Class Action Is In Session
Here’s an amusing trend, especially for Google antagonists who might be preparing for the DOJ’s publisher ad tech antitrust case to result in a relatively light remedy, just like in the search antitrust case.
Law firms are targeting marketers with opportunities to join their class-action suits against Google for nontransparent ad buying and refund practices. Sean Frank, CEO of wallet maker Ridge, posted about it, somewhat jokingly encouraging advertisers to join up to have more leverage to get a higher cut.
Advertisers – and the law firms – are partly following up on revelations that emerged from the DOJ’s publisher ad tech suit, where Google would crank up or down ad spend to meet its quarterly revenue goals, among other internal priorities.
But Google in particular has also laid itself open to class-action suits because it has a shady practice of giving ad accounts credits for misspent budgets long after the fact and without revealing what the errant budget was spent on.
Many advertisers signed up for Performance Max, too, without any understanding of how deeply it would restructure how their ads were run and the kind of controls the brand was handing over to the platform. Now, law firms are promising they can get that money back – in cash, not credit (minus lawyer fees, of course).
Embrace The Discord
Discord is trying to pick up more mainstream traction for its nascent ad platform.
Last week, the messaging and community released its first measurement case study with AppsFlyer for a mobile trading card game, attributing 15 million impressions to the new Discord ad campaign type (which uses incentivized video ads within its own platform), Digiday reports.
“It’s not just 15 million impressions; it’s 15 million eyeballs that are all there because of their passion for gaming and their community surrounding the game,” says AppsFlyer’s global director of gaming product, Adam Smart. “It’s 15 million eyeballs of a specific type.”
That “specific type” is important, too. Because it’s probably a group of people who are unreachable for advertisers elsewhere. They’re not TV subscribers, and while they may be a highly online audience, they index heavily to live gaming, where there are fewer ads, and tend to use ad blockers.
The pitch is that this is a highly incremental audience, which is something that’s reeled in brands to other platforms popular among young males, like Twitch and Reddit. But the challenge isn’t just measurement: Discord must hone its pitch because advertisers are inherently reticent of its associations with unseemly topics and brand-unsafe ad placements.
On Thin ICE
Advertisers, content owners and platforms are all getting caught in ICE’s crosshairs lately.
Newsweek reports that, on October 1, a broadcast of AEW’s Dynamite on both TBS and HBO Max contained ICE recruitment ads during “nearly every ad break,” prompting criticism from viewers and even pro wrestler Hangman Page.
The ads were likely part of an ICE advertising blitz reported in early August, which involved potential placements on CTV and social media channels to hire more agents.
Speaking of social media, US immigration authorities are also planning to dramatically expand their surveillance tactics there, according to Wired. The initiative is still in early stages, but would involve hiring private contractors “around the clock” to scour the internet for more people to deport.
Meanwhile, both Apple and Google have recently delisted apps that allow users to monitor the location of ICE agents, like ICEBlock and Red Dot. In Apple’s case, the move follows a request by US Attorney General Pam Bondi; for Google, it appears to be a proactive measure.
But while most advertising campaigns go by metrics like “increasing positive consumer sentiment,” these splashy measures pose the risk of alienating more Americans, 49% of whom now view ICE unfavorably. And as the recent backlash against Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension proved, those same Americans are becoming more deliberate about where they choose to spend their time – and their money.
But Wait! There’s More!
Google hired investment bank Lazard to evaluate a potential sale of its ad exchange unit in 2020. [Bloomberg]
ChatGPT’s parental controls still leave a lot to be desired. [The Washington Post]
Independent research firm MacroStrategy Partnership claims that the AI bubble is 17 times the size of the dot-com bubble. [MarketWatch]
NBCUniversal and Google reach a long-term agreement to continue airing NBC content on YouTube Primetime, its bundle of broadcast channels. [release]
Netflix is hiring a director of generative AI for its games division, with a starting salary of $430,000. [Kotaku]
