Cheap Reach
One surprise corporate marketing trend is the adoption of influencer and creator marketing, and the reasons why are pretty straightforward.
For one, linear TV isn’t the universal mass reach vehicle it once was, and young people block and ignore online ads as a matter of course. Social media has therefore become essential for connecting with the next generation of customers.
But influencer marketing can also be super cheap, especially micro-influencers with small but loyal followings. Take the NBA’s All Star weekend, which was essentially an influencer festival.
The league could have spent millions to have a celeb like Kim Kardashian post once from the event. Instead, Adweek reports, the NBA provided more than 200 creators with free tickets and a few perks, including a wine-tasting and invites to concerts that were happening at the event anyway. The costs to the NBA are minimal, because the influencers cover their own production and distribution.
Plus, influencer-created content outperforms brand content, Ashley Schapiro, American Eagle’s VP of marketing, media, performance and engagement, tells Adweek in a separate story. American Eagle recently launched a new social affiliate network with more than 900 creators. The network gives AE the right to use creator content for its own marketing purposes.
Targeting The Chatbot
ChatGPT officially launched ads last week, and only early partners – like Target and its retail media network Roundel – are getting the skinny.
The relationship between a retailer and a conversational AI search chatbot is a natural one. In January, Target reported that its site traffic from ChatGPT was growing 40% month over month, not to mention the fact that Target launched its own app within ChatGPT late last year.
But for ChatGPT to be a valuable channel for retail media networks, it needs first-party data integration, closed-loop measurement and more flexible buying models, like dynamic ad integrations, Roundel SVP Matt Drzewicki tells Digiday.
As of now, though, Target can only, well, target based on simple query matches. A search for “countertop cooking appliances,” for instance, might trigger an ad for an air fryer.
After the testing period – timeline TBD – Target will review campaign results with OpenAI. “From there,” Drzewicki says, “we’ll evaluate what worked, where there’s room to improve and what future engagement might look like.”
Paramounting Concerns
It might only be Wednesday, but Paramount Skydance is having a heck of a week.
Over the weekend, Anderson Cooper announced he’ll be leaving his two-decade long correspondent role at “60 Minutes,” marking yet another notable public loss for newly appointed CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss.
Then, on Monday, Stephen Colbert kicked off “The Late Show” by claiming the network’s lawyers refused to let an interview with Texas State Rep. James Talarico air for fear of FCC retaliation. (Instead, it was posted to YouTube, where it’s been viewed more than 3 million times and counting.)
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery said it will reopen deal talks with Paramount under a seven-day waiver from Netflix – despite concerns from WBD’s board of directors that the company will face a mass exodus of employees if Paramount wins its bid.
All of this drama is fueling doubts over whether consumers and advertisers will stick with Paramount long-term. According to Nielsen’s latest Gauge report, Paramount’s share of total streaming TV hours had been hovering between 2% and 2.5%, but is back down to 2.3% for January after peaking in December.
If Paramount’s perceived kowtowing to the Trump administration persists – and especially if Paramount outbids Netflix and acquires WBD – then it won’t be surprising if that percentage of streaming hours continues to drop.
But Wait! There’s More!
What is it gonna take to fix the in-app ad quality problem? [ExchangeWire]
Kristi Argyilan, a retail media leader and current global head of Uber Ads, joins the board of LiveRamp. [release]
Snapchat will launch the alpha of its creative subscription program next week. [TechCrunch]
Consulting firms have built thousands of AI agents. But are they actually worth anything? [Business Insider]
Gaming news site Clickout Media lays off its editorial staff and goes all in on AI content. [Insider Gaming]
Apple will create a live video podcast hub and launch dynamic video ad insertion for podcasts. [release]
You’re Hired!
Kantar Media names Toni Petra as its new chief operations and technology officer. [Advanced Television]
AI agency Incubeta appoints Adam Woods as global chief product officer. [release]
