Opinion

During a Covid-induced two-day binge watch of a recent streaming hit, advertisers consistently failed to serve the right ad. Where’s the accountability?

Here’s an idea: Forget years of appeals. Google should spin out its entire network unit as a public benefit “B Corp” with capped margins. writes Arete Research’s Richard Kramer.

Seven years ago, some people believed targeting on connected TV (CTV) wouldn’t be possible without cookies. Fast-forward to today, and cookieless CTV targeting is not only possible but commonplace. We’ve entered an era where precision targeting is the norm, even as the traditional methods of tracking have evolved.

The holiday season is here, and understanding how different generations plan to shop can help you tailor your messaging, media planning and creative based on the generation you’re targeting.

Google isn’t perfect. But it offers convenient, cost-effective advertising tools that millions of small businesses use to find customers, grow and succeed. If the DOJ breaks up the company, it will also break those tools.

Competing agendas are limiting the tools publishers have at their disposal in ways that aren’t always primarily motivated by user privacy. Here are five things about privacy in digital media that should keep publishers up at night.

Could Google’s antitrust cases change how we use the internet? The short answer: possibly.

Marketers are on edge, as the remedies for this case could disrupt the bedrock of marketing. Search marketing, for example, is a linchpin of acquisition strategies that commands nearly 40% of US ad spend. Google’s ad tech commands a massive share of the online display market. If the cornerstone that is Google marketing crumbles, the ripple effects would be massive. Traditional search and acquisition strategies could falter.

The streaming landscape is rapidly expanding, with over 2,000 streaming services vying for US consumers’ attention. This surge has not only increased content availability but also heightened competition and subscriber churn. Samsung Ads’ data shows that, for every active user on a streaming app, eight users churned last year. This poses a significant concern, complicating media planning and monetization.

Identity chaos – that’s what a customer recently called the current state of identity management (or lack thereof). It became clear that the customer’s plethora of options, methodologies and use cases – all with their own trade-offs and a lack of interoperability – resulted in significant confusion and limitations.

As we lean heavily on AI tools to enhance content efficiency, we may have reached a tipping point where we are creating more content in service of media algorithms, rather than for the benefit of consumers and brands.