Category: Data-Labor-Technology Stories

Joshua Spanier, senior marketing director of global media for Google came away from CES with a very clear view of just how fast technology development is outpacing consumers’ ability to make sense of it, never mind adopt it. Spanier pointed to the huge curved screens from LG and their inevitable convergence with AI and IOT…

The importance of audio as a brand marketing tool will accelerate quickly as it is increasingly twinned with AI applications to enhance consumer journeys. That was the CES 2018 take away for Pandora’s newly minted CMO Aim?e Lapic, who is seeing more lifestyle brands becoming integrated into consumer electronics devices than ever before. “This trend…

Facebook is considering changing how it prioritizes news stories in users’ feeds to give better placement to media outlets deemed more trustworthy, as the company continues efforts to limit the exposure of false news.

In a statement, YouTube said it was removing Paul’s channel, which has more than 15 million subscribers, from its Google Preferred program. Google Preferred features only the top 5% of channels, and
is where many premium advertisers focus their ad spend on YouTube, typically buying space at a higher CPM than regular channels.

The end is nigh. Facebook is planning a major change to its news feed, starting as early as next week, that will decisively favor user content and effectively deprioritize publishers’ content, according to three publishers that have been briefed by the platform ahead of the move.

Those who have been briefed say that under the new test, Facebook told them it will favor content that’s shared by users or otherwise actively engaged with. The thinking goes, according to those briefed, that Facebook believes prioritizing content that’s acted on will reduce the occurrence of fake and offensive content in the news feed.

Publishers still have many questions about the impending news feed change. Facebook told them that content from reputable publishers will also be surfaced. It didn’t specify how it would define “reputable publisher” or how their traffic would be impacted, though. The worry for publishers is that such an approach will have the unintended consequence of hurting high-quality content because a lot of legitimate news articles, while they may get read, tend not to get shared or commented on.

A Facebook rep wouldn’t confirm (or deny) these changes on the record.

Facebook has been taking steps in this direction for some time, making tweaks to amplify users’ content while weeding out spam and clickbait. Publishers who have been briefed by Facebook believe this latest move would cause a more dramatic decline in publishers’ ability to reach audiences in the news feed, though. Although Facebook isn’t the referral source it once was for publishers, it remains a major source of referral traffic for them, only recently surpassed by Google. Facebook hasn’t confirmed or denied the new reports. We’ll update this story when they do.

“They’re breaking the bad news one by one,” said one person who was briefed by Facebook on the changes, adding that along with the user content change, Facebook also was prioritizing its scripted Watch shows, its major video initiative, as it tries to grab TV ad dollars. “My impression is they’re going to move away from what we think of as Facebook videos.”

As Facebook sends them less traffic, publishers have been diversifying away from Facebook and fishing for traffic on other platforms such as Google, Apple News and Twitter. Another downgrade in the news feed is likely to accelerate publishers’ shift in resources away from Facebook. Even some of Facebook’s strongest publisher boosters express mounting frustration. “We’re losing hope,” said one.

Last year, Facebook tested a newsless news feed called the Explore Feed in six countries outside the U.S., causing publishers to freak out and spurring speculation that Facebook would replicate that approach in the U.S., despite Facebook saying it didn’t expect to roll out the test further. Founder Mark Zuckerberg has publicly acknowledged problems wrought by technology, including misuse and abuse of the platform, which has amplified the spread of hate-filled content and misinformation and has been used to attempt to influence voters in the presidential election. Facebook has made a number of moves to stamp out fake news, but their results have been mixed.

Another big downgrade in the news feed won’t necessarily come as a shock to publishers, but it conflicts sharply with Facebook’s public stance about how it’s trying to help publishers. That was the stated aim of the year-old Facebook Journalism Project, which Facebook launched to much fanfare about helping support publishers’ business models.

The post ‘We’re losing hope’: Facebook tells publishers big change is coming to News Feed appeared first on Digiday.

With the final season of Game of Thrones on hold until 2019, HBO is looking to its other dramas to keep audiences entertained in the interim. Westworld will return for its sophomore season this spring, and then pass the baton to new drama Succession, which will premiere in June. Succession revolves around four children battling…

We’re only 11 days into 2018 but Walmart is making it clear that this year, it’s waging a bigger war with Amazon. According to Business Insider, 63 Sam’s Club stores are closing across the U.S. in states like Texas, New York, New Jersey, Indiana and Alaska. Some closed today and others will shut their doors…

Nick Sakiewicz has a lot on his plate. As the commissioner of the National Lacrosse League, he’s constantly trying to figure out how to take the three-decades-old niche sport and grow it in an era where it can be nimble in arenas that previous leagues, at their outsets, didn’t have available. Sakiewicz said that because…

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The center of media activity at CES is the C Space in the Aria hotel. Here you will find the private meeting spaces booked by Turner, Spotify, Twitter, Oath, CBS, NBCU and Samsung Ads. As in the past, the C Space showroom floor – ostensibly an ad tech vendor showcase – was pretty barren this… Continue reading »

The post CES 2018: Voice Assistants And Addressable TV Garner Incremental Interest appeared first on AdExchanger.

We sure are seeing some unusual themes in advertising in 2018. Ikea made the ad you pee on, and now Burger King is rolling out a spot set on death row. The commercial, by agency Buzzman, is from France, a country that abolished the death penalty many decades ago. (So, perhaps they can laugh about…