Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Hidden Talent
Hollywood creatives are being crushed by studios. They suffered a blow during the writers’ and actors’ strikes last year and they’re about to lose out again due to new performance-based payment policies proposed by streamers.
Once upon a time, writers, actors and studio workers on a hit show could earn generational wealth long after a series was done. They would collect checks whenever the show aired or was picked up by another network. But now the creative side is missing out on a cut of ad revenue, even as streamers lean into AVOD services, Bloomberg reports.
New deals crafted by Netflix, Apple and Amazon propose offering bonuses for new sign-ups and for total streaming hours. But it’s hard to prove what exactly is driving subscriptions. Lots of people who sign up to watch a particular show still go through the normal subscription process.
Apple has proposed sharing payouts of up to $10.5 million for a season, which is nothing to sniff at – but also isn’t all that much when spread between many mouths. And it should also be noted that these performance-based payouts would be reserved for top in-house shows.
Still, offering a cut of ad revenue would mean the writers, actors and other talent are paid according to a show’s popularity. Right now the benefits of a smash hit accrue to the streaming platform.
Who Verifies The Verifiers?
IAS and DoubleVerify, both of which recently reported Q1 earnings, are profitable and growing. So why have both of their stocks dropped double digits this year?
For one, the verifiers are susceptible to stagnation in open web ad spend, writes Ari Paparo in the Marketecture newsletter.
Ad verification has for years been treated as a de facto insurance policy of sorts on programmatic advertising. But walled gardens, including Google and Meta, are claiming more (and more) of the open internet ad pie – and IAS’s and DV’s margins are slimmer via their walled garden partners.
Verification providers, namely IAS and DV, have propounded the idea that the open internet isn’t safe for brands and sold publisher blocklists as protection. But this approach backfires when advertisers end up retreating to walled garden platforms, where verification is tokenized (literally and metaphorically).
Meanwhile, the overall verification category (remember Moat?) has failed to innovate, according to Paparo.
They’re MIA in the race to replace Nielsen. They’ve watched attention and carbon measurement startups crop up instead of cornering those markets. And they’re missing a chance to provide media mix modeling for a fragmented supply chain.
All true. However, instead of becoming a mar tech suite, maybe what they should really do is go back to their original purpose – ad verification and spotting invalid traffic – and simply do it right.
Down For DTC
Digital native brands are moving away from direct-to-consumer channels. Home delivery and returns are just too tough, not to mention the endless intricacies of retail site management.
Instead, Ad Age reports, they’re turning to traditional retail and, for many, a one-time foe: Amazon.
While securing shelf space at retailers like Target and Walmart is extremely competitive, getting a product on Amazon’s “shelves” is a cinch. By bidding on search terms that relate to a brand’s products – or a competitor’s – an advertiser can get in front of new customers while they’re in the process of shopping.
Amazon has its downsides, of course. No brand wants to become too reliant on Amazon. And although it sells itself as the highest-converting funnel – the likeliest spot for that next shopper-related click – it’s much harder to build long-term relationships with consumers. Amazon is, well, transactional.
Yet for many digital marketers and DTC brands, Amazon might be their only option. Those VC coffers are drying up.
But Wait, There’s More!
According to Google, publishers must make it “super obvious” when video is part of the content on a page. [Search Engine Roundtable]
European newspaper groups warn Apple over ad-blocking plans. [Financial Times]
Temu cools on the US market after shelling out billions. [WSJ]
Broadsign acquires Netherlands-based DOOH DSP OutMoove. [release]
You’re Hired!
Reddit hires Google alum Jyoti Vaidee as its first VP of ads product. [release]
