Commerce

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Two years after Instacart made its first major push into ad tech, the company is launching more products that follow the playbook written by other major online ad platforms. “We’re a maturing ad platform,” said Instacart VP of advertising product management Ali Miller. As Instacart itself learns over time what works and what doesn’t on its ad platform, it will turn those learnings into commercial products.

Consumer habits and changes among retailers themselves have reshaped the agency landscape around a new form of commerce media. The trend wasn’t as obvious a few years ago, when online retail media opportunity looked scattered with an emphasis on discounting: think cash-back apps and the heady days of Groupon sales, or CPGs on Amazon Fresh. Now, a brand that sells online faces a different landscape and an entirely different team of partners helping them.

BDG sees opportunity in the parenting vertical, and its acquisition last year of Some Spider was a major step toward ramping up its focus on parenting. The publisher plans to continue creating an ecommerce-focused experience across its portfolio that allows endemic brands to target users throughout their parenting journey, according to Sharon Mussalli, BDG’s EVP of revenue and operations.

Retail media is reaching the C-suite, with advertising (and first-party data projects) coming up in retailer earnings. Then, we talk about the $16 billion deal to buy Nielsen. 

Walmart uses its “growth algorithm” – adding high-margin advertising and its third-party marketplace businesses as it simultaneously invests in low-margin businesses (namely, groceries and ecommerce fulfillment). Macy’s is pursuing its Polaris plan, an overhaul built around its new customer lifetime value measurements. The mall-based fashion brand EXPRESS has an EXPRESSway Forward plan. Across categories and shopping channels, US retailers have reshaped their businesses.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Shrinking Podcastiverse Podcasting has consolidated dramatically, perhaps even unhealthily, in recent years.  Roughly one year ago, the audio market research firm Edison Research conducted a test to see how many podcast networks an advertiser would need to buy from to cover 50% […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Spare Me Your Change Welcome to the new normal!  Actually, forget the exclamation mark. It’s the same old normal.  There are countless examples of so-called dramatic changes in how people shopped and spent their time throughout 2020 and 2021 – Zoom, Peloton, sweatpants, […]

As audiences shift away from Facebook, BuzzFeed is betting its investments in short-form vertical video for social media platforms like TikTok and long-form video for streaming will yield big returns, CEO Jonah Peretti said during the publisher’s first earnings presentation since going public in December.

As ecommerce continues to boom, AI technology promises to revolutionize nearly every aspect of a retailer’s operations. Yet, the human aspect of tastemaking has never had more influence, says Catherine Leung, managing executive director, head of activation, Hearts & Science.

If you know the brand Ibotta, you’re likely thinking of the popular cash-back app. Users upload receipts of in-store purchases and redeem credit for products listed for promotion in the app. But while that business still exists – and still represents the majority of Ibotta’s revenue – the company is shifting from DTC app to B2B2C performance marketing network.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Losing My Religion “I have to ask you about advertising. Otherwise, I won’t be able to leave this room alive.” That was Ben Swinburne, head of media industry research at Morgan Stanley, speaking to Netflix CFO Spence Neumann at the bank’s Tech, Media […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Swiftly Goes The Retail Long Tail The retail media startup Swiftly raised $100 million, on top of $20 million raised since 2019. It’s an eye-popping number, despite no valuation, and will cheer other retail advertising startups that hope smaller chains can seize the […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Ad-Unsupported Video On Demand Disney confirmed it will launch an ad-supported tier of Disney Plus, following in the footsteps of other studios, including previously ad-free legends like HBO that now sell ads.  But Wall Street isn’t buying the hype. CTV remains unchartered waters. But […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Addressable Mouse-holds Ads are coming to Disney+. After an unconfirmed report in The Information late last week, Disney said on Friday it does intend to introduce an ad-supported tier for Disney to accompany its ad-free subscription. Ads will roll out in the US later […]

Ad agencies have had an oversupply of crises to deal with over the past two years. Between the pandemic, the ongoing disruption of how the ad industry gathers and uses data and the Great Resignation, leaders have contended with outside forces on multiple fronts. Kepler’s CEO of North America Remy Stiles details how she’s keeping the ship steering in the right direction.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Hope And Pr-AVOD Ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) is commanding a lot of interest right now. Practically every ad tech company is banking on CTV to outgrow web display.  After all, the thinking goes, consumers can’t just keep shelling out for more and more […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Working Their Retails Off Retail media is in growth-stage limbo. Retailers have flooded the category with no guarantee advertising will pay off.  The latest is the craft store Michaels, which launched a retail media platform on Wednesday in partnership with Criteo. Amazon sets the […]

Over the past few years, several factors created a storm that forced marketers to reexamine digital targeting and measurement, consumer consent and the technologies that power each of these functions. With change as the only constant, Gary Walter, CEO and president of Infutor, offers five predictions for the year ahead.

Walmart went further than it ever has in support of its advertising business when the retail big kahuna reported earnings on Thursday. The company broke out advertising revenue for the first time, with Walmart clearing $2.1 billion worldwide. $500 million of that total was credited as revenue earned as a reduction to an advertiser’s cost of sales (make of that what you will). The other $1.6 billion was pure media biz.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Ya-Who’s There?  Yahoo (which is back, in case you haven’t heard) launched an ID-free targeting solution on Thursday. The company has a proprietary ID, which it calls the Yahoo ConnectID. But even today, 30% of ad impressions carry no advertising ID, Yahoo says […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Priced Out Big brands and retailers are raising prices, partly due to pandemic-related costs – but also because the drumbeat of inflation and supply-chain news provides air cover. Many companies are raising prices to expand profit, not to sustain it. (H/t Lindsay Owens for […]

On its Q4 earning call this week, Criteo announced the start of a three-year global partnership with GroupM, shared an update on the IPONWEB deal, got frank about the privacy impacts of ATT and made the case for moving away from a focus on take rate.

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is written by Paul Childs, VP of business development, Moloco.  Ever since the advent of the printing press, advertisers have looked to content publishers – from newspapers and TV shows to websites and mobile apps – to hawk […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. An About-Face Six years ago, Google and Facebook had won the digital ad market, or so said Stratechery’s Ben Thompson. After Meta’s latest earnings, he reflects on that prediction: The duo did consolidate most online ad revenue. And Google has outgrown everyone else […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Street Loves Me For Me Once upon a time, social media challengers begged for Facebook look-alike valuations.  But a funny thing happened with social media stocks this week. After Facebook nosedived on its earnings report on Wednesday, investors soured on Snapchat, Pinterest and […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Game On AppLovin is a gaming content fortress (in the parlance of Eric Seufert). It published nine of the top 200 highest-grossing US mobile games last quarter and topped global downloads.  The logical next step is to dominate a new category – and AppLovin […]

Advertising has finally made it. Out of the Amazon “Other” category, that is. And it was about time, considering Amazon’s ad business earned $31.2 billion in 2021, the company reported during its quarterly earnings call on Thursday.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. LOL Remember Comscore Rankings? Digital publishing is in a period of self-reflection. Instead of bragging about mass reach, the new norm will be looking at rational numbers to evaluate reach and readership, writes Brian Morrissey, former president and editor-in-chief of Digiday who now writes […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Eye Of The Iger Former Disney head honcho Bob Iger is a “pessimist” on a Big Tech breakup or European-style regulation in the US.  Iger spoke with Kara Swisher of The New York Times just three weeks after retiring at the end of […]