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Google’s search antitrust trial ends with a whimper; the pitfalls of agency-owned SSPs; Perplexity axes its ads business; and brands are still building big-ticket metaverse experiences.

Why is programmatic media buying so dang complicated? That question was an ever-present topic at the 2025 ANA Media Conference in Orlando, Florida this week.

As the newly appointed president of Horizon Media Holdings, Bob Lord is dubious that megamergers between holding companies are actually good for the client. “Bigger is not always better,” Lord says.

Publicis Groupe continued its years-long streak of acquiring non-agency ad tech and data sales companies with the announcement on Thursday that it has bought Lotame, a data management system for advertisers and publishers.

AdExchanger reached out to a number of major DSPs to gauge the current state of adoption of the IAB Tech Lab’s new video ad standard.

Criteo’s Brian Gleason shared how it is working with agencies to capitalize on curation and measurement opportunities in retail media and CTV.

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.

Publicis outperforms its agency holding company rivals because of three primary factors: technology strategy, leadership and deal-making.

In today’s newsletter: Google Demand Gen is the industry’s latest over-attribution controversy; data from third-party brokers might not be worth it; and The Trade Desk launches a CTV operating system.

Inside Publicis’ play to be both an agency and an ad tech company. Plus: the dissolution of GARM and what it means for the future of brand safety.

Many of Publicis’ fastest-growing and most strategic business units – including CitrusAd, Profitero, Epsilon and Conversant – earn a large chunk of their revenue from other agencies. Is that a problem?

Inspire Brands, the fast-food franchise that owns popular chains such as Dunkin’, Sonic and Arby’s, is rewriting parts of its TV playbook to better manage reach and frequency in streaming media campaigns.

In today’s newsletter: Data broker Adstra sues IPG-owned Acxiom and Kinesso; Apple could strip the P address of its status as a useful identity signal; and Roblox will introduce video ads later this year, with SSP PubMatic as its programmatic vendor.

Orange142 focused on reaching people with an interest in the Black community in its recent campaign for ATL Unguided, Atlanta’s Black travel guide from the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau.

In today’s newsletter: Uber, the New York Times and Roblox all have ads businesses, but in different flavors; Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery plan to launch a sports streaming service; and Amazon gets introspective in response to competition from Temu, Shein and TikTok.

“Standard advertising services” shouldn’t include recording intimate patient-doctor conversations to help drug companies guide doctors on how to push opioids.

Agencies will keep testing cookie alternatives, devising first-party data strategies and exploring commerce media in 2024.

Dentsu launched a set of identity solutions for Merkury, its identity resolution platform, on Tuesday. The identity solutions try to create a single customer view for marketers.

To tap into its first-party data, The Container Store extended its relationship with Epsilon by choosing Epsilon’s self-service digital CDP.

Organic revenue growth for IPG sank 1.7% YOY, with a 2.5% drop in the US. The holding company said a weakened tech sector is partly to blame.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. No Alternative Third-party cookies are not the future of digital advertising in the EU (or anywhere for that matter). But it looks like alternative IDs may not be either. European publishers are pushing back against alternative IDs that use publisher data to build […]

One-third of Publicis Group’s revenue comes from its data and tech business, which includes Epsilon and Publicis Sapient. Maintaining a differentiated revenue mix is one reason why Publicis is growing faster than the global economy, particularly since the pandemic, chairman and CEO Arthur Sadoun told investors on Thursday.

Publicis Groupe-owned Epsilon has been in the CRM business for 30 years, but the agency only launched a self-service digital CDP for enterprise clients late last month.

Companies are relying on AI to help them treat their current and prospective employees more like their customers. Despite layoffs in some sectors, there is still a labor shortage, and employers continue to feel the aftershocks of the pandemic and the Great Resignation.

The quality of marketing data – or, rather, the lack thereof – is arguably as big of an issue as signal loss, but doesn’t get nearly as much ink. On Wednesday, data validation provider Truthset opened the doors of its data collective to help data providers independently test the accuracy of their consumer records.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Gaming The System Apple’s ATT has far-reaching ramifications not just for mobile game monetization but for how studios conceive and build games. Google and Facebook were so adept at funneling players to game developers because they matched people precisely based on gaming history. […]

Getting cozy with agencies wasn’t always a priority for Criteo, which has direct relationships with more than 20,000 clients. But now that Criteo has commerce and retail media aspirations, it needs to strike agency partnerships, says its CRO Brian Gleason.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Kilar Out Outgoing WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar had interesting tidbits for Bloomberg about HBO Max advertising, now that WarnerMedia merged with Discovery (and is run by Discovery chief David Zalsav).  Set aside the rubble of AT&T’s once-ambitious plan to build a top global […]

Solitaire remains a popular mainstay in app-based gaming – and it’s the next frontier for cookieless advertising. Pubfinity, an SSP that places ads in Windows-based desktop game apps like Simple Solitaire, is hitching itself to Epsilon’s cookieless identity solution, Core ID.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. All Organic Things are starting to look up at Publicis Groupe. After getting battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, the holding company saw a return to organic revenue growth in Q1 as marketers were confident enough to restart projects, especially in the US. The Wall […]