Month: October 2024

AdStorm launched an ad buying platform in August to let just about anyone put their own money behind real political TV ad campaigns.

The post This Platform Will Let Anyone Buy Political Ads appeared first on AdExchanger.

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

The post Comic: Revenue “Sharing” appeared first on AdExchanger.

TikTok announced this week that it would allow search advertising to be targeted by keyword. Plus, streaming ad supply now outpaces demand.

The post TikTok Search, But It’s Going For Amazon; Can CTV Supply Outpace Demand? appeared first on AdExchanger.

Like many other businesses, Unilever wants to get its brands in front of more gamers — but the consumer goods company is still taking a measured approach as it determines just how much gaming could actually impact its bottom line.

The way Unilever talks about its gaming efforts says it all. The company has tripled its spending in the sector, according to its global head of sport and entertainment partnerships and Personal Care media lead, Willem Dinger. However, he declined to share hard numbers — despite the fact that gaming is clearly an area of interest for Dinger and his colleagues, who have funded activations touching on just about every facet of the burgeoning gaming community.

There’s an Axe-branded Fortnite world, an official Dove video game and a Lifebuoy Minecraft build, among numerous other examples of Unilever’s gaming presence. It’s just not yet clear how big a focus area gaming is for the future. While Unilever currently boasts a network of about 30 internal gaming experts, these marketers do not have the word “gaming” in their official titles. For the moment, the company is still leaning on internal staff to take on gaming responsibilities as part of their regular day jobs, rather than making dedicated gaming hires.

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CMOs eager for a bigger seat at the boardroom table might finally get their wish. Companies are relearning that while brands take years to build, they can unravel in an instant — just ask Nike.

Once the gold standard, Nike’s status is looking shaky thanks to its overzealous push into direct-to-consumer (courtesy of eBay alum and CEO John Donahoe). The move alienated key retail partners, while constant discounting on its own site cheapened the brand. Throw in lackluster innovation, cost-cutting layoffs and the loss of its “cool” to upstarts like On and Hoka, and it’s clear: the business is stumbling to keep pace in the very markets it once dominated.

Things have gotten so shaky, in fact, that Donahoe is stepping down as Nike scrambles for a full-on strategy reboot. His incoming replacement, Elliott Hill got a glimpse of the scale of that challenge earlier this week (October 1) when the company revealed its earnings for the latest financial quarter. Sales slumped 10% over the period, and the company pulled its full-year forecast, plummeting shares as much as 7%. For the world’s biggest sports brand, the climb back just got steeper.

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As major sports brands step up their presences inside virtual worlds, some observers believe that live sports could help push internet users into the metaverse.

Following the salad days of 2021 and 2022, the hype surrounding the idea of the metaverse has returned to earth. Years after some individuals spent millions of dollars on non-fungible token avatars such as Bored Apes, the number of ways in which these avatars can be practically used remains relatively few, and the metaverse has largely remained the territory of teens, gamers and NFT enthusiasts.

Last week, however, Bored Ape owners were able to attend and watch Major League Baseball games using their avatars in what could be a new metaverse ballpark for brand marketers. For a September 25 game between the Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers, the sports league officially allowed NFT avatar holders to sit in its virtual stadium — and even stand in the outfield — with Hawk-Eye cameras capturing the in-arena movements of the ball and players and translating them into a real-time virtual display.

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This year’s Advertising Week will kick off on Monday in Manhattan. To get ahead of the event, here’s what Digiday predicts will be in and out at the conference.

In 
Holdcos talking up creativity

Out 
Holdcos talking up AI

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It seems the debate over branding versus performance, which has picked up in volume since it became clear the pandemic’s effect on consumers wasn’t as long lasting as once thought, is settling into the conclusion that it’s branding and performance.

The latest example of this melding of upper-funnel and lower-funnel marketing lies with independent performance agency Wpromote, which has quietly expanded from its performance roots to what it’s calling “brandformance” — a more full-funnel approach for many of its clients. The agency also has just expanded its C-suite to include a brand-side exec and a new managing director, to help ensure it is firing on full-funnel cylinders.  

Wpromote hired Janna Navarro away from her role as svp of planning at Dentsu’s Carat to become its first vp of brand strategy, and her background includes six years at Crispin Porter + Bogusky overseeing Domino’s media strategy. 

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This week has brought another flurry of AI-related ad news as major players like Microsoft and Google, and even social platform Pinterest roll out more ways for advertisers to create and buy ads across social, search and chatbots.

On Tuesday, Pinterest debuted new ways for advertisers to use generative AI to generate ad creative and automate media buying through its recently unveiled Pinterest Performance+ platform. One new tool lets advertisers turn blank backgrounds into “lifestyle imagery” to enhance a brand’s products. Alpha program advertiser Walgreens tested the tool for 50 products — including a perfume bottle ad that appears to sit on a showroom table — to drive 55% higher click-through rates.

First announced in summer 2024, the feature is now rolling out to more advertisers that want to test new ad formats powered by Pinterest’s generative AI foundation model. By training its model on Pinterest’s visual data set, the company aims to give advertisers ways to create ads that feel native to the platform and personalized for users’ interests and tastes. The updates also build on Pinterest’s multi-year strategy to use AI for improving both user personalization and advertiser performance, said Matt Crystal, Pinterest’s vp of product. 

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued TikTok for allegedly violating a new state law by sharing teens’ personal data without first obtaining verifiable parental consent.