Technology

Day three of the Google ad tech-focused antitrust trial in Virginia was like a guided tour of arcane auction mechanics.

Is there a secret society of socialists within programmatic? Probably not. Plus, rumor has it that The Trade Desk is building its own smart TV OS.

PubMatic’s $5 million loss from DV360’s bidding algorithm fix earlier this year suggests second-price auctions aren’t completely a thing of the past.

Google and the DOJ are currently questioning witnesses regarding how particular ad channels are established as defined markets. Plus, a wave of freelance advertising consultants has arrived.

It’s not often one gets to hear sworn witnesses in federal court explain the intricacies of header bidding under oath. But that’s what happened during the first day of the Google ad tech-focused antitrust case in Virginia on Monday.

If attention is treated like viewability 2.0, high or low attention could become a blanket requirement for a campaign and hinder performance.

The ad tech antitrust trial against Google begins today in Alexandria, Virginia. Who’s on the stand and what will Google argue?

It might be surprising to learn the government fights against monopolies the same way now as it did in the late 19th century – partly because the laws haven’t needed to change all that much.

In today’s newsletter: How loosened ad restrictions helped snacks take over America; Brazil’s X ban dings stan culture; and Roblox partners with Shopify as it expands real-world ecommerce to all creators.

More than one antitrust regulator is circling around Google. On Friday, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority published a statement of objection to Google’s ad tech practices.

What do Hercule Poirot, Ben Bernanke, Star Wars and C.S. Lewis have in common? If you’re an ad tech nerd, you’ll know the answer immediately.

The IAB’s annual advertising outlook has mostly rosy news. Plus, can sludge videos be wielded for good – or, at least, for effective political organizing?

AppsFlyer announced its integration with the Attribution Reporting API in the Android Privacy Sandbox and released a related dashboard for campaign optimization.

The bottom is falling out of the mass multichannel TV bundle. Plus, Amazon crushed its first-ever upfront this year.

The initiative will kick off this month, and the IAB and MRC expect to have draft accreditation guidelines open for public comment by Q1 2025.

In today’s newsletter: Google Demand Gen is the industry’s latest over-attribution controversy; data from third-party brokers might not be worth it; and The Trade Desk launches a CTV operating system.

In today’s newsletter: Amazon stands out among Upfronts CTV rookies; Google reveals how much revenue its ad tech divisions make; and women hold more marketing leadership positions than men, but churn is worse for women.

Google doesn’t want AppNexus founder Brian O’Kelley – you know, the godfather of programmatic – to testify during its ad tech antitrust trial starting on September 9.

Publishers trafficking in pirated movies, TV shows and games sold programmatic ads alongside this stolen content, while using domain cloaking to obscure the “cashout sites” where the ads actually ran.

Just two weeks before Google’s antitrust trial, we discuss revelations from a cache of documents released in advance of the trial – plus, a primer on what’s ahead as header bidding goes to the stand.

Is it time to retire references to the advertising “duopoly?” Plus, Omnicom wants to bring its major agency brands under unified leadership.

Starting last week and into this week, hundreds of court-filed documents have been unsealed in the lead-up to the Google ad tech antitrust trial – and it’s a bonanza.

In today’s newsletter: Google paid $445 million in rebates in 2018; publishers across the ideological spectrum blame brand safety for hurting the media biz; and Mark Zuckerberg apologizes to Congressional Republicans for Meta’s content moderation.

ID bridging isn’t the problem. Buyers are objecting to unexpected, undisclosed manipulation of critical data in bid requests by sellers.

On Monday, FreeWheel announced the integration of Proximic by Comscore’s contextual audience data directly into its ad management platform.

The publication still makes most of its on-site digital revenue from programmatic. But it’s doubling down on direct-sold custom content, especially when it comes to video and social media.

Remember back when Netflix was anti-advertising? Plus, CTV is still struggling with low programmatic fill rates.

An ex-Googler asks: Has the commitment to perfection over progress led to the current state of play for the Privacy Sandbox and harmed the industry’s opportunity to provide better consumer privacy?

Ecommerce tech has had a rough couple of years. Plus, VP Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign will spend $370 million on ads.

The growth of Walmart’s ads business and third-party marketplace are separate, it says. Plus, Google and Meta’ve been targeting teens for a while.