Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
OurTube
Neal Mohan published his annual letter this week – although, this time he’s chief of YouTube, following Susan Wojcicki’s exit last year.
Mohan shares an interesting peek at YouTube’s long-term priorities.
For example, although he talks about YouTube Shorts, the format isn’t as prominently featured as it’s been in the past.
AI-generated creative is in the limelight this time, including potential applications for YouTube creators.
That’s no surprise. Everybody and their mother is talking about AI-generated content.
But Mohan also posits that YouTube creators should be thought of as a new type of production house and studio – not just in the public imagination, but according to tax codes. Creators “can’t be dismissed as simply ‘user-generated content,’” he writes, in a direct shot at broadcast programmers who criticize YouTube’s ad supply as compared to their supposedly shinier TV commercials.
YouTube also has the pay-TV business directly in its crosshairs. Mohan revealed that YouTube TV, its live TV bundle, now has eight million subscribers. That’s peanuts compared to Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+, but YouTube is catching up, as subscriber counts fall at Comcast, Charter and other broadcasters.
“YouTube’s next frontier is the living room and subscriptions,” according to Mohan.
Floor Plan
The Trade Desk recently announced it will ignore SSP price floors, which it says don’t reflect the value of impressions and simply enable sellers to pad their margins.
According to Jounce Media’s February report, DSPs are right to distrust SSP floor prices – and perhaps publishers should, too.
SSPs often manipulate price floors to increase publisher yield. But doing so might negatively impact DSP bidding behavior when it comes to campaign selection or bid shading, which could reduce publisher revenue in the long run.
Static pricing floors – with hard limits for minimum bids – provide “really bad information” for campaign optimization, argues Jounce’s Chris Kane. Meanwhile, dynamic floors – in which a seller provides a suggested price to inform a DSP where it might top competitive bids – are prone to price inflation.
Ultimately, Kane says, DSPs should identify unreliable SSPs and either ignore them or be willing to bid above or below their floor prices. SSPs should also tune their pricing algorithms to maximize DSP responsiveness while publishers should take control over their dynamic flooring rather than rely solely on SSPs. In Kane’s view, it’s up to DSPs to identify the supply paths with pricing signals that hew closest to the true market value of impressions.
Going Global
Binging, meet billable hours.
Netflix is building its ads business – and, therefore, its legal team.
The streamer is looking for an associate counsel to join its advertising legal affairs team, according to a job post on LinkedIn.
An ads business comes with a long list of compliance to-dos that are new to Netflix, such as data privacy policies that include disclosures about what information may be shared with advertisers and third parties.
A legal team is all the more necessary now that Netflix is squarely focused on expanding its ads business globally. Sharing data across borders is especially tricky. (Just ask Max Schrems.)
Earlier this week, Expedia became Netflix’’s first global advertiser, with plans to air ads localized for nine countries (including the UK, Canada, Japan, Mexico and Brazil). Meanwhile, Netflix continues to pressure viewers worldwide into signing up with ads by phasing out the cheapest ad-free plan, starting with the UK and Canada.
But Wait, There’s More!
DraftKings sues a former senior executive for allegedly sharing the company’s Super Bowl ad plans with its competitor Fanatics. [Bloomberg]
Snap’s shares plunge on revenue miss and light guidance. [CNBC]
Liquid Death sells ad space on its packaging, promising better reach than the Super Bowl. [Ad Age]
ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. join forces to launch a new sports-focused streaming service. [CNBC]
You’re Hired!
Scripps hires Tony Song as head of national ad sales and advanced TV. [B&C]
