Danke
A German appeals court ruled that major social ad platforms may not suspend or deactivate accounts without notice or explanation. [H/t Thomas Höppner]
It’s another example of how one really ticked-off individual can become a thorn in the side of multi-hundred-billion-dollar companies. Think Max Schrems and Alastair Mactaggart. In this case, a suit was brought against Meta by a German resident fed up that they had no recourse to deal with their Facebook account’s removal.
From there, the ball kept bouncing. Business accounts were added to the decision, and platforms are now required to share a fact-based explanation for why an account is being deactivated. Affected users can bring their case before a German court.
This ruling upholds a previous decision and is therefore final, Höppner writes.
It’s worth noting that this ruling only applies in Germany. Regardless, many advertisers welcome any antitrust spotlight trained on the practice of ad platform account suspensions. These suspensions constitute a major wrench in the works for agencies. And given the scale of the problem this causes for brands – not being able to run ads on platforms like Google or Meta is no joke – complainants get little to no service.
Ya-Who’s Buying?
Nine years ago, Yahoo was in talks with Verizon on what would become a $4.8 billion acquisition of the OG internet company. Roughly a year later, Yahoo was combined with AOL as Oath, which eventually became Verizon Media before returning to the Yahoo brand following its acquisition in 2022 from Verizon by PE firm Apollo Global Management.
Quite a circuitous journey.
Now, the Yahoo DSP business is potentially up for sale, investment bankers and potential acquirers who have been approached tell Digiday.
Apollo has been unwinding Yahoo’s assets. In 2023, it shuttered the Yahoo supply-side ad tech business, made up of an SSP and exchange. And just last month, Yahoo sold TechCrunch to Regent, another private equity firm.
One complication related to the potential sale of Yahoo’s DSP would be if it were then severed from the valuable identity data it has as part of Yahoo, which still owns the Yahoo and AOL email services (lol) and search engines (hah). It sounds like a punch line, but these are also meaningful first-party assets.
Verizon retained a 10% stake when it sold Yahoo in 2021, which was important for Apollo, too, because that stake enabled an exclusive data licensing agreement between Yahoo and Verizon. Perhaps the same trick might work again.
Block Listing
One painful reality for digital media publishers – and news publishers in general since print newspapers and magazines are toast – is that advertisers scrutinize web placements with a disproportionate level of intensity compared to other channels.
There is, for instance, no widespread assumption that advertisers between certain broadcast news shows are voicing support for the ideas or images displayed during those news segments.
And the same usually goes for entertainment content.
Coffee Mate, for example, launched Piña Colada as a new creamer flavor in conjunction with the HBO show “The White Lotus” – with no clue that poisoned piña coladas would be a major plot twist on the show.
Obviously, it’s hilarious that the writers threw that curveball at a brand partner, and kudos to Coffee Mate, which is fully here for the joke, as The Wall Street Journal reports.
On social channels, too, advertisers are embracing “unhinged” behavior that feels more authentic and sometimes even pushes the boundaries of decency.
But what does all this have to do with the plight of news publishers?
Well, unhinged is fine on social, but god forbid an IAB standard ad unit appears on the same page as a word that has any relation whatsoever to a hot-button issue.
But Wait! There’s More
BeReal capitulates and will begin selling ads in the US. [Adweek]
Meta tries to get consumers on board with its AI chatbot technology by … encouraging them to be on their phones at the movie theater? [Variety]
Meta is also rolling out a new feature for accounts to find their X friends on Threads. [9to5Mac]
You’re Hired!
Attention vendor Lumen Research appoints Matt Bennathan as chief commercial officer. [release]
