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☆ The European Parliament is auditing years of its Google ads following a report that alleged YouTube misled advertisers
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The European Parliament said it's auditing its YouTube advertising from 2020 to date. The European Parliament is auditing its Google advertising going as far back as 2020 following a report that alleged YouTube placed ads on third-party sites that violated its own standards. This evaluation process is still ongoing," said a European Parliament press representative in an emailed statement. From its initial assessment, the use of the GVP Network by the European Parliament was "residual," the representative said. The European Parliament has been put under pressure to suspend all of its Google advertising.

Persons: TrueView skippable, Adalytics, Marvin Renaud, Renaud, Roberta Metsola, Pravda.ru, monetization, Adweek, Ruben Schreurs Organizations: Google, YouTube, Fortune, Partner, GVP, GVP Network, US Treasury, Street Journal, Ebiquity Locations: TrueView, Russia, Russian, Ukraine

☆ Former adtech unicorn MediaMath nearly saved itself from bankruptcy. Then its last hope vanished.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

The adtech company held panel sessions and meetings at the "MediaMath Penthouse." But behind the scenes, MediaMath CEO Neil Nguyen had barely been sleeping, according to three people familiar with the matter. "We collectively believed as a company, board, and advisors that we had a deal in hand," the statement continued. When advertisers or agencies buy ads through a platform like MediaMath, the adtech company must pay publishers immediately for their ad space. But the adtech company must wait — often 90 days or more — to be paid by the advertiser or agency.

Persons: MediaMath, Goldman Sachs, MediaMath execs, Neil Nguyen, Nguyen, Olivier Anrigo, Xandr, Joe Zawadzki, Ernest Hemingway, Searchlight wasn't, Neil, Houlihan Lokey, Zeta, Viant, Chris Vanderhook, Tim Vanderhook, Frederick M, Brown, MGI, Lionel Hahn, Remco Westermann, Gary Hershorn, MGI's, Westermann, they'll, Zawadzki, he'd Organizations: Cannes Lions, Cannes, Goldman, Searchlight Capital, Carlton Hotel, Google, IBM, Bain Capital —, Aperiam, Searchlight, Silicon, Zeta Global, Media, Games Invest, Verve, MGI's Verve Group, Getty, Verve Group, Trade, World Trade, Trade Center Locations: France, Cannes, hobnobbing, Delaware, Japan, Manhattan, New York City, MediaMath, AperiamVentures

☆ The digital-ad industry is spending the 4th of July holiday scrambling to recover funds lost from MediaMath's shocking bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-03 | by ( Ryan Joe | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

One adtech executive believes MediaMath's bankruptcy is a sign of more pain to come. MediaMath's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection has sent shock waves throughout the digital-ad industry. Now MediaMath's creditors, who are cumulatively owed more than $100 million, are scrambling to figure out their next moves. It's likely that the unsecured creditors owed money by MediaMath would receive just pennies on the dollar once the bankruptcy proceedings are resolved. Bannister said Raptive was in the process of seeing how much money MediaMath owed it.

Persons: MediaMath, SSPs, Goldman Sachs, PubMatic, Ana Milicevic, Milicevic, It's, Paul Bannister, Bannister, Raptive, Scott Messer, he's, they're, Brian O'Kelley Organizations: MediaMath's, MediaMath, Fuel, Sparrow Advisers, Messer Media, YouTube, ANA Locations: MediaMath, there's

Dara Treseder, chief marketing officer, AutodeskDara Treseder, the chief marketing officer at Autodesk. Autodesk is a software company that makes products architects and engineers often use, but its name isn't well-known beyond the professionals that rely on its tools. Within 30 days of joining the company, Treseder worked with Ryan Reynolds' agency, Maximum Effort, to launch the company's first TV ad in over ten years. The company's next TV-related success was the "Otto Desć" campaign during the 2023 Oscars, which got over 25 million views. Treseder worked with the French government to launch a campaign on the Autodesk website to make sure consumers knew of Autodesk's contribution.

Persons: Dara Treseder, Autodesk Dara Treseder, —, Treseder, she's, Ryan Reynolds, Otto Desć, influencers Organizations: Autodesk, Autodesk —, Notre Dame Cathedral

☆ Perspectives, ideas, community
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

The role of chief marketing officer has never been more complex than it is today. Digital transformation, economic upheaval, societal change, and a fragmented media landscape are just some of the intricacies marketing leaders are confronting. CMO Insider convenes case studies, research, and personal perspectives, to inspire and inform CMOs and their teams as they build and grow their brands. Most Innovative CMOs 2023Our annual list of "Most Innovative CMOs" presents 25 top marketers who are confronting the industry's most complex challenges. Credits:Series Editors : Julia Hood, Ryan JoeReporters : Lauren Johnson, Lara O'Reilly, Michael KaminerDesign and Development : Alyssa Powell, Chay Thawaranont, Kazi Awal, Will Varner

Persons: Julia Hood, Ryan Joe Reporters, Lauren Johnson, Lara O'Reilly, Michael Kaminer, Alyssa Powell, Chay Thawaranont, Kazi Awal, Will Varner

☆ Some advertisers are requiring their agencies to disclose when they use generative AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | Ryan Joe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Some big advertisers want to know exactly when their agencies are using generative AI. And in its current form, generative AI can create derivative content. And WPP ad agency Ogilvy is advocating for advertisers and social media platforms to disclose the use generative AI in influencer campaigns, The Financial Times reported. "You need to sit down with your agency and ask how they are using generative AI." He said he's in active conversations with the heads of all the agencies the alcohol giant works with about how they are experimenting with generative AI tools.

Persons: Reed Smith, Ruben Schreurs, Schreurs, — Andrew Robertson, —, Ogilvy, Keri Bruce, Bruce, L'Oréal, we've, Asmita Dubey, Edward Pilkington, Lesley Klein Organizations: BBDO, Ad, WPP, Financial Times, of National, Diageo, Diageo North Locations: Diageo North America

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Oracle rescinds job offers, Twitter is getting evicted, and CEOs predict what’s next
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Big thanks to my amazing colleagues Hallam Bullock, Nathan Rennolds, and Lara O'Reilly for covering the newsletter while I was out. My colleague Sonam Sheth, however, is quite confused as to why hundreds of other people are also watching it. This setup means Amazon gets to list more items as eligible for free Prime shipping without having to significantly expand warehouses. They have to ship over 99% of their orders on time with an order cancellation rate of less than 0.5%. The US gives Russia's nuclear program about $1 billion every year.

Persons: It's, I'm, Siu, Hallam Bullock, Nathan Rennolds, Lara O'Reilly, I've, Sonam Sheth, Scott Olson, Eugene Kim, They've, Read, Elon, Valentina Tereshkova, Con —, Tupac, Diamond Naga Siu, Alistair Barr Organizations: Wall Street, Getty, Oracle, Twitter, Ikea, Benz, Washington Locations: Colorado, Spain, Portugal, Paris, California, San Diego, San Francisco, London

☆ With talk of a Tesla Gigafactory coming to France, Elon Musk heads to the country's biggest tech event
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The tech billionaire has said Tesla is hoping to make a major investment in the country. Next week, Musk has a chance to tackle both. Musk getting on stage with the chairman of Publicis at Vivatech should help Twitter's cause here, unless the tech billionaire says the wrong thing. After that gathering, Musk said Tesla was looking to make a significant investment in the country. By the way, Insider advertising reporter Lara O'Reilly will be at Vivatech too next week.

Persons: Elon Musk, Tesla, Elon, Musk, He's, Maurice Lévy, Linda Yaccarino, WPP's GroupM, Emmanuel Macron, Lara O'Reilly Organizations: Tesla, Twitter, The New York Times, Times, Renault, Peugeot Locations: Paris, Vivatech, France, Germany

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Hello, Apple Vision Pro
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Nerd Helmet, as coined by The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern, has arrived! Apple on Monday unveiled its first hardware release in almost a decade: The $3,499 Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. But while Meta has aimed to make VR/AR affordable for the masses, with limited success, Apple is squarely aiming the Vision Pro at early adopters and developers. Apple's Vision Pro headset has an exterior "EyeSight" display to make your eyes visible to others around you. Say hello to the Vision Pro.

Persons: Lara O'Reilly, Joanna Stern, Apple, Let's, Tim Cook, Bob Iger, Elizabeth Holmes, Justin Sullivan, Linda Yaccarino, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Altman, OpenAI, Binance, Changpeng Zhao, Bernstein, Hollywood's, Roy Rochlin, Craig Federghi, Jack Sommers Organizations: Apple, Meta, Apple's Worldwide, Conference, Vision, Getty, Twitter, Venture, Sequoia, US Securities and Exchange Commission, Alliance, Producers, Hollywood, New York Stock Exchange, Wall, nab, Wall Street Locations: London, ChatGPT

☆ Elon Musk's Twitter races to build a live video service as it woos right-wing media personalities
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( Kali Hays | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Elon Musk is zeroing in on building live video on Twitter, sources told Insider. Twitter is working on a series of video products and services, including a new live video offering, according to people familiar with the matter and advertising industry sources. The goal is to have reliable, high resolution live video capabilities on Twitter, similar to what is offered on YouTube Live and Instagram Live, the people familiar said. He "went live" on Twitter in early May through a low-quality live video stream while testing Periscope — "an accident," one of the people familiar said. Other Twitter video initiativesPeriscope is not Musk's only attempt to revive Twitter's video capabilities.

Persons: Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson's, Elon Musk's, Linda Yaccarino, Yaccarino, Musk, Let's, deb, witt, ould, revie, ater, Diva,, ann, l. "If Organizations: Engineers, Twitter, YouTube, itt Locations: usk

Brands fearful of right-wing backlash are discussing scaling back their Pride Month activities. Right-wing media personalities have declared a "war on woke," with The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh recently rallying his Twitter followers to "make 'pride' toxic for brands." This month, the LGBTQ+ dating app Taimi initiated an ad campaign that included billboards in states including Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, and others. Those billboards were largely on privately-owned farmland and most of the landowners rejected Taimi's ad campaign, many requesting "no nudity" in the images. The North Face, which debuted its "Summer of Pride" ad campaign starring drag queen Pattie Gonia late last month, is holding firm.

Persons: Bud Light, Matt Walsh, Ross Martin, Martin, Bud Light's, influencer Dylan Mulvaney, Hannah Lewman, Pattie Gonia, rightwing firebrands, Amy Luca, Media.Monks, Brian Stout, It's, We've, Dean Crutchfield, Crutchfield, Mark Borkowski, I've, Mekanism's, There's, Benjamin Cohen Organizations: Target, Daily, Brands, Partners, Gay and Lesbian Alliance, Defamation, Pink Locations: Florida , Oklahoma , Texas, Taimi's

☆ Elon Musk's Twitter is moving deeper into programmatic advertising as it attempts to revive revenue
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter is going to make its ad inventory available to buy on the open programmatic market for the first time. The company is entering into a partnership with adtech company InMobi, and has been speaking with other ad vendors. Twitter had had ongoing conversations with multiple adtech vendors about partnerships for months, according to people familiar with the matter. Insider Intelligence last month slashed its forecast for Twitter's 2023 ad revenue to $2.98 billion, down 37% on its October projection for the same period. The move to work with external programmatic advertising vendors comes more than a year after Twitter sold its mobile advertising network to MoPub to gaming and adtech company AppLovin for $1.05 billion.

☆ Apple's nascent ad business faces more competition than ever, and it's set to launch a major charm offensive to get big advertisers to buy in
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Apple usually plays it so low-key at big industry events, you wouldn't even know the company had attended. It has rented a space at the top of the iconic Carlton hotel, situated on the busy Croisette promenade, according to multiple advertising industry sources. It's also planning a week of programming, with panel topics expected to include sports on Apple TV+, Apple News, apps, and the broadening Apple advertising offering, those sources said. All of which were "not necessarily a strong-point with Apple advertising in the past," Auzins said. Today, Apple's ad business largely consists of search ads sold within the App Store, which Insider Intelligence forecasts will generate $8.7 billion this year.

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Apple's upcoming 'Reality' headset, BookTok drives book sales, and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AI startup cloud deals by Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are ringing "accounting alarm bells" across Silicon Valley over revenue "round-tripping." As Big Tech firms invest in AI startups in exchange for commitments to use their cloud services, some investors question whether those arrangements are artificially inflating cloud revenue growth. A former Apple marketing executive predicts the company's upcoming "Reality" headset risks being "one of the greatest tech flops of all time." How the BookTok phenomenon helped send book sales to an all-time high and reignite a love for reading. Read on to find out more about what you can use the AI app for.

☆ 14 private equity firms investing in advertising, marketing, and communications companies in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

PE firms represented more than half of the acquisitions in the advertising and marketing space in 2022. Insider identified 14 PE firms active in the advertising and marketing space over the past 12 months. Private equity interest in the advertising and marketing space is expected to remain strong in 2023, defying a global IPO market that's practically shut and a massive slowdown of strategic dealmaking. Representatives for the PE firms either declined to comment or didn't respond to requests for comment unless otherwise noted. Did we miss any other major PE deals in the advertising, marketing, and communications space from the last 12 months?

Meta's ad business has been rebuilt since Apple's ATT update threatened its ability to make money. Many of Meta's top execs left and are now building ad platforms for companies like Reddit and Snap. Below are some prominent former Meta ad execs who recently left, and where they've ended up. This time last year, Meta's ad business was on the brink. But today, Meta's ad business is back on the upswing, as the company has delved into AI to replace the consumer data that powered its lucrative ad targeting and measurement capabilities.

☆ Google is pressing ahead with its plan to kill off cookies. Advertising and privacy groups aren't convinced its cookie alternatives are ready for public consumption.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Google has laid out the latest timeline for its plan to kill off third-party cookies in Chrome. Google will take the next steps in its plan to kill third-party tracking cookies from its Chrome browser, the company said on Thursday. Google has missed previous deadlines to stop supporting third-party cookies in Chrome. Google's blog post also included quotes from adtech companies crediting the tech giant for soliciting feedback from developers who have tested the Privacy Sandbox technology. The Privacy Sandbox proposals have also faced privacy concerns.

Elon Musk announced today that Linda Yaccarino would be the next Twitter CEO. With its revenue falling and its reputation falling faster, she may be the win Musk needs. Elon musk needs a win. The ad sales team generated more than $100 billion in ad revenue during her 12-year tenure, according to the company. That advertising revenue is just what Musk needs right now.

The departure of ads chief Linda Yaccarino to Twitter has thrown NBCU into chaos. The exit comes on the heels of the departure of NBCU CEO Jeff Shell after sexual harassment allegations. One advertising executive who works closely with NBCUniversal described the situation inside the company as a "Cuban missile crisis." NBCU does have a deep bench of ad executive talent that's highly regarded in the ad industry. Although Yaccarino's departure from NBCUniversal to Twitter was a surprise, she had been close with the company and its billionaire owner.

☆ How Meta is fighting off Apple's best shot and saving its ad business
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Lauren Johnson | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Meta's AI tools has helped save its ad business, after Apple rolled out its ATT privacy feature. These AI tools have helped Meta regain the trust of some advertisers after ad performance declined. Knowing it would lose the user signals that made its ads business so lucrative, Meta heavily invested in artificial intelligence. "Meta's advantage in AI is its advantage in training data," said Adam Heimlich, CEO of Chalice Custom Algorithms. "Every advertiser who places a Meta tag on their site or app is contributing to Meta's advantage by contributing data.

☆ Check out the pitch deck that helped Freshsound, which helps brands license music for their ads, raise $2.2 million in seed funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Freshsound, a self-service platform to license commercial music, raised a $2.2 million seed round. For more than a decade, Stevie Gyasi worked in marketing, helping link brands like Absolut, Nikon, and H&M with music artists for campaigns and events. The Freshsound platform offers its users an instant price for a track and handles the payments, removing the need to negotiate with songwriters and labels. This week, Freshsound said it had raised a 2 million euro, or $2.2 million, seed funding round, led by Zenith Venture Capital and Aligned. Check out the key slides from the pitch deck Freshsound used to raise its seed funding round.

☆ Terence Kawaja's adtech-focused investment bank Luma Partners may lose 3 of its partners amid a disagreement over its future direction
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Luma Partners' three partners are currently planning to exit the company, Insider has learned. It followed a disagreement with Luma Founder and CEO Terence Kawaja about the future vision for the firm. Luma Partners, the adtech-focused investment bank may lose all three of its partners following a disagreement with the company's founder, Terence Kawaja, about the future direction of the firm, Insider has learned. Kawaja's court jester style is in sharp contrast to that of Andersen, Greenbaum, and Filippini who tend to keep a lower profile. For the moment, they remain partners with Luma, which is currently working on a live M&A deal, Andersen said.

☆ Amazon just poached a longtime Meta veteran to lead its growing adtech division
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon Advertising has hired Kelly MacLean as its VP of its ad buying platform. MacLean, who joined Amazon late last month, previously spent more than 11 years at Meta. Amazon Advertising has poached a longtime Meta executive to lead a key adtech division, Insider has learned. The Amazon DSP uses automation to let advertisers buy ads on Amazon properties like Amazon.com, Twitch, and IMDb, as well as elsewhere on the web. The Amazon DSP recently underwent an overhaul that was 18 months in the making to improve its machine-learning and predictive algorithms.

☆ Adtech giant The Trade Desk strikes deal to solve one of marketers' biggest challenges in the $80 billion retail media space
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Trade Desk wants to take a bigger slice of the $80 billion retail media market. Adtech giant The Trade Desk has landed a partnership that aims to solve one of advertising's biggest challenges in the $80 billion retail media space: getting timely data on how their ads are driving sales across multiple retailer sites and stores. Attain, which will charge advertisers on a CPM, or cost-per-thousand-impressions basis, will offer The Trade Desk advertisers metrics including sales, return on ad spend, and conversion rates. The Trade Desk is the largest independent adtech firm, and the company's moves typically indicate where the industry is investing. The Trade Desk is set to release its latest earnings report on May 10.

☆ The CEOs of the world's biggest advertising companies just outlined how AI is about to transform their businesses
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Advertising agency CEOs are eager to signal their companies' AI expertise to Wall Street. Speaking on this quarter's earnings calls, executives at the world's largest advertising agency groups also outlined some of their recent AI client projects and technology task forces. "What's changed over the last six months is the application of AI through generative AI into the creative process," Read said. Omnicom is running more than 20 projects where it combines Omnicom's historical data with GPT's automation technology, Wren said, though he didn't specify exactly how it was being deployed. That will require more creative assets, Sadoun said on the Publicis earnings call.

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