Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
A Zero-Sum Game
Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two Interactive, the video game developer that makes Grand Theft Auto, bemoaned the lack of pricing power for gaming properties during the company’s earnings report this week, eXputer reports.
Zelnick believes video games should be priced by usage – as in, how many minutes players are active. There’s no way that’ll happen, but Zelnick’s remarks are indicative of frustration boiling over due to challenges facing the mobile gaming economy.
Game developers were hit hard by Apple’s ATT. Their games crumpled without Facebook to run effective app-install campaigns for their games. Facebook stabilized by looking past its own SDK for user data, going server-side to access advertiser first-party data. Meanwhile, mobile game revenue ran dry.
Zelnick’s grievance is that in other entertainment categories – Netflix, Disney or the NFL, for example – there’s a cold calculus whereby gaining more attention time translates into earning more money. But that’s not the case for most games, especially mobile and online titles. These games cost a great deal to stream even if the developer is making peanuts in CPMs and very little else.
One Googler’s Trash Is Another’s Treasure
Google and Meta have a new creative strategy: Let an algorithm do the work, for Pete’s sake. What, you think a human should be doing this? Do you know how little processing power a person has?
Anyway, Facebook has two new products, called Emu Edit and Emu Video, that use text prompts for AI image and video generation, The Verge reports.
Meanwhile, Google began offering AI-generated creative last week for Performance Max advertisers.
Yet Google is set against AI-created content in certain ways. On YouTube, for instance, new rules against AI-generated content could be a headache for creators who aren’t cynically farming chatbot content for ad revenue, but rather use those chatbots for video creation. Google Search also doesn’t necessarily downrank content for being AI generated, but it throws up a red flag. And if a site has a high rate of AI-generated content with little human curation, Google won’t show it at the top of the results page.
Ad Tech’s Decarb Shuffle
In the ad industry’s sustainability push, ad tech is falling behind. Advertisers, agencies, Big Tech, media owners and production companies are lapping ad tech’s sustainability efforts, Ad Age reports.
Ad Net Zero, an advocacy group founded in the UK to support sustainability initiatives, states in its first annual advertising report that 10% of ad tech companies have established net zero targets and 23% have specified near-term targets (as in, plans to cut down on their emissions over the next five to 10 years).
The report speculates that ad tech businesses might be slow adopters because they’re relatively small, young and without deep pockets.
Ad Net Zero requires all supporting companies that haven’t yet set targets to do so by June 2024. But the organization doesn’t mention consequences for supporters that can’t – or won’t – comply.
That’s because Ad Net Zero likely needs all the goodwill and support it can get – but it needs to avoid becoming a vehicle for greenwashing.
Much like sustainability pledges and carbon offset programs, the org could become toothless if it’s more about the carrot than the stick.
But Wait, There’s More!
Meta will once again allow ads claiming the 2020 election was rigged as it takes a more hands-off approach to politics in the run-up to 2024. [WSJ]
The case for – and against – brand safety. [Digiday]
Customer data-syncing and analysis startup Hightouch acquires HeadsUp to expand its CDP product. [release]
InMobi launches its consent management platform based on the tech it acquired from Quantcast earlier this year. [release]
Spotify plans to roll out its ad marketplace for podcasts in five new markets, including Sweden and India. [Reuters]
You’re Hired!
AI content creation platform Phrasee brings on Toby Coulthard as chief product officer and Patrick Forquer as CRO; promotes Jasper Pye to CTO. [release]
Contextual AI company Illuma appoints former Oracle executive Ryan McBride to lead strategy and business development. [release]
LiveRamp promotes Lauren Dillard to CFO. [release]
