Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
CTV Shortcut
Two years ago, The Trade Desk sliced out SSPs with its direct-to-publisher product, OpenPath. Now the DSP is opening up OpenPath to CTV inventory, Digiday reports.
Cox Media Group and Vizio are early adopters, and other CTV publishers are talking to TTD about trading their inventory via OpenPath.
When OpenPath launched, it ruffled SSPs’ feathers and set off a wave of disintermediation: Magnite cut out DSPs with its video-specific direct-buy product, ClearLine, and PubMatic let advertisers bypass DSPs with Activate.
Since then, the furor has abated. For instance, Magnite integrated its video ad server, SpringServe, with both OpenPath and Yahoo’s Backstage. That SpringServe integration is important to OpenPath’s CTV update, several sources tell Digiday. Plus, it means the SSP still has tech hooks into publishers and isn’t disintermediated completely.
With this rollout, TTD is trying to handle its awkward situationship with SSPs diplomatically. “They’re trying not to scare everybody on the SSP side and make too many waves,” an anonymous CTV exec tells Digiday.
Endangered Species
That we’re seeing the end of subscriptions is fake news, argues Jack Marshall of Toolkits.
Last week, Axios posted that subscriptions were over, spurring a publisher backlash.
While news publishers are undeniably struggling to monetize their content due to reduced site traffic, lack of advertisers and consumers turning away from news content (and media may soon be facing an extinction-level event), subscriptions aren’t to blame for these struggles.
If anything, publishers with loyal subscribers tend to outperform publishers that don’t enjoy this advantage. The Economist, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, The Information, the NYT and the WSJ are among the successful publishers with subscription-based models.
That’s not to say that every pub should rush to stick their content behind a paywall. Readers who are used to getting content for free might bristle at having to pay for it. And there’s no market for subscriptions for low-quality content.
Marshall posits that publishers can see subscriptions as just one part of their revenue mix, along with ads, commerce, licensing (to generative AI companies, perhaps) and events.
Toying With Consent
A woman has brought a class-action lawsuit against PHE, owner of sex toy retailer Adam & Eve, for sharing her data with Google, 404 Media reports.
The filing claims PHE violated the California Invasion of Privacy Act, which restricts services from sharing user data with third parties without the user’s consent.
The case hinges on a feature in Google Analytics that obscures a user’s IP address. The plaintiff claims Adam & Eve’s ecommerce site did not enable this feature, which allowed the retailer to share with Google information about her shopping and browsing history.
The filing includes screenshots from Google Analytics showing which specific products the plaintiff placed in her shopping cart. Because her IP address wasn’t obscured, Google can trace that data back to her.
The plaintiff also claims that, based on the products she was shopping for, Google could easily discern her sexual orientation and preferences – information she did not opt into sharing.
In a statement to 404 Media, Google placed the responsibility for activating the IP-obscuring feature on the site owner and stressed that it prohibits ad targeting based on sensitive data like sexual orientation.
The class action is seeking damages of $5,000 for each time the Adam & Eve site shared a California-based user’s data with Google without consent.
But Wait, There’s More!
SiriusXM to lay off 3% of its workforce. [Variety]
And analysts say tech layoffs aren’t ending anytime soon. You can blame AI. [Business Insider]
The best and worst Super Bowl commercials. [Ad Age]
Havas relaunches its B2B division after acquiring B2B marketing firm Ledger Bennett. [The Drum]
Chinese ecommerce app Temu spends tens of millions on six Super Bowl ads. [Bloomberg]
