WPP

PubMatic anticipates a rise in agentic buying; why an AI assistant shouldn’t make your decisions for you; and the AI ads that are using celebrity likenesses.

Agencies are pitching AI directly to CEOS; Xandr under fire for sharing sexual orientation data sourced from Grindr; and Publicis says brands don’t need to sweat big holdcos working for their competitors.

Congratulations to Kristi Argyilan and Lauren Wetzel, who will receive AdExchanger’s highest honors at our Top Women in Media & Ad Tech gala in New York City on November 3.

Connected TV advertisers are still pining after show-level control. And PubMatic announced contextual targeting at the episode level is available to media buyers accessing CTV inventory through its platform.

WPP’s earnings were less bad than expected; Versant’s, meanwhile, weren’t great either; and Cloudflare gets into the AEO game.

Somewhere between what the ad industry says and what the market rewards is often where the truth lives. Here are the three industry storylines most in need of debunking.

Advertising in AI-native destinations and experiences is already starting to look less like a series of experiments and more like an emerging market.

Amazon’s Alexa gets voice-activated shopping assistant ads; AI-affiliated Super PACs are the big spenders this midterms; and P&G throws cold water on the agency “one-stop shop” model.

AI can’t handle complex media plans; Retail media lands under the CMO; Airbnb flirts with ads, cautiously.

Carol Reed discusses what it means to be a chief innovation officer and how to keep up with new AI developments without losing the human touch.

WPP is shifting to a pay-for-performance revenue model. But there are many barriers to clear before PFP becomes the industry standard.

Agency picks can quietly determine a brand’s tech stack; Ad spend is shifting away from the open web; The CW is betting on partnerships, not its own platform.

Ad agency holding companies are among the most adaptable businesses out there. In recent years holdcos like Publicis, WPP and Omnicom-IPG have stretched our notions of what an agency business even is exactly.

Publicis recommends some clients ditch The Trade Desk; ChatGPT reconsiders its “unlimited” enterprise subscription; and how NYC’s Washington Square Park became an influencer hub.

The divergence between the DSPs reveals shifting buy-side priorities. Advertisers have grown wary of how The Trade Desk earns margin, where its algorithm steers inventory and how these strategies compete with buyer goals.

During Thursday’s earnings call, CEO Cindy Rose announced a new plan to reposition WPP as a single company, rather than an agency holdco.

The founders of six AI startups offer insights on the founding journey and what problems their companies are solving.

Inside Coca-Cola’s pivot from TV advertising to influencer marketing; Netflix inks another exclusive video podcast deal with iHeartMedia; and Madison & Wall predicts slow US ad spend growth in 2026.

Generative AI is the new ad land obsession: a shiny promise of a fully autonomous world of self-driving advertising.  But behind the hype lies the costly delusion that automation can replace judgment and more content somehow means better marketing. We’ve entered the age of machine-made abundance, where content can be generated faster than it can […]

A former exec sues WPP over an alleged retaliatory firing; Jolt acquires Volta Media from Shell; and AI defamation litigation is on the rise.

Meta is profiting from fraudulent ads; LLMs are taking advantage of SaaS pricing policies; and agencies aren’t going under… yet.

WPP aims to turn around faster; YouTube TV tips the carriage deal market; and Roblox takes its time on video ads.

WPP puts AI tools in the hands of brands; YouTube’s dynamic sponsored segments could redefine creator monetization; and Hollywood is getting into “microdramas.”

Delivery apps are launching social networks now; Google is the latest Big Tech company to write a huge check to Trump; and ad agencies of all sizes apparently aren’t big enough.

Why is Publicis still winning?; The Dollar Shave Club gets into influencer marketing; and publishers are tossing their cultural critics aside.

Dentsu might sell its overseas business; a Prebid update worries the buy side; and Washington State imposes a new ad tax.

Walmart has some new rules for third-party sellers; WPP wins Mastercard; and marketers should get into VTubers.

AI Overviews are even dinging Google Search ads’ traffic; WPP downgrades its earnings forecast; and Google’s AI competitors launch their own web browsers.

Have agency holdcos put too many eggs in the AI basket?; Temu has come back to us now at the turn of the tariff tide; and Cloudflare wants to help sites from getting scraped.

Open Intelligence is WPP’s Media’s new solution to help advertisers make sense of their data and use it in more ways, with a longer-term goal of decentralizing data.