Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Next Gen AI
Virtually every industry is experimenting with generative AI applications.
But there’s an especially strong early use case for advertising technology.
For one, generative AI can enrich an ad file’s metadata. (“Describe in detail whatever is depicted in this ad.”) Humans, by comparison, might hastily fill out a few keyword tags.
Then there’s autogenerated creative.
At the forefront of this trend, of course, is Google. Its Performance Max already autogenerates copy and creative.
To achieve its performance goals, PMax “needs a large set of ad creatives to test variations across all Google inventory,” writes Trey Titone, NBCUniversal’s VP of product management for demand channel & activation, at the blog Ad Tech Explained.
Meta is in the same race. Advantage+, Meta’s version of PMax, doesn’t yet autogenerate creative directly in campaigns through its dashboard. But the Advantage+ support page is already replete with examples of how autogenerated creative will work.
Won’t everyone follow suit?
Perhaps not, since generative AI costs serious coin.
Functionally, Titone writes, generative AI tech “widens the gap between competition as it may be cost-prohibitive for smaller players.”
Ad Tech Quicksand
Ad tech leaders aren’t sure how much time and money to invest in the Chrome Privacy Sandbox, Digiday reports.
One CTO tells Digiday that committing to the Privacy Sandbox could require some 8,000 engineering work days over the next three years, totaling an investment of about $7 million. Another anonymous exec says their company has spent nearly 3,500 hours and $6.5 million testing and developing sandbox tech.
But is it worth it?
One vendor is forgoing the sandbox for now, instead favoring alternative IDs, contextual targeting and seller-defined audiences.
It is still early days for the Privacy Sandbox. Chrome has deprecated third-party cookies for only 1% of its global user base.
Which also partly explains why the Sandbox tools haven’t attracted wide use or budgets.
However, if and when Google does rip off the Band-Aid and deprecate cookies, DSPs, publishers and sandbox naysayers in general may change their tune.
Google’s Engine
Reports of Google’s death are greatly exaggerated.
Generative AI chatbot services could topple Google, writes Dare Obasanjo, Microsoft’s former Bing Ads product manager and a current lead product manager at Meta, in a blog post. Chatbots present a more natural, conversational way to search, and people prefer to have queries resolved rather than flit through lists of links.
But Big Tech can roll with the punches.
Google Android was planning a Blackberry-style phone, Obasanjo writes, but pivoted after the iPhone release. Android is now the world’s most ubiquitous smartphone.
Meta is another example. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are such mobile juggernauts now that it’s easy to forget Facebook began as a website. The switch to all-in on mobile was not obvious at the time.
Google is not the only ad-supported company facing the innovator’s dilemma. In TV, broadcasters must attempt streaming business models without disturbing linear TV cash cows. Google’s cash cow is search, so it must monetize AI-generated queries without undercutting traditional web search. Or lock down exclusive repositories of data to maintain its search quality.
As Obasanjo notes: “Paying Reddit $60 million for access … is a good start but they’re going to need a bunch more of those.”
But Wait, There’s More!
How regulations fractured Apple’s App Store. [NYT]
Publicis employee who lost her parents to opioids calls for advertising reform. [Campaign]
Why musicians are releasing new songs in video games, in some cases before anywhere else. [WSJ]
Threads says it will make its API broadly available by June. [TechCrunch]
UTA acquires Gen Z-focused marketing firm JUV Consulting. [The Hollywood Reporter]
Montana’s attorney general seeks support from a federal appellate court to restore the state’s TikTok ban. [MediaPost]
The EU fines Apple $2 billion for breaking antitrust rules in response to a Spotify complaint. [Axios]
You’re Hired!
Amplified Intelligence appoints Anthony Capano as EVP global head of SaaS. [Adweek]
PubMatic taps Abbie Reichner as RVP of customer success for CTV. [post]
Tubi hires media ad sales vet Jeff Lucas as chief revenue officer. [Variety]
David Kostman will become sole CEO of Outbrain. Yaron Galai remains chairman and advisor. [release]
