Daily News Roundup

Agentic media buying may cut middlemen or add more chaos; Grocers are remodeling for retail media amid rising costs; Peacock is betting on the booming microdrama trend.

Marketers must become memelords now; Yahoo has incurred the wrath of Apollo; and AppLovin is going hybrid.

InMobi acquires Apple ad startup MobileAction; the hallucination problem is real; and microdrama are being nonconsensually “nudified” with AI tools.

Clipping can be lucrative, but can – and should – it last?; AI Max raises the stakes for advertisers; and the ANA introduces a new fee to fund Aquila.

Programmatic enemies make better friends in the AI era; social video projected to outgrow CTV this year; and apps are integrating into chatbots, but where are the users?

Nineteen of America’s 20 state-run health insurance exchanges use advertising trackers from platforms. Plus: The booze brands are coming to TikTok.

Going viral isn’t great; AI search is a nightmare; and CTV is forcing everyone to get along.

Amazon is optimistic about agentic commerce; the costs of AI may soon outweigh profits; and AMC Global Media thinks old shows deserve new ads.

Agency picks can quietly determine a brand’s tech stack; Ad spend is shifting away from the open web; The CW is betting on partnerships, not its own platform.

POSSIBLE is over the AI hype; real estate is going tech; and Snap dips its toes into branded agents.

IAS pushes clearer streaming ad visibility; Meta eyes a plug-in CTV play; Too many creators, not enough ad dollars.

Political ads have found a place on CTV; OpenAI’s new podcast has Emmy aspirations; and the SECURE Data Act might be anything but.

How ad tech vendors try to market their tools as unique; Fox’s new AI-based ad platform; and AI models are getting too costly to maintain.

Whose Mess Is This? One unwritten rule for advertising and analytics platforms is to never make dramatic overnight changes that impact a customer’s day-to-day life. Quiet overhauls can wreak havoc in the background on identity graphs, targeting capabilities, software plugins, server setups, etcetera. But the customer UI usually exists at a safe remove, like the […]

The Trade Desk is getting agentic; OpenAI pivots its ads business; and the line between SSPs and DSPs keeps on blurring.

AI search is cautiously testing competitor-targeted ads; publishers’ prediction widgets risk backlash despite engagement gains; and Trump library donations from media companies face transparency questions.

OpenAI’s push into advertising exposes a familiar economic tension. Plus: Social mixers teach people how to protect their data from Big Tech.

OpenAI has its own tracking pixel; Amazon sellers are boycotting the platform; and DirecTV hops on the CAPI bandwagon.

Reward Apps faces data broker allegations; Apple bolsters its advertising business; Comments are all the rage in social media marketing.

Surprise! Platforms ignore users opting out of ad tracking; the marketing machine claims credit for Geese’s popularity; and Meta’s MAGA-friendly moderation makes an unforced error.

In-store audio ads grow, but attribution and headphones raise doubts; Hidden fees persist as drip pricing draws scrutiny; World Cup ad costs surge.

ChatGPT’s ads manager leaves something to be desired; beware booking vacations via search ad; and YouTube is jacking up its premium prices again.

Measurement and performance are expected to dominate convos at upfronts; Tubi doubles down on AI; and Meta takes down ads encouraging anti-Meta lawsuits.

Pepsi cut ads, raised prices, and now must reverse both; YouTube is bringing interactivity to TV content; Instagram kills “link in bio,” sidelining publishers.

Could Epic’s rough patch mean ads in Fortnite?; TV’s shot to end the reign of direct insertion orders; and publishers learn how to game AI search summaries.

Medvi caught in AI deepfake scandal; Delta SkyMiles members get 24-hour free NYT access. Source Golf launches a YouTube network.

DSPlease Brand marketers and agency buyers are skeptical of DSPs’ transparency claims. After Publicis announced last month that it’s no longer recommending The Trade Desk to its clients, other DSPs saw an opportunity to strike. Since then, other DSPs (Viant being “the most aggressive,” according to one media buyer) have been reaching out to TTD […]

Spotify expands its ad offerings; the case on a fraudulent real estate campaign draws to a close; and browsers must provide GPC opt-outs starting next year.

Mediavine suffers layoffs; Amazon’s chatbot ads suffer from lack of clicks; and we all suffer the AI fruit slop.

The Trade Desk overhauls ID partner payments; investors downplay their software holdings; and Kalshi’s “we don’t do death markets” campaign may be backfiring.