of Netflix’s ad-supported tier is “further validation” (pun intended?) of AVOD’s growth trajectory, says Craig Ziegler, IAS’s SVP of product.
Still, the category must prove its worth.
Under The Horizon
The metaverse is old news. Generative AI is where it’s at.
Investments in metaverse-related startups and generative AI companies flip-flopped between 2022 and 2023, Axios reports. In Q1 2022, metaverse firms raised $2 billion compared with $612.8 million for generative AI. But Q3 2023 saw metaverse investments trickle down to $586.7 million while generative AI companies ticked up to $2.3 billion.
Meanwhile, despite $36 billion spent to date, Meta’s Horizon Worlds remains a half-baked video game project with little to no interest from marketers. And brand barriers to entry are like the Himalayan range. A New York Magazine article exploring Horizon Worlds from the user perspective reads like a fever dream of brand safety concerns.
Although children under 13 are prohibited, most of the people that the author encountered were kids using their parents’ avatars.
Overtly creepy and sexual behavior is rampant … to the degree that anything can be rampant in an empty virtual world.
Despite Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of a billion metaverse users, only 20 million Oculus VR headsets have been sold. Plus, technical limitations currently restrict any of the themed sub-worlds within Horizon Worlds to just 32 (yes, 32) simultaneous users.
Let the Games Begin
Mobile gamers are mostly okay with in-game ads, according to Comscore’s 2023 State of Gaming report.
For freebie games, which are a big growth category, mobile players appear to understand the value exchange of advertising.
In fact, mobile gamers are actually the most likely to accept or approve of ads, with only 26% of those surveyed saying ads have a negative effect on their gaming experience, compared to 31% of console gamers and 35% of PC gamers, Digiday reports.
But game companies are wary of pushing it too far and losing the goodwill of players, which means they could be missing out on big brand bucks in the process.
The postapocalyptic game Fallout has actually created fictitious in-game brands (Nuka-Cola, for example), since vending machines are part of the gameplay and environment.
As Digiday points out, a partnership with Coca-Cola would have been a no-brainer brand integration.
But Wait, There’s More!
Xbox head Phil Spencer says Microsoft plans to build an app store that can compete with Apple and Google. [FT]
Amazon cut 9,000 jobs, impacting AWS and its advertising divisions [WSJ], and roughly 400 positions were eliminated at the streaming platform Twitch. [blog]
Social creator prices are all over the map and often settled on by guesswork. [Adweek]
How marketers and creators are thinking about a potential TikTok ban. [Marketing Brew]
Talon acquires Novus Media’s Canadian OOH operation. [MediaPost]
You’re Hired!
Washington Post CRO Joy Robins will be the NYT’s new chief of global advertising. [release]
Twitter vet Laura Pacas is joining Snap’s revenue and ads comms team. [post]
WideOrbit appoints Toni Coonce as CRO. [release]
PubMatic names Sandro Catanzaro as its VP of product management for CTV and video. [Release]
Direct Digital Holdings adds Calvin Scharffs as VP of marketing and Michael Ivancic as head of product. [release]
