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☆ MediaMath seemed destined for a $1B fairy-tale exit. Instead, most early investors got nothing.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

At its Halloween party in 2015, the adtech startup MediaMath seemed on the brink of greatness. The machine-learning revolution that took over the financial industry was finally happening in marketing, and many industry insiders considered MediaMath to be the hottest adtech company of the time. "We never came close to consummating such a deal with MediaMath nor entertained the purported valuation," said a representative for Singtel. The Trade Desk, the most comparable independent DSP company to MediaMath, was riding high after its 2016 initial public offering. The quasi-equity agreement was structured to protect Searchlight if MediaMath didn't perform to certain quotas or if things went south financially.

☆ Meta has massively revamped its ads division. Here are the 21 most powerful execs tasked with saving the company's biggest revenue stream.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Ryan Joe | Lara O'Reilly | Lauren Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Nicola Mendelsohn and Justin Osofsky are Meta's top ad execs after Marne Levine stepped down. After Meta's ad revenue took a series of hits, the company banking on an overhauled ad offering powered by AI. Insider identified Meta's 21 top ad execs tasked with reviving its most crucial revenue stream. Here are the 21 most powerful and important advertising execs still at the company, listed alphabetically. Their roles span ad sales, strategy, marketing and product across Meta's portfolio.

☆ Check out the pitch deck AI-video startup Capsule used to raise $4.75 million in seed funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Video-AI startup Capsule this month raised $4.75 million in seed funding. Check out the pitch deck that encouraged VCs including Bloomberg Beta and Array Ventures to participate. Capsule, a tech startup that uses artificial intelligence to help its large-business clients create and distribute video content raised $4.75 million in seed financing this month. The seed round was led by Bloomberg Beta and Array Ventures, with participation from other investors including Swift Ventures, Clark Valberg's Tiferes Ventures, and Behind Genius Ventures. Check out Capsule's seed financing pitch deck below

☆ Venezuelan liquor cocuy is winning awards, but producers face hurdles
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Keren Torres | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Venezuela's cocuy producers, however, say limited wild crops and the labor-intensive process of making the drink without additives - the prize-winning version of the liquor - are complicating efforts to increase output. Producers say there is no data on annual national production or sales because much of cocuy output is made for local consumption. A liter of 100% agave cocuy can sell for between $18 and $60, while its production costs average about $12 without commercialization costs. Of the 365 cocuy producers in Lara, whose arid and semi-arid climate makes agave abundant, just 70 make the liquor with 100% agave. The difficult production process begins by cutting back the plant's leaves to reach its "head," said Siquisique producer Nelson de la Rosa.

☆ PE firm Bridgepoint takes a majority stake in Equativ, valuing the adtech firm at around $370 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bridgepoint Development Capital has taken a majority stake in the adtech firm Equativ. It values Equativ at 350 million euros, or $371 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. Private equity firm Bridgepoint has taken a majority stake in Equativ, the French adtech company formerly known as Smart Adserver, the pair said on Thursday. A person familiar with the matter said the deal values Equativ at 350 million euros, or around $371 million. Bridgepoint raised 1.7 billion euros for its BDC IV fund, while Croissance had raised 100 million euros.

☆ NASA’s $3.5 billion plan to redesign its aging spacesuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Magdalena Petrova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

NASA has been using the current spacesuits on the International Space Station for decades and they are showing their age. "The spacesuits that are being used now in the International Space Station by NASA are suits that were really designed in the '70s. Now the agency is turning to two commercial companies: Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies , to build and maintain its new generation of spacesuits. Under the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services Contract, or xEVAS, NASA is providing Collins and Axiom, along with a number of their industry partners, with up to $3.5 billion through 2034. NASA hopes to use this new suit on the International Space Station by 2026.

Not only have marketers been pausing ad spend en masse, YouTube is also battling TikTok for audiences and content creators. Industry insiders credit Mohan with building out the ad products that made YouTube Google's main growth engine for so many years. Tal Chalozin, CTO and cofounder of the adtech company Innovid, said that Mohan's expertise stretches across all of YouTube's ad business, particularly adtech. "He was leading product for the launch of YouTube Premium and YouTube TV, and the growth of YouTube Music," said one former YouTube employee. "It's now Neal and YouTube against TikTok, and that's the existential battle for short-form video monetization and creators," Norman said.

☆ The M&Ms spokescandies are back. Here’s how the chocolate candy went from a wartime treat to playing a starring role in the culture wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

M&Ms brought back its talking candy mascots after Sunday's Super Bowl game. The “spokescandies” went on “an indefinite pause” as part of the brand’s Super Bowl ad play. But after Sunday's Super Bowl game, M&Ms ran a 15-second ad making clear that Rudolph's tenure as spokesperson was ending. "I mean, as a walking, talking candy, my options are pretty limited." M&Ms is among the oldest candy brands in the US, and its talking candies are relatively recent additions.

☆ Goldman Sachs partners are pissed
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Matt Turner | Dave Smith | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

On the agenda today:But first: Lara O'Reilly, our senior correspondent covering the advertising industry, looks ahead to the Super Bowl. Insider's Aki Ito breaks down why grandiose job titles like "senior executive vice president" are suddenly all the rage. According to a new study, early-career job titles have changed drastically in the past few years. While it's not clear how widespread this discontent is — Goldman has some 400 partners — some partners are already talking about who might replace CEO David Solomon if it comes to that. Inside the drama at Goldman SachsRead more:Tyler Le/InsiderGoogle's search engine is about to change.

The rise of AI-powered search could transform the internet. If AI-powered search catches on, it will upend the practice of search advertising. Right now, not a lot seems to have changed on the ad landscape, despite the media frenzy around the new AI search tools. Bannister doesn't think AI-powered search will change advertising drastically in the short term, but even small changes can have an impact on business. Sutton is cautiously optimistic though that the addition of AI to search queries on Bing and Google Search won't impact publishers like Gannett, which owns mostly news sites.

YouTube is shaking up its influencer-marketing program BrandConnect. As part of the layoffs, the BrandConnect team shrunk, with several people who identified themselves as part of that team posting on LinkedIn that they'd been let go. Many of the insiders said they were unclear as to YouTube's future plans for BrandConnect and its team. Two talent managers said the BrandConnect team would routinely present deals that paid mid-five-figures. But sourcing deals focused on YouTube had begun to feel out of step with the market, some insiders said.

☆ Microsoft and Google will duke it out over Silicon Valley's true financial driver: ads
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Google search dominated, but Microsoft's AI-powered Bing is emerging as a credible challenger. Google has dominated search and the search ad market for the almost 25 years since its inception. The company has around 90% of the search market, according to data firm Stat Counter. Microsoft's share of the search ad market is small: it made nearly $18 billion in ad revenue last year, far smaller than the $224 billion Google made in gross ad revenue last year, the analysts wrote. Declining ads market will spark fiercer competitionThe fight coincides with a slump in ad sales, upping the pressure on Google is the dominant player.

☆ Microsoft just laid out the $2 billion reason why it's going all in on ChatGPT
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Microsoft said it can add $2 billion in revenue for every 1 percentage point of search share it gains. Microsoft's ad business already grew to $18 billion in the last 12 months. And search advertising is such a lucrative section of the roughly $500 billion digital ad market that it almost doesn't matter if Microsoft barely dents Google's dominance. Even growing its share of search users by a couple of percentage points could grow its revenue by billions of dollars. "The moneymaker for search advertisers is short-tail, transactional terms," Goodwin said.

☆ Bassino pips Shiffrin to win Super-G gold
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 8 (Reuters) - Italy's Marta Bassino edged out American Mikaela Shiffrin to win the women's Super-G gold at the World Ski Championships in Courchevel, France, on Wednesday, winning the title by 0.11 seconds. Bassino has six World Cup gold medals to her name in the giant slalom but had never topped the podium in any other World Cup event. However, she did win gold in the parallel giant slalom at the 2021 World Ski Championships. Bassino is the second Italian to win a gold medal at this year's championships after Federica Brignone won the women's combined event on Monday. Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami, the defending champion and one of the pre-race favourites with 18 Super-G World Cup victories, could only manage sixth placed.

☆ They Loved Italy So Much, They Brought It to the Backyard of Their $6.5 Million Las Vegas House
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Libertina Brandt | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Be the first to know about the biggest and best luxury home sales and listings by signing up for our Mansion Deals email alert. Las Vegas resident Lara Stone has a piece of Italy in her backyard—literally.

☆ Super Bowl LVII won't have any crypto ads because firms pulled out of deals following FTX's bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

But this year's Super Bowl will have no crypto ads after FTX's collapse. The Super Bowl ad landscape will look much different this year, Insider previously reported. But a lot has changed since then, to the extent that there will be zero crypto ads at Super Bowl LVII on Sunday. The crypto exchange cofounded by Sam Bankman-Fried filed for bankruptcy in November, nine months after the Super Bowl, following mass customer withdrawals. The advertising landscape at this year's Super Bowl is likely to be much different to 2022, thanks to rising economic uncertainty.

Buying a Super Bowl can be a big risk because it's a big investment months ahead of the game. Diageo CEO Ivan Menezes said during the company's January earnings call that its brand Crown Royal will run its first Super Bowl ad this year. Anheuser-Busch's move is an indication that the sky-high price of running a Super Bowl ad is getting harder for companies to justify. Bookings typically happen in May, said one ad agency exec who's purchased many Super Bowl ads for clients, including this year. Super Bowl ad slots sold briskly for both Fox this year and NBC last year.

☆ Italy's Brignone wins women's combined gold, Shiffrin disqualified
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/4] Alpine Skiing - FIS Alpine Ski World Cup - Women's Alpine Combined - Meribel, France - February 6, 2023 Italy's Federica Brignone celebrates on the podium with her team after winning the Women's Alpine Combined REUTERS/Leonhard FoegerMERIBEL, France, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Italy's Federica Brignone won the women's combined event at the World Ski Championships in Meribel, France on Monday after two solid races saw her finish 1.62 seconds ahead of Switzerland's Wendy Holdener. American Mikaela Shiffrin, the reigning world champion in combined, was sixth fastest in the speed event but was disqualified in the slalom after straddling a gate shortly before the finish line. Brignone completed the super-G in 1:10.28, 0.71 seconds quicker than Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami and Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel who were joint second fastest, however the two speed specialists did not participate in the second leg. Instead it was Switzerland's Holdener who won the slalom part, a fourth of second ahead of Brignone, but the overall margin was too big to threaten the 32-year-old. Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk; Editing by Ken FerrisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Thousands protest against animal rights bill in Spain for excluding hunting dogs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Demonstrators take part in a protest against hunting amidst amendment proposals that seek to leave hunting dogs and other animals involved in traditional rural activities out of the country's proposed animal welfare bill, in Madrid, Spain, February 5, 2023. REUTERS/Violeta Santos MouraMADRID, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Thousands of people marched through central Madrid on Sunday to protest against a bill aimed at strengthening animal rights for excluding hunting dogs which opponents say are being exploited. The protest comes four days before parliament is due to vote on the new animal rights bill proposed by the ruling Socialist part. The party submitted a last-minute amendment to exclude hunting dogs and other animals involved in traditional rural activities. In Spain, dogs are used to track or catch animals such as deer, wild boar and rabbits.

☆ Reddit employees who lost their jobs are livid that the company is painting them as low performers: 'A cruel and dishonest way to kick a person when they're down'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Dan Whateley | Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

A Reddit spokesperson declined to share the number of employees the company had let go so far, or planned to in total. In total, 10 former Reddit staffers who lost their jobs in January told Insider they did not consider themselves low performers based on their past feedback from the company. One current staffer told Insider they felt they may have been on the chopping block in January and narrowly avoided a termination. Some moved from business development jobs to work on creator services within its community-management and product teams, the Reddit spokesperson previously told Insider. Reddit also informed employees about a cut to some benefits late last year, eight current and former staffers told Insider.

☆ Germany, the US, and the UK are sending armored vehicles to Ukraine. Here's how the Leopard 2A6, M1 Abrams, and other NATO tanks compare.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Lara Jäkel | Nathan Rennolds | Business Insider Deutschland | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Ukraine has been urging Western countries to supply it with tanks it can use against Russia. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz relented to pressure and agreed to send Leopard 2A6 battle tanks. Here's how the "predator on tracks" compares to NATO armored vehicles heading to or in Ukraine. After months of mounting pressure and calls from other European leaders to act, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz agreed on January 24 that Germany would send 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks to Ukraine. This is how the tank compares to other Western armored vehicles being sent to Ukraine.

☆ Twitter's ailing ad business offered a glimmer of hope as it lures big Super Bowl advertisers to platform on gameday weekend
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Super Bowl could be the most lucrative day for Twitter's ad business since Elon Musk's takeover. A handful of Super Bowl advertisers are poised to spend on Twitter on gameday weekend later this month, handing the beleaguered social media giant's ad business a much-needed boost, according to industry sources. A promoted trend costs $700,000 during the Super Bowl, compared to $100,000 on an ordinary day, Ad Age first reported. Upfront Super Bowl bookings on Twitter are still lower than in previous years, according to people familiar with the matter. To be sure, many big Super Bowl advertisers have no plans to appear on Twitter this time around.

☆ Snap was once the hottest app. Now it's getting crushed.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Snap's ads business is cratering, partly because of privacy changes by Apple. Apple has made it easier for users to opt out of ad-tracking, hurting revenue for firms like Snap. It isn't just the deteriorating economy, but the lasting effects of Apple's privacy changes in 2021. In the months running up to Apple's ad changes, Snap's stock hit a high of $83. Meta, of course, has been hurt significantly by Apple's changes (Mark Zuckerberg said the changes could cost his company around $10 billion in 2022).

☆ Volunteers who used digital ads to counter Russian propaganda about Ukraine plan to fight misinformation in countries like Syria and Iran
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A group of volunteer 'spammers' who used ads to counter Russian propaganda about Ukraine plans to expand the campaign. Rob Blackie, organizer of the Breaking Putin's Censorship campaign. Earlier this month, the Kremlin said that anyone found simply posting a link to the banned independent Russian news site Meduza could face a six-year prison sentence. An example of one of the Breaking Putin's Censorship ads, which reads, "Why have 141 countries condemned Russians invasion of Ukraine? Breaking Putin's CensorshipThe group, which has now grown to around 60 volunteers, is already structured similarly to an ad agency.

Here are Insider's 2023 rising stars of brand marketing. These marketers adapted to a tough economy, explored new media channels, and grew brand awareness. They come from established companies like Procter & Gamble and newer startups like Instacart. They hail from established companies like Coca-Cola and General Mills and newer startups like Uber and Instacart, and all show the potential to be the industry leaders of the future. Scroll on to see the 26 rising stars of brand marketing, listed alphabetically.

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