Platforms

AdExchanger’s Social Distancing With Friends podcast now has its own channel. Subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. About two weeks ago, when this podcast was recorded with Jim Squires, VP of business and media at Instagram, Facebook’s acquisition of GIPHY and the rollout of Facebook Shops were two […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Social Media Vs. Trump Snapchat is the latest social media network to enforce policies that restrain President Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric. The company said it will no longer promote Trump’s account on the Snapchat Discover feed due to comments he made that could incite violence […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.  Today’s column is written by Allison Schiff, senior editor at AdExchanger. It’s part of a series of perspectives from AdExchanger’s editorial team. Mark Zuckerberg sees himself as a defender of free speech. His detractors consider […]

Department of Justice lawyers have interviewed numerous buy- and sell-side companies since kicking off an antitrust probe of Google’s business practices roughly a year ago. “They know their shit now,” said one ad tech executive who’s had multiple calls and exchanged a flurry of emails with DOJ attorneys since October. “The early calls were about […]

Video games have proven their marketing mettle during the coronavirus crisis, with people stuck at home and live sports and TV frozen in limbo. The latest example of that trend comes from Doritos, which is teaming up with Twitch to host a series of esports tournaments over the course of the year. The Doritos Disruptor […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Mobile Video In TV’s Clothing YouTube may struggle to win TV buyers, who see the app as a mobile- and desktop-first platform. Time spent streaming YouTube on TV sets is up 80% year over year, and the platform is bidding for TV ad dollars […]

Small businesses are under immense pressure during lockdown. “Holy cow, it’s tough,” said Sara Brook, CEO and founder of Dessert Gallery, a bake shop in Houston with 47 employees that’s still churning out cakes, cookies and pies for curbside pickup and delivery. “This is a scary time on every level, both personally and professionally,” said […]

What goes down must go up. Now that the economy is slowly beginning to reopen, Facebook CPMs have bounced back and then some after dropping precipitously in March due to the pandemic. When COVID-19 hit, CPMs on Facebook dipped by as much as 50% in some cases, according to eMarketer. CPMs on social platforms were […]

Miffed by Twitter adding fact-checking labels to some of his tweets this week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that, if enacted, would challenge social media companies or other aggregation platforms that moderate or remove political content. The reported draft of the executive order targets Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency […]

Not a news flash: Media agencies are under immense pressure. That was true long before the pandemic. But agencies have also made big investments in data and technology over the last few years that are starting to bear fruit. This week on The Big Story, special guest Jay Pattisall, a principal analyst at Forrester, calls […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Rob Gabel, founder and CEO at Tubular Labs. Stuck inside for more than two months now, many of us have looked toward new interests to help occupy the time away from work and/or parenting […]

Facebook won’t ever solve its content moderation problems to the satisfaction of all. Not because it’s incapable of doing so, but because free speech is the hottest of hot buttons. People want Facebook to police itself – and they don’t want Facebook acting as a censor. It’s an awkward dynamic that was on display at […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Digital Election  The 2020 campaign is happening online. Trump has recreated the appeal of his rallies on the “Trump 2020” app, which highlights programming from right-leaning news organizations. His team also hosts nightly webcasts on Facebook and Twitter. Trump’s outlandishness and media dominance […]

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. On Again, Office Again Agencies are starting to plan for office returns. Omnicom is developing a three-phase return strategy based on local government guidelines, Campaign reports. Phase one involves returning offices to 25% occupancy with social distancing rules in place, such as wearing masks, […]

A couple of years ago, Amazon Kindle asked Nativex, one of its app monetization partners, to strike hypercasual game publishers from its media plan. But Nativex demonstrated that the hypercasual audience is primarily female and 25+ with a predilection for e-reading – and that Kindle campaigns have really good conversions when targeting that audience. “We’re […]

Project management software maker Basecamp does not mess with Facebook and Google. “We vote with our dollars for the world we want to see, and we don’t want to see a world ruled by a handful of companies,” said head of marketing Andy Didorosi. Basecamp avoids online consumer tracking, which is “creepy,” Didorosi said. Facebook […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Back To Work Facebook has a plan for reopening offices in July. The company will have a 25% occupancy limit, bring people back in shifts and require temperature checks, Bloomberg reports. Facebook will also limit the number of employees in meeting rooms and shut […]

Facebook on Tuesday launched a new commerce toolkit, called Shops, with a revamped model for how the company fits into the online shopping landscape. Shops will give every SMB, merchant and product company the ability to set up a virtual storefront across Facebook’s app properties. Unlike previous Facebook and Instagram commerce products, Shops will also […]

With almost two months of nationwide lockdowns under our belts and a round of quarterly earnings reports, Wall Street’s sentiment around digital media and ad tech companies is … surprisingly positive. Companies that rely on advertising are supposed to be among the most prone to recessions and market panic, since advertising is historically tied to […]

YouTube is expanding the amount of inventory it’s availing in the upfront this year through a new offering called YouTube Select, the company said Tuesday. YouTube Select grows the pool of inventory advertisers can purchase on a guaranteed upfront basis by bringing more channels into Google Preferred. The new channels, called “emerging lineups,” are organized […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Copyright Or Wrong Google’s content removal system is being gamed by bad actors to remove legitimate news stories that are damaging to companies’ and individuals’ reputations. The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act stipulates that online content aggregators aren’t responsible for copyright violations as long […]

Facebook bought GIPHY for $400 million Friday, with plans to more tightly integrate with Instagram. Axios was the first to report the deal. “By bringing Instagram and GIPHY together, we can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct,” Facebook said in a blog post announcing the […]

The coronavirus pandemic has led advertisers to rapidly switch directions, adjusting media buys and ad creative on the fly as the market changed overnight. “Automation feels like a necessity,” says Tara Walpert Levy, VP of agency and brand solutions at Google. “Both to try to help people capture any profitable growth they can, and to […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Meiry Vaknin, vice president of partnerships at YouAppi. With Amazon having joined the Google and Facebook duopoly as the platforms dominating digital marketing, could new or old players be preparing […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Big Mac Budgets McDonald’s is increasing its marketing spend during the pandemic to gain share as smaller restaurant chains struggle. Doubling down on spend in markets where McDonald’s handles its own operations, including the United States, Australia and Canada, is part of a three-pronged […]

Tencent had a monster start to the year, with overall ad revenue bolstered by its gaming division (natch). But it’s being super cautious about its outlook for the second quarter compared with others in the gaming space as people return to work and have less time to game their hearts out. While Activision Blizzard and […]

Kieley Taylor will speak about commerce and video opportunities on Instagram at AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO Innovation Labs, taking place virtually May 18-21. Of all the trends accelerating due to COVID-19, the uptick in ecommerce is the one most likely to stick – and Instagram is well suited to benefit, says Kieley Taylor, global VP of social […]

Engagement with games is up during the pandemic, but it’s not only because people are looking for a way to kill time. Gaming can be a therapeutic exercise, said Brian Ames, president of Activision Blizzard Media, the advertising and marketing division within gaming juggernaut Activision Blizzard, which owns Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and […]

You are reading AdExchanger Politics, our news roundup in which senior editor James Hercher tracks the latest developments in political advertising, augmenting our political marketing commentary and news coverage. Want it by email? Sign up here.   While everyone in politics is figuring out on the fly how COVID-19 will affect US elections this year, it seems already […]