Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Addressing Addressable
Say hello to yet another trade org that wants to address the current woes of TV advertising: Go Addressable.
The industry initiative that TV and broadband distributors pushed is now a nonprofit organization, NextTV reports. Paramount is the first programmer to join as a member.
As a nonprofit, Go Addressable expects additional funding from annual membership dues to back its effort to advise marketers on addressable TV advertising, says Larry Allen, Comcast Advertising’s VP and GM of data and addressable enablement and the chairman of Go Addressable. Until now, the initiative relied mostly on donations, Allen tells AdExchanger.
With more cash on hand, Go Addressable will invest in creating resources and guidelines for advertisers to increase the effectiveness of addressable – or to prove that spending big bucks on addressable is actually a good idea.
Some advertisers are still cautious about buying linear addressable because its scarcity and priciness make it hard to scale. But there’s also a reason why many advertisers buy it anyway: Targeting works.
Sandbox Standoff
Google wants to help publishers understand the Privacy Sandbox, its third-party cookie replacement, as long as those publishers aren’t suing Google.
The Google Publisher Council, a publisher group led by sell-side consultant Rob Beeler, almost disbanded after Google threatened to pull support due to lawsuits brought by some of its members, Marketing Brew reports.
Beeler confirmed that he gave News Corp, The Daily Mail and USA Today an ultimatum that they either leave the group or it would be dissolved. All three left.
The Daily Mail and USA Today are suing Google over its alleged buy- and sell-side market dominance. News Corp doesn’t have pending litigation against Google, although it’s been an antitrust thorn in Google’s side for years.
Beeler cited Google’s concerns about lawsuits as the reason for the ultimatum. However, while Google says it expressed misgivings to Beeler about participating in industry events alongside publishers it’s fighting in court, it claims not to have threatened to pull out of the group unless they were removed.
Manufacturing Problems
For adult Instagram users whose behavior on the app is straightforwardly creepy and prurient, what kinds of ads and algorithmic feeds do they see?
The Wall Street Journal created test accounts that followed young gymnasts, cheerleaders and teen influencers. What do those accounts see? According to the Journal, it’s “jarring doses of salacious content [served] to those test accounts, including risqué footage of children as well as overtly sexual adult videos – and ads for some of the biggest US brands.”
Meta responds that the Journal’s report “produced a manufactured experience that doesn’t represent what billions of users see.”
Meta’s response actually points to a big issue for Big Tech right now: Researchers and Big Tech skeptics easily can – and often do – nudge a recommendation algorithm to show objectionable content and egregious advertising adjacencies along with it.
Meta’s defense here is particularly hollow, since there are countless adults on its apps whose feed and behavior simply are as gross as the Journal test accounts, and they see a stream of young girls and creepy ads.
But, also, it’s simply not a defense of systemic platform problems to say that people misuse platforms to create brand suitability failures. Those are still failures.
But Wait, There’s More!
The Writers Guild of America West threatens to sue Amazon for production schedule delays. [The Anker]
Behind TikTok’s aggressive push into ecommerce. [The Wall Street Journal]
Thanksgiving’s football streaming mess. [The Information]
Streaming services slash subscription prices throughout the Black Friday weekend. [The Verge]
Sports Illustrated created fake author profiles for AI-generated content, then deleted everything when questioned by reporters. [Futurism]
