Gartner

Remedies in the federal search antitrust case against Google landed with a thud earlier this week. Most publishers and ad industry pundits were sorely disappointed.

Overreliance on performance channels in pursuit of short-term gains creates fragility in the growth model, especially when brand equity is underfunded and unable to drive demand. 

The Trade Desk makes the S&P 500, triggering a stock price rebound; Estée Lauder is the latest big legacy brand to embrace influencers; and CMOs are trying to measure their return on AI, but it’s tricky.

As AI agents begin to mediate everything from search to purchase, marketers are being forced to confront the reality that they must treat machines as customers.

GroupM is restructuring, as AI looms over the business model of agency holding companies, and one-click campaign planning comes for agency jobs.

CMOs’ ad budgets are flat this year compared to last year, according to Gartner. As a result, CMOs are looking for efficiency wherever they can find it, and AI is a top strategy.

Forecasters expected tariffs would impact advertising growth projections. But that was before we knew exactly how steep these tariffs would be – and now that we do, it doesn’t bode well.

Tune into the first episode of the year with guest Andrew Frank, VP and distinguished analyst at research firm Gartner. We cover a lot of ground, from the impact of multiple major Big Tech antitrust trials to practical AI use cases (minus the BS).

As the new year begins, expect CTV growth to continue blasting along with a vengeance. Experts are “bullish” on the channel and believe that many of 2024’s biggest CTV trends will continue well into 2025.

But cookies aside – and don’t forget to leave a few real ones out for Santa – there were lots of other big privacy developments in 2024. Here are some of the highlights.

Even if the industry finds a way to replace the cookie, it won’t matter if publishers no longer have traffic to monetize.

We asked industry experts: Will the EU’s newly passed AI Act put a damper on the enthusiasm surrounding generative AI in advertising, or is it good to have these guardrails, and why?

On Wednesday, CDP startup Amperity released two new generative AI products for marketers that integrate OpenAI’s GPT models with a brand’s own customer data.

AdExchanger consulted with agencies about how they are evaluating new generative AI tools for marketing use cases as well as the tech companies behind these startups breaking new ground in generative AI.

Last week, Gartner released its first-ever Magic Quadrant report for CDPs. The hot new tech five years ago, CDPs face increased scrutiny and significant headwinds.

Crunchtime The EU’s Digital Markets Act has teeth – and now it’s biting, TechCrunch reports. The DMA regulates anti-competitive practices within “gatekeeper platforms” that have an annual turnover of at least 7.5 billion euros. Meta, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and ByteDance all tick that box. Gatekeepers have until March to ensure their operations in the EU […]

Crisis is often fertile ground for change. And boy, the marketing world is in desperate need of change.

Marketers will fold generative AI into more of their creative processes and ad creative in 2024.

We asked the experts: Which channels are you leaning into — and where are you pulling back – during Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the rest of the holiday season?

Marketing analytics and ad ops teams are overwhelmed with data, which is compounded by the accelerated pace of generative AI-produced content.

Streaming is arguably the TV industry’s most powerful growth engine, but it’s still far from a mature business. Which is why programmers took ad tech off the backburner during their upfront presentations this year.

Marketers must decide how to balance priorities to maximize investments across multiple channels when the distinctions hold no real meaning to customers.

Poor data quality costs businesses $15 million annually. Pair that with economic uncertainty and tighter marketing and advertising budgets, and it’s a recipe for trouble.

A probabilistic and iterative model like the digital twin of the customer (DToC) may be more useful during uncertain times, when customer behavior becomes harder to predict based on historical data, writes Lizzy Foo Kune, VP and analyst at Gartner, Inc.

The most commonly cited rationale for publisher staffing cuts has been marketers’ hesitance to spend on advertising amid persistent economic uncertainty. But publishers’ latest pivot to video and increased competition among digital channels is also likely to blame.

Advertisers are shifting their holiday campaign strategies this Black Friday and Cyber Week, moving down the funnel in response to economic headwinds. And so we asked the experts: How are inflationary and recessionary worries impacting media plans around Black Friday and Cyber Week?

In a saturated technology marketplace, it is becoming harder for vendors to differentiate themselves. A competitive environment means using all methods available to win over buyers. One time-tested way is via industry analysts, writes Marc Johnson, general manager and CMO at Bombora. 

Retail media networks (RMNs) and the ad industry are in the honeymoon phase. RMNs are currently cresting the peak of inflated expectations, according to Gartner’s most recent hype cycle report focused on digital advertising, which was released over the summer. And you know what comes next: a slip down into the trough of disillusionment. It’s […]

For much of 2022, business leaders have been bracing for a downturn. But if a recession does hit, advertisers are unlikely to pull back on performance spend as they continue to chase consumer attention amid changing media consumption habits.

Google’s decision to kick the can on cookie deprecation even further down the road to 2024 did not come as a shock to many in the digital advertising industry. The longer runway will give advertisers and publishers more time to test post-third-party-cookie solutions. But despite the temptation to procrastinate, publishers and tech vendors told AdExchanger they don’t anticipate straying too far from the road maps they’d already established to meet the previous 2023 deadline.