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’Flix It Or Nix It
Is Netflix getting tired of Microsoft already?
Just nine months after naming Microsoft its exclusive ad sales partner, Netflix has a wandering eye, Digiday reports.
According to inside sources, Netflix is exploring the possibility of building its own ad server, which would limit its uses for Microsoft.
It’s not surprising that Netflix would move toward ad tech self-ownership. Netflix partnered because it needed to launch an AVOD service on an insane timeline that precluded building anything. Netflix’s choice of Microsoft rather than an ad tech provider with a streaming service (Google and Comcast’s FreeWheel were frontrunners for the Netflix account) felt like a genius move, because it wouldn’t expose ads data to a content production rival.
“If you’re serious about the ads business, you’ll want to in-house – particularly at Netflix’s size,” one source tells Digiday.
Netflix may explore acquisitions that could help sell and deliver ads. For now, though, it is seeking advice from TV industry vets – including Jon Whitticom, former FreeWheel chief product officer – while deliberating whether to “build or buy.”
Better Recognize
New York City is the only American municipality where businesses that use facial recognition tech must announce they do so with a certificate outside the location.
So New York Times reporter Kashmir Hill set out to find some stores doing exactly that.
Even biometric data collection is shaped by the privacy framework established mainly by Apple and Google, which prioritizes consented first-party data over actual privacy standards.
Hill was surprised to discover that Amazon Go, a convenience store with sensors throughout and signs prompting shoppers to connect their palm print to an Amazon account, didn’t carry the certification.
Amazon’s loophole is that its handprint data is volunteered, and Amazon Go doesn’t use facial recognition. By contrast, grocery store Fairway, which carries the certification, uses facial recognition to spot repeat shoplifters as they enter.
Tech companies will ultimately fight for the legal definition of privacy to hinge on whether companies share data and not whether they violate people’s trust and expectations.
ChatROI
Details are still emerging from Microsoft’s international roadshow, where the Bing ads group presented mocked-up versions of how marketers might pay to appear in certain machine learning-generated search responses.
There’s clear value in presenting a brand after queries like “help me plan a trip to Rome,” “recommend a three-course dinner menu” or “what’s better for kids: Tenerife or Fuerteventura?”
Microsoft won’t let brands stuff themselves directly into auto-generated content (not to start, at least), but they’ll instead appear as links and annotations the machine learning inserts to source its claims and ideas, Insider reports.
For instance, a three-course dinner lineup wouldn’t specifically cite Smithfield meat products or McCormick spices, but a sponsored link might go to a recipe they suggest as part of the prep.
Unanswered questions abound: Do advertisers target search queries and keywords or the contextual words and images in the AI response? Can known individuals or IDs be targeted regardless of the search terms they use?
“While the user may see fewer ads,” according to Microsoft CVP of finance Philippe Ockenden’s aside to investors in February, “they will be of higher value to advertisers.”
But Wait, There’s More!
Jonathan Kanter: The Department of Justice has eyes on AI. [Axios]
Why Disney and Comcast still can’t reach an agreement on Hulu. [The Verge]
Can journalists teach AI to tell the truth? [Semafor]
Fragmented media landscape changes what clients expect from PR agencies. [Digiday]
Twitter might be Meta’s next copycat target. [MediaPost]
You’re Hired!
NY Interconnect announces Andrew Kandel as chief executive officer. [release]
Twitter vet Sarah Rosen joins Reddit as senior director of content partnerships. [Variety]
