The Soaps
Google’s DSP has taken many potshots in its day, but one that stung is the notion recently advocated by The Trade Desk that Google’s alleged monopoly over display and the ad server market is demonstrated by DV360’s weakness in CTV.
Because Google doesn’t dominate the connected TV marketplace, TTD outpaces DV360 on CTV. Or so the story goes.
Ask Google, though, and it believes the landscape has become “fragmented.”
“Some platforms offer to solve that challenge by building a ‘premium internet,’” writes Stephen Yap, managing director of Google Marketing Platform, which is Google’s name for its buy-side tech business, in a blog post.
That’s a shot fired at The Trade Desk, which started using the term “premium internet” last year – as opposed to the open internet. And fair enough. Aside from gratuitous barbs during the recent ad tech antitrust trial, TTD was a vocal antagonist attempting to sink the Chrome Privacy Sandbox project.
Yap points to Google PAIR as a more open programmatic product that advertisers, ad tech and publishers can use to match audiences through Google cloud-based clean rooms.
By comparison, taking an approach like that of The Trade Desk – Yap doesn’t mention TTD by name, but we know who he means – “risks favoring exclusive deals, limiting reach and closing off growth potential.”
Trading Trademarks
Sticking with Google, a change to its search ads business may be inflating advertising costs for charities, The New York Times reports.
Prior to a policy change in July 2023, Google allowed only resellers and product review sites to use third-party trademarks in their search ads. But Google now allows competitive search platforms to use third-party trademarks in search ads. Google says it made this change to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act.
As a result, search engines Info.com and Ask.com have been outbidding charities on search terms related to their own trademarks. It seems the only recourse charities have is to ask these platforms not to use their trademarks in their search ads or outbid them.
For example, in December 2023, a Google search for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital returned ads for Look Up Smart, a search engine owned by Ask.com. The ad copy read “Donating to Saint Judes | Visit our website” [sic]. But rather than taking visitors to St. Jude’s site, it went to a search results page.
According to another charity, it paid Google $200,000 for search ads during the last two days of 2023 – more than double what it paid on the same days in 2022, which was before the policy change. As a result, it blew through its search budget and couldn’t advertise on Dec. 31, its most lucrative day for soliciting donations.
Ruined-Scape
It makes sense that ad-supported subscription tiers are working out for TV streamers so far. Commercial breaks were once endemic to the television experience, so they don’t strike viewers as too obtrusive.
Inserting ads where they didn’t exist before, however, is a different challenge entirely.
Just ask video game publisher Jagex – and CVC Capital Partners and Haveli Investments, the private equity firms that bought it for $1.1 billion last year.
The trio is facing severe backlash from “RuneScape” players over a member survey it sent out last week, Game Rant reports. In the survey, respondents were asked for their opinions on prospective new subscription features for both “RuneScape 3” and “Old School RuneScape,” which included in-game ads for the base membership tier.
Jagex management was quick to clarify that there are no plans to introduce ads to member tiers. But that hasn’t stopped longtime “OSRS” players from review-bombing the game on Steam and organizing in-game riots.
Ironically, when “RuneScape” first launched as a free-to-play browser game back in 2001, the website featured banner ads to cover server costs. It’s only when that stopped paying the bills that the ad-free membership tier was launched in the first place.
But Wait! There’s More
Martin Sorrell predicts the end of the Big Six holdcos: Who will survive the shake-up? [The Drum]
DeepSee.io uncovers an ad-supported piracy ring driving more than 1 billion monthly visits. [blog]
Netflix hikes subscription prices – including the first increase to its ad-supported tier. [Variety]
Google once again updates its site reputation abuse policy to provide better guidance. [Search Engine Journal]
Former President Biden’s executive order on AI was among those Trump rescinded on his first day back in office. [Bloomberg]
Meta will pay eligible TikTok creators up to $5,000 to switch to Facebook and Instagram instead. [Business Insider]
You’re Hired
GroupM hires Emily Del Greco as global COO. [Adweek]
We Are Social promotes Rebecca Coleman to North America CEO. [Adweek]
