Month: September 2024

Nostalgia marketing isn’t a new trend. Reboots, retreads and riffs on the past are all too common, appearing everywhere from the big screen (a reboot of Alien and sequels to Beetlejuice and Twister are currently in theaters) to the small screen (Pepsi recently recreated its iconic “Gladiator” spot this time with athletes instead of pop stars; the VMA’s red carpet was littered with looks that referenced past stars’ iconic garb, to name a few) so often that it’s hard to keep up.  

No small amount of the dominant cultural conversation looks back to a time that once was – or, let’s be real, probably never was but it’s easy to idolize the past – so it makes sense that brands would do it too.

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As ad tech rivals sought to compete with Google nearly a decade ago, the adoption of header bidding was so monumental to fighting the giant’s grip on the display ad market that it played a part in at least one major player’s IPO roadshow.

“We were so excited about header bidding that when we went public we had potential investors watch a [explainer] video first,” said Jed Dederick, who is now The Trade Desk’s chief revenue officer. “We felt there was the opportunity to compete meaningfully that we wouldn’t have without it.”

The recollection came last week during Dederick’s testimony in the ongoing U.S. Justice Department’s ad tech antitrust case against Google, which began last week in federal court. However, Dederick is just one of several ad tech executives the U.S. government has brought as witnesses in federal court to describe the ways Google has used its dominance to allegedly harm rivals, publishers and advertisers. Others who testified last week include current and former execs from past and present Google rivals including PubMatic, Equativ, Rubicon Project, AppNexus and even Facebook.

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In the age of disrupted digital audiences, media companies are incentivized to constantly be counting clicks, pageviews and engagement — all while optimizing for how those metrics can be best monetized. 

But Long Lead, a long-form journalism production company, wants to redefine the journalism business model to bring art back into the craft of journalism. Launched in 2020 by founding editor and longtime journalist John Patrick Pullen and hedge fund manager Bill Perkins, Long Lead’s mission is to give journalists the ability to tell their story in the most effective way possible — not the most efficient way possible. 

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The Department of Justice is spearheading efforts to break up Google, accusing it of a decades-long attempt to monopolize the $600 billion online advertising market. Although, would a divestiture be that simple or even practical?

The case kicked off in an Eastern Virginia courtroom last week where DOJ lawyers made the case, presenting evidence of Google’s efforts to “crush” competition and silence critics” (both external and internal) when quizzing witnesses.

Separately, multiple internal communications from former Google employees that were admitted into evidence hinted at an internal cognizance that publishers were trapped by the feedback loop created by policy decisions following the FTC’s approval of the $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick.

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After coming out in favor of crypto, the Trump family is launching a venture of its own. You’ll just have to wait for the details.

Thanks to the new Emmys ratings, ABC was the big winner on Sunday night. According to Nielsen numbers, the 76th Emmys on ABC scored its highest ratings in three years. The latest iteration of the awards show, hosted by father-and-son duo Eugene Levy and Dan Levy, reached 6.87 million average viewers, up 54% from the…

The ANA, IAB, 4As and others are asking California Governor Gavin Newsom to veto a bill that would require browser developers to offer a tool enabling consumers to easily opt out of online behavioral
advertising across the web.

The Lemon8 app has been described as a mix between Instagram and Pinterest, showcasing a variety of social posts and products highlighted by a diverse range of influencers. Upon launch, Lemon8 claimed
TikTok as its “sister company” and uses the same recommendation algorithm that has made TikTok so popular among users, brands and advertisers.

TikTok faces the looming possibility of a U.S. ban as its legal team appeared in court Monday to challenge a potential nationwide prohibition. This hearing is the latest development in a high-stakes standoff between the social media giant and the U.S. government over national security and data privacy concerns. On Monday, the U.S. and TikTok…

Soccer can bring a European company into the U.S. market, but baseball can make a bit of pioneering promotion seem absolutely American. Major League Baseball announced recently that it will place ads on its batting helmets for the first time ever this postseason, and they’ll feature the name and ostrich logo of the league’s new…