The Next Gen
Google has struggled to grow Demand Gen, which is like Performance Max but for online video and social media-type feed placements.
Demand Gen’s existence represents a failure of sorts. It launched in 2023 as an upper-funnel branding vehicle for PMax. A demand generator, if you will.
Except, like, shouldn’t PMax be doing that itself? You know, since it’s so smart.
Turns out, no. PMax does generate conversions, but an advertiser with PMax cranked up and relatively little branding could quickly deplete its likely buyers and leave the pipeline empty.
However, Demand Gen needs scale to work. One of PMax’s strengths is its wide adoption. PMax’s optimization models benefit from aggregate data.
Which explains why Google has begun incentivizing brand and agency buyers to use Demand Gen by offering thousands of ad credits – in some cases dollar for dollar – in exchange for testing the tool, Adweek reports.
Because they clearly need some convincing. PMax isn’t known for being transparent, but Demand Gen takes “murkiness to new levels,” according to one agency buyer.
Earlier this month, Demand Gen began incorporating Google Display Network inventory, which some buyers say includes lower-quality placements – not that they get transparent reporting back on where their ads are running.
Honey And Vinegar
Social creators and digital publishers that monetize through affiliate marketing are leading a wave of lawsuits against shopping browser extensions like PayPal Honey and Capital One Shopping, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The lawsuits might not generate much compensation. Honey and Capital One are taking advantage of how dumb last-click attribution is, which isn’t illegal.
If anything, the practice demonstrates the enduring strength of the lowly browser extension. Not just that such extensions exist, but the strategic importance of browser plug-ins as the very last touch point.
Long after other coupon aggregators and discount webcrawlers flopped, Honey retained its value (to PayPal, at least). A plug-in can wait and wait (and wait) until the last moment before prompting a notification that there might be a coupon or a deal elsewhere. Honey thus gains last-touch credit it didn’t earn.
“I think the difficulty that these creators will have is establishing that those commissions were theirs, that they’re legally entitled to them in the first place, and that Honey is doing something unlawful by swapping out the affiliate code,” says Robert Freund, a lawyer focused on advertising and ecommerce.
Cancel Culture
The State Department has ordered personnel to cancel “non-mission-critical” news subscriptions, according to internal emails seen by The Washington Post.
One email, sent February 11, framed the order as a cost-cutting measure. It directed diplomatic posts to immediately place stop work orders on “media subscriptions […] that are not academic or professional journals.”
Another memo, sent February 14, called for embassy teams to prioritize canceling subscriptions to The Economist, The New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg News, the Associated Press and Reuters. All of these publications have previously drawn the ire of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who’s become an influential figure in Trump’s entourage.
Canceling the government’s news subscriptions – particularly for publications Trump and Musk perceive as biased – has been a priority for the administration. Earlier this month, the General Services Administration ordered the termination of “every single media contract,” singling out Politico, BBC and Bloomberg.
A State Department employee who shared the memos with WaPo says the decision could endanger diplomatic personnel who rely on local and national news coverage to prepare for their travel abroad, including in conflict zones.
State Department personnel may request to retain media subscriptions if they provide a one-sentence justification or can prove that the subscription makes America “safer,” “stronger” or “more prosperous.”
But Wait! There’s More
Publishers are seeing some success reposting event videos to LinkedIn. [Digiday]
John Oliver’s late-night HBO show returned to reposting its main segment on YouTube the following day. The show had experimented with delaying reposts to YouTube last year, ostensibly to retain more viewers on Max (which didn’t happen). [The Hollywood Reporter]
TikTok is wooing auto advertisers. [release]
The struggle over gaining access to the personal data of US citizens continues to play out across the government. [NYT]
You’re Hired
Ogilvy names Clare Lawson as global president of Ogilvy One. [Campaign]
Mundial Media, a contextual marketing platform with a focus on multicultural audiences, announces four new leadership hires. [release]
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