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Antitrust regulation has counterintuitively favored the biggest ad industry players. Plus, another streaming service, anyone?

Publishers expect the agencies will eliminate tech redundancies as they consolidate, which could compel pubs to shed redundant tech themselves. The merger could also entrench principal-based buying, which may not be a bad thing.

AS Beauty has been using the enterprise version of Shopify Shop Campaigns to acquire new customers and only pay for those that convert. Shop Campaigns went GA for all merchants on Wednesday.

The hunger for first-party data is driving companies to demand our information more aggressively than ever. It’s hard to buy a coffee, magazine or sweater these days without someone demanding your name, number, email or home address.

Rival browsers raise an objection to Google being forced to sell Chrome; ad agencies pivot to software and services; and people are turning to chatbots instead of search, with error-filled results.

“It’s going to be harder for [indie agencies] to compete,” said Rob Rivenburgh, the CEO of Mars United, who also now leads the Publicis Commerce global group.

The ad tech industry is great at creating new buzzwords, but less successful at defining them.

Take curation: Every major ad tech platform claims to do it, but there are conflicting definitions of what it is or how it works.

Jared Belsky, CEO and co-founder of indie digital agency Acadia, needs your help. He’d like someone to please explain to him why media arbitrage isn’t a form of stealing.

Where and how brands choose to advertise is perceived as a reflection of the brand itself. That means we’ve entered the era of responsible advertising.

Ad industry growth will slow to single-digits next year; consolidation hits the CPG market; and predicting the future of the FTC based on a commissioner’s pitch to the president-elect.

Another big ad industry acquisition? Truly, it’s a Christmas miracle. Omnicom’s board of directors has unanimously approved a deal to acquire IPG, itself a major holding company.

Curation is a reaction to programmatic’s worsening queries-per-second problem, says Permutive’s Joe Root. DSPs are biased toward impressions that have an identifier attached, so SSPs are using curated deal IDs as a stand-in for third-party cookies.

Although most people probably understand in an abstract way that they’re being tracked online, the details are fuzzy. Honestly, the details are fuzzy to me, and I write about this stuff for a living.

What happens if the TikTok ban comes to pass; Netflix’s live sports Hail Mary play; and Channel Factory surfs for buyers.

If “Austin Powers” supervillain Dr. Evil wanted to hold the world ransom for $100 billion, the global advertising industry might actually be able to afford it – at least, according to GroupM’s end-of-year forecast.

True crime podcasts are incredibly popular with listeners. But they’re a hard sell with advertisers. So Sony Music Entertainment is turning to sentiment analysis to address buyer concerns.

Now that ad-supported streaming models are becoming more profitable, Vevo’s Rob Christensen predicts that social video will be the next big frontier to cross – or, more specifically, where “social and television converge.”

Enjoy this weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

IPG buying Node continues the trend of agencies trying new business models; IPG and Publicis support principal-based buying while WPP opposes it; and billionaire owners believe controlling their newsrooms will win back public trust.

This year, Black Friday stretched on for days and days. And the retail holidays is evolving in other ways, as online shopping takes over.

Retailers should always have a shopper-first mentality – and sometimes that may mean having to deprioritize their retail media business.

CTV advertising is experiencing a power shift as original content manufacturers (OEMs) position themselves at the intersection of audiences, advertisers and content providers.

Ecommerce and DTC marketers may be overrelying on YouTube and Meta for advertising. Plus, song recognition technology is becoming a problem.

Cyber Monday may be done, but the ad tech deal making just won’t quit. Experian has joined the ad tech consolidation parade with its acquisition of Audigent, a startup DMP and curation vendor.

Before first-party data can save us all from signal loss, advertisers need tools that make first-party data more accessible and easier to use, said fullthrottle.ai CPO Amol Waishampayan.

Personalization and customization are great, but when marketers go overboard with targeting, they don’t cast a wide enough net to attract new customers and foster growth, says JP Jansen, SVP of marketing and CMO for North America at Mars Pet Nutrition.

When talk turns to the most impactful state privacy laws, the conversation usually starts and stops with California. However, recent developments may make Maryland the most challenging state for compliance by the digital media industry.

Mediaocean has a new certified partner program. Plus, Google’s “site reputation abuse” search update is cratering publisher affiliate revenue during the year’s busiest shopping season.

Western Union – which, fun fact, sent its first telegrams across the American frontier in the early 1850s – launched a media network last month that reaches 150 million people.

Brands’ relentless drive for efficiency in media spending has far-reaching consequences that have significantly reshaped the industry and perpetuated longstanding issues with media quality.