Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Credit Where Due
Credit card companies and old-school banks are swooping in on tech and media startups.
Mastercard was an early CDP acquirer with SessionM and in September bought the marketing personalization service Dynamic Yield from McDonald’s. Last year, American Express invested in the live-shopping ad tech company Firework. JPMorgan Chase, meanwhile, acquired the online food publisher The Infatuation last year.
The latest example comes courtesy of Capital One, which announced it will expand a strategic partnership with the travel booking service Hopper through a $96 million investment, Skift reports.
When credit cards and banks own the digital media touch points themselves, they can create new ways to market core business lines. American Express members, for instance, get exclusive access to Resy, the restaurant booking platform that AMEX acquired in 2019. That also explains why The Infatuation, which owns the restaurant recommendation business Zagat, makes sense as a Chase acquisition … even though it also kind of doesn’t.
These companies have all also learned a trick or two from Google and Amazon about the value of first-party data fortresses (and potential high-margin ad rev).
“The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s growth across several fronts, including fueling its new social commerce initiatives,” Hopper says in reference to the Capital One investment.
Short Stack
Shorts, YouTube’s TikTok clone, is now available on the TV screen in your living room.
YouTube sees Shorts as a “gateway” to interactivity on TV, Todd Sherman, product manager of Shorts, tells The Verge.
When they’re scrolling through short video feeds, users are typically in the mood to share content and bounce around between different topics. It’ll be a coup for YouTube if it can port that same behavior to television. Many have tried (and many have failed) to bring interactivity to TV.
QR codes try, but getting people to use a remote or their voice to engage with the screen on the wall just hasn’t caught on – but it’s natural to do on a phone.
It was only a matter of time before GoogleTube made a move to smush Shorts onto televisions. Every ounce of sweet, sweet CTV inventory counts.
The awkward part is going from vertical-video Shorts to rectangular TV screens. After all, flattening a vertical Shorts vid (many of which start life as TikTok posts) into landscape mode would make YouTube a joke forever among TikTokers.
But YouTube has already made the same jump going the other direction, which is harder, so who knows. A new YouTube product announced in September repurposes horizontal videos for vertical-first media.
Direct Response, Correct Response
Twitter/Musk speculation is practically its own news beat nowadays.
But Twitter has always punched above its weight when it comes to driving news and conversation, even though relatively few people are on Twitter and it makes relatively little money. Ben Thompson of Stratechery notes in yesterday’s newsletter that he stopped covering Twitter’s earnings years ago, because “the company’s share of attention was not commensurate with its financial performance.”
His thoughts since dipping back into the numbers?
“Wow, things have kind of been a mess over the last few years.”
And, unfortunately, Twitter is susceptible, fragile even, when it comes to an advertiser exodus. Facebook, YouTube and TikTok have weathered major advertiser holdouts. But if Mondelez walks from Facebook, there are a hundred DTC startups across a multitude of categories happy to take the inventory.
But Twitter is the “anti-Facebook in this regard,” Thompson writes. With no direct response ad business, Twitter relies on brand advertisers – the very type that can’t stomach the new owner. If Twitter drove sales, sign-ups or downloads, though, it’s fair advertisers would magically care about the brand association of a right-wing owner.
But Wait, There’s More!
These are the six most expensive, ad-soaked US Senate midterm races. [Ad Age]
OpenAI, Microsoft and GitHub are hit with a class-action suit over training AI on open code and content. [The Register]
The NAACP says it’s unimpressed with Musk, and urges advertisers to stop spending on Twitter. [Adweek]
GOP Senators call on the FTC to stop pursuing its privacy rulemaking process. [MediaPost]
Creators say their payouts from TikTok Pulse are falling flat. [Insider]
Programmatic ad platform Pontiac Intelligence launches a connected TV bidder. [release]
You’re Hired!
Demand-gen company Orange142, which is owned by Digital Direct Holdings, has named Scott Schult to the newly created role of head of strategy. [release]
Grey NY CEO Amber Guild leaves to join McCann New York as its chief executive. [Ad Age]
