Author: rssmasher

Get closer … if you dare. In this highly entertaining, mostly SFW campaign, a bunch of twenty-somethings answer questions and tackle various challenges based on common relationship themes such as trust and intimacy. Developed by German agency +Knauss, and shot in crisp black-and-white, documentary-style, by youth culture maven Danielle Levitt, these “Dare to be Closer”…

There is a new scam afoot where you are sent one of your passwords in the title of an email, then in the body copy are threatened unless you fork over some bitcoin. The threat is that your navigation
to porn sites will be sent to your entire contact list. To be clear, I have yet to receive such a threat – but I read that it has been pretty successful in collecting from frightened users.

If you tried to travel by train from New York City to Macallan’s new distillery in Scotland, you wouldn’t make it very far. However, the whisky brand’s new virtual reality experience lets commuters take a 360-degree tour that’s a little cheaper–and a little soberer. To celebrate the opening of its new $186 million distillery, Macallan…

As it appeals to Congress to stop law enforcement from using facial recognition technology, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) tested out Amazon’s tool, Rekognition, with images of the members of the 115th Congress themselves. The result: It incorrectly matched 28 members of Congress with individuals in mugshots. In a release, the ACLU said it…

Amazon continued its streak of profitability, easily topping $1 billion for the third straight quarter, as the company extends its dominance in online retailing and draws gains from its flourishing cloud-computing business.

Amazon’s ad business is now worth almost $2.2 billion according to the company’s second-quarter earnings, a year-over-year increase of 129 percent. The revenue was, as always, in the “other” line item, which is primarily sales of ad services.

In the first-quarter filing, Amazon said that ad revenue had grown 132 percent year over year to just touch $2 billion.

It’s been a period of consistent growth for the e-commerce giant. Many marketers now see Amazon as its third-biggest media partner behind Facebook and Google, especially with lower-funnel activities. Since Amazon provides a clearer understanding of what is actually being sold, the advertising product is of particular interest to marketers who want better attribution.

While Amazon continues to beef up its agency development arm, it is now for the first time approaching brands directly, looking for direct deals. HP and Lego are two brands that are working directly with Amazon both through AMS and its internal media team Amazon Media Group.

It’s a question that’s even come up during the earnings season for agencies, with analysts on the Publicis second-quarter call specifically asking about how the rise of Amazon — and how it chooses to work with agencies or not — will affect the company.

“It’s clearly a very strong challenger to the duopoly of Google and Facebook in digital advertising,” said Publicis Media CEO Steve King. “At one level it’s making the digital environment a lot more complex and for us that’s a good business opportunity.”

King added that Amazon is about more than advertising — brands have to compete on price, reviews and logistical delivery issues, which means that brands need a deeper understanding of customers to be able to navigate it. He also added that the majority of Publicis clients are now putting Amazon into their media plans.

Google parent Alphabet, in comparison, said ad revenue was at $28.1 billion, with total revenue up 26 percent to $32.7 billion.

According to data from ad tracker Standard Media Index, Amazon ad revenue is up from 36 percent from last year from national advertisers — that is, big Fortune 500 brands. The majority — about 74 percent — is coming from display ads in the year to date.

Amazon’s total second-quarter sales were $52.9 billion, missing estimates.

The post Amazon ad revenue up to $2.2b, up 129 percent appeared first on Digiday.

Comcast’s strategy has long been to invest in every area where customers get their entertainment or information, so that even if one line of business is affected by changing consumer preferences, another could benefit. Cord cutters, for instance, reduced Comcast’s video business but aided its broadband business. The following are items of interest gleaned from… Continue reading »

The post Comcast Q2: Optimistic About The Upfronts And Challenged By Cord Cutting appeared first on AdExchanger.

It only took one and a half days for the first truly bizarre panel at the Television Critic Association’s summer press tour: Tom Arnold ranting for a half hour about his efforts to bring down President Trump. It’s all part of Arnold’s new Viceland show, The Hunt for the Trump Tapes With Tom Arnold. In…

She Runs It, formerly known as Advertising Women of New York (AWNY), held a Multicultural Alliance Bootcamp yesterday to discuss the state of diversity in the marketing and media world. According to the organization, its Multicultural Alliance “works to foster a sense of community among members with multicultural expertise and interests and to infuse multiculturalism…

After leading Facebook’s Creative Shop for the past seven years, Mark D’Arcy’s role has expanded as he moves into the position as the platform’s vp of global business marketing and CCO. He takes over for Sarah Personette, who left the social giant to become the COO of Refinery29 last fall. D’Arcy will maintain a significant…