Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
BeReal Gets Real
French photo-sharing app BeReal was a sensation in 2021 and 2022. But even when its organic growth was through the roof, the app – which is free to use and has no ads – faced the question of how it would eventually alchemize (as in, monetize) all of the attention it was generating.
It still faces that same question. But now it does so as a subsidiary of Voodoo, a Paris-based mobile game developer that acquired BeReal for 500 million euros ($537 million) this week.
It’s a momentous change of the guard for BeReal.
Because Voodoo plans to introduce paid advertising on the app, CEO Alexandre Yazdi tells the Financial Times.
“We think advertising is necessary for the business model of a social media platform,” he says.
What everyone is hoping for is that BeReal matriculates into the next Instagram, which was also ad-free – and philosophically so – before its acquisition by Facebook.
And then we all know what happened.
Delivery!
Food delivery services launching ad platforms is a new phenomenon, but these companies are moving quickly.
Yesterday, The New York Times and Instacart announced a new partnership for shoppable NYT Cooking recipes, alongside a raft of other promotional offers, as an incentive to sign up for each other’s subscription plans.
Also yesterday, Uber expanded Journey Ads, its in-app platform for serving ads to passengers who’ve ordered a ride, to include programmatic demand from Google DV360, The Trade Desk and Yahoo DSP. Instacart, meanwhile, recently struck a partnership of its own with Uber Eats to deliver restaurant orders.
And we’re not done yet. DoorDash unveiled ad products yesterday for booze brands and to support targeting against specific events and holidays, such as the Super Bowl, St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, etc.).
DoorDash also added partnerships with two smaller retail media point solutions: Symbiosys AI, a search and social retail ad tech startup that enables “collaborative bidding” between retail media networks and brands, and MikMak, an add-to-cart ecommerce company that is currently the only third-party vendor with access to DoorDash purchase attribution data.
AI Agita
The rise of generative AI introduces more risks than just layoffs, plagiarism and privacy problems. It also opens the door for misleading advertising, an offense the FTC enforces against.
AI startups are eager to market their chatbots as services that help with anything from grief management and romance to financial investments. But companies must avoid misrepresenting what AI chatbots and software services do, writes Michael Atleson, an attorney in the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices, in a blog post. “Your therapy bots aren’t licensed psychologists,” he writes, and AI-generated financial advice is no substitute for human advisors. The FTC recently opened cases against several startups for false financial guarantees.
But another concern about AI chatbots is the guise of neutrality.
Companies see chatbots as an opportunity to slip undisclosed paid content and recommendations into conversations.
“More and more advertising will likely creep into the output [of] various generative AI services,” Atleson writes. Which calls for the reminder: “Don’t insert ads into a chat interface without clarifying that it’s paid content.”
Ask yourself, “What’s worse: ruining the illusion of talking to a human(oid) or facing down the wrong end of an FTC investigation?”
But Wait, There’s More!
Michael Kassan announces his new consulting company, 3C Ventures. [Adweek]
IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur: “Nothing will be the same” in digital advertising. [Digiday]
In other Tech Lab news, it just released an Ad Creative ID Framework for CTV advertising. [release]
Attorney Daniel Rosenzweig on how ad tech companies should treat the Video Privacy Protection Act. [podcast]
You’re Hired!
Permutive hires Jay Stevens as CCO. [release]
Outbrain names Greg Archibald as GM and SVP of US sales. [release]
