Always Room For More Ads
Meta is on a tear launching new features. Not necessarily the right ones, though.
For example, Instagram will now support partnership ads, which is when a business puts its name and paid media behind a creator post as an ad. The campaign can then “leverage signals from both accounts for improved ranking and incremental performance,” according to a blog post.
This type of advertising is a popular creator revenue tool on TikTok, and it makes sense to recreate it for Instagram.
But last week also brought the news that Facebook (as in the Big Blue app and site) will soon test ads in the notifications tab, a popular LinkedIn trick that no one wants or asked for.
Advertisers will also be able to request email addresses in exchange for a discount promo code.
Far more disconcerting than these ads announcements, though, was news last week that some Instagram users have begun spotting prompts to use Meta’s generative AI to whip up comments for other posts.
For the users of Meta’s family of apps, there are fewer and fewer corners they can visit without being badgered by a sponsored promo of some kind.
Civil Soda War
Are right wing influencers getting paid to oppose Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-soda stance?
Kennedy supports a ban on aid recipients using benefits to purchase soda.
But in recent weeks, multiple personalities in the MAGA media sphere – including Ian Miles Cheong, the meme account “Clown World” and others – began posting pro-soda sentiments and decrying government limits on how Americans spend their benefits, The Bulwark reports.
Some influencers even reversed their soda stance.
For example, Cheong posted in 2021 that Coca-Cola “want[s] you to become fat and addicted to sugar.” But last week he posted in opposition to the government “curbing Diet Coke purchases,” complete with a pic of President Trump chugging a Diet Coke.
Other conservative posters accused their peers of being paid to participate in a coordinated effort. One, Nick Sortor, says influencer marketing firm Influenceable was behind the campaign, and even posted a template for the pro-soda posts allegedly provided by Influenceable, including recommendations to highlight Trump’s affinity for Diet Coke.
All that remains is to find out if this goes to the very top. Not the White House, mind, but Coca-Cola or Pepsi.
Otter? I Hardly Know’er!
Even diehard AI skeptics have their exceptions.
Take Otter, for example, an automatic transcription platform that many journalists (AdExchanger included!) find useful, because it vastly cuts down the time and effort to transcribe recordings.
You know what would stymie that usefulness, though? If Otter began interrupting people in the middle of conversations.
And yet, that’s something Otter seems to think people want, The Verge reports. The company is rolling out an AI assistant tool that will use its data to answer questions, coach sales representatives and demonstrate products in the middle of calls, all “without human intervention.”
There are already reasons to be suspicious of third-party transcription platforms because, like any other cloud-based tool, there are privacy concerns. But it’s one thing to be worried about potential data leaks and another to be worried that an AI assistant might blurt out company secrets or strategy during a sales pitch.
It could be worse, though. At least Otter hasn’t decided to give its AI agents human names that cause it to chime in whenever it thinks it’s being spoken to, like Siri or Alexa do.
But Wait! There’s More
After losing a legal battle over targeted advertising, Meta considers charging UK users for ad-free Facebook and Instagram. [BBC]
TikTok’s Blake Chandlee, who oversaw global advertising sales and marketing, has resigned ahead of the platform’s April 5 deadline to reach a sale in the US. [Bloomberg]
Research from OpenAI and MIT Media Lab finds some ChatGPT power users appear to become addicted to the platform. [Futurism]
The bulk of recent stock market gains came from Big Tech firms with heavy AI investments. So what happens if AI companies can’t become profitable and the AI bubble bursts? [Prospect]
You’re Hired
OpenAI expands its COO Brad Lightcap’s role to include overseeing the company’s day-to-day operations. [Business Insider]
AI agent platform Firsthand hires Andrew Rutledge as CRO. [release]
Thanks for reading AdExchanger’s daily news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
