Keeping It 100
CTV advertisers love their direct publisher integrations.
This week, TV advertising company Cadent announced that all of its SSP’s CTV supply paths are now direct, surpassing the 75% industry benchmark recommended by Jounce Media.
Direct supply has been baked into Cadent’s SSP since the product three years ago, according to Brian Weigel, SVP of operations. Still, hitting 100% wasn’t easy. Cadent had to onboard a range of publishers and supply-chain partners that first had to be vetted by Jounce.
“We won’t accept any inventory unless it has that Jounce classification,” Weigel told AdExchanger.
Cadent says these direct supply integrations help improve transparency and inventory quality, while cutting down on bid duplication, MFA and other wasteful or fraudulent placements.
Plus, according to Cadent President Doug Rozen, going direct is a better way to reach more active audiences. (Assuming, of course, you don’t believe the rumors that major streamers like Netflix are dumbing down their content so viewers can watch while scrolling.)
YouFlix vs. NetTube
Speaking of Netflix, the streamer recently released its biannual engagement report, which is mostly an exercise in content marketing.
But one trend that isn’t explicitly mentioned in the report – which is a major potential revenue driver for Netflix – is what Puck dubs “the YouTube Strategy.”
Netflix won’t ever be a user-generated content hub à la YouTube. However, some of its most popular recent programs came via YouTube. Ms. Rachel, for example, who makes shows for preschool-aged kids, is already a key part of Netflix’s catalog. Another preschool age show, Cocomelon, also draws huge audiences.
For adults, there’s Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer with a popular STEM-focused YouTube channel who also brought his show to Netflix. And then there’s Bill Simmons, who podcasts about sports and entertainment on YouTube and also has a new video podcast on Netflix.
These creators are mostly repurposing stuff from their YouTube channels, so it’s super cheap and scalable for Netflix. And creators benefit because they can also continue to publish on YouTube. Early evidence is that their YouTube accounts are still growing at a similar pace.
According to Puck’s Julia Alexander, “this may mean the Netflix audience is completely separate from YouTube, allowing the most prolific creators to double down on revenue without worrying about cannibalization.”
The Abandoned Post
The Washington Post continues its freefall.
Not to beat a dying horse – this newsletter already wrote about “WaPo’s Woes” this week – but there have been other noteworthy updates.
For example, we now know that today is Global Chief Advertising Officer Johanna Mayer-Jones’s last day at the Post.
Also, New York Magazine has since published a piece documenting a long list of failed turnaround efforts at the Post, from social and creator revenue and flexible subscription tiers to AI, personalization, a new style section, recipes and games.
No new products have stuck – including a so-called “third newsroom” for social media and service journalism (huh?), which WaPo CEO Will Lewis boasted in 2024 would be “an industry-defining moment for us.”
A few months later, Krissah Thompson, the respected newsroom leader who headed the initiative, took a voluntary buyout.
Worse, owner Jeff Bezos’s actions have sabotaged WaPo’s path back to profitability.
The publisher bled tens of thousands of subscribers after Bezos intervened in 2024 when the paper was about to endorse Kamala Harris for president. And, last year, Bezos changed the mission and makeup of WaPo’s opinion section, a move that was “interpreted as another sop to the Trump administration.”
But Wait! There’s More!
What the Minnesota ICE crisis reveals about corporate activism. [PR News]
A leaked internal presentation from Paramount Skydance hints at plans to introduce user-generated content, shoppable features and short-form video to the Paramount+ mobile app. [Business Insider]
Meanwhile, Spotify is rolling out group chats for some reason. [TechCrunch]
CBS Evening News made buyout offers to an unspecified number of employees, giving newsroom personnel an exit option if they don’t agree with CBS News chief Bari Weiss’ new direction for the network. [Variety]
IAC chair Barry Diller reportedly made inquiries about buying CNN, but Warner Bros. Discovery says the network isn’t for sale. It’s likely the Trump administration would squash any attempt by Diller, a Trump critic, to acquire CNN anyway. [WSJ]
Amazon reported finding a high volume of CSAM material in external training data used to improve its AI models, although it hasn’t publicly disclosed where the data came from. [Bloomberg]
You’re Hired!
Variety hires Jeff Cooper as group SVP of consumer partnerships. [Variety]
Omnicom appoints Jantzen Bridges as global president of Credera, its enterprise transformation consultancy. [release]
InMarket brings on former Teads global marketing chief Natalie Bastian as its CMO. [release]
Carat US brings on Mitch Delaney as EVP and head of growth. [release]
Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
