Ukraine

In today’s newsletter: President Joe Biden signs the TikTok ban into law; upscale grocery and convenience store chain Foxtrot closes down; and IPG has a rough Q1.

GroupM and Magna release their global year-end industry growth forecasts, sharing their 2024 outlook for CTV, retail media and the advertising industry overall.

NewsGuard created a whitelist of publishers based in Ukraine, where the news media market has been in decline since the Russian invasion began in February 2022.

It’s NewFronts season. A week of programmatic pageantry where the data-driven video and streaming media ecosystem plays dress up in an attempt to recreate the glitz and glamour of the age-old TV upfronts. But across the Atlantic, the industry is hard at work dealing with the harsh realities of the online era as advertising becomes a means of “psychological warfare.”

Mobile behavior is telling: How is Trump’s Truth Social really doing? How is app usage trending in Russia and Ukraine? Did all those crypto ads during the Super Bowl actually get people to download crypto apps? On this week’s episode, we dive into the trends with Jonathan Kay, CEO of app store intelligence platform Apptopia.

When the time comes to take up arms, the best weapons – or tools – are the ones you’re most familiar with. And in Ukraine, advertising is becoming a weapon of choice wielded against misinformation, explains MGID CEO Sergii Denisenko. He joins the podcast from western Ukraine to report on the situation, and how the ad community can help. Also in this episode: Black creators weigh in on equitable (and not so equitable) payment for influencers.

Content moderation policies sound good on paper. But policies are tested in practice. The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine is yet another example that content moderation will never be perfect. Then again, that’s not a reason to let perfect get in the way of good.