Technology

Reddit is surging with advertiser demand; not everyone is Substack material; and Trump released his AI Action Plan.

The Trade Desk currently has no concrete plans to deprecate its legacy Solimar user interface in order to push adoption of its new UI, Kokai.

Brands spend millions activating around Coachella. Then they spend the next three months trying to figure out if any of it actually worked. It’s a reflection of our industry’s broken approach to measuring media effectiveness.

Amazon acquires AI-equipped wearable manufacturer Bee; the UK’s CMA shares competition guidelines for Google and Apple; and AI models may be learning from each other in unexpected, potentially harmful, ways.

The web is hurting. Google is doing splendidly. Q2 was a “standout,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told investors on Tuesday, with “robust growth across the company.”

What’s a CAPI and how does it work? Think of as a direct data pipeline that allow brands to circumvent privacy limitations set by browsers. It’s not a workaround, though. Let us explain.

Netflix cracks Nielsen’s top 3 channels, but YouTube is still tops; CTV is maturing as a marketing channel, but it comes with zits; and Google rolls out another core update for search.

Amidst post-tariff tumult, this campaign encouraged grocery shoppers across Canada to buy products featuring the maple leaf icon that designates Canadian brands.

Although there are tens of thousands of vendors across the Lumascape, helpfully bucketed by dozens of three-letter acronyms (CDPs, DMPs, SSPs, etc.) ) – nobody has any idea what anybody does. And it’s not like press releases help.

Social media companies are cutting the junk from their diet; Trump is trying to reshape American media; and selling ads is always the last resort.

Sing along, now: “Everything is an ad network!” Plus, Publicis is doing A-OK and Substack is changing its tune on advertising.

This year’s Amazon Prime Day event stood out in a couple important ways. One is the blasé results of Prime Day; the other is the guerilla pricing tactics adopted by brands and merchants that sell on Amazon and elsewhere across the web.

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.

Over the past few years, sell-side curation has gained popularity as a way for advertisers to target high-quality publishers. Companies like OpenX are expanding their toolkits to support advertisers as well as publishers.

The return of in-banner video has resulted in a deluge of cheap video supply flooding the open web, driving down CPM rates for dedicated video inventory and creating user experience and ad quality concerns.

Nextdoor isn’t ruling out AI data licensing, but it has concerns; NBCU touts sports and streaming as drivers of its record Upfronts; and Scholastic follows kids and parents to YouTube.

Linkby, which connects brands with publisher content that advertisers pay for based on reader engagement, announced its $15 million Series B on Tuesday.

The IAB Tech Lab’s new initiative suggests regulations for how AI bots can access content, ensuring that publishers are fairly compensated.

Hearst has seen improvements in addressability between 30% and 200% since introducing AURA, its AI-powered ad targeting solution, last year.

The layoffs at TripleLift come roughly four months after the company hired Dave Helmreich as its new CEO.

Curated deals were once seen as a smart way to bring structure to programmatic chaos. Today, they’ve become table stakes.

Enjoy this weekly comic from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

Amazon locked in two more publishers for its AI shopping engine; AI companies are working on web browsers now; and platforms have a hard time telling AI from reality.

With Amazon Prime Day in full force, marketers are navigating one of the biggest retail events of the summer. But this Prime Day isn’t just a moment to drive sales; it’s a critical opportunity to test and learn.

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

Advertising restrictions on social platforms often flag keywords and images used in women’s health care ads, preventing those ads from reaching their target audience. There is a “gag order around women’s health care,” Caruso said.

AI Overviews makes dodgy product recommendations because it scrapes marketing copy; discrepancies in TV ratings hamper upfronts negotiations; and why mar tech companies are building software fortresses.

There’s no way around using an assortment of measurement methodologies, says Owen Bickford, the paid performance media director at Alaska Airlines. “I don’t think they can work in a vacuum.”

Ron Jacobson took the classic programmatic startup route. Which is to say, he pivoted randomly from a software job at a bank (well, the New York Fed), landed at an ad tech company and later founded his own ad tech startup before getting acquired by yet another ad tech company.

Two key players in the consent management space are merging: French CMP Didomi is buying Sourcepoint for an undisclosed sum.