What SKAdNetwork?
For publishers, advertisers and tech vendors, one aspect of life in the dystopian shadows of walled gardens is being asked (required) to shoulder immense costs at platform behests. Big Tech never returns the favor.
By now the phrase “pivot to video” is a punch line for when publishers or creators waste money in the effort to satisfy a social network’s (particularly Meta’s) present priorities.
And in a podcast last week with Olivia Kory of the incrementality measurement vendor Haus, Mobile Dev Memo publisher Eric Seufert railed on Apple’s abandonment and the subsequent death by disregard of SKAdNetwork, without so much as an update.
Apple “coerced” the ecosystem into adopting SKAdNetwork, Seufert says. And tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars were spent by mobile marketers in terms of engineering time, testing and product overhauls, since Apple “convinced them this was the future.”
Apple’s utter indifference to developer comms is unique, but the attitude is consistent.
Publishers and ad tech companies spent tens of millions of dollars adapting to and building products for Google Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox. But the undoing of the Privacy Sandbox was at least covered in excruciating detail due to forced updates.
The Creator Croisette
Cannes Lions is becoming a go-to destination for social creators. In recent years, some have even claimed it to be a better fit for brand networking than the creator-native standard VidCon Anaheim.
Basically, if you want to meet your fans, go to VidCon. But to network with brands and marketers, go to Cannes. Or so the conventional wisdom often goes, at least.
According to TheWrap, however, the festival itself hasn’t quite figured out how it feels about this burgeoning part of the attendee pool.
Many creators anonymously expressed concern about the lack of structure and planning for what they were supposed to do at Cannes, and they didn’t know how to make deals actually happen. Those without teams or existing brand partnerships seemed especially lost.
Additionally, creator passes didn’t offer access to invite-only beach event spaces where the major media players hang out.
Which isn’t to say that Cannes Lions is a total wash. The creator economy is still a nascent industry, after all, so it only makes sense for there to be some growing pains – or “les douleurs de croissance,” as the French say.
Tale As Old As Time
Everyone spent last week celebrating the advertising world’s achievements at Cannes Lions – to the point that human creativity became a major talking point compared to recent years’ AI hype, Business Insider claims.
On the other hand, though, CMOs are still struggling to prove that their creative actually works, Digiday reports.
Recent studies by Forrester and WPP-owned measurement firm Gain Theory suggest that brand marketers remain unsure how best to measure creative effectiveness, in contrast to well-established metrics for media ROI.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder that the advertising industry is so psyched for the potential of contextual analysis tools.
Right now, marketers are more likely to invest in AI for efficiency initiatives rather than for measuring effectiveness, says the Forrester research. But as the technology matures, AI tools could become more adept at identifying not just the right content to run ads against but the right ad to run from a list of options.
Which, of course, would allow for better insight into which particular ad creatives outperform other bidders and why.
But in the meantime, creative budgets are still wallowing, enough so that spending on contextual analysis may not even be in the cards to begin with.
But Wait! There’s More!
The World Cup’s record ratings have a footnote. This is the footnote. [State of Streaming]
ITV is dropping midgame ad breaks for the men’s rugby Nations Championship next month because all the demand went to the World Cup instead. [The Guardian]
Advertisers may love tapping into fandoms, but Hollywood publicists (and presumably the talent) think they’re a nightmare. [Wired]
Almost seven months after the Omnicom-IPG merger closed, Omnicom CEO John Wren says he’s already starting to see results. [Bloomberg]
MS NOW is going to start filling its weekend evening airtime with video podcasts from partners like Crooked Media. [Variety]
