Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
The Results Are In
YouTube told clients earlier this month about plans to start billing some of its video inventory based on its own co-viewing numbers starting in January. Now the buy-side backlash is rolling in, Ad Age reports.
This plan “contradicts the principles YouTube laid out a few months ago, calling for third-party measurement,” one agency exec tells Ad Age.
YouTube says it will continue to allow clients to negotiate guarantees using either Nielsen or Comscore ratings.
Naturally, though, Google is pitching YouTube’s co-viewing numbers by insisting they’re validated by more than just pop-up surveys that rely on a human response.
Google uses statistical methods to eliminate bias and make sure its co-viewing numbers accurately represent YouTube’s viewers.
Or so the pitch goes.
Other execs are also suspicious that Google could be upselling its own co-viewing numbers to make up for YouTube’s stagnating ad revenue growth.
Whatever the reason, marketers don’t like it when an advertising business tries to get away with grading its own homework. But, well … it’s Google.
Making A List And Checking It Twice
Media agency GroupM is banishing made-for-advertising (MFA) sites from its programmatic businesses, Digiday reports.
GroupM is screening its inclusion lists of publisher domains against Jounce Media’s list of MFAs, which many in the ad industry have cottoned to in the absence of an industrywide definition. GroupM began beta testing Jounce’s MFA list in June.
The move may be a swift right hook to the jaw of MFA sites. GroupM is one of the biggest programmatic buying systems, commanding more than a quarter of media spend. The agency’s rejection of MFAs extends to the vanity metrics MFA sites favor, such as high viewability and completion rates at ultralow CPMs.
And where GroupM leads, others may follow. “[T]here’s no way that Publicis, Dentsu, IPG and Omnicom are not going to follow,” Ruben Schreurs, chief strategy officer at media management firm Ebiquity, tells Digiday.
Also stirring marketers to action and turning the tide against MFAs is the bombshell that the sites represent 21% of ad impressions, according to a June Association for National Advertisers report.
When AI Runs The Show
Microsoft came under fire last week for a wave of AI-generated travel articles it removed from its Microsoft Start news aggregator site, Insider reports.
Authored by “Microsoft Travel,” the pieces contained bizarre suggestions for visitors, like suggesting they go to Ottawa Food Bank on an empty stomach and check out McDonald’s Canada for hamburgers. A slideshow on photogenic Tokyo sites randomly featured a slide called “Eat Wagyu Beef.”
In a statement about the Ottawa Food Bank article, Microsoft claimed that “human error” was to blame for the cringeworthy content, not “unsupervised AI.” But the company declined to comment on any other eyebrow-raising articles or tell Insider what went wrong in the review process.
Microsoft’s botched AI-generated content efforts appear to be par for the course. Many other companies, such as CNET, BuzzFeed and Gizmodo, have publicly stumbled when they put generative AI tools to work on writing. The bots produced error-laden or vapid, spammy-sounding content.
Microsoft started aggregating news back in 1995, licensing stories from a number of pubs. But it’s been going harder on AI in recent years. Whether it cuts out humans altogether remains to be seen.
But Wait, There’s More!
Senators wrote a letter urging the FTC to investigate YouTube following last week’s viral Adalytics report accusing it of targeting ads to children. [Digiday]
On Elon Musk’s enormous influence, ambitions and erratic thinking. [New Yorker]
These countries have banned TikTok. [Mashable]
Brands like Ikea, Taco Bell, Acura and Nissan are creating anime series and campaigns to attract Gen Z viewers. [Marketing Brew]
Cultural commentators have caught wind of “everything is an ads business.” [New York Magazine]
Pinterest adds safety features for teens, such as default private profiles and removal of followers for users younger than 16. [TechCrunch]
You’re Hired!
Canela Media hires Eric Tourtel as president of its Latin America division. [TTV News]
