unilever

Dotdash Meredith is People now; brands love influencers again; and Apple’s gonna finally help you with all those spam calls.

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.

IAB Tech Lab to highlight the industry’s favorite CTV ad formats; how agentic AI could transform ad agency practices; and the Trump tariffs trigger an uptick in false “Made in America” claims.

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.

An Adalytics report released Friday details numerous instances of brands serving ads to known bots that appear on the IAB Tech Lab’s International Spiders and Bots list and TAG’s Data Center IP List.

Ad industry growth will slow to single-digits next year; consolidation hits the CPG market; and predicting the future of the FTC based on a commissioner’s pitch to the president-elect.

In today’s newsletter: Netflix drops its ad prices to slightly less outrageous levels; X sues GARM, alleging it led an ad boycott for ideological reasons, not brand safety concerns; and how TV manufacturers have laid the groundwork to take ad dollars from streamers and cable.

The acquisition puts Reddit in a better position to compete with Google, Meta, Amazon and TikTok, which all built or expanded their AI creative generation and optimization tools within the past year.

The Global Media Sustainability Framework, which was announced Monday during a panel at Cannes, saw collaboration across all parts of the industry. Supporters include the 4As, IAB, Dentsu, Google, GroupM, L’Oréal, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe, Mastercard, Meta and Unilever.

Chris Symmes, director of dressings for Unilever North America, on marketing Hellmann’s and its West Coast counterpart, Best Foods.

Pacvue’s Melissa Burdick talks about the growing role of automation in commerce, the grocery wars and retail media.

Flywheel Digital, a digital commerce company for enterprise brands, released a feature that gives brands a clearer view of their customer lifetime value (CLTV).

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Leave Those Kids Alone Adalytics is taking a second swing at Google. On Thursday, it released its second report about YouTube this summer, this one alleging that the tech giant is targeting ads to content made for kids. Adalytics claims that the installation […]

Albertsons Media Collective, the retail media network (RMN) operated by food and drug retailer Albertsons, released a working draft of a retail media standardization framework on Thursday.

Ibotta’s consumer-focused offering still makes up more than half of its business, according to CEO and founder Bryan Leach. But its performance marketing network is its future.

Martech holding company The Brandtech Group acquired Pencil, a generative AI platform for ads, on Thursday.

David Sommer, Snap’s newly appointed head of US verticals, spoke with AdExchanger about how he’s applying his CPG knowledge to the tech space.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Green Means Go Privacy and sustainability are critical topics for the future of humanity, and both are top priorities for many high earners in the US and the UK. So, of course, they’re used for cynical marketing purposes and anti-competition skullduggery. With an […]

Retail media may still be a nascent industry, but it is quickly becoming integral to retailers’ advertising strategies. And, as traditional advertisers like Sainsbury’s or Tesco join the retail media space, there are issues and questions the market must urgently address.

Independent performance agency Tinuiti is making a bigger push into social with the acquisition of growth marketing shop Ampush on Tuesday.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. AdExchanger’s daily news round-up will return on Monday. Enjoy your holiday, and may all your online orders arrive on time. A Little Bit Lauder Now Estée Lauder wasn’t a first mover on TikTok – but it was a very fast follower.  The Estée Lauder […]

TAZO’s strategy under new ownership is to rebuild its brand on social media and its approach to media in general with a focus on sustainability, including a transition into product supply lines that are entirely regenerative by 2029, to help promote biodiversity. And that new strategy starts on TikTok.

Bringing data ethics into the marketing department is good for an org’s bottom line, says Jamie Barnard, Unilever’s former general counsel focused on global marketing, and now the CEO of a new privacy compliance startup called (natch) Compliant.

“When you enter those [agency] doors, you are you coming into an office of all media professionals – media planning, media strategy, custom content makers, research – where everybody eats, sleeps and breathes media,” said Aaron Sobol, Unilever’s head of media investment and partnerships. On the brand side, however, the in-house media team is comparatively small and sits “inside of a relatively small marketing community, inside of a very, very large company.”

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. You Got Peltzed Unilever will cut jobs and reorganize to fend off activist investor Trian Fund Management, led by Nelson Peltz, The Wall Street Journal reports.  Peltz unseated a Procter & Gamble board member in a shocking shareholder vote in 2017 – winning […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. For Pod’s Sake Bloomberg points out that, despite the hype, there hasn’t been a hit podcast in many years. No newcomer has usurped Joe Rogan or NPR or broken through the general noise like Serial.  But is that actually so bad? Podcasting is […]

GroupM launched a tool in beta on Monday designed to help marketers determine the potential ethical risks associated with a data-driven campaign from a consumer perspective. Launched in partnership with Unilever, GroupM’s Data Ethics Compass claims it’s the industry’s first ever tool to incorporate ethical decision making into data-driven media tactics, and to help prioritize […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Is It Safe To Come Out? With the Trump circus leaving town, what does this mean for brand safety? Seb Joseph of Digiday wrote  about how the political divide amongst American consumers has extended to the media channels people consume. “And it’s made the […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Refriended Unilever will resume advertising on Facebook and Instagram in the United States after withdrawing last summer amid a wide scale brand protest over misinformation, The Wall Street Journal reports. The owner of Dove soap, Hellmann’s mayonnaise, and other CPG brands said Thursday that […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Programmatic Please Programmatic ad spend is up from the trough of the pandemic. Through the end of July, total programmatic spend grew 11% since April, and the number of advertisers running programmatic ads increased 36% since January, according to MediaRadar. That’s a rebound from […]