Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Think FAST
Free ad-supported TV (FAST) is more than just traditional TV streamed over the internet.
From a marketing perspective, FAST is a complement to both TV and streaming, says Scott Reich, SVP of programming at Paramount-owned Pluto TV, speaking at Paramount Advertising’s TV Now summit in New York City on Tuesday.
Programmers push FAST because it’s a good user acquisition strategy. But FAST channels also generate incremental reach for on-demand and linear campaigns. They also tend to attract audiences that are unique from cable and box-top viewers. Many people watch FAST channels as an alternative to having streaming, pay-TV or satellite TV subscriptions.
On top of that, FAST channels usually aggregate content from a single genre (think cooking, music or comedy), which makes it easy for media planners to target contextually.
With FAST, “we’re less worried about the male/female split” and more focused on viewing habits, Reich said.
In other words, there may be a lot of noise about turning CTV into a bona fide performance channel, but FAST channels stand out as a solid vehicle for reach.
The Privacy Tax
The opposition to Meta’s ad-free subscription tier in Europe has arrived – in the form of another legal challenge by Max Schrems.
Schrems’ nonprofit noyb – short for “none of your business” – filed a complaint with the Austrian data protection authority on Tuesday alleging that European consumers face a deliberately prohibitive choice by Meta – pay €251.88 (about $277) a year for ad-free Facebook and Instagram or consent to data being collected for advertising.
Nyob cites data from the Gallup Institut, which notes that only a small percentage of users (between 3% and 10%) want personalized ads. Yet 99% of users opt in to tracking rather than paying even a nominal €1.99 fee for ad-free access, according to contentpass, a company that offers paid passes to a network of publishers.
Meta charges €12.99 a month to remove ads from a single user account, plus €8 for each linked account.
Noyb is petitioning for Austrian regulators to initiate an urgency procedure that will prohibit Meta from processing user data. It also wants the court to impose a deterrent fine to ensure no other platforms – such as TikTok, which has experimented with an ad-free paid tier – follow Meta’s lead.
You’ve Got ROI?
Newsletter advertising hasn’t kept pace with newsletter consumption. This is partly because email advertising defies standardization.
Click-through rates should be easy to standardize, but they’re not, Digiday reports.
For example, beehiiv, Mailchimp and Substack, three large email service providers, report CTR as “CTOR,” which is the number of people who clicked through within an email divided by the number of emails opened. (CTR is calculated as emails opened divided by emails sent.)
CTOR is always going to be the larger number and therefore more flattering to the email sender. Advertisers will be inclined to push back, but from the email operator’s perspective, it’s more valuable to measure the click-through rate of people who actually saw an email. A click can only be generated if someone opens the email.
As a mark of the tension around newsletter ROI reporting, “sometimes, media buyers will ask newsletter publishers for a screenshot of their dashboards to see the raw numbers and different metrics, or for an export of their data to load into buyers’ own analytics dashboards,” says Katie Driggs, media director at ad agency FerebeeLane.
But Wait, There’s More!
Advertising is dead. Long live advertising. [WSJ]
Walmart will debut a shoppable “RomCommerce” TV series on Roku, YouTube and TikTok this weekend. [Ad Age]
Amazon plans to release an AI chatbot called “Q” for business customers. [Bloomberg]
YouTube launches more than 30 playable mini-games for Premium users. [TechCrunch]
You’re Hired!
TelevisaUnivision hires Steven Wolfe Pereira as chief client officer for US ad sales. [Variety]
Macy’s hires Sharon Otterman as CMO. [Ad Age]
Sovrn names Carla Holtze Cell as managing director of commerce. [release]
Natrian Maxwell joins Shell-owned Volta as head of product and partnerships. [LinkedIn]
Amplitude appoints Tableau vet Francois Ajenstat as chief product officer. [release]
Adform promotes William Jones to lead a new global omnichannel division. [release]
